As the founding sponsor of the World Architecture Festival, 2021, GROHE empowers architects to create a healthier urban landscape

• World Architecture Festival (WAF): The digital edition 2021 took place with the theme “Resetting the city” from November 30^th till December 3^rd
• Headline partner GROHE awarded Water Research Prize to Techlab laboratory’s façade solution which tackles water scarcity around the globe with a unique design project inspired by nature
• The exclusive festival content can be visited via the brand platform GROHE X

New Delhi, January 21, 2022: Supporting architects and designers around the world to create healthier urban landscapes during and beyond the pandemic, GROHE is proud to be the main sponsor of the World Architecture Festival (WAF) 2021, a role taken on by the brand upon the inception of the festival in 2008. As a founding partner, GROHE, a leading global brand for complete bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings, represents the unique role water plays for the design discipline and helps shape innovative architectural visions and solutions around the element of water. During the challenging times of the past years, GROHE has continued to support the architect community by sponsoring this year’s WAF and the Water Research Prize 2021. 

Greener, cleaner cities

The festival’s theme, “Resetting the city”: Ecological concerns regarding city planning, biodiversity and sustainability now meet the overall need to create healthier, safer surroundings more than ever. As concepts for sourcing clean energy, reducing pollution, and clean water supplies are now directly linked to the control of pandemics, they are becoming the center of urban planning strategies across the globe, and have also become the focus of this year’s festival. A total of 320 hours of inspiring keynotes, sessions, and panel discussions were presented to the WAF community. As a highlight of this year’s festival, architects from all over the world came together to compete with one another to win “The World Building of the Year”, an award which was unveiled by GROHE on December 3rd as the grand finale. 

Inspired by nature – a win to fight global water scarcity

In this context, GROHE awarded the annual Water Research Prize again to projects aiming to find creative solutions for water in the built environment. Out of 53 winners awarded this year, 22 were from Asia. China led the way with maximum winners-11, followed by 7 from Australia and 1 each from India, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Satoshi Konagai – Leader, LIXIL Water Technology, Asia Pacific said: “I would like to congratulate all the winners and their teams on receiving this illustrious award. World Architecture Festival (WAF) is a fantastic platform that recognizes the amazing work done by the world’s foremost design and architecture firms. At LIXIL, we believe in providing the best of technology and design to our discerning consumers. We take pride in having a deep understanding of consumers’ needs when it comes to their lifestyles and what they expect from their living spaces. We are proud to partner with WAF and look forward to collaborating with like-minded partners in the future as we continue our journey of making better homes a reality for everyone everywhere.”

The Water Research Prize has been part of the World Architecture Festival since 2017 when the WAF X Manifesto was first published. The manifesto identified the most important challenges for architects within the next ten years, including water in relation to the built environment. With this year’s festival focusing on improving the quality of life in urban areas through greener, healthier infrastructures, the close connection to water is particularly striking. By sponsoring the award, GROHE has been supporting research in the field of unique architectural challenges around water for the past four years and is proud to continue doing so at this year’s festival. 

A virtual venue loaded with content

GROHE has exclusive access to the festival content via its digital brand platform, GROHE X. Discover more of GROHE’s sponsorship and the WAF on our digital experience platform grohe-x.com.

For further information and press material, please see this link.

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Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)