Two Singapore buildings vying for top honours

Shortlisted projects for this year's World Architecture Festival Awards have designs that pay tribute to nature

Two-storey bungalow House With Shadows (above), designed by RT+Q Architects, and Assisi Hospice (right) in Thomson Road, designed by New Space Architects.
Two-storey bungalow House With Shadows, designed by RT+Q Architects, and Assisi Hospice (above) in Thomson Road, designed by New Space Architects. PHOTOS: RT+Q ARCHITECTS, ST FILE

Two projects from Singapore- based firm RT+Q Architects have been shortlisted for the prestigious World Architecture Festival Awards in November.

One is a two-storey house - called House With Shadows - in a good-class bungalow enclave in Singapore, while the other is The Capers, a mixed residential development in the Sentul suburb of Kuala Lumpur.

The Assisi Hospice in Thomson Road - designed by New Space Architects - is also among 434 projects vying for honours in various categories in the 10th edition of the awards, which is part of the World Architecture Festival, which will take place in Berlin from Nov 15 to 17. It attracted a whopping 924 entries.

One clear theme this year is a design gravitation towards embracing natural surroundings and a preference for locally sourced materials.

One example of a building which blurs the distinction between nature and the built environment is the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon. Its structure seems to swell like a gigantic wave from its location beside a river.

Another is the Binh House project by Vo Trong Nghia Architects in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, which gives nature the right of way by having homes built around trees.

On the entries submitted, the festival's programme director Paul Finch noted that the "use of water has been striking and that there is evidence of real interest in climate modifications using novel techniques".

Two-storey bungalow House With Shadows (above), designed by RT+Q Architects, and Assisi Hospice in Thomson Road, designed by New Space Architects. PHOTOS: RT+Q ARCHITECTS, ST FILE

The winners will be announced during the festival.

Singapore has triumphed at the highest level in the past, at the awards which are like the Oscars of architecture. In 2015, the Interlace condominium in Depot Road, by OMA/Ole Scheeren and featuring 31 blocks of apartments stacked in a hexagonal arrangement, bagged the World Building of the Year accolade.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 22, 2017, with the headline Two Singapore buildings vying for top honours. Subscribe