President*s Design Award 2023

The President*s Design Award (P*DA) is Singapore’s highest accolade for designers and design projects across all disciplines. Be inspired by the eight recipients of the P*DA 2023 and their extraordinary achievements that have positively impacted the lives of Singaporeans and the wider global community through design excellence. For more details of these recipients, please visit pda.designsingapore.org

Designation: Country Market Director, Henning Larsen, APAC

Discipline: Landscape Design

“We humans tend to think of nature as being here to provide for us. But we need to ask what we can do for nature, because we rely on it to survive.” 
– Leonard Ng

In a career spanning over two decades, landscape architect Leonard Ng has stretched the imagination of what landscape architecture can achieve. Creating inspirational designs that balance the needs of humans, other species, and the environment, Leonard is pivotal in Singapore’s drive towards becoming a ‘City in Nature’.

Designation: Principal Architect, Kay Ngee Tan Architects

Discipline: Architecture

“The more I got into the subject, the more I realised the range of possibilities and dimensions for interpretation in architecture.” 
– Ar. Tan Kay Ngee

Architect Tan Kay Ngee finds sources of design inspiration everywhere, from traditional creative forms to everyday life. His expressive and diverse design approach has produced an eclectic body of architectural work, which sits alongside an extensive portfolio of writing about art, architecture, and the city. For Tan, life is about the journey.

Designer: Bjarke Ingels Group, in collaboration with RSP Architects Planners & Engineers (Pte) Ltd and Carlo Ratti Associati

Discipline: Architecture

“The openings in the facade frame unexpected views of the surroundings both near and far. It has reframed my own experience of the city and the downtown area.” – Brian Yang, Bjarke Ingels Group

At 51 storeys, CapitaSpring is one of the tallest buildings in Singapore. It is also one of the greenest. The mixed-use development’s multi-level green spaces offer a new social realm for the community to come together – be it at the ground level, on a verdant and meandering sky terrace at its mid-point, or at a rooftop urban farm.

Designer: Hans Tan Studio

Discipline: Design Curation

“The emotional connection between a person and an object is one of the biggest sustainable gestures one can think of.” – Hans Tan, Hans Tan Studio

Curatorial project R for Repair redesigned the banal act of repairing into an inspiring and creative endeavour. Presented together in an exhibition, a wide range of repaired objects and repair kits presented a counterpoint to today’s consumerist culture. The beautiful and delightful outcomes showed how desirable sustainability can be.

Designer: WOHA Architects Pte Ltd

Discipline: Architecture

“We wanted to show how Singapore can be a reference for what a forward-looking, responsible, and liveable city can be.” – Ar. Wong Mun Summ, WOHA Architects

Amidst the desert, the Singapore Pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai was a multi-dimensional garden of lush greenery. The self-sufficient pavilion showcased a seamless integration of nature, architecture, and technology. The biophilic environment demonstrated how buildings and cities can be designed systemically to meet net-zero targets and support regeneration.

Designer: Serie + Multiply Consultants Pte Ltd, in collaboration with CPG Consultants Pte Ltd

Discipline: Architecture

“With the removal of the typical building facade or envelope, the definition of what is external and internal became blurred.” – Ar. Colin Wu, CPG Consultants

The State Courts Towers complex reinvents the classical image of courthouses for contemporary times with an unconventional high-rise form. The split towers and open-facade design retain the customary need to segregate user groups, while providing open walkways and gardens in the sky. The ochre-coloured cladding pays homage to the surrounding terracotta roofscape of Chinatown.

Designer: SIURA Studio Pte Ltd

Discipline: Landscape Design

“When your design can be enjoyed by thousands of people and bring happiness to them, it feels like your hard work has paid off.” – Anton Siura, SIURA Studio

A degraded public park in South Jakarta has been transformed into a natural asset that better manages flooding and is embraced by the local community. Tebet Eco Park not only now draws in a high volume of human visitors, but also attracts wildlife. It represents a successful prototype for a more nature-based, sustainable, and regenerative approach to parks in Jakarta.