Online Awards jury meeting: Four time zones in one room

Region by region: First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    The first-ever online jury meeting of the LafargeHolcim Awards including Marilyne Andersen, Head of the Academic Committee of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction (right), and Benno Hossbach, Director of [phase eins], covered four time zones and was coordinated from Switzerland.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    The Awards jury meeting for region Asia Pacific was coordinated via Eclépens, Switzerland and included jury members located in Bangkok, Thailand; Berlin, Germany; Boston, USA; Lausanne and Zurich, Switzerland; London, United Kingdom; Lyon, France, and Singapore.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    Members of the LafargeHolcim Awards jury for Asia Pacific headed by Nirmal Kishnani are online in five time zones – from Singapore (+6hrs) to Boston (-6hrs) – to select the most outstanding projects and visions in sustainable construction.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    The Awards jury meeting for region Asia Pacific was coordinated via Eclépens, Switzerland and included jury members located in Bangkok, Thailand; Berlin, Germany; Boston, USA; Lausanne and Zurich, Switzerland; London, United Kingdom; Lyon, France, and Singapore.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    The virtual jury meeting to select LafargeHolcim Awards winners for region Middle East Africa (l-r): Mariam Kamara (Head of jury), Benno Hossbach, Elli Mosayebi, Marilyne Andersen, Guillaume Habert, Linna Choi, Zegeye Cherenet, Heinrich Wolff, Luisa Pastore, Joana Dabaj, and Mohsen Ech.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    Members of the #LafargeHolcimAwards jury for Middle East Africa headed by Mariam Kamara are online in four time zones to select the most outstanding projects and visions in sustainable construction.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    The Awards jury meeting for region Middle East Africa was coordinated via Eclépens, Switzerland and included jury members located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Cape Town, South Africa; Lausanne and Zurich, Switzerland; London, United Kingdom; Lyon and Paris, France; and Providence, RI, USA.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    Virtual Awards jury meeting for Europe including (from top left): Sergei Tchoban, Benno Hossbach, Alexandre Theriot, Hélène Lombois-Burger, Jeannette Kuo, Marilyne Andersen, Dirk Hebel, Luisa Pastore, Kristiaan Borret, Nuno Costa, and Eva Pfannes.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    The virtual Awards jury meeting for Europe was coordinated via Eclépens, Switzerland – with jurors in Berlin and Ebringen, Germany; Lausanne and Zurich, Switzerland; Brussels, Belgium; Lyon and Paris, France; Porto, Portugal, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    Virtual Awards jury meeting for Latin America including (from top left): Edelio Bermejo, Benno Hossbach, Harry Gugger, Luis Callejas, Marilyne Andersen, Sandra Barclay, Cecilia Puga, Luisa Pastore, Loreta Castro Reguera, Fernando Diez, and Maria Betânia de Oliveira.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    Another regional LafargeHolcim Awards jury meeting is taking place as a two-day online session coordinated out of Switzerland. The jury for Latin America includes members in four time zones. They will nominate the most outstanding projects and visions as winners of the 6th LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    Four time zones in one room in Switzerland to coordinate the online LafargeHolcim Awards jury meeting for Latin America – with jurors in Basel & Lausanne, Switzerland; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Lima, Peru, Lyon, France; Mexico City, Mexico; Oslo, Norway; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Santiago, Chile.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    The online jury meeting of the LafargeHolcim Awards jury for Latin America was coordinated from Switzerland and included Marilyne Andersen, Head of the Academic Committee of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction (left), and Luisa Pastor, Coordinator of the Academic Committee.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    Virtual Awards jury meeting for North America including (from top left): Marilyne Andersen, Benno Hossbach, Mitch Joachim, Luisa Pastore, Christophe Levy, Reed Kroloff, Sharon Johnston, Jesse LeCavalier, Sarah Burch, Sarah Graham and Sarah Whiting.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of LafargeHolcim Awards juries

    Four time zones in one room in Switzerland to coordinate the online LafargeHolcim Awards jury meeting for North America – with jurors in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Canada, France and Switzerland, in addition to technical support from Germany.

