The Holcim Award winners for North America have been announced in Toronto. The 13 winning projects illustrate how sustainable construction continues to evolve—developing more sophisticated and multi-disciplinary responses to the challenges facing the building and construction industry.
The winning teams will share more than $300,000 in prize money.
All images courtesy Holcim.
GOLD PRIZE: Poreform
Las Vegas
Authors: Water Pore Partnership, Yale University
This design proposal repositions water infrastructure as a civic project. Facing a significant shortage of water in an arid region, local drainage systems are incapable of handling and collecting the water that floods the Las Vegas valley when it rains.
Poreform, a porous concrete surface poured in place with fabric formwork is capable of rapid saturation and slow release, and reframes water as a valuable resource rather than a liability. The surface feeds water to subterranean basins. It is located within the public realm and claims a stake as civic infrastructure that is as important as its nearby sister, the Hoover Dam.
SILVER PRIZE: Rebuilding by Design
New York
Authors: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, One Architecture, James Lima Planning + Development, Buro Happold Engineering, Level Agency for Infrastructure, Green Shield Ecology, ARCADIS, AEA Consulting, Project Projects
The BIG U project, which you can read more about here, addresses the vulnerability of New York City to coastal flooding and proposes a protective ribbon around lower Manhattan. The master plan uses a raised berm strategically to create a sequence of public spaces along the water’s edge along the raised bank.
The infrastructural barrier incorporates a range of neighborhood functions and as a result offers multiple design opportunities, fostering local commercial, recreational, and cultural activities.
BRONZE PRIZE: Hy-Fi
New York
Authors: The Living, Arup, 3M, Ecovative Design
Hy-Fi is a cluster of circular towers formed using reflective bricks, designed for and commissioned by the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program. The structure uses recent advances in biotechnology combined with cutting-edge computation and engineering to create new building materials that are almost fully organically grown and compostable.
Beyond the use of technological innovations, the tower challenges perceptual expectations through unexpected relationships of patterns, color, and light. You can see more here.
Check out the other winners at the Holcim Foundation
Related Stories
| Aug 15, 2022
Boston high-rise will be largest Passive House office building in the world
Winthrop Center, a new 691-foot tall, mixed-use tower in Boston was recently honored with the Passive House Trailblazer award.
Hotel Facilities | Aug 12, 2022
Denver builds the nation’s first carbon-positive hotel
Touted as the nation’s first carbon-positive hotel, Populus recently broke ground in downtown Denver.
Energy Efficiency | Aug 11, 2022
Commercial Energy Efficiency: Finally “In-the-Money!”
By now, many business leaders are out in front of policymakers on prioritizing the energy transition.
| Aug 8, 2022
Mass timber and net zero design for higher education and lab buildings
When sourced from sustainably managed forests, the use of wood as a replacement for concrete and steel on larger scale construction projects has myriad economic and environmental benefits that have been thoroughly outlined in everything from academic journals to the pages of Newsweek.
Sponsored | | Aug 4, 2022
Brighter vistas: Next-gen tools drive sustainability toward net zero line
New technologies, innovations, and tools are opening doors for building teams interested in better and more socially responsible design.
| Aug 4, 2022
Newer materials for green, resilient building complicate insurance underwriting
Insurers can’t look to years of testing on emerging technology to assess risk.
| Aug 4, 2022
Newer materials for green, resilient building complicate insurance underwriting
Insurers can’t look to years of testing on emerging technology to assess risk.
Sustainability | Aug 4, 2022
To reduce disease and fight climate change, design buildings that breathe
Healthy air quality in buildings improves cognitive function and combats the spread of disease, but its implications for carbon reduction are perhaps the most important benefit.
K-12 Schools | Aug 1, 2022
Achieving a net-zero K-12 facility is a team effort
Designing a net-zero energy building is always a challenge, but renovating an existing school and applying for grants to make the project happen is another challenge entirely.
Codes and Standards | Jul 29, 2022
Few projects and properties are being built beyond code
Clients and architects disagree on how well building to code provides resilience, according to a recent report by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in partnership with Owens Corning.