Green Awards 2019

Many experts now question the pace of sustainable development.

The brief of FuturArc Prize 2019 asked for integration: how do we balance production, consumption and liveability within a 1-square-kilometre-neighbourhood of a city that has a population of 100,000 people? The challenge here is the stipulated density.

The submissions were astounding. We discover from winning entries that it is not only possible to pack these many people into a single space, the city actually functions better than what we have now. This super-dense neighbourhood is liveable, inclusive and connected.

In FuturArc Green Leadership Award 2019, we learnt that architects favour low-energy passive systems; they focus on materiality as a way to mitigate impact. Beyond acts of mitigation, there are layers of social and ecological space that connect project to neighbourhood and city.

In past cycles, small projects have tended to do well. This may be because it is easier for designers to craft a solution when size is not an issue. And while there is no shortage of small gems this year, there is one big project that deserves a mention. The winner in the Urban category—Puyangjiang River Corridor in Zhejiang, China—is a remarkable act of regeneration that restores the ecosystem of a city.

The jury was inspired by all winners. It is our hope that we can now talk about the elephant in the room. If we are capable of imagining these solutions, why do we not do more? Why are our cities deteriorating when there are designers out there with this vision and capability?

Happy reading.