The Museum of Modern Art Announces the Winner of the Inaugural Ambasz-MoMA Annual Prize for Nature-Reconciled Architecture

The Museum of Modern Art announces announces the Dhaka, Bangladesh–based architectural office Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA as the winner of the inaugural Ambasz–MoMA Annual Prize for Nature–Reconciled Architecture, awarded to the firm for its Friendship Centre in Gaibandha, Bangladesh.

Granted by MoMA and funded by a major gift from the Legacy Emilio Ambasz Foundation, the prize recognizes exceptional projects, completed anywhere in the world in the past 30 years, that repair architecture’s relationship with nature.

The Ambasz–MoMA Annual Prize carries a total value of $200,000, making it the largest award for a single project in the field of architecture. It confers $100,000 directly to the winning architect and allocates another $100,000 to a not-for-profit organization to plant trees in honor of the project client’s name. For the inaugural prize, Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA receives the architect’s award, and Friendship, the NGO that commissioned the Friendship Centre, is recognized as the client awardee. The Fundación Gran Chaco in Formosa, Argentina, is the recipient of the tree-planting funds, which will contribute to reforestation efforts in the Gran Chaco forest in honor of Friendship.