The year’s most stunning architectural photos revealed
Written by Oscar Holland, CNNImages of a cube-shaped office building in Berlin and a soaring Chinese skyscraper complex are among the finalists in the prestigious Architectural Photography Awards.Spanning categories including interiors, exteriors and buildings in use, the 2021 shortlist also features pictures of a curvilinear hotel in Dubai and a Hong Kong tower in complete darkness after residents were evacuated during lockdown.The winners will be announced at the annual World Architecture Festival (WAF), which is being hosted virtually in early December. Two photos will be selected from each of the six categories — one by festival delegates and the other by a jury of architects and industry figures. Of these 12 images, two will be named overall winners.The photos were chosen from nearly 2,000 entries, WAF said in a press release. Although submissions came in from over 40 countries, images from the UK, US and China accounted for over half of the entries.In a press statement, jury member Hamish Crooks of Magnum Photos said: “This was a tough competition to judge and I was pleasantly surprised by the standard of all the entries presented to us especially in terms of their compositional and technical quality.”In 2019, the top prize went to Laurian Ghinitoiu’s photo of The Twist Museum in Norway, with last year’s awards canceled amid the Covid-19 pandemic.Scroll through the gallery above to see a selection of the images shortlisted at this year’s Architectural Photography Awards.
