Ole Scheeren’s The Interlace has taken home the highest honour at this year’s World Architecture Festival – the title of “World Building of the Year”. Described as “a vertical village”, The Interlace eschews the standard high-rise housing typology to be found in this region – clusters of isolated towers – in favour of apartment blocks that are stacked diagonally across one another to frame large-scale open courtyards.

The development features 31 apartment buildings, each six storeys high and 70 metres long. The unique stacking arrangement creates an intricate network of both communal and private spaces on multiple levels that are intertwined with the natural environment.

Projects in Asia have proven to be strong contenders in the global architecture awards. Last year’s World Building of the Year also went to a project from the region – the Chapel community centre in Vietnam by a21 studio.