Singapore Prize 2023
Written by
The inaugural Singapore Prize 2023 is an innovative new award established to recognize global interior design innovation. It will recognize projects completed within the last year, showcasing them live at WAFX – the world’s leading trade fair for interior design – held alongside insideWorld Festival of Interiors in Singapore. Additionally, winners will receive both a cash prize of $10,000 as well as a trophy from event organizers.
This prize was established to recognize and encourage architects’ impactful designs while inspiring architects worldwide. Open to architectural firms worldwide, this competition offers total prizes worth $70,000 in both residential and commercial categories. Applicants submit their projects via an easy submission system on the website with judges selecting one as winner; an additional 10 projects may receive special recognition by jury members.
The prize’s judging panel featured prominent figures from design, architecture and urban planning fields; among its co-founders were Peter Chua (renowned architect) and Klaus Schwab (founder of World Economic Forum). Winners were revealed during an awards ceremony held on September 25 in conjunction with the inaugural Singapore Architecture Festival launch.
In addition to the main awards, this year’s event features a consumer choice award based on reader polling conducted by The Straits Times. Two shortlisted novels – State Of Emergency and Sembawang were both nominated in this category; both take place during Singapore’s early 1950s when its future seemed uncertain. Another book published this year called Leluhur: Singapore Kampong Gelam explores history from an individual point of view; author Hidayah Amin was born at Gedung Kuning or Yellow Mansion which is now part of Kampong Gelam heritage building complex.
She is both a historian and activist who campaigned for the preservation of the site after its redevelopment in 2016. The judges lauded the book for “showing how history influences politics, culture, and society while acting as an agent of change”.
A New Kind Of Sacred by Jeremy Tiang was nominated for the consumer choice award. This novel explores the complex relationship between religion and politics in Malaysia and Singapore. According to its prize citation, A New Kind Of Sacred “expands the definition of sacredness from religious or spiritual context to secular humanist ideals”, while being described as an intriguing tale that shows how religious traditions adapt with changing needs and political climates – two qualities for which Tiang has previously been recognized through nomination for Singapore Literature Prize nominations. Tiang is also an award winning writer having previously been nominated twice by that prize.