The anticipated 2014 World Architecture Festival is less than a month away! Taking place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on October 1-3, WAF is expecting over 2,000 visitors from over 60 countries to experience a jam-packed program of conferences, seminars, workshops, and exhibitions. This year's WAF Awards shortlisters will also be preparing their live presentations to the Super Jury for the WAF Competition.

Just recently, WAF announced Ole Scheeren — the principal of Buro Ole Scheeren — as the latest addition to the notable lineup of keynote speakers. New sessions that were added to the program highlight building sustainable cities, a look into Heatherwick Studio's work, and a series of networking sessions titled "Meet your next client".

Details below.

Ole Scheeren announced as 2014 keynote speaker:

"The festival will start at 10am on Wednesday 1st from Ole Scheeren, Principal, Buro Ole Scheeren. Ole will give his unique perspective on the relationship between architects, architecture and urbanism, in a world changed utterly by the wave of city-building which is defining and transforming life in the 21st century. Ole joins fellow keynote speakers Richard Rogers, Rocco Yim, Saskia Sassen and Moshe Safdie who will speak on a range of issues and topics reflecting this year’s festival theme of ‘Architects and the City’.

New program sessions:

"‘Starting from Scratch’ – WAF Main Stage - 15.20 - 16.00, Wednesday October 1: Leading architects will join the developers of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city in discussing the key issues informing new town programmes. The session will explore the challenges involved in realising the vision of creating a thriving city which is socially harmonious, environmentally-friendly and resource-efficient. When completed in 2020, the city will have an estimated 350,000 residents. Ho Tong Yen, CEO, Sino Singapore Tianjin Eco City, will be joined on the panel discussion by Andy Wen, Executive Director, Aedas; Kevin Kwang Yang Sim, Principal, New Space Architecture; and Lars Autrup, Head of Projects, Realdania Foundation."

‘Pleased to meet you: Heatherwick Studio’ - WAF Festival Hall Stage – 12.00 –12.40, Thursday October 2: "Following Thomas Heatherwick’s keynote speech at WAF 2013, his eponymous practice will showcase its unique use of materials, from the ordinary to the extraordinary and experimental, and how these are being incorporated at its new ‘The Learning Hub’ project for Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore."

‘Meet your next client’ – WAF Festival Hall, Various times:  "For the first time, the organisers of WAF are arranging a series of networking sessions for delegates to meet representatives of some of the region’s prominent developers and city planners, including Ayala Land Premier, Fortis Healthcare, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Europe, Hong Leong Holdings Limited, Singapore Housing & Development Board, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad."

World Architecture Festival registration

Readers of Archinect can also get a 10% discount for passes to attend the festival!