News

The first phase of enabling better visitor access to the Tracas de Pontevedra archaeological site has been completed. The Holcim Awards Acknowledgement prize winning “Bio-Palimpsest” project delivers an ecological approach to archaeological sites and offers an immersive experience to visitors on the Galician coast of Northern Spain. With the aim of sustaining local heritage and tourism the project by AGI architects will enhance eighteen ancient sites distributed around the town of Pontevedra. Instead of focusing on the ruins as objects separated from their context, the project re-embeds them within a whole environment.

“There Are Walls that Want to Prowl” is an homage to Lloyd Khan’s self-built movement in the 1960s and 70s – and its holistic and organic understanding of green building.

Join the Climate Week NYC online panel discussion on 23 September at 10am EDT / 4pm CET to deep-dive into building net-zero cities, what tools we need and what solutions are available today.

“Architecture can create a sense of belonging and community empowerment by making by hand and connecting to craft” says Lina Ghotmeh of Lina Ghotmeh – Architecture.

“We need new models for what shapes architecture – and how we live together” says Hashim Sarkis, Curator of the Venice Biennale, Head of the Global Holcim Awards jury and Dean of Architecture & Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

For research and experimentation to challenge convention, it must push boundaries and include an element of risk. The Empa NEST platform “House for a House” in Switzerland enables testing where the costs and risks of experimentation are dramatically reduced. This creates an incentive for academia, industry, and policymakers to test convention and enable innovation.

Dirk Hebel speaks plainly: we already have effective solutions to avert environmental disasters, but implementation might be “too little, too late”. He sees there’s no time to continue discussing symptoms – we must set our priorities straight and tackle the causes. Circularity must underpin every step of the construction process and “sprinkling a bit of sustainability sugar on top of a project is no longer good enough”, he warns.

Buildings and infrastructure account for almost 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions and the sector consumes finite resources at the rate of 40 billion tons of raw material every year. The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has produced six short videos that each focus on an important aspect of circular materials flows. The videos follow-on from expert discussions at the Holcim Forum on Re-materializing Construction and cover a selection of solutions to help reach net-zero targets for the building and infrastructure sector.

For Mariam Kamara, it’s time to radically redefine what we call contemporary and to re-invent aesthetic codes. A rising star of architecture and protégée of Sir David Adjaye, she is firmly committed to designing culturally, historically, and climatically relevant solutions to spatial problems, especially in Africa. She championed “think local” and circular construction as Holcim Awards jury head for Middle East Africa. She advocates an approach to sustainability that is also about people where the architect has a responsibility to rediscover culture and resources.

“Alejandro Aravena is leading a new generation of architects that has a holistic understanding of the built environment and has clearly demonstrated the ability to connect social responsibility, economic demands, design of human habitat and the city” stated the Pritzker Architecture Prize jury in 2016. In the special issue of L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (AA) covering the Holcim Awards competition, he explains the value of focusing on ‘why’ someone is celebrated instead of ‘who’ is a winner.

Philippe Block appropriates the past and incorporates parametrics in manner far beyond aesthetics. He utilizes modern technology, software and digital fabrication tools, to re-explore historic construction techniques and generate new types of forms. In his interview with L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (AA magazine), he explains how circular construction economy strategies should build for longevity and adaptability – while at the same time reducing the volume and embodied carbon coefficient of the materials used.

L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (AA) magazine caught up with Julia King, Architectural Designer and Urban Researcher at LSE Cities, London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE). The recognition of winning a Holcim Awards Next Generation prize in 2011 enabled the project to move from being a speculative project to something that eventually was built.

Francis Kéré has become one of the world’s most distinguished contemporary architects, celebrated for his pioneering communal approach to design and his commitment to incorporating sustainable materials and modes of construction. In his interview with L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (AA magazine), he explains his approach to sustainable design to ensure his projects deliver a positive and lasting contribution to the physical and social environment.

Striatus is an arched, unreinforced masonry footbridge composed of 3D-printed concrete blocks assembled without mortar. The 16x12-metre footbridge is the first of its kind, combining traditional techniques of master builders with advanced computational design, engineering, and robotic manufacturing technologies.

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction promotes thought leadership on a greener, smarter, circular, and more inclusive built environment. Holcim has unveiled its new Group identity as a milestone in its transformation to become the global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions.

Stuart Smith is emphatic: we must extend the lifecycle of individual components rather than systematically discarding entire structures. He cites a recent anecdote about his coffee machine to illustrate his point: when the appliance suddenly stopped working, he could buy a new one – but this option would send the old machine with all its valuable materials to a scrap heap when a single faulty part was probably to blame. In the same way, we must move beyond the discard/demolish approach to buildings.

The sixth Holcim Awards competition cycle is coming to a close: 21 projects by students and young practitioners around the globe have been awarded. They show that members of the next generation are concerned with the sustainable future of construction on many levels – and that they are prepared to go completely new ways to achieve it.

The Holcim Awards are the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design. The Next Generation category recognizes the visionary concepts and bold ideas of young professionals and students. Due to the high quality of the entries in the competition region of Asia Pacific, the jury selected not four but five projects to receive Next Generation prizes. The winning projects from India, Thailand, and Indonesia all share a strong focus on social sustainability.

The Holcim Awards are the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design. The Next Generation category recognizes the visionary concepts and bold ideas of young professionals and students. In the competition region of Middle East Africa, the jury selected four entries to receive Next Generation prizes. The winning projects from Uganda, Jordan, Sierra Leone, and Iraq have one thing in common: an intrinsic optimism about the future.

The Holcim Awards are the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design. The Next Generation category recognizes the visionary concepts and bold ideas of young professionals and students. Excelling in the competition region of Latin America were four projects in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Columbia that sensitively deal with fundamental aspects of sustainability.