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People-Focused Designs at the Heart of Sustainable Construction
The winners of the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects and visions from North America have been announced. A total of $300,000 was presented to ten diverse and innovative projects from Canada and the United States at a ceremony in Washington, DC. The winning projects show how greater levels of sustainability can be reached in building and construction through people-focused designs that include simple adaptation, innovative materials, and clever architecture. The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction conducts the competition in parallel in five regions across the world. More than 6,000 submissions for projects located in 146 countries entered the Holcim Awards which aims to promote sustainable responses to contemporary technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues from the building and construction industry. A socio-architectural project to create regional food-gathering nodes and a logistics network in Canada's high arctic territory won the top prize for North America of $100,000. The Arctic Food Network (AFN) secures mobility between the scattered Inuit communities, allows a better distribution of local foods, and serves as a series of bases for the reinforcement of traditional hunting. The infrastructure project by Lateral Office / InfraNet Lab based in Toronto, Ontario, and Princeton, New Jersey, also establishes new foundations for a sustainable, more independent economy. Mohsen Mostafavi, Head of jury and Dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, congratulated the project for creating a cohesive strategy that responds to the landscape, climatic and site conditions. "The project includes purposeful interventions which are integrated without any grand gestures or expensive structures - but instead bridges between the traditions of the Inuit and the expectations of the young generation. The project thereby provides an opportunity to create an improved future, in terms of both economic opportunity and a sustainable way of living," he said. The Holcim Awards ceremony for North America in Washington, follows the presentation of winners in Milan, Casablanca and Buenos Aires. In November, the series of events will conclude in Singapore. The projects that receive Holcim Awards in each region automatically qualify for the Global Holcim Awards next year. Winners of the Global Holcim Awards will be announced in April 2012.
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