With only three weeks to go until the World Architecture Festival 2018, World Architecture Community have looked at the festival's program closer and picked up some sessions and talks not to be missed during the event. 

This year WAF will celebrate its eleventh edition in Amsterdam, from 28-30 November, alongside with its sister event INSIDE World Festival of Interiors. 

This year's theme is designated as "Identity" and the world's most influential architects, designers and commentators will join WAF to discuss "Identity" and its issues revolving around the theme. 

Rem Koolhaas, David Adjaye, Caroline Bos, Sir Peter Cook, Kees Christiaanse, Prof. Leslie Lokko, Li Xiadong, Francine Houben, Reinier de Graaf, Nathalie de Vries are just a few of them speaking at this year's WAF 2018 stage. 

But what will be the sub-topics to be discussed at WAF 2018? When will your favorite architect be on the stage? If you don't want to miss  your favorite architect and want to set your agenda, take a closer look at WAC's editorial picks for lectures and sessions for this year's festival.  

The annual World Architecture Festival is taking place at RAI Amsterdam this year between 28-30 November, and World Architecture Community is an official Media Partner for the event. You can still register to the festival and WAC Professional Members get 10% off on WAF 2018 tickets (details below).

Scroll down to see WAC's picks for lectures & talks at WAF 2018:

Reinier de Graaf / 28 November 2018 

Reinier de Graaf, Partner, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, will give a talk and his talk will be chaired by Paul Finch, Programme Director, World Architecture Festival.

10.10 - 10.50 - Talk

Jeanne Gang / 28 November 2018 

Jeanne Gang, Founding Principal, Studio Gang, will deliver a talk on "Beyond Binary". Gang's talk will be chaired by Paul Finch, Programme Director, World Architecture Festival.

Many of our inherited binary notions of identity - female/male, nature/city, wild/tame - continue to influence architecture and urban design, though science and culture increasingly demonstrate their limits. How can our model of the city evolve when we think beyond oppositional relationships and focus instead on connecting for mutual benefit?

10.50 - 11.20 - Talk

Caroline Bos / 28 November 2018 

Caroline Bos, Co-Founder of UNStudio will be at a panel with Ippolito Pestellini, Partner, OMA. The panel will be chaired by Andres Ramirez, Managing Director, PLANE—SITE. 

The panel will explore "Building Images". Architecture is increasingly flattened into two-dimensional images, given a tagline and circulated online instantly by thousands of social media users. The distinction between the built and virtual is blurring, as our encounters with the built environment are increasingly digital. This itinerant imagery turns buildings into memes that may be rich in meaning, but lacking in architectural value. The culture of the ‘Instagrammable’ presents challenges and opportunities for the discipline of architecture and its future, which this panel will explore according to three overarching themes: the participatory, the algorithmic and the discursive.

10:40 – 11:20 - Panel discussion

Sir Peter Cook / 28 November 2018 

Peter Cook, architect, professor and writer, will give a lecture titled "Nutters of the North". Cook will be in conversation with Jeremy Melvin, Curator, World Architecture Festival.

Invention and creativity inspired by the backdrop of the North Sea. This session will look at UK, Netherlands, Nordic, Baltic and Belgium architecture from the nineteenth century up to today.

13.00 - 13.40 - Lunch time lecture

Li Xiadong / 28 November 2018

Li Xiadong, Professor, School of Architecture , Co-Founder, Gramazio Kohler Architects, will deliver a talk and it will be chaired by Jeremy Melvin, Curator, World Architecture Festival.

His talk will explore "Identity: Towards A Reflexive Regionalist Practice of Architecture". I have no intention here to promote the ‘form’ as a blueprint. It, at most, opens up possibilities. This is why that I dare not to use the word “contemporary Chinese architecture” to describe my practice, but “reflexive regionalist architecture”. Here, to be “reflexive” as in ‘dialogue with’ a situation, through which, an objective understanding of the situation could be established; to be “regional” is here different from the ‘picturesque’ or, ‘iconic’ regionalist architecture (by which, architecture was understood as a tool to demonstrate a cultural presence as a fixed entity), what I have been proposing is to understand the “regional” as comprehensive, dynamic and sustainable ‘condition’ of place – a tabula rasa, that solutions could be based on and emerged from.

18.15 - 19.15 - Talk

Nathalie de Vries / 29 November 2018

Nathalie de Vries, Director and Co-founder, MVRDV will deliver a special talk. 

14.00 - 14.40 - Talk

Francine Houben / 29 November 2018

Francine Houben, Founding Partner and Creative Director, Mecanoo will give a talk and it will be chaired by Jeremy Melvin, Curator, World Architecture Festival.

16.00 - 16.40 - Talk

David Adjaye / 29 November 2018

David Adjaye, Principal, Adjaye Associates will be deliver a talk and be chaired by Jeremy Melvin, Curator, World Architecture Festival.

Talk: 18.15 - 19.15 

Odile Decq / 29 November 2018

Odile Decq, Founder, Studio Odile Decq will be in conversation with Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Partner, AY Architects. Their talk will explore "Education and Identity".

12.00 - 12.40 - Talk - Education and Identity

Rem Koolhaas / 30 November 2018

Rem Koolhaas, Founder, OMA, will deliver a special lecture at the last day of WAF. Koolhaas will be in conversation with Charles Jenks, architecture critic and theorist. 

17.40 - 18.40 - Talk

See this year's shortlist for the 2018 World Architecture Festival Awards and INSIDE World Festival of Interiors Awards. 

World Architecture Community, in collaboration with WAF, offers to its Professional Members 10% discounted tickets over regular festival prices during registration! All you have to do is to upgrade your World Architecture Community membership to Professional here or visit your WAC Settings page and send us ([email protected]) an email to get your promo code for your WAF registration!

All images courtesy of WAF

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