USD 220,000 in prize money was presented to the best entries from North America in the first Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects. The competition run by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction in collaboration with five of the world’s leading technical universities aims to promote sustainable approaches to the built environment.

The work is innovative in striving to implement solutions involving sustainable construction that are not necessarily high-tech, but are rather more integral to the tectonic form of the building. The project displays a contextual sensitivity, responding poetically to the natural terrain and topographical setting. By proposing to utilize nearby lake water as the primary resource for a deep water-cooling system, this scheme is important in promoting transferability and raising awareness of an available and renewable natural energy source.

As part of a larger master plan for a new research park in Canada, the headquarters building draws on innovative technologies for regulating the climate of the facility. By proposing to utilize nearby lake water as the primary resource for a deep water-cooling system, this scheme is important in promoting transferable solutions for energy conservation through the use of an available and renewable resource.