For the sixth annual AZ Awards, our intrepid jury narrowed the field from over 800 submissions, received from dozens of countries, to select just 48 finalists that stood above the rest. In addition to presenting the AZ Award winners, Azure recognized these projects, products and concepts with Awards of Merit.

MAD Architects’ Harbin Opera House, an AZ Award nominee for architecture, dominates its mirror-flat landscape, but its mountain-like structure is really a homage to the surrounding wetlands. Fortunately, Turenscape of Beijing has transformed the once-isolated wetland into a park worthy of a cultural landmark, carving a series of bio-swales to manage stormwater runoff and tailwater from a water-supply plant. With the addition of delicate interventions, including six kilometres of boardwalks and bridges linking platforms and pavilions, the former bog is now a readily accessible, fully rehabilitated landscape for the public to experience.

Location: Harbin, China

Firm: Turenscape, China

Designer: Kongjian Yu ­