Holcim Awards showcase innovation in sustainable construction
By STAFF REPORT
Construction Skills DevelopmentHolcim handed out more than US $330,000 in prize money to 13 projects from across Canada and the U.S. at its North American sustainable construction awards in Toronto on September 18 at Evergreen Brick Works – a Holcim Awards prize winning project in 2008.
A panel of experts chose winning projects that met sustainable construction practices while also highlighting architectural excellence and a high degree of transferability. To be eligible for an award, projects must not have been started before the final day submissions were due for the contest (July 31, 2013).
The top prize of $100,000 went to a water supply and flood mitigation project in Las Vegas. Second place and $50,000 went to the “BIG U” urban flood infrastructure project for lower Manhattan, and a zero-carbon compostable structure, recently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, won $30,000 for placing third.
Architects Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner of NADAAA in Boston received an acknowledgement prize and $25,000 to renovate and extend the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels building, which is home to the university’s faculty of architecture, landscape and design.
Jonathan Enns, of Enns Design/solidoperations in Toronto, Ont., finished fourth in the next generation category (for young professionals and students) and took home $7,500 for Timber-Link, an interlocking panelized timber building system designed for Cape Dorset, Nunavut.
The Toronto awards for the North American region followed the first presentation of winners in Moscow (for Europe). Holcim will hold additional awards events in Medellín (for Latin America), Beirut (for Africa Middle East) and Jakarta (for Asia Pacific). The projects that receive gold, silver and bronze awards in each of the five regions automatically qualify for the Global Holcim Awards 2015.
The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation has run the Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction competition since 2004. The awards are held every three years and offer $2 million in prize money.
For more information about the Holcim Awards click here.
