And it's a wrap at the 2019 World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam. After three busy days of project presentations and jury deliberations, the annual global architecture industry event culminated in a glamorous gala dinner at the Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam's former stock exchange building, where the winners of various category and other top awards were announced.

The biggest anticipation of the night, of course, was reserved for the 2019 World Building of the Year title which happened to stay within the Netherlands with the selection of LocHal Public Library in Tilburg and its design team Civic architects (lead architect), Braaksma & Roos Architectenbureau, and Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse.

"LocHal was a former locomotive hangar dating from 1932, transformed into a public meeting place and new library typology," explains the project description. "The library capitalizes the existing structure, thereby greatly minimizing the amount of new structural elements, while also providing ample opportunity for interaction and the creation of new knowledge. The building houses amenities shared by the library, arts organizations and co-working facilities. In addition to areas for lectures and public events, the building also has a number of ‘labs’ where visitors can learn new skills."

LocHal's library interior design also won the Creative Reuse category award for fellow Dutch firm Mecanoo architecten at the coinciding INSIDE World Festival of Interiors.

The jury included Ben van Berkel, Founder and Principal Architect at UNStudio and Founder of UNSense; Aaron Betsky, President of Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture; Anuradha Mathur, Associate at University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia; Murat Tabanlioglu, Founding Partner at Tabanlioglu Architects; and Maria Warner Wong, Design Director at WOW Architects & Warner Wong Design.

Read on to find out which other projects were selected for WAF Awards in various categories today.