francine houben, founding partner and creative director of dutch studio mecanoo, was a keynote speaker at the 2018 world architecture festival (WAF). the annual festival is the largest international, live architectural event, and includes the biggest architectural awards program in the world. the three-day event offers architects and interior designers the opportunity to celebrate, learn, exchange, and be inspired.
 
during WAF 2018, designboom spoke with houben about both the milestone projects which mecanoo debuted this year as well as those which have yet to come.

the palace of justice in cordoba was shortlisted in WAF?s ?civic and community? category
image © fernando alda (also main image) | read more about the project on designboom here  
 
designboom (DB): can you start by telling us about your involvement in this year?s world architecture festival"
 
francine houben (FH): I gave a lecture, we presented the palace of justice in cordoba, and one of the mecanoos will be a member of the jury tomorrow.
 
DB: you recently completed the national kaohsiung center for the arts in taiwan. how challenging was the sheer scale of the project"
 
FH: that was a once in a lifetime experience I think. it was very challenging for many reasons because nothing was easy. at the same time we are really happy with it. I am also very happy because for the first ten years there was no operator. we had a client, but he was not the operator. so I am extremely happy with t...