November 9, 2011—The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, an organization that promotes sustainable responses to the technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues affecting building and construction, recently awarded $300,000 to winners of its Holcim Awards 2011 North America competition for sustainable design. The awards ceremony, in which 10 regional winners from Canada and the United States were recognized, was held at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The competition was sponsored by Holcim Ltd, a multinational supplier of cement and aggregates.
According to awards officials, the pool of regional winners will be evaluated in further detail in March 2012 by a panel of independent experts to qualify for the global phase of the third International Holcim Awards competition. Projects awarded the gold, silver and bronze prizes will automatically qualify. They are:
- Gold Prize: Toronto and Princeton, New Jersey-based Arctic Food Network by Lateral Office / InfraNet Lab. The project comprises a network of small structures for obtaining and storing food, which are situated along existing snowmobile trails in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The architects’ aim was to address the Inuit’s myriad problems related to the shift in diet due to an influx of manufactured food products into the culture, which has traditionally survived from hunting and gathering.
- Silver Prize: Los Angeles-based Swift Lee Office for its NZE K-12 High Performance School Prototype. This prefabricated net-zero energy building made of off-the-shelf components will be deployed on multiple campuses throughout Los Angeles.
- Bronze Prize: Minneapolis-based Julie Snow Architects for its border control station in Van Buren, Maine.
- Silver Prize: Los Angeles-based Swift Lee Office for its NZE K-12 High Performance School Prototype. This prefabricated net-zero energy building made of off-the-shelf components will be deployed on multiple campuses throughout Los Angeles.
