Two local architecture firms are winners at this year's prestigious Chicago-based International Architecture Awards.

MKPL Architects won for its design of the Visitor Centre at HortPark (pictured above) off Alexandra Road, while Forum Architects won for the Assyafaah Mosque in Sembawang.

The annual awards are handed out by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and the Metropolitan Arts Press.

Inaugurated in 2005, the awards recognise and highlight the designs of new skyscrapers, corporate buildings, institutions and private homes, among others.

Completed last November, the HortPark Visitor Centre has a lightweight roof constructed with steel posts and beams. The space under it is light and airy, and the roof resembles a huge canopy, much like the trees in the park.

MKPL Architects says the award is a strong endorsement of its design, especially as it comes from an international authority on design and architecture.

Mr Ng Lang, chief executive officer of the National Parks Board which manages HortPark, says MKPL Architects has shown that good design has an important role in the making of public space, as is evident in the popularity of the new HortPark with the Singapore public.

Assyafaah Mosque features a column-less prayer hall that has arches supporting the building's upper storeys. The modern look is also peppered with traditional features, like the Arabesque patterned walls.

The building has also won other awards, including Singapore's Architectural Design Awards in 2006, the Architecture Plus Awards and the Cityscape Architecture Awards. The last two awards were held in Dubai in 2004.

On winning the International Architecture Award, Forum Architects' director Tan Kok Hiang says he feels thrilled and encouraged that the mosque has caught the attention of the American jury.

'It is peer validation that the design is at once global and local,' he adds.

There are 114 winners this year from 38 countries. Those who made the list include Beijing's Water Cube - the National Aquatics Centre - by Australia-based PTW Architects; Dubai's Infinity Tower by US-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; and Stuttgart's Mercedes-Benz Museum by Dutch architecture firm Unstudio.

Past local winners include SCDA Architects which won for the Mint Toy Museum last year and for three overseas projects in New York, Guangzhou and Malacca in 2006.

That same year, Bedmar & Shi and Woha Architects also won for their private residential homes.

This year's winners will be showcased in an exhibition called New World Architecture to be held in Florence in November.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Sep 27, 2008.