The top five winners of the 2022 Earthshot Prize will be awarded $1.3 million to help scale their solutions in addressing our planet’s most urgent environmental challenges. The awards ceremony will be held in Boston, as part of the inaugural “Earthshot Week,” and feature performances by musicians and artists. The winners will also have the opportunity to work with Temasek, GenZero and Conservation International to bring their projects to fruition.
The prize is given annually to an architecture project that has demonstrated significant social, economic and ecological impact. The prize aims to encourage innovative architectural designs that address the world’s most pressing problems, while at the same time providing a meaningful opportunity for architects to shape the future.
This year, the award has eliminated specific categories which divide students from professionals and companies, and opened the competition to all architects who use design as their primary problem-solving tool. The judges said they were impressed with the range of ideas presented by the shortlisted entries, and that all of them demonstrated an ability to use design as a means to make the world a better place.
Architect Tan Kay Ngee, principal of the firm Kay Ngee Tan Architects, was one of the winners for his design of the Old Bukit Timah Railway Station in Singapore. The judges cited the design’s “respect for the past and the future of Singapore,” while maintaining the structure’s “historic integrity and legacy.” They also noted that the building was built using recycled materials, which demonstrates how modern Singaporeans are embracing sustainability and greenery in their everyday lives.
Other winners include the migrant worker who designed a heavy vehicle leasing company’s office building, as well as a community and public space in Kampung Admiralty, which drew crowds for its annual cultural festival. The film “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” by Alvin Lee won the best Singapore short film award, and won production services worth SGD15,000 from Shooting Gallery Asia. The short film category was judged by academic Khoo Gaik Cheng, filmmaker Lucky Kuswandi and artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen.
The NUS Singapore History Prize was established in 2014 with an endowment gift, and is administered by the Department of History at NUS. It is open to works that deal with Singapore history and written in, or translated to, English. The jury for the prize will consist of a panel of five judges, including historian Mr Mahbubani; Prof John Miksic; Dr Lam San Ling; and Dr Peter A. Coclanis, Director, Global Research Institute, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The winner for each three-year cycle will be announced together with a closing nomination date at least a year in advance of the prize being awarded. The prize is valued at $50,000 Singapore.