USD 220,000 total prizes were awarded to the best projects submitted in North America in the first Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects. The competition, organised by the Swiss Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction in collaboration with five of the world’s leading technical universities, aims to promote sustainable approaches to construction.
In his speech at the OECD Roundtable on Sustainable Development, the Chairman and member of the Advisory Board of the Foundation, Rt. Hon. Simon Upton
(France/New Zealand), said that although sustainability is a concept that many business people and politicians seem to be associated with, it often lacks content or coherence. “The Holcim Awards are important precisely because they challenge participants to think about sustainable solutions in all their dimensions, right from the foundations,” he said.
Contribution to sustainable development
The Holcim Awards ceremony for sustainable construction projects to be built in Canada and the United States took place at Rowes Wharf, an architectural and historical landmark also known as the Boston Gateway. Nearly 200 diplomats, architects, association leaders and business representatives attended the event. In his welcome address, the Chairman of Holcim Ltd and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Holcim Foundation, Rolf Soiron (Switzerland), emphasized that progress and sustainability are closely linked to the Holcim name: “Through the Holcim Foundation, we are significantly promoting the public’s understanding of sustainable construction, which extends beyond technical solutions,” he said.
The dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning and chair of the Holcim Awards jury for North America, Professor Adèle Naudé Santos (USA), emphasized the need to broaden the vision: “Sustainable construction is much more about process and behavior than about buildings. It must inspire urban planning in a special way,” she said.

The first prize of US$100,000 was awarded to a hybrid urban, architectural and landscape design that guides the sustainable construction and renovation of 187 housing units. The “environmentally conscious infrastructure of Benny Farm” in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, incorporates socio-economic processes and low-cost sustainable measures such as water treatment, geothermal heating and cooling systems, as well as waste management provisions.

The president of the regional jury, Professor Santos, said that the participation of Daniel S. Pearl of L’OEUF/Pearl Poddubiuk and Associates, Architects (Canada), showed an ambitious social vision to integrate stakeholders and go beyond the scale of individual interventions. The project was also commended for its financial viability and its contribution to neighbourhood planning, taking into account aesthetics. The project has an ambitious social vision to effectively integrate stakeholders and offers potential cost reductions in health care and public services.

http://www.holcimfoundation.org/media/journalists.html.