Gardens by the Bay wins top awards

By Natasha Ann Zachariah, The Straits Times, 6 Oct 2012

THE Gardens by the Bay has scored an architectural coup by winning the World Building of the Year award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival yesterday.

It also won for best display building for its two conservatories, the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome.

The three-day festival at Marina Bay Sands, which started on Wednesday, is considered the Oscars of the architectural world. Now into its fifth year, this is the first time it has been held outside of Barcelona, Spain.

Past winners of the World Building of the Year include MAXXI, National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome by Zaha Hadid Architects, and Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in South Africa by Peter Rich Architects.

Four other Singapore projects also won awards. The Kallang River-Bishan Park designed by German firm Atelier Dreiseitl won for best urban landscape project, while condo Martin No. 38 by Kerry Hill Architects won for best housing building.

The Marina Bay MRT station by local firm Aedas received the prize for best transport building, and the Herman Miller shop-in-shop at furniture store Xtra at Park Mall by P.A.C won for best shopping building.

Winners were chosen by a jury that included celebrated architects and architecture professionals such as Dutch architect Ben van Berkel; Israeli-born Moshe Safdie, who was behind the Marina Bay Sands design; and Mr Wong Mun Summ, co-founder director of Singapore-based practice Woha.

Gardens by the Bay chief executive Tan Wee Kiat said the team was "pleased as punch" at the wins. "This award is quite special because of its status and what it means globally."

Led by British firm Grant Associates, the team included architectural firm Wilkinson Eyre, which picked up the award for the conservatories, environmental design consultancy Atelier Ten, structural engineering firm Atelier One, design firm Land Design Studio, and communication design firm Thomas Matthews.

Mr Paul Baker, director of London-based Wilkinson Eyre, said: "It was an amazing project to work on and showed the foresight of the Government. It was the project of a lifetime with new opportunities."

Festival director Paul Finch said the event will return to Singapore for another year, from Oct 2 to 4 next year.

He said: "It wasn't a surprise that many Singapore projects won. With projects like Gardens by the Bay and Kallang River-Bishan Park, it shows the city is taking design seriously."