Awards 2008–2009: Cycle Summary

Sustainability is of critical importance to building and construction in every region of the world. The second cycle of the Holcim Awards competition heralded an inspiring increase by almost 50% on submissions received compared to the first Awards cycle. There was also a growing proportion of interdisciplinary project teams which clearly illustrates the collaborative nature of finding sustainable approaches for the built environment.

Integrated solutions document societal and environmental needs met and improve economic performance where technologies are combined to lower consumption, maintenance, costs, and ecological footprints.

The understanding of what sustainable development, and therefore sustainable construction, means has grown over the years.This growing awareness has principally been due to the dedicated efforts of engaged stakeholders across a vast range of specialties. 

Inspiring examples of this capacity for innovation have been captured in the second cycle of the Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects and visions. Almost 5,000 entries were submitted – designs for sustainable buildings, exciting urban planning concepts, state-of-the-art engineering proposals– an abundance of visionary construction ideas.

The four Global Holcim Awards 2008 winning entries are a river remediation scheme in Morocco, a greenfield university campus in Vietnam, a rural planning strategy in China, and a shelter for day laborers in the USA. A series of prize-handovers were held at the site of each project to celebrate the winners and their highly-acclaimed examples of sustainable construction.