The following Main Feature presents FuturArc Prize (FAP) 2024 winning and merit entries, as well as the awardees. The 2024 cycle’s theme Architecture for Life After required entrants to propose architectural solutions within Asia for the continuation of life after either one or both of the following scenarios: Climate Destruction and/or Endings.
Climate Destruction scenarios entail any significant climate-related disasters triggered by hydrometeorological or climatological causes, including floods, storms, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, etc. Endings scenarios refer to the end of lifespans—be it of humans, non-human species or ecosystems, such as forests, coral reefs, drylands, etc.
Click here for highlights of FAP 2024 recipients at the respective local awards ceremonies. Access the original entry panels as a special supplement only on FuturArc app.
Ouroboros: Gamification to Transform a ‘Trash-scape’ | FuturArc Prize 2024 First Place
Ouroboros is an ancient circular symbol of a snake/serpent or dragon eating its own tail, signifying variously infinity and the cycle of birth and death. It is one of the oldest mythical emblems in the world that represents fundamental concepts of life. Of this age-old never-ending ‘loop’, this entry seeks to present a modern interpretation and approach to ‘renewal’ based on a landfill setting and its contents, transposing ‘endings’ into ‘beginnings’ through an intricate system of architectural gamification and multi-layered interventions. The selected site, an open-dumping landfill in Tangerang, made national headlines in October 2023 as its methane-heavy mounds went […]
Coastal Reform: Muara Angke 2100 | FuturArc Prize 2024 Second Place
Jakarta, the largest metropolitan area in Indonesia, is among the world’s fastest-sinking cities. Due to massive groundwater extraction, its coastal areas experience land subsidence at an alarming rate of up to 15 centimetres/year.1 It has been predicted that around 90 per cent of North Jakarta could be submerged by 2050 if no counter-measures are taken, directly affecting more than 3 million people.2,3 The current measures that have been applied are limited to concrete walls (embankments) bordering the sea, but they have been criticised for their ineffectiveness, damage to marine ecosystems and negative impact on water quality.4 Instead of ‘hard’ measures […]
The Spatialization of Salt | FuturArc Prize 2024 Third Place
Of Muaragembong Estuary, the selected location upon which the proposal is based, the team described it as a prime example of what environmental historian Scott Gabriel Knowles calls a slow disaster. It has suffered from intensive salinisation due to nearly 50 years of anthropogenic landscape alterations, leading to a fresh water crisis. This area, where multiple species coexist, has seen conflicts where endemic primates—specifically the Javan langur and the long-tailed macaque—venture into residential zones in search of fresh water. Out of the team’s ongoing collaborative work with a chemist and a primatologist, they have discovered the extent of the impact […]
FuturArc Prize 2024 Merits (in no particular order)
In addressing the Endings scenario, the entry presents an idea that revolves around the theme of the cycle of life—it proposes a burial solution with an architectural scheme for a site located in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. The city’s over-1,000-year history has brought with it the effects of population expansion, environmental pollution and other urban issues that the people are still grappling with today. Among them, the shortage of burial services, which the entrant team attributed to a scarcity of land resources for the purpose of traditional earth burials. As such, cremation, they observed, has become a more prevalent […]
Reviving Mines: The Tan Cang Ecosystem | FuturArc Prize 2024 Merit
Dong Nai, a province that borders Ho Chi Minh City, is known for its rich geological resources that include metallic and non-metallic minerals like quartz, sand, kaolin clay, limestone and granite.1,2 For over two decades since stone mining was permitted by the government in 2000, over 14,000 square kilometres of quarries have been established, measuring up to 150 metres deep. Despite its economic significance in the region, quarrying has extremely adverse environmental impacts, completely destroying habitats and polluting the surrounding environment with heavy metals in soil and water bodies as well as disease-causing airborne particulate matter. In 2020, it was […]
Sa Huynh in Central Vietnam is an ancient fishing port that has played a pivotal role in the region’s maritime trade. Currently, it is at the centre of the fishing community and is a source of livelihood for many households. In recent years, the place has become heavily polluted due to the accumulation of many sorts of waste. Notably, shipwrecks that have either been washed ashore or sunken to the seabed have been extremely detrimental towards the environment. This phenomenon has disrupted residents since the COVID-19 pandemic when there were limited resources to deal with the problem, and has remained […]
The Commons Cooperative | FuturArc Prize 2024 Merit
Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake and inland fishery in Southeast Asia, is a vital ecosystem and source of sustenance for many Cambodians. Situated downstream in the Mekong Basin, it has been bearing the brunt of global warming, resulting in droughts and dry spells that are increasingly frequent and severe.1 This not only reduces the region’s water supply, but also threatens the stability of farmers. Furthermore, the upstream construction of hydropower dams along the Mekong River has had profound consequences for the ecosystem.2 Since the infrastructures alter the natural flow of the river, the downstream sediment transport and nutrient distribution […]
Living Traces, Leaving Traces | FuturArc Prize 2024 Merit
Made up of a total 7,641 islands, the Philippines, with its distinctive archipelago geography, is considered one of the most environmentally vulnerable countries that is highly prone to natural disasters. Apart from being regularly affected by volcanic activities, landslides and floods, the Philippines sits astride the typhoon belt that is struck averagely by 20 cyclonic storms per year. Located along the Mindanao Trench found with frequent seismic activities, the country is prone to destructive earthquakes that might result in tsunamis too. Its islandic landform also exposes itself to the threat of rising sea level. The internal human-caused issues, from uncontrolled […]
Mangrupuncture: A Tale of Coastal Remediation | FuturArc Prize 2024 Merit
Sunken homes and a damaged coastline depict ‘life before’ at Timbulsloko Village, Indonesia, which is currently inundated due to mangrove logging, changes in productive ponds, climate crisis and the construction of a nearby seaport. As such, the coastal village has been consecutively sinking from early 2010s. Their mangrove forest has been severely reduced due to logging, which sped up their demise. Presently, the villagers have lost their agrarian land and homes due to the rise in sea level. They are now left with abandoned settlements, damaged biomes, radical environmental changes and barely surviving communities who do not want to give […]
This year’s jurors, Dzung Do Nguyen, Farizan d’Avezac de Moran and Dr Tony Ip have been selected to represent different ‘spheres’ of practice within the built environment, from architecture/engineering, city planning and conceptual design to strategic partnerships, policy advocacy and bio-engineering. Here, we offer a peek behind the doors of the jury meeting, where the jurors reached a consensus on the awards. This meeting concluded months of preparation and consideration of the entries, which served to discern and award the best proposals.
