The Geoffrey Bawa Moonamal Award seeks to catalyse a new movement in Sri Lankan design by recognizing projects that decentre the human, reverse anthropogenic degradation of the environment, and foster ecological regeneration through interdisciplinary collaboration for the coexistence of all lifeforms and landscapes.

The award takes its name from the Moonamal tree at Lunuganga, Geoffrey Bawa’s garden in Bentota. A legacy of the site’s original forest landscape, the Moonamal is an indigenous species that embodies the need for ecologically sensitive designs balancing human requirements with those of nature.

After five cycles of the Geoffrey Bawa Award for outstanding contemporary Sri Lankan architecture, the Trust and its partners are pivoting to a new award that will address the growing gap between design, ecology and the environment. The Trust is partnering with the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka, and is in conversation with other institutional partners who will support the interdisciplinary vision of this new award.