The objective of the first Greater Bay Area Urban Design Awards (GBA Urban Design Awards) is to elevate the overall urban design standard in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) through recognition of excellence in urban design related projects in the GBA and foster collaboration and exchange among urban designers, planners, architects, landscape architects, engineers, surveyors and other urban design professionals, companies and organisations in the GBA.
The Awards will be held as a biennial event. This year, the debut GBA Urban Design Awards 2020 is organised by the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design with the support of other member institutes from Greater Bay Area Urban Designer Alliance and sponsorship from Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Urban design professionals and organisations in the GBA are invited to nominate urban design projects to participate in the GBA Urban Design Awards from 17 July 2020 to 30 September 2020. To establish the credibility of the GBA Urban Design Awards, renowned academia and practitioners in urban design will be invited to be the jury members and jury’s adjudication would take place from October to November this year.
The first edition of the GBA Urban Design awards is divided into the Professional Category and the Student Category
1. Awards Category
The Professional Category has three sub-categories, namely Built Project, Urban Intervention and Plan/Concept.
2. Entry Qualifications
- Projects must be located inside the geographical area of the GBA.
- Projects must be nominated by professional members or group members of the Founding Member Institutes of the GBA Urban Designer Alliance, or their recommended professional institutes/organisations.
- Projects for sub-categories of Built Project and Urban Intervention must be completed physically between 1 January 2010 and 14 September 2020.
- Projects for sub-categories of Urban Intervention is for small-scale interventions that have been completed physically and made a significant contribution to the urban environment, for example:
a) One or a group of small buildings of a total building area of not more than 2000 m2 ;
b) A landscape area or public space less than 3000 m2 ;
c) Small urban elements, e.g. pavilion, shelter, street furniture, lighting, public art, gateway; or
d) Other forms of temporary or permanent interventions.
- Design or study for sub-category of Plan / Concept must be completed and accepted by the Government departments concerned or clients who commissioned the projects between 1 January 2010 and 30 September 2020.
- The nominated project shall in no way be associated with members of the jury panel.
3. Entry & Specifications
Nominees should download, complete and return the Nomination Application Form and all the documents required. Please note, nomination must be made by a member of any of the Founding Member Institutes from the GBA Urban Designer Alliance, or their recommended professional institutes/organisations.
4. Awards Winning Category
There would be Grand Awards, Merit Award and Nominated Award for shortlisted projects for each sub-category. The number of awards would depend on the quality and the number of submission. However, the Jury Panel reserves the right of not awarding any award. The decision of the Jury Panel shall be final.
Grand Awards might be granted with or without titles are determined by the Jury Panel, and examples of the titles may include Sustainability, Heritage Conservation, Inclusive urban design, Livability, Urban design for health, etc. The Jury Panel reserves the right to determine the awards titles.
5. Professional Category Jury Panel
The Awards are overseen by a panel of jurors from overseas academia or practitioners in urban design. Impartiality and reputation of the Awards will be safeguarded by sound adjudication process.
6. Fees
HK$1,500 per submission. It is open for both professionals and companies in urban design in the GBA to participate.
Download the Nomination Form>>
1. Urban Design Theme
An urban design theme is set by the Award Committee and announced as “Wellbeing through Urban Design”.
2. Entry Qualifications
- Open for all full-time urban design, architecture, landscape architecture and town planning students who are studying in Hong Kong, Macau and other Greater Bay Area cities.
- Students are eligible to form a group to enroll the Student Awards Category. Please note that the maximum number of student participants in a group entry should be 10 or lesser members, including a team leader as the contact representative. Information such as full names, name of Institution and study programme of your team members should be clearly stated in the form.
- Concept plan can be outside the geographical area of Greater Bay Area.
- The submitted project shall in no way be associated with members of the jury panel.
3. Entry & Specifications
Students should download, complete and return the Entry Form and all the documents required.
4. Awards Winning Category
Gold Award
Silver Award
Commendation Award– for shortlisted projects
5. Student Category Jury Panel
 |
Ms. Winnie Ho Wing-yin, JP, Deputy Director of Architectural Service, Architectural Services Department of The Government of Hong Kong SAR |
 |
Mr. Stephen Jones, Director, Woods Bagot |
 |
Mr. Chris Van Duijn, Partner, OMA |
 |
Mr. Nuno Soares, Director of CURB - Center for Architecture and Urbanism – Macau |
 |
Mr. Qiu Yanqing, Director of Guangdong Territorial Spatial Planning Association |
6. Fees
Free submissions for all full-time urban design, architecture, landscape architecture and town planning students who are studying in Hong Kong, Macau and other Greater Bay Area cities.
Download the Nomination Form>>
Entries are judged according to their own merits, taking into consideration of their successes, contributions, achievement, new ideas and approaches in the following objectives, with emphasis on the particular sub-category for the relevant Award category:
- Innovative urban morphology: urban identity, fabric, density, streetscape, community characteristic, visual image, skyline, reinforcement of existing opportunities.
- Well-being of all walks of residents: livability, walkability, permeability, place making, transportation, convenience, community health and safety, inclusiveness, diversity in domestic, commercial, and public space, involvement of community in the urban design process.
- Sustainable urban development: carbon footprint, ecological diversity, green infrastructure, preservation of natural environment, farmland, and non-renewable resources.
- Sensitive response and reinforcement: local culture, heritage, tradition, and history, urban context in the process of fast urban development.
- Advancement of urban design: new idea, concept, design approach, integration of innovative technologies.
- All submissions, must be uploaded to personal drive and email the download link to to gbaawards@blink.com.hk with the subject name marked as “Greater Bay Area Urban Design Award – Professional Category” OR “Greater Bay Area Urban Design Award – Student Category” containing the digital copies in pdf format, and all the documents required in the Nomination Application Form or Entry Form. (Resolution not less than 350 dpi, pdf file size not larger than 20MB for 2 panels).
- The Submission should include not more than 2 (Two) A1 display panels (One sided, Landscape form), a design statement in not more than 400 words in Chinese and 300 words in English, and project background of project location, scale, completion date, urban design team members, etc on one A4 size paper.
- The two display panels shall be aligned from top to bottom, not left to right. The Panels should be flat, without projections and trimmings.
- All submission (for all categories) must be bilingual, in both Chinese (Traditional Chinese or Simpified Chinese ) and English.
- For Professional Category, shortlisted projects are required to submit a PowePoint of 20 images for the project, and might be invited by the jury panel to submit further plans and reports.
- For Students Category, shortlisted projects may be invited to attend a judging interview.
- All submissions would not be returned. Participants are advised to produce their own copy for record.
| Date | Events |
| 17 July 2020 | Open for Nomination and Submission |
| 30 September 2020 | Nomination and Submission close at 3:00pm (HK Time) |
| October – November 2020 | Awards Adjudication (First screening for shortlisting submission would be held in October, and assessment of shortlisted entries would be held in November) |
| 25 November 2020 | The Greater Bay Area Urban Design Awards 2020 Presentation Ceremony in conjunction with the opening of Roving Exhibition in the Greater Bay Area |
The award-winning and shortlisted projects would be posted on The Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design website and Facebook page.
About The Greater Bay Area Urban Design Awards, please contact:
Email: gbaawards@blink.com.hk
Tel: (852) 3590 5310
Fax: (852) 3590 5218
Lead Sponsor
Disclaimer: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) are those of the project organizers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Communications and Creative Industries Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, Create Hong Kong, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.