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Happy World Architecture Day!

Created by the Union International des Architects (UIA) in 2005, World Architecture Day is celebrated on the first Monday of October with the aim of reminding the world about the collective responsibility of architects in designing our future cities and settlements.

This year, the UIA has selected “Architecture, Building, Climate” as the theme of the day, seeking to highlight the essential role that architecture, design and urbanism have in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. With international climate treaty negotiations set to happen later this year, the “UIA members, working bodies and partners will mobilize on 5 October to promote actions and solutions that apply the enormous power of architecture and urban design in coping with global climate change, one of the greatest challenges of our time.”

Through small actions architects can collectively make a big difference and create significant changes. To celebrate World Architecture Day, we have rounded up a selection of projects that have taken steps towards the challenge of protecting our environment.

Building Trust Goes to Italy for Latest Design + Build Workshop

This August, Building Trust will host a Design + Build Workshop in Umbria, Italy, in collaboration with local artisan collective Terraepaglia. Combining innovative building design with natural construction methods, the workshop will focus on the creation of functional spaces through sustainable means and materials. Over the course of 12 days, participants will work closely with Building Trust and Terraepaglia to learn hands-on construction methods including adobe brick making, straw bale and rammed earth construction, natural plastering, and wood flooring. Learn more about the project and how to get involved here. Our previous coverage of Building Trust's workshops can be found here.

Building Trust to Host Live Build Workshop in Laos

This April, non-profit organization Building Trust will host a Live Build Workshop in Laos, in partnership with the local Free the Bears Fund rescue centre. Participants are invited to work with the Laotian local community and Free the Bears staff to construct a design a sustainable merchandise store. It is envisioned that the store will allow Free the Bears to sell merchandise that will in turn fund their ongoing bear conservation projects in Laos and beyond.

The 14 Stories Behind the 2015 Building of the Year Award Winners

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With our annual Building of the Year Awards, over 30,000 readers narrowed down over 3,000 projects, selecting just 14 as the best examples of architecture that ArchDaily has published in the past year. The results have been celebrated and widely shared, of course, usually in the form of images of each project. But what is often forgotten in this flurry of image sharing is that every one of these 14 projects has a backstory of significance which adds to our understanding of their architectural quality.

Some of these projects are intelligent responses to pressing social issues, others are twists on a well-established typology. Others still are simply supreme examples of architectural dexterity. In order that we don't forget the tremendous amount of effort that goes into creating each of these architectural masterpieces, continue reading after the break for the 14 stories that defined this year's Building of the Year Awards.

Winners of the 2015 Building of the Year Awards

After two weeks of nominations and voting, we are pleased to present the winners of the 2015 ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards. As a peer-based, crowdsourced architecture award, the results shown here represent the collective intelligence of 31,000 architects, filtering the best architecture from over 3,000 projects featured on ArchDaily during the past year.

The winning buildings represent a diverse group of architects, from Pritzker Prize winners such as Álvaro Siza, Herzog & de Meuron and Shigeru Ban, to up-and-coming practices such as EFFEKT and Building which have so far been less widely covered by the media. In many cases their designs may be the most visually striking, but each also approaches its context and program in a unique way to solve social, environmental or economic challenges in communities around the world. By publishing them on ArchDaily, these buildings have helped us to impart inspiration and knowledge to architects around the world, furthering our mission. So to everyone who participated by either nominating or voting for a shortlisted project, thank you for being a part of this amazing process, where the voices of architects from all over the world unite to form one strong, intelligent, forward-thinking message.

Winners of the 2015 Building of the Year Awards - Image 1 of 4