Built Environment

Scope

The Moonamal Award for the Built Environment will endeavor to recognise excellence in the widest possible terms; celebrating design’s capacity to reverse environmental degradation and regenerate natural ecologies, enabling coexistence across all lifeforms and landscapes. Applications may be from the fields of architecture, urban planning, landscape design, infrastructure design, or any built intervention in the landscape. All types of projects in urban and rural settings may be submitted. They may be single structures or complexes; private, public or institutional projects, including institutions for health, education, religious and cultural use, urban design or new towns, reuse of brownfield sites and adaptive reuse projects. They may also be infrastructure and development projects including roads, canals, dams, bridges, parks, water  supply and drainage systems, energy supply systems, or ports. We encourage submissions with a multidisciplinary approach to design and varied uses. There are no limitations on criteria for type of project, scale, cost or location within Sri Lanka for projects to be considered.

Eligibility

• Projects must be located within Sri Lanka in order to be eligible for consideration, and must have at least one Sri Lankan principal or co-lead person as part of the project team.

• All projects submitted, regardless of scale or discipline must demonstrate an in-depth and meaningful engagement with the Moonamal Award’s core design principles. 

• Projects should have been completed or implemented between 1st August 2015 and 31st July 2025, and must have been in operation for at least 12 months prior to 1st August 2026. 

• Projects can be submitted by anyone, including institutions, principal designers, and architects. No trustee or staff of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust, no member of the steering committee or judges of the award, or the technical review committee may nominate their own work, or that of their practice. 

How to Apply

All submissions must be made through the online submissions portal. This includes submitting an application form with maps, plans, photographs and any requested supplementary materials. 

If a candidate is unable to make an application online, they may contact the Award staff at awards@geoffreybawa.org to make a physical submission. 

Before submitting an application, please refer to the Applications Guidelines below. Applicants who desire to submit multiple projects for the Award must submit only one project per application. Note that photographs, drawings, and other materials submitted will be retained at the Award archives.

Judging Procedure

The initial submissions will be shortlisted by the judges.

In order to give equal importance to all projects and to facilitate the Jury's task to review them, each project is prepared in a standardised format. The staff of the Geoffrey Bawa Moonamal Award assemble presentation portfolios from materials requested from and prepared by the applicant. The Award staff will examine and study all the materials submitted for each project and may contact the applicant for complementary materials. 

The shortlist shall be published in the electronic and other media.

A technical review of the shortlisted buildings will be conducted by the technical review committee and the technical review made will be presented to the jury before the final judging. The judges will then make their final decision which will be announced on 23rd July 2027. The decision of the judges will be final.