“Sustainability as a ‘common sense’ culture” – Holcim Awards Jury

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    Project entry 2014 North America – Chrysanthemum Building: Affordable residential urban infill development, Boston, MA, USA

    The project integrates an innovative and adaptable unit design using available light, sun and water with low carbon wood construction framing, shaft and party walls. Efficient building systems support a sustainable ownership culture that extends to green business in the city. Physical and digital building networks are linked by design. NEST app is configured to minimize energy use and maximize energy savings. A smart building app manages resources and promotes local urban food and bike networks.

The submitted entry addresses – in a subtle and not exceedingly overstated manner – the manifold criteria set forth by the Foundation’s “target issues”. Economic, social, contextual, and environmental aspects are combined to form a sophisticated and handsome building – an extraordinary and, in a certain sense, innovative approach for an ordinary, everyday structure.

Last updated: June 30, 2014 Cambridge, MA, USA

The submitted entry addresses – in a subtle and not exceedingly overstated manner – the manifold criteria set forth by the Foundation’s “target issues”. Economic, social, contextual, and environmental aspects are combined to form a sophisticated and handsome building – an extraordinary and, in a certain sense, innovative approach for an ordinary, everyday structure. The design gives due credit to an understanding of sustainability as a “common sense” culture, one contributing to an architecture based on fundamental and real principles, an architecture nonetheless poetic in its expression.