In mid-September, the award ceremony for the winners of the III International Architecture Competition Holcim Awards took place in Milan, which we talked about in detail last November. The best projects in Europe in the field of sustainable development were named at the Ice Palace in Milan.
Designers from Germany became the winner in the main category "Architecture" - the "gold" was awarded to the project of an open public pool in Berlin, developed by the architect Tim Edler.
The jury awarded "Silver" almost unanimously to the Belgian bureau Carlos Arroyo Arquitectos for the reconstruction project of the former factory in Oostkamp. In total, a territory with an area of 4 hectares should undergo revitalization - all kinds of social and socially significant functions will appear on the site of the former hangars and production workshops.
Philippe Rizzotti Architects from Italy, which received a "bronze" for the project of reconstruction of the former viaduct, closes the top three of the leaders of the prestigious competition. The architects were able to turn this building into a multifunctional complex with apartments, shops, cafes and offices.
Incentive prizes were awarded to four projects, including the SITRA headquarters in Finland, a fully landscaped cottage in Holland, low-rise social housing in Hamburg and a new concrete formwork method developed in Zurich, Switzerland. In the Next Generation nomination, the jury recognized projects developed by students from the AA School of Architecture in Great Britain, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Universidad de Sevilla, Spain. All winners of the Holcim Awards in the Europe region will have the opportunity to continue the fight in the world stage of the competition, which will be held in 2012, and will also be able to compete for the title of the author of the most innovative project on the planet - this championship will be timed to coincide with the approaching 100th anniversary of the Holcim concern.
As a reminder, the competition, organized by Holcim, one of the world's leading manufacturers of building materials, aims to find architectural projects on every continent of the planet that best meet the requirements of sustainable development. The total prize fund of the competition is two million dollars. The projects submitted for the competition are evaluated according to five main criteria. These are innovation and environmental friendliness of the materials used, the use of energy-saving technologies and preservation of the environment, economic efficiency, aesthetics and originality of architectural and design solutions, as well as "a reasonable desire to improve social and cultural living conditions." And although Russia this time was not among the winners, nevertheless, our country took 4th place in the total number of applications (57) submitted to the competition. The fourth Holcim Awards competition will be announced in Moscow as part of the Green Project 2011 festival, which will take place on November 9-10.
A. M.
