Singapore-based American architect Erik L’Heureux has been selected over two other finalists and 200 applicants to receive the Harvard University Graduate School of Design's (GSD) 2015 Wheelwright Prize. The $100,000 travel grant, now in its third year, was awarded to L’Heureux for his proposal Hot and Wet: The Equatorial City and the Architectures of Atmosphere, which focuses on the "architecture of five dense cities in the equatorial zone - Jakarta, Indonesia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Pondicherry, India; Lagos, Nigeria; São Paulo, Brazil - where he will examine traditional and modern building strategies that mediate extreme climate conditions while addressing the mounting pressures of rapid urbanization and climate change."
L’Heureux, who is currently an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore and leads his own practice, Pencil Office, was praised by the jury for his "accomplishments as an architect, educator and author," as well as his interest to discover the "modes of atmospheric calibration at the urban scale."
The prize will fund L’Heureux's travel-based research over the next two years.
2015 Wheelwright Prize Jury:
- K. Michael Hays (Jury Chair)
- Craig Evan Barton
- Preston Scott Cohen
- Sarah Herda
- Elisa Silva
News via Wheelwright Prize
