The iconic new California Academy of Sciences building opened in September 2008 is the largest public LEED Platinum-rated building in the world and the world’s greenest museum. This commitment to sustainability extends to all facets of the facility – from the bike racks and rechargeable vehicle stations outside the building, to the radiant sub-floor heating inside and energy-generating solar panels on top of the building.

A San Francisco-based project offering a solution for day laborers and the surrounding communities received the Global Holcim Awards “Innovation” prize 2009. The Self-contained day labor station is a flexible bus-shelter-like structure that offers shelter, benches, washrooms, a kitchen and an education/training space – creating a sensitive environment for people who find themselves on the edge of the community and at the same time addressing health and safety needs.

Following five regional competitions, 15 Award-winning projects will now compete in the first global Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects. The global phase of the competition showcases the best entries from more than 1500 submissions from 118 countries, and encourages innovative, future-oriented and tangible approaches within the building and construction industry.

USD 220,000 in prize money was presented to the best entries from North America in the first Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects. The competition run by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction in collaboration with five of the world’s leading technical universities aims to promote sustainable approaches to the built environment.

This project successfully demonstrates the effective integration of concerns for sustainable construction with sophisticated architectural design. Playing a prototypical role in raising collective awareness about the benefits of environmentally conscious structures, the building is convincing in its synthesis of function, form, technology, and nature. Involving community input from the outset, the project is also to be commended for its ethical consideration of enhancing social experience – i.e., with features such as the living roof, public plaza, and planetarium.

The project is located on the west coast of the United States. This is a so-called green building design focusing specifically – as many other projects did – on a sophisticated roof construction as an integral part of the design. The entire ensemble is centered on the performance of the roof: the roof as enclosure, as a filter for daylight, as a public terrace, and as a membrane satisfying a series of technical requirements such as water retention, drainage, heat absorption, solar protection, and insulation.