Project description by jury

Located in a dry region in southern Iran, Bandar-e Kong receives 130 millimeters rain each year, concentrated over winter into intense rainfall that leads to episodes of severe flooding. This environmental criticality is exacerbated also by the lack of adequate agricultural infrastructure and green spaces in the city that could mitigate urban flood risks. To face these problems, this project suggests the restoration of an indigenous ecological system that would help the city mitigate stormwater runoffs and harvest rainwater for drinking and gardening purposes. 

As a Main category prize winner in the regional Holcim Awards 2020, Inundation Harvest in Iran automatically qualified as a finalist in the Global Holcim Awards 2021.

View Global Holcim Awards Entry – Inundation Harvest in Iran

The built environment has a significant role to play in addressing climate change and enabling the transition to a net-zero and more inclusive future. The Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction global winners showcase the cutting edge of approaches to sustainable design, green architecture, and materials innovation. The 6th cycle of the competition saw three entries in the Middle East Africa region win prizes at both the global and regional levels, including a project in Morocco that won a Global Holcim Awards Bronze and two projects that were recognized with a Global Commendation. The global prizes were presented at a handover ceremony at the International Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy. The regional Holcim Awards Main category winners for Middle East Africa were recognized at the same event.

Saving Fresh Water Mission

Saving every drop of rare tropical rain from returning to the saltwater of the Persian Gulf had been a historical mission of the people of Kong. The sophisticated ecological structure, which had been developed over centuries to accomplish this mission, was dismantled during recent context insensitive development of the city. As a result, we now have 35-hectare dried palm gardens, dozens of empty flood-water reservