Holcim Awards 2014 – Africa and Middle East

Since 2004 the Holcim Foundation has given awards for sustainable construction to "innovative, future-oriented and tangible construction projects to promote sustainable responses to the technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues affecting building and construction on a local, regional and global level." In the fourth of five regional competitions this year, Holcim has awarded twelve African and Middle Eastern projects that share more than USD 300,000 in prize money. Previous awards were presented for Europe, North America and Latin America, and a subsequent award will be presented for the Asia Pacific, with winners qualifying for the Global Holcim Awards 2015.

Below we highlight the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners selected by the 9-strong jury* in June. They were asked to select winners based on "'target issues' for sustainable construction that consider environmental, social and economic performance – while also highlighting the need for architectural excellence and a high degree of transferability."

Holcim Awards Gold 2014 – USD 100,000
Eco-Techno Park: Green building showcase and enterprise hub, Ankara, Turkey
Authors: Onat Öktem and Zeynep Öktem, ONZ Architects, Ankara, Turkey

Jury report: "The jury greatly appreciated the project’s objective to promote economic growth in the region through innovation in environmental technologies. The building is accordingly conceived as a test bed for sustainable research exploring new techniques pertaining to the use of renewable resources – energy for heating and cooling, rainwater retention, temperature control, daylight, and natural ventilation. At the core of the scheme is the intention to establish a careful balance between the natural and fabricated realm – an objective most clearly expressed in the project’s landscape strategy, which aims to integrate the building in its natural setting."

Holcim Awards Silver 2014 – USD 50,000
Evergreen City: Urban pine forest rehabilitation, Beirut, Lebanon
Main author: Raëd Abillama, Raëd Abillama Architects, Metn, Lebanon
Further authors: Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine, Associaton for Forests Development & Conservation, Jdeideh, Lebanon; Youssef Abillama, Maintenance Management Group, Antelias, Lebanon

Jury report: "The project’s bold intention to open up a territory – located in the midst of the city’s 'concrete jungle' and essentially suppressed and forgotten in the collective memory – to the public at large was strongly commended by the jury. The city of Beirut, under constant pressure by private development to use every piece of available land for more and more expansion, must rehabilitate its green spaces and make them accessible to the public – a restoration not only of its natural habitat but most importantly of the very ideal of the city as collective body – Beirut’s civitas."

Holcim Awards Bronze 2014 – USD 30,000
Incremental Construction: Low-cost modular housing scheme, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Main author: Dirk Donath, Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany
Further authors: Brook Haileselassie, Asgedom Berhe, Helawie Sewnet and Sarah Yusuf, Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building, Construction & City Development (EiABC), Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Peter Dissel, Afro-European Engineers, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Jakob Mettler, Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany

Jury report: "The project incorporates a series of features that promote the concept of sustainability beyond the common understanding of the term. The jury greatly valued the role of the university as a critical player in advancing the constructive framework of the city, engaging a series of stakeholders – city officials, local inhabitants, craftsmen, etc. – in the very formation of the urban habitat. While the project offers strategies for formalizing the informal, at the same time it learns from local construction practices and social customs to produce a new form of urban vernacular – a strategy that essentially informalizes the formal."

Visit the Holcim Awards website for more information on the above winning projects and to see the five winners of the Acknowledgement Prizes and the four recipients of the "Next Generation" prizes for young architects and students.

*The Holcim Awards jury for region Africa Middle East met at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon in June 2014. L-R: Marc Angélil (Switzerland), Javier de Benito (Switzerland), Daniel Kebera Irurah (South Africa), Hansjürg Leibundgut (Switzerland), Howayda Al-Harithy (Lebanon, Head of Jury), Diébédo Francis Kéré (Burkina Faso/Germany), Amer Moustafa (United Arab Emirates). Not pictured: Aziza Chaouni (Morocco/Canada) and Fasil Giorghis (Ethiopia).