Two of the four most recent LafargeHolcim Awards Next Generation prizes for Latin America were conferred to teams from the Universidad National de Córdoba (UNC). The team that won the regional Next Generation 1st prize with their “Tidal Energy Landscape” project were also recipients of an Global Ideas prize selected by the Global LafargeHolcim Awards jury 2018, chaired by Alejandro Aravena (Chile).

Juan Cruz Serafini, Tomas Pont & Stefano Romagnoli, National University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

Territorial Figure in Argentina: Evolutionary Process of Infrastructures in New Territories – The Patagonia Case

Exactly two years ago, we decided that our thesis project needed to address a severe electrical emergency Argentina was going through and, at the same time, to push against climate change to contribute to the health of our planet. To achieve so, we decided to make a step forward in rethinking both the discipline of landscape architecture and infrastructures in new territories, by the formulation of a methodology that would allow us to coherently intervene the landscape.

Today, we are astonished by the great success of the project due to different recognitions worldwide. Our project has not only been awarded by LafargeHolcim Awards, but also by 6 more national and international organizations. At the same time, there was an increasing interest from different institutions including the Government of Argentina, and meetings were held with the national Minister of Energy, Juan Jose Aranguren and the Undersecretary of Renewable Energy, Sebastian Kind. We are in the precise moment, in which the political and institutional scenario of Argentina allows us to, pushing forward this research to start dreaming.

Projects in Mexico, Niger, and the USA win the 5th Global Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction. As diverse as the three top projects are in terms of geography, program and scale – they are all the result of true teamwork across generations, genders and ethnicities. Alejandro Aravena (Chile) headed the independent jury of renowned experts who evaluated the 15 finalist projects from all continents that had qualified for the global phase of the Awards. The USD 2 million competition is run by the Holcim Foundation, an initiative of Holcim, the leading global building materials and solutions company.

The jury applauds the authors’ vision to rethink the role of renewable energy production at the large scale. In one figure, the authors address a global challenge, merging territorial planning, landscape design, and architecture into a comprehensive system. Further development would need to take into account biodiversity and the impact of construction on the ocean biome. 

In the recent LafargeHolcim Awards for Latin America, the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC) continued its unrivalled success, taking out the first and third prizes in the Next Generation category of the world’s most significant competition in sustainable design. A reception to celebrate the success of UNC students was held at the Faculty of Architecture, Urban & Industrial Design (FAUD) to congratulate the students, present their concepts on sustainability, and promote sustainable construction in Argentina.

Water is the hot topic among the project entries for the Holcim Awards in region Latin America. Whether for wastewater, drinking water, or tidal water, many of the prize winners have innovative and often surprising proposals for ways to master the use of this precious resource in Latin America.