USD 1 million in prize money was awarded to the best sustainable construction projects entered in the first global Holcim Awards competition. Joint winners of the Holcim Awards Gold were an urban integration project in Caracas, Venezuela, and the design for a new main railway station in Stuttgart, Germany.

The project merits distinction for its outstanding approach to enhancing the performative scope of existing structures while simultaneously exercising care in preserving the inherent qualities of the landscape. In this respect, a global lesson is postulated in the fusion of preservation and innovation, one that is applicable at varying scales of intervention. A high degree of finesse is exercised in coordinating a diversity of stakeholders to produce a viable model for long-term improvement of the natural and manmade environment.

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.

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction sought out the best sustainable construction projects in Europe – and awarded the winners about a quarter millions Swiss Francs at the Awards ceremony in Geneva. In his address, Swiss Federal Councillor Joseph Deiss said that sustainability, which has a long tradition in Switzerland, is necessary in all aspects of life, and that economic and ecological priorities are no contradiction.

The project’s overall strength lies in increasing the performative capabilities of the landscape and giving its inherent qualities a convincing architectonic expression through the introduction of new sustainable uses for the recovered structures located on the site. Although proposed for a large area of the selected region, the work is scale independent and therefore applicable to other projects. Also to be credited is the collaborative symbiosis of university, private industry, and local representatives.

The project uses water as the central theme with the preservation of a number of historic buildings and maintaining aesthetic balance between existing and new structures. Set in the magnificent context of the steep valley of the River Canneto rising between Amalfi and Scala, this project aims to recover a landscape and a system of pre-industrial water mills (mulini) currently in danger of collapse beyond repair.