Dean of Architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) and Head of the Holcim Awards 2011 jury for Latin America, Prof. Carolyn Aguilar, has won the Living Building Hero 2012 award. The accolade was announced at the Living Future 2012 Congress organized by the Cascadia Green Building Council and the International Living Future Institute. The congress was held in Portland, Oregon, USA under the theme of “Women Reshaping the World”.
Last updated: June 05, 2012 Mexico City, Mexico
The award is presented to outstanding leaders in the field of sustainable construction and recognizes the important work of Carolyn Aguilar to advance sustainability in the built environment. The UIA Department of Architecture has translated the Living Building Challenge certification system that goes beyond BREEAM and LEED into Spanish, to enable the approach to be more readily applied in Latin America.
Professor Aguilar was Head of the Holcim Awards 2011 jury for region Latin America, which was hosted by the UIA. The jury included nine independent experts of international stature engaged in the sustainable development of society, building processes, construction materials, and building projects. In Latin America, a total of USD 300,000 was presented to eleven outstanding projects at the Holcim Awards ceremony in Buenos Aires. The winning projects mainly addressed the challenges of intensified urbanization – and ranged in scale from innovative community buildings through to broad master plans and infrastructure projects.
Carolyn Aguilar explained that winning the award was a group effort at the Department of Architecture, and reflected the leading role the UIA has played in promoting sustainable construction within the profession, particularly in Latin America. “This award is the result of continuing efforts and commitment, including the UIA’s engagement with the Holcim Foundation to promote sustainability,” she said.
The Universidad Iberoamericana is a partner university of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction and hosted the 3rd International Holcim Forum on the theme of “Re-inventing Construction” in 2010. The UIA also assists the Holcim Foundation to compile the Holcim Awards juries for the region Latin America.
For more than 70 years the UIA has participated actively in the social development of Mexico. Founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1943 as the Centro Cultural Universitario, the project quickly grew and became the Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México (UIA) ten years later and offered courses in philosophy, chemistry, literature and psychology. Today, the UIA is home to more than 11,000 students, and more than 2,000 external teachers, researchers and academic faculty members.