The winners of the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects and visions from North America have been announced. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to ten diverse and innovative projects from Canada and the USA 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 jury commended the project for the immediate concept of the built structure, but moreover for the fundamental research on the complexity of processes, focusing on the construction and its effects, the relation of material, light and thermal effects. Many principles of sustainable construction are directly or indirectly selected as subject or applied, yet in microcosm and as a theoretical object. The research has been transferred into an object of stunning aesthetic quality and shows great sensibility for its construction material.

This small construction project explores the reintroduction of the ancient phenomenon of “Sukkahs”, temporary structures, biblical in origin, ostensibly used for one week as a dwelling during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The basic principles of the small structure as an ephemeral, translucent and not fully enclosing hut are taken up in the Shim Sukkah as a wooden structure relying on one material and construction element – prefabricated stacks of cedar shims. Uniquely, this secondary construction material, commonly used to fill small gaps or spaces between objects, becomes the main feature of the construction, providing the needed shelter and capacity for rather easy dismantling and reconstruction.