Bamboo hostel and Apple store named among best buildings of 2021

Winners designed the projects pushing the profession forwards

Rural bamboo hostels, a new Apple Store and a market square nestled in the Andes mountains are among the winners of Arch Daily's Building of the Year 2021 competition.

This year's contest has seen nearly 200,000 votes cast across 15 different fields, which encompass a wide range of styles, functions, materials and locations.

Entries came from around the globe with high-profile names such as Foster & Partners, who designed London's Gherkin, and the ever-innovative MVRDV taking a prize alongside up and comers Shau Indonesia, whose gorgeous wooden library saw off all competition in the public architecture field.

An extraordinary new school in Mexico claimed the education prize, while an innovative, green, cancer support clinic in Leeds won in the healthcare field.

Arch Daily has been running the Building of the Year awards for more than a decade, giving readers a chance to credit the projects they were most impressed by in the preceding 12 months.

The Independent has shown all of the winning buildings in the gallery above.