Far Eastern aims to find new Taiwan architects

2014-08-12

The five winners of this year’s Far Eastern Architectural Young Talent Award will gain entry to Japan-based Shinjinsen Asian Architectural Rookie Award for Asian students, according to Far Eastern Memorial Foundation.

"A total of 70 entries were whittled down to 20 for further judging after a preliminary round Aug. 2," said Pearl Hu, a spokeswoman for the foundation, which is supported by Far Eastern Group. “By the end of August, we will have five finalists, with the winners qualifying for the final round of Shinjinsen to be held in mainland China’s Dalien in November 2014.”

According to Hu, it was Japanese architect Dan Norihiko who suggested combining the finals of the Far Eastern award with the Shinjinsen qualifiers.

“This year, judging from the works we have selected, we stand a good chance to grab the Shinjinsen award,” said Wang Ming-hsien, one of the judges in the preliminary round of the young talent award.

The award was inaugurated this year following in the footsteps of the Far Eastern Architectural Design Award, which is modeled after U.S.-based Pritzker Prize awarding top professional architects in the country. Students in the first three years of architecture degrees at Taiwan universities are eligible to enter.

The Shinjinsen was originally held every October at the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka. In 2012, the contest opened to the rest of Asia, and held in South Korea for the first time. This is also the first year that Taiwan has been invited to participate, alongside Cambodia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and mainland China.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=220499&CtNode=413)