Anthony Timberlands Center at University of Arkansas Nets Two World Architecture Festival Honors

The Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation is under construction but has just received two international honors from the World Architecture Festival 2023, according to a press release by the University (7-18-23).

The World Architecture Festival is the largest global award program and conference dedicated to sharing and celebrating the latest in architectural achievement. It is the only awards program where all finalists present their projects live to a panel of judges at the festival.

The Anthony Timberlands Center project outright won the WAFX award in Building Technology. The WAFX award heralds the world’s most forward-looking architectural concepts and is awarded to future projects that identify key challenges that architects will need to address in coming years. The Center is also one of nine projects shortlisted in the Future Projects: Education category.

The World Architecture Festival honors come on the heels of the international accolades announced by The Architectural Review this spring, when the Center was named Overall Winner in the AR Future Projects Awards 2023 and the winner of the Education category.

When completed, the four-story, 44,800-square-foot structure will feature a fabrication shop as its largest and most active space. This will encompass a large central bay with a metal workshop, seminar room, and small digital lab, as well as a dedicated space for a large CNC router. These spaces will be served by an overhead crane that runs on rails outside to move large equipment and assemblies in and out of the building. In addition, the center will include studios, seminar and conference rooms, faculty offices, a small auditorium, and a public exhibition space.