World's best new building for 2024 unveiled — but it's not a skyscraper

A small suburban school in Chippendale, Sydney in Australia beat iconic skyscrapers, museums and airport terminals to be crowned the World Building of the Year 2024 at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Singapore.

Darlington Public School, which opened its doors last fall, triumphed over 220 other shortlisted designs to win the coveted prize, CNN reported.

The school features an angular brick campus building with a distinctive "sawtooth" roof and landscaped outdoor areas that include a large basketball court and a community garden.

Softly curved metal screens protect students' privacy while allowing natural light to filter in through the open air terraces.

The school's Sydney-based designers, FJC Design & Construction  said that the previous 1970s structure was no longer fit for modern educational needs, leading to a redeisgn.

The architects said their new design had "radically transformed" the school, offering "new and contemporary learning environments," while capturing the spirit of the original campus.

The new building comprises a preschool, kindergarten and primary school and it will be able to accommodate over 500 students, according to the school's website. 

The building was constructed in a two-stage building process which allowed classes to continue throughout construction.

Alessandro Rossi, associate at fjcstudio, said: "It's very humbling given the modest scale of the building — it's a little school project, so to have won against all the other big projects at WAF is a testament to the client and the community engagement that helped drive the design process. 

"The real winners are the children who will spend time in the building — a place of enrichment for many years to come."

The building won the 17th edition of WAF. The festival divides its awards into 18 categories, including sport, transportation, health and housing. 

Additionally, a panel of 175 festival delegates chooses the winners of each category. Then, one of the winners is crowned as the World Building of the Year.

Other competitors of the Australian school included the National Star Observatory of Cyprus, a Polish bus station and a solar power plant in Turkey.

The result, that was announced on Friday, marks the second consecutive year that the WAF judges opted for an educational building, with a serene boarding school in China taking last year's title. 

Previously, the title was won by a housing complex for senior citizens in Singapore and a waste-to-energy power plant with a rooftop ski slope in Copenhagen, Denmark.