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    First-ever virtual meetings of Holcim Awards juries

    Marilyne Andersen, Head of the Academic Committee of the Holcim Foundation, represents the sponsor of the competition on all five regional juries.

Evaluating projects in a virtual meeting across up to five time zones and continents is a new experience for many members of the regional LafargeHolcim Awards juries. The panels that are usually physical meetings hosted by associated universities of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction are being replaced by multi-day online sessions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Last updated: June 15, 2020 Eclépens, Switzerland

Evaluating projects in a virtual meeting across up to five time zones and continents is a new experience for many members of the regional LafargeHolcim Awards juries. The panels that are usually physical meetings hosted by associated universities of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction are being replaced by multi-day online sessions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Nevertheless, there is a tangible component to the panels: The Head of the Academic Committee (AC) of the Foundation, the Awards jury secretary and representatives of Berlin-based [phase eins], a company specialized in architectural competitions, coordinate the meetings together, moderating parallel discussion sessions between the members of the virtual juries.

In order to best respect social distancing precautions, these gatherings take place in the spacious meeting facilities of LafargeHolcim in Switzerland in Eclépens. It is not a coincidence that this cement plant near Lausanne was chosen to host the meetings: it sets international benchmarks with regard to sustainability by using alternative fuels and raw materials, reducing emissions and turning its surplus heat into energy.

Prize handovers postponed

A20_JuryAPAC_landscape1.jpgMarilyne Andersen, Professor of Sustainable Construction Technologies at the EPFL Lausanne, Head of the AC and member of the Board, represents the Foundation in all five jury meetings. The regional juries are chaired by Loreta Castro, Taller Capital, Mexico for Latin America; Mariam Kamara, atelier masōmī, Niger for Middle East Africa; Jeannette Kuo, Karamuk Kuo Architecture, Switzerland for Europe; Nirmal Kishnani, National University of Singapore for Asia Pacific (pictured left); and Reed Kroloff, IIT Chicago, USA for North America. Each regional jury panel consists of independent, renowned representatives from science, business and society as well as an expert from the LafargeHolcim Innovation Centre in France.

Following a comprehensive verification process, the LafargeHolcim Awards winning projects and their authors will be celebrated in 2021 since the five regional prize handover events had to be postponed due to the pandemic. In each region, an Awards Gold, Silver and Bronze will be presented, as well as Acknowledgement and Next Generation prizes.

Half of the entered projects make it to the juries

The 6th International LafargeHolcim Awards for projects and visions in sustainable construction attracted almost 5,000 entries by authors in more than 120 countries. Over 40% of the projects were submitted in the Next Generation category for students and professionals up to 30 years of age. [phase eins] led the multi-stage process to check that submissions adhere to the conditions of the competition. Roughly half of all entered projects meet these requirements and are submitted to the jurors for appraisal.

Five “target issues” for sustainable construction serve as the criteria for evaluating and comparing projects from diverse locations and a wide range of programs. For the first time, Main Category entrants were required to provide a qualitative response on CO2 Lifecycle Assessment, taking into account embodied carbon in design, construction, operation and deconstruction.

The LafargeHolcim Awards is the world’s most significant competition in sustainable design and offers prize money of USD 2 million per cycle of regional and global Awards. The Swiss-based LafargeHolcim Foundation is an initiative of LafargeHolcim, the global leader in building materials and solutions with the ambition to lead the industry in reducing carbon emissions and shifting towards low-carbon construction.

Further reading

LafargeHolcim Awards

100 hours online to evaluate 2,000 entries

Eclepens, Switzerland

LafargeHolcim Awards

5,000 designs to make construction more sustainable

Zurich, Switzerland

Holcim Awards

Members of Holcim Awards juries 2020 confirmed

Zurich, Switzerland