Three of the most exciting future leisure buildings have been showcased at the World Architecture Festival Awards, which celebrate the most innovative designs developed around the world.

A forest-covered music hall, a sculptural cultural centre and a vast leisure district in the desert caught the imagination of the judges at the prestigious festival, which was held in Berlin last month.

The Chengdu City Music Hall by architecture studio Aedas won the category for the best recent competition entries for a future project.

Their verdant cultural scheme for the Chinese city – which was a shortlisted competition entry – reintroduces nature to a dense and disconnected urban environment and is inspired by traditional Chinese landscape paintings. A stepped public series of connected terraces are at the heart of the concept. Beneath them lie the varying volumes of the museum venues, while topographic bamboo gardens are located above. The eastern edge of the scheme is defined by an informal plaza, which connects the project to a river and the city’s arts district through the pedestrian ‘Music Avenue’.

In the Future Projects Culture category, the Wangari Muta Maathai House by Boogertman + Partners claimed first place. The Kenyan project – described by the judges as “beautiful, poetic and integrative” – in Nairobi is intended as a centre for commemoration and learning. The spherical building, which is surrounded by trees and public green space, is dedicated to the memory of the late Wangari Maathai, who became the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work as an environmental activist and national leader.

Finally, the Ayla Golf Academy & Clubhouse by Oppenheim Architecture triumphed in the Leisure-Led Development category. Using the natural dune-scapes of the surrounding Jordanian desert and taking inspiration from ancient Bedouin traditions, the design envisions an undulating clubhouse – featuring dining facilities, a bar, a banquet hall, a fitness studio and a spa – for a new golf course designed by Greg Norman.