Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

Learning Amplified through Exchange with Like-Minded People

LafargeHolcim Awards Lab 2018 Mexico City

What’s next in sustainable construction? More than 50 young architects and engineers from 25 countries were inspired by lectures, presented their projects and exchanged experiences at the LafargeHolcim Next Generations Awards Lab in Mexico City. Three teams returned home with a two-year Research in Practice Grant.

50 Next Generation 2017 Awards winners from around the world met at the Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO) in Mexico City to encourage progress towards sustainability in building and construction. The Lab provided a platform to further develop cutting-edge projects and exchange ideas in concurrent workshops across scales from micro to macro – from innovative materials and individual buildings, through to regional and global impacts.

Projects and teams represented Argentina, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, France, German, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the USA.

To complement the Lab workshops, the university students and young professionals were inspired by a welcome lecture by IBERO Director of Architecture, Urbanism & Civil Engineering, José Luis Gutiérrez Brezmes.


Doing more with less - Tatiana Bilbao

Tatiana Bilbao Founder & Principal, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Mexico City, Mexico, showed how an interdisciplinary team proposed an realized a large number of small architectural interventions for the botanical gardens in Culiacán, Sinaloa State in Mexico.

Holcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

“Creating platforms for people to live their own lives” - Tatiana Bilbao, Founder & Principal, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Mexico City, Mexico

The project is the embodiment of doing more with less to create areas to rest and for encounter, engaging people by combining art, recreation and education. She also explained her current research work on “the house” mentioning how important it is for architects to create a platform for people to live their own lives and not imposing their own ideas upon them.


Having a positive impact on society - Michel Rojkind

It’s not about building, but about interaction and having a positive impact on society, explained Michel Rojkind, Design Principal & Founder, Rojkind Arquitectos, Mexico City, Mexico. It’s about going beyond the standard program of design, experimenting with innovation. He showed the example of the Fora Boca, a concert hall (opened December 2017) in Boca del Río, Veracruz, Mexico that reconnects a formerly neglected area with the community - he called it social reconstruction by creating open spaces and possibilities for interaction.

Holcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

It’s not about building, but about interaction and having a positive impact on society, explained Michel Rojkind, Design Principal & Founder, Rojkind Arquitectos, Mexico City, Mexico.

Workshops

The 25 teams were grouped into four Labs based on the scale of their project: small, medium, large, and extra-large (S, M, L, XL). Each team introduced its project in a condensed 10-minute presentation, followed by a discussion on the future of sustainability moderated by internationally renowned expert “Lab Moderators, Motivators and Reporters”. The four Labs then came together to present and discuss their findings.

  • LafargeHolcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

    LafargeHolcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

    Participants of the Next Generation Awards S-Lab (material; detail scale), moderated by Dirk Hebel, Professor of Sustainable Construction, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany and member of the Academic Committee of the LafargeHolcim Foundation.

  • LafargeHolcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

    LafargeHolcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

    Participants of the Next Generation Awards M-Lab (architectural; building scale), moderated by Marilyne Andersen, Professor of Sustainable Construction Technologies, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL Lausanne), Switzerland, and member of the Board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation.

  • LafargeHolcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

    LafargeHolcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

    Participants of the Next Generation Awards L-Lab (urban; regional scale), moderated by Harry Gugger, Professor for Architectural & Urban Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL Lausanne), and member of the Board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation.

  • LafargeHolcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

    LafargeHolcim Next Generation Awards Lab 2018

    Participants of the Next Generation Awards XL-Lab (planetary; territorial scale), moderated by Marc Angélil, Professor of Architecture & Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Head of the Academic Committee and member of the Board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation.

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