The 4th International Holcim Awards competition will reach its climax with the announcement of global winners in May 2015. The jury for the Global Holcim Awards competition in 2015 features independent experts of international stature engaged in the sustainable development of society, building processes, construction materials, and building projects. The global winners will be selected from a pool of 15 projects that receive gold, silver or bronze prizes in the five regional competitions in late 2014.

Head of the Global Holcim Awards jury and Dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), Mohsen Mostafavi (USA) explained that the jury process will use the “target issues” for sustainable construction to evaluate each of the finalist projects based on detailed submissions from each team.

“As our society has developed, the role of design has continually shifted - changing in scope, scale and technique. Visionary individuals and organizations are making strides in design disciplines to adapt theory, techniques and practices to actively secure long-term environmental, economic and social viability,” he said.

Members of the Global Holcim Awards jury for 2015 are:

• Mohsen Mostafavi (head), Dean of the Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University (USA)
• Marc Angélil, Senior Dean, Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
• Alejandro Aravena, Executive Director, Elemental (Chile)
• Maria Atkinson, Founding CEO, Green Building Council of Australia (Australia)
• Meisa Batayneh Maani, Founder & Principal Architect, Maisam Architects & Engineers (Jordan)
• Yolanda Kakabadse, President, WWF International (Ecuador)
• Matthias Schuler, Founder, Transsolar Energietechnik (Germany)
• Rolf Soiron, Chairman, Holcim Foundation (Switzerland)

Competition entries highlight worldwide importance of sustainable construction

The 4th cycle of the USD 2 million Holcim Awards competition attracted more than 6,000 projects and visions in sustainable construction to be realized in 152 countries. The diverse geographic spread of entries and growth in submissions from developing countries confirms the importance of a more sustainable built environment. The results of the regional phase of the competition will be announced at prize-handover events  taking place throughout the second half of 2014 (September 5 for Europe, September 19 for North America, October 3 for Latin America, October 17 for Africa Middle East and November 14 for Asia Pacific) and communicated via the Holcim Awards website (www.holcimawards.org).

In 2015, the winners of the regional Holcim Awards Gold, Silver and Bronze will compete with more detailed project submissions for the global prizes.

The Holcim Awards encourage architects, planners, engineers, project owners and students to share their projects and visions that go beyond conventional notions of sustainable construction. The competition is an initiative of the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. The Foundation promotes sustainable responses to the technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues affecting building and construction.