The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced two distinguished architects for its speaker line-up at this year's festival which will be held between 4-6 December, 2019 in Amsterdam.

Elizabeth Diller, Founder and Partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Doriana Mandrelli Fuksas and Massimiliano Fuksas, joint Directors of Studio Fuksas will be speaking at the this year's festival, as well as other established international architects from across the world including Andrew Whalley, Chairman at Grimshaw Architects, Angus Campbell, Senior Partner and Deputy Head of Studio of Foster + Partners, Jacques Ferrier and Pauline Marchetti, joint Founders of Ferrier Marchetti Studio, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Partner at BIG, and Kasper Guldager Jensen, Director and Senior Partner at 3XN / GXN.

Elizabeth Diller, Founder and Partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will give the closing keynote address at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Amsterdam on 6 December 2019. She will follow a stellar line-up of over 48 speakers shaping the global architecture agenda over the three-day event, including Ben Van Berkel and Doriana Mandrelli Fuksas and Massimiliano Fuksas. 

Elizabeth Diller. Image © Geordie Wood

As well as architects and designers from leading global practices, the diverse speaking programme for both WAF and INSIDE includes commentators from leading educational institutions and city planners, including: Sir Peter Cook with a lunch time lecture named "Coming up For Air" - Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and a member of its Committee on Global Thought - Anuradha Mathur, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania; Dilip da Cunha, Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University; and Nick Tyler, CBE, Chadwick Professor of Civil Engineering, University College London.

The INSIDE World Festival of Interiors, which is co-located with WAF and takes place simultaneously in Amsterdam, has also revealed three keynote speakers that will be headlining at the event:  Petra Blaisse, Founder and Lead Designer at Inside Out; Nigel Coates, Director of architecture practice Nigel Coates and Oliver Salway, Director of architecture practice Softroom.

This year’s programme responds to the Festival’s theme, "Flow" and will include speeches, discussions and debates examining the complex and deep-rooted relationship between architecture, design and people, data, nature and power. 

Doriana Fuksas. Image © Gianmarco Chieregato

Presentations and talks on the event’s main stage and the festival hall stage will analyse not only the movement of millions of passengers through a train station or airport, and the endless flows of data and workers through workplace buildings for example, but at a broader level, the flow of everything from street traffic through cities, to the flows of energy, people and trade within national policy making, and the flow of political power and responsibility that effect the conditions in which architecture takes place.

The speaking programme for World Architecture Festival will culminate with keynote speeches from Marc Koehler on Wednesday 4th December and Studio Fuksas on Thursday 5th December; plus a live presentation followed by a Q&A with Elizabeth Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro) on Friday 6th December.

WAF 2019 theme will explore "Flow". Image SkyPod by PLP Architecture, courtesy of PLP Architecture

"We are excited to be hosting inspirational speakers from such a wide variety of geographies and backgrounds. We look forward to stimulating presentations and thought-provoking ideas that will form part of the ‘big conversation’ that takes place at WAF each year," said Paul Finch, Programme Director of World Architecture Festival.

World Architecture Community is official Media Partner for this year's festival and offers to its Professional Members 10% discounted tickets over regular festival prices during WAF registration! All you have to do is to upgrade your World Architecture Community membership to Professional hereor visit your WAC Settings page and send us ([email protected]) an email to get your promo code for your WAF registration!

Top image: (left) Elizabeth Diller, Founder and Partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro and (right) Doriana Mandrelli Fuksas, joint Director of Studio Fuksas.

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