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The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction opened its third cycle of two-million US dollar Holcim Awards for sustainable construction in July 1, 2010. The competition inspires students, architects, planners and engineers to create innovative construction projects that champion sustainability.

In India, ACC Limited and Ambuja Cements Limited are jointly promoting the Awards competition on behalf of the Holcim Foundation.

The Awards seek projects that demonstrate an ability to stretch conventional notions about sustainable building and balance environmental, social and economic performance – while exemplifying architectural excellence and a high degree of transferability. These are the target issues used as criteria for evaluating each entry. Projects and concepts related to buildings and civil engineering works; landscape, urban design and infrastructure; and materials, products and construction technologies are eligible for entry in the completion.

The competition is open until March 23, 2011.

The nine-month long competition entered its sixth month in November 2010, with its website recording a large number of visitors from India and other countries, even now, professional and students are visiting the website to learn more about the Awards. Figure 1 shows visitors to the website averaged about 100 per day from Indian cities during October 1, 2010 – November 24 2010.

The main category is open to architects, planners, engineers, project owners, builders and construction firms that highlight sustainable responses to technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues affecting contemporary building and construction. Projects are eligible for the competition if they have reached an advanced stage of design and construction (or commercial production in the case of materials, products and construction technologies) but had not started before July 1, 2010.

The second category called “Next Generation” category is open to student projects created within university programs at final year bachelor level or above (including masters and PhD). Subject to these two categories as above, the contest is widely inclusive and open to all individuals and groups regardless of material to be used in construction and the background of the applicant.

Two-stage global competition

The award cycle begins with a regional competition in each of the five world regions: Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa Middle East and Asia Pacific. Independent juries supported by the Holcim Foundation’s partner universities evaluate submissions based on the “target issues” for sustainable construction. The projects that receive Holcim Awards Gold, Silver or Bronze in these five regions are then qualified to compete in the Global Awards competition.

“We want to add some real impetus to sustainable construction thinking,” says Hans-Rudolf Schalcher, Professor Emeritus of Planning and Management in Construction, ETH Zurich, Switzerland and Head of the competition’s Technical Committee.” We urgently need clever ideas to accelerate the sustainable performance of the buildings in which we live, work and play.”

“After the first Holcim Awards, we created a new category for young professionals,” says March Angelil, Professor of Architecture, ETH Zurich and Foundation Board member. “We were pleased with the enthusiastic response to the ‘Next Generation’ category and overwhelming participation in the second cycle competition.”

“In the second cycle, over one third of the entries were made in the ‘Next generation’ category, the rest in the main Awards category,” says Professor Angelil.

The first worldwide competition of Holcim Awards was held in April 2006. It received more than 3000 entries from 118 countries. These were carefully examined by expert teams for jury sessions in five regions: Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. The jury selected 15 award–winning projects that received gold, silver or bronze awards in the five regional projects competitions. These projects automatically qualified for the global Holcim Global Awards, which were announced in Bangkok in April 2006.

In the second Holcim Awards competition, almost 5,000 entries from over 120 countries were received; designs for sustainable buildings, urban planning concepts, and state-of-the –art engineering proposals – an abundance of visionary construction ideas. In the second cycle concluded three years ago, Asia Pacific and Latin America accounted for roughly 30% of the submissions, followed by Europe (24%) and Africa, Middle East and North America. The growing number of entries by interdisciplinary and international project teams illustrated the collaborative nature of finding sustainable approaches for the built environment.

“We recall with satisfaction that in the previous cycle, India sent in the largest number of entries in the worldwide contest. In this cycle, we hope to repeat that performance while increasing the quality of the entries such that India can boast a global winner,” says R Nand Kumar, Head – Corporate Communications, ACC Limited and Holcim Awards Coordinator – India. The jury assesses sustainability on a five–point definition: quantum change and transferability, ethical standards and social equity, ecological quality and energy conservation, economic performance and compatibility and contextual and aesthetic impact. These so-called target issues serve as yardsticks to measure the degree to which a structure has contributed to sustainable development.

Results of the regional competition will be announced at ceremonies in Milan, Washington DC, Buenos Aires, Rabat. The Asia Pacific ceremony will be held Nov 24-25, 2011 at Singapore in the Marina Sands, a new building that has already become one of the icons of Singapore.

Have you sent in your entry yet? If not, you still have a chance to compete with ideas for a sustainable future. Register today! For more details visit www.holcimawards.org/