Holcim Awards 2014 – Europe

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 first of five regional competitions this year, Holcim has awarded twelve European projects that share more than USD 300,000 in prize money. Subsequent awards will be presented for North America, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia Pacific, with winners qualifying for the Global Holcim Awards 2015.

Below we highlight the winners, honorable mention, and awards acknowledgement prizes that were 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
Anthropic Park: Freshwater ecological reserve and remediation, Saline Joniche, Italy
Main authors: Francisco Leiva, Grupo aranea, Alicante, Spain; Marco Scarpinato, AutonomeForme, Palermo, Italy. Further authors: Marta García Chico, Grupo aranea; Lucia Pierro, AutonomeForme

Jury report: "The project’s bold philosophical posture – investigating the roles of architecture, landscape design, and urban planning and their constraints by the necessity to allow human existence – was greatly appreciated and welcomed by the members of the jury. The design proposal is a manifesto in its own right. It frames a discourse on potential forms of relationship between human activity and the natural environment, offering strategies for understanding architecture as a form of action in a symbiotic rapport with nature, without succumbing to romantic and pastoral notions of the 'natural' – and thereby accepting its entropic properties."

Holcim Awards Silver 2014 – USD 50,000
Public Condenser: Low-cost flexible university building, Paris, France
Main authors: Gilles Delalex, Yves Moreau and Thomas Wessel-Cessieux, Muoto, Paris, France. Further authors: Igrec Ingénierie; Bollinger + Grohmann Ingenieure; Alternative Acoustic & Lighting Consulting, all Paris, France; Novorest Ingénierie, Montreuil, France

Jury report: "The project’s minimal deployment of architectural and technical means was considered a remarkable contribution to sustainable construction by the members of the jury. The elegant design merges economic and aesthetic considerations – a low-cost structure turning a limitation into a quality. The proposed scheme offers a robust framework that is adaptable to future needs – a form of resilient architecture, both in view of its management of resources as well as formal appearance."

Holcim Awards Bronze 2014 – USD 30,000
The Commons: Participatory urban neighborhood, Vienna, Austria
Main authors: Enrique Arenas, Luis Basabe and Luis Palacios, Arenas Basabe Palacios arquitectos, Madrid, Spain. Further authors: Christian Seethaler, Mascha & Seethaler; Thomas Proksch, Land in Sicht Landschaftsarchitektur; Robert Korab, Raum & Kommunikation; Andreas Käfer, Traffix Verkehrsplanung, all Vienna, Austria

Jury report: "The jury especially commends the focus on questions of procedures, including stakeholder participation and its effects on physical form. Particularly interesting is the changing relationship between built and un-built areas that is constantly negotiated and re-negotiated in a process that engages a range of relevant parties. The proposal offers a method for a step-by-step urban densification, combining both bottom-up/top-down and formal/informal practices – to create an urban commons."

Honorable Mention 2014 – special recognition
Circular Voids: Energy-efficient office building, Holderbank, Switzerland Author: Christian Kerez, Christian Kerez AG, Zurich, Switzerland

Jury report: "The project displays a series of outstanding features responding particularly well to most of the 'target issues' for sustainable construction – merging architectural and technical considerations at the forefront of the discipline. The energy concept, for example, using cutting-edge surface geothermal heat-recovery, airboxes, and hybrid collectors, finds an appropriate spatial expression that would not be possible with standard systems. Here, architecture benefits from technological advances, without relinquishing its autonomy as an art form."

Holcim Awards Acknowledgement prize 2014 – USD 25,000
Aggregate Structure: Reusable aggregates requiring no binding agent, Stuttgart, Germany Authors: Karola Dierichs and Achim Menges, Institute for Computational Design, University of Stuttgart, Germany

Jury report: "The proposed scheme was praised by the jury for its focus on multi-disciplinary research at the forefront of architecture, engineering, and materials science. The jury views the project as the first step of a laboratory experiment, potentially leading to the development of new construction systems. The suggested method of how to join individual parts to form large aggregate structures is especially promising."

Holcim Awards Acknowledgement prize 2014 – USD 25,000
Material Flows: Construction materials recycling and logistics hub, Brussels, Belgium
Main authors: Ana Castillo, Jan Terwecoren, Lieven De Groote and Annekatrien Verdickt, TETRA architecten, Brussels, Belgium. Further authors: Bjorn Gielen, Landinzicht, Brussels, Belgium; Studieburo Mouton, Gent, Belgium; Henk Pijpaert, Henk Pijpaert Engineering, Oudenaarde, Belgium

Jury report: "  The jury considers the strength of the project to lie in its objective to situate architecture – as node or relay – within a dynamic, metabolic system of material flows in the midst of a city environment. Addressing an important missing link in the material life-cycle management of the contemporary urban realm, understood as an eco-system, the design proposal aims to apply sustainability principles to the construction of infrastructure."

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

*The Holcim Awards jury for region Europe met at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Switzerland in June 2014. L-R: Arno Brandlhuber (Germany), Holger Wallbaum (Sweden), Marc Angélil (Switzerland), Hiromi Hosoya (Switzerland), Stuart Smith (United Kingdom), Antón García-Abril (Spain/USA), Horia Adrian (Switzerland), Jean-Philippe Vassal (France, Head of Jury), and Hrvoje Njiric (Croatia)