The exhibition will run from January 16 to February 2, 2006 and will feature a closing “finissage” event including speakers encouraging innovative, future-oriented and tangible approaches to sustainability within the building and construction industry: Dean of the MIT School of Architecture, Prof. Adèle Naudé Santos; Dean of the ETH Department of Architecture, Prof. Andrea Deplazes and ETH Professor of Planning and Management in Construction, Prof. Hans-Rudolf Schalcher. 

Prof. Santos is no stranger to the projects displayed in the exhibition as the head of the global jury for the Holcim Awards. Selection of the winning projects from the 15 finalists will be based on further information submitted by each participant using the target issues for sustainable construction that the Holcim Foundation defined in collaboration with its partner universities.

The sustainable construction concepts on display will include a revitalization project in a side valley near Amalfi, Italy, winner of the Holcim Awards Gold for the region Europe. This outstanding project is not the work of one individual, but of several teams from industry to universities to public institutions. Other projects on display range from large-scale public buildings such as the new sustainable California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, USA to smaller-scale projects such as Concrete Substrates for Accelerated Coral Restoration from the Philippines.

The exhibition will include the Encouragement Prize-winning project of Swiss designer Michi Gehret. His speculative design project displays innovative spirit in terms of "thinking" sustainable construction, particularly with the imaginative reuse of materials in the design of a Center for Sustainable Development in Zurich.

The Encouragement prizes recognize the achievements of young professionals whose projects are particularly fascinating and stimulating. “The main thing is that we more fully include the young generation in the competition. That is especially important because sustainability always involves the future,” says Hans-Rudolf Schalcher, ETH professor and Member of the Management Board of the Holcim Foundation.

As part of the three-year competition cycle with prize money totaling USD 2 million, all projects that received the gold, silver or bronze award in the five regional competitions automatically qualify for the global Holcim Awards. The global Holcim Awards winners will be announced in Bangkok in April 2006.

The competition was created by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction in collaboration with five of the world’s leading technical universities: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Switzerland; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA; Tongji University (TJU), Shanghai, China; University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil; and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, South Africa.

Sustainability & innovation: Holcim Awards 2005 
ETH Hönggerberg, Zürich – January 16 to February 2, 2006

Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 07:00hrs – 22:00hrs
Saturday: 08:00 – 12:00hrs
Sunday: closed