Timber Beauty Wins

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, SINGAPORE (NTU) has been recognised on the global stage with a prestigious award that celebrates the finest contemporary architectural projects worldwide. The Prix Versailles 2024, the grand prize under the World’s Most Beautiful Campuses category, honours the best in campus architecture and design.

Designed by Toyo Ito and RSP Architects, Gaia is named after the Greek Earth Goddess, and is the largest wooden building in Asia. It is a shining beacon of both beauty of design and environmental innovation.

Gaia emits 2,500 fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide annually compared to conventional concrete buildings—equivalent to over 7,000 roundtrip flights between Singapore and Hong Kong. It is also the eighth Zero-Energy Building on the NTU Smart Campus, which has frequently been named one of the world’s most beautiful campuses.

The 6-story building is a living testbed for tomorrow’s technologies for advancing the use of Mass Engineered Timber (MET) for tropical climates.  It continues to refine and adapt its building conservation and preservation practices, transforming its hands-on experience into actionable expertise and valuable insights.