The winner of this prize will have the opportunity to build connections to expand their businesses in Singapore. This can include the potential to work with government agencies and/or to strengthen their advantage to compete on a global scale. The logo and visual identity for the Singapore Prize is based on the ‘ring’ symbol commonly used to represent cities on world maps and in atlases. It was designed by H55 Studio, an award-winning design and communication consultancy based in Singapore.
An Indian maker of solar-powered dryers, a soil carbon marketplace and groups that restore Andean forests and deter illegal fishing were among those to win an Earthshot prize at a glitzy ceremony in Singapore on Tuesday. Britain’s Prince William, whose Royal Foundation charity launched the 10-year award program in 2020, said the solutions presented by all 15 finalists proved that “hope does remain” as the effects of climate change become more pronounced.
The award was named after the city-state’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, who played a key role in developing it into a distinctive and clean green garden city within a few decades. It is co-organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Centre for Liveable Cities.
Architects from the Kampung Admiralty project in the northern part of the city also won the top architecture prize at the WAF last year, making it the third project by a Singapore firm to win that award in recent years. Other winning buildings included the post-earthquake reconstruction of a village in China’s Yunnan province and the Interlace, a stacked apartment complex designed by OMA and German architect Ole Scheeren.
In the literary field, a book on how Singapore came to be won the top Singapore Prize, with a cash prize of S$50,000. Prof Miksic was cited by judges for “fundamental reinterpretation” of historical information about Southeast Asia, including references in Chinese trader Wang Dayuan’s 13th-century writings that suggested the existence of Singapore before 1819.
Prof Kishore Mahbubani, who heads NUS’ Department of History and was one of the judges, added that there were “bits of evidence” about the island’s history even before that date. He said the prize could be expanded to include fiction, movies and other media, as well as more academic disciplines, in future.
The biennial Singapore Literature Prize, meanwhile, awarded 12 writers in Tamil, Malay and English. Four writers – Ali bin Salim, Daryl Qilin Yam, Pan Zheng Lei and Rma cureess – won Readers’ Favourite awards. They will each receive a hand-crafted trophy and a 12-month subscription to audiobook platform StoryTel.