SINGAPORE – The Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s Gaia, the largest wooden building in Asia, bagged the top Unesco prize for architecture and design under the world’s most beautiful campuses category on Dec 2.

Changi Airport Terminal 2 also won the special prize for its interior at the series of competitions known as Prix Versailles World Architecture and Design Award 2024, under the world’s most beautiful airports category.

This award is one of the top three world titles – namely the top Prix Versailles prize, separate special prizes for interior and exterior – that finalists in each category competed for.

The Prix Versailles is an international series of architectural awards that celebrate contemporary projects worldwide by recognising innovation, creativity, reflections of local heritage, sustainability and design.

The other winners for the world’s most beautiful campuses include the University of Edinburgh’s Edinburgh Futures Institute in Scotland, United Kingdom, which clinched the special prize for its interior, and Paris-Saclay University’s Henri Moissan Centre in Paris, France, which won the special prize for its exterior.

The winners of the world selection prizes, which gives them recognition by Unesco, include Wenzhou-Kean University’s Student Learning and Activity Center in China; Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg Center in Washington, United States; and New York University’s John A. Paulson Center in New York, US.

Constructed using mass-engineered timber sourced from sustainably managed forests, NTU’s Gaia is designed to be environmentally friendly and produces 2,500 fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of over 7,000 round-trip flights between Singapore and Hong Kong – annually compared with...