The second cycle of the Holcim Awards competition has reached its pinnacle: the top sustainable construction projects out of thousands of submissions from all continents have been selected. THOLChe four winning entries are a river remediation scheme in Morocco, a greenfield university campus in Vietnam, a rural planning strategy in China, and a shelter for day laborers in the USA. A series of prize-handovers will be held at the site of each project to celebrate the winners and their highly-acclaimed examples of sustainable construction.
Almost 5,000 sustainable construction projects and visions from 121 countries entered the five regional Holcim Awards competitions in 2008. Winners of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards in each region automatically qualified for the Global Holcim Awards competition in 2009. The global jury was headed by Charles Correa (architect, India) and included Peter Head (structural engineer, UK), Enrique Norten (architect, Mexico/USA), Saskia Sassen (sociologist, USA), Hans-Rudolf Schalcher (civil engineer, Switzerland), and Rolf Soiron (economist, Switzerland).
More images and description of the winning projects, after the break.
Gold Award: River remediation and urban development scheme, Fez, Morocco / John Ferri, Takako Tajima, Aziza Chaouni, Dan Brunn
River remediation and urban development scheme (Fez, Morocco) is a multi-sited, multi-functional project that is centered upon the recovery of a river. Work on restoring it triggers a range of interventions in the Medina. Core components are the rehabilitation of the old city’s architecture, revitalizing public spaces and traditional tanneries, and creating new pedestrian zones.
Silver Award: Low-impact greenfield university campus, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam / Daisuke Sanuki, Kazuhiro Kojima, Vo Trong Nghia
Low-impact greenfield university campus (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) aspires to achieve harmony with all elements of the surrounding ecosystem in the middle of the Mekong River Delta: the waters of the river and the flooding of the rice fields, the mangroves, the winds and their patterns as well as with the seasonal changes of light and shadow.
Bronze Award: Sustainable planning for a rural community, Beijing, China / Yue Zhang
Sustainable planning for a rural community (Beijing, China) intelligently addresses the more efficient use of precious land by gradually lifting quality of life and living density, improving the living conditions for rural families as a harmonious and balanced response to urban development, and reducing the ecological footprint by improved resource management and use of renewable energy sources.
“Innovation” Award: Self-contained day labor station, San Francisco, USA / Liz Ogbu, John Peterson
Self-contained day labor station (San Francisco, USA) is a minimal physical urbanistic intervention with maximum social equity and neighborhood enhancement effects. The project is a small structure that functions as a labormarket and service delivery platform for day laborers who wait for casual work every morning at customary gathering points.
