” We encourage all our Holcim Awards winners to use this global recognition as a platform to help speed up the realisation of sustainable construction in their regions.”
In the Middle East and Africa region, the projects winners were Surf Ghana Collective, Busuers a, Ghana by Juergen Strohmayer and Glenn DeRoché., Stream Co-Habitat, Tuzla, Turkey, by Openact Architecture , and Kfar Houneh Ecolodge, Kfar Houneh, Lebanon, by Akl Architects.
Laura Viscovich, Executive Director of the Holcim Foundation, made the call when she announced the winners in Venice, Italy, on 18 November.
Established in 2004, the international Holcim Awards competition is dedicated to sustainable construction projects across Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America; Middle East and Africa and North America.
She noted that the common ambition of all the
winning projects are to enhance community health, wellbeing, and prosperity.
She praised the winners for designs which she said embody the Foundation’s goals for sustainable construction.
“In a world where sustainability has
multiple interpretations, the Holcim Foundation is proud to shine a light on projects that demonstrate best-in class solutions for creating uplifting places that meet human development goals while restoring and
regenerating natural systems,” she said.
USD1 Million Awarded Prize Money
She disclosed that the
the winning projects – awarded prize money totaled USD 1 million.
The competition had 2,380 registrations of interest from 114 countries and 500 submissions that met the entry
criteria. Out of these, five projects were awarded a Gold prize for their outstanding contribution to local sustainable development within their region.
These projects, hailing from Canada, China, Ghana, Mexico, and
Spain, are beacons of contextually-relevant design which thoughtfully balance the need for inclusive, human centric spaces and environmental stewardship.
The winning projects champion advances in approaches ranging from adaptive reuse and material circularity to participatory design and cooperative business models.
They also address critical challenges including energy management, community empowerment and issues of land use and restoration.
Gold winners: The Holcim Awards Juries awarded five projects (USD 100,000 each) in the Gold category for their contribution to advancing sustainable construction.
Silver winners: The Juries further awarded 15 projects USD 60,000 each for the silver category
Bronze winners were awarded USD 30,000 each.