Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction competition

The Holcim Awards is an international competition of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. The competition celebrates innovative, future-oriented and tangible sustainable construction projects and visions from around the globe.

3rd International Holcim Awards competition

The USD 2 million Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction competition was open for entries from July 1, 2010 until March 23, 2011. The competition is comprised of five regional competitions in 2010/11 and the global phase in 2012.

Holcim Awards (main) and “Next Generation” (student) categories

The main category of the competition is open to architects, planners, engineers, project owners, builders and construction firms that showcase sustainable responses to technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues with contemporary building and construction. Projects are eligible for the competition if they have reached an advanced stage of design. Construction (or commercial production in the case of materials, products and construction technologies) must not have started before July 1, 2010. In addition, the Holcim Awards seeks visions and ideas for the “Next Generation” category, open to student projects created within university programs at final year bachelor level or above (including master’s and PhD).

Measuring up to “target issues” for sustainable construction

Submissions in both categories are evaluated by independent juries, using five “target issues” to define sustainable construction. Three of these align with the triple bottom line concept of balanced social, environmental and economic performance. The rest cover contextual and aesthetic impact, and innovation and transferability. For further details see:
www.holcimawards.org/target

Internationally renowned architects and academics in juries

The juries in the five competition regions include experts in sustainable construction, such as Angelo Bucci (Brazil), Raymond J. Cole (Canada), Wowo Ding (China), Harry Gugger (Switzerland), Bjarke Ingels (Denmark), Sheila Kennedy (USA), Ashok B. Lall (India), Winy Maas (Netherlands), Jürgen Mayer H. (Germany), Mohsen Mostafavi (USA), Amer Moustafa (UAE), Lucy Musgrave (UK), Olivia la O’ Castillo (Philippines), Joe Osae-Addo (Ghana), Michel Rojkind (Mexico), Hashim Sarkis (Lebanon), Bruno Stagno (Costa Rica), Gunawan Tjahjono (Indonesia). A full list of jury members is available at:
www.holcimawards.org/jury

Support by world-renowned technical universities

The Holcim Awards competitions are conducted in partnership with some of the world’s leading technical universities. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) leads the Technical Competence Center of the Holcim Foundation. Other partner universities which host the independent competition juries are: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA; the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) in Mexico City, Mexico; l’École Supérieure d’Architecture de Casablanca (EAC) in Morocco, and Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay) in Mumbai, India. Tongji University (TJU) in Shanghai, China, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa are associated universities of the Holcim Foundation.

100 prize winning projects in the first two competitions

In the 2nd Holcim Awards competition 2008/2009, almost 5000 projects from 120 countries were submitted. The 52 prize-winning projects included the global winners: Holcim Awards Gold – River remediation and urban development scheme, Fez, Morocco. Silver – Low-impact greenfield university campus, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Bronze – Sustainable planning for a rural community, Beijing, China. “Innovation” prize – Self-contained day labor station, San Francisco, USA. Details about the 100 prize-winning projects from both the 1st and 2nd competition cycles are available at:
www.holcimawards.org.