The Holcim Foundation recently presented USD 200,000 in funding for five PhD research projects from Brazil, China, Mexico and Switzerland.

Odair Barbosa de Moraes, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil (“Environmental quality evaluation in informal urban settlements using fuzzy logics”); Lei Pang, Tongji University, China (“Integrated computer-aided technology for ecological evaluation in urban design for historic areas”); Rozana Montiel Saucedo and Arturo Ortiz Struck, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City (“Sustainability in poverty areas”); Deane Simpson, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (“Gerontological urbanism: emerging forms of urbanism for the elderly demographic”); Jörg Spangenberg, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil (“Sustainable and climatically adapted urban transformation”).

Each research project is co-funded by the corresponding university. Outcomes from the research will be presented at the Holcim Forum in 2010. 

Student poster competition at international symposium

Architecture and design students from six of the world’s leading technical universities competed in local concept poster competitions for visions of sustainable construction. From these local competitions, 30 students were invited to travel to China as guests of the Holcim Foundation to attend the Holcim Forum 2007, “Urban_Trans_Formation”, held at Tongji University in Shanghai.

The posters were displayed at the Forum and encouraged stimulating discussions amongst the attendees. More than 250 experts from 42 countries nominated the projects that were most inspirational regarding sustainable construction and delivering tangible benefits to diverse communities. Prizes were awarded to James Graham and Tad Jusczyk, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (“Crowd Farm”, 1st prize);

Konrad Milton, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (“Creating Egypt's Seventh Oasis”, 2nd prize); Gustavo Torres, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City (“Towards a new rainwater capture system”, 3rd prize); Nils Havelka and Nicolas Zimmermann, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (“LivingHouse Sustainability Concept”, Highly commended); Dukui Li, Jia He and Yuguo Wang, Tongji University, China (“Micro-urbanism”, Highly commended) 

“Next Generation” category for Holcim Awards competition

The Holcim Awards is an USD 2 million international competition for future-oriented and tangible sustainable construction projects. For the first time, a special “Next Generation” category with prize money of USD 175,000 will open for entries on June 1, 2007. To be eligible to participate in the “Next Generation” category, all project authors must be less than 35 years of age when entries close on February 29, 2008.

In addition to the main competition for sustainable construction projects at an advanced stage of design and a high probability of execution, the “Next Generation” category is open to ideas and conceptual visions. All entries in the competition will be evaluated by five regional juries of independent experts from architecture, science and civil society. Prizes will be presented at Holcim Awards ceremonies for each region of the world in the third quarter of 2008 in Madrid, Montreal, Mexico City, Marrakech and New Delhi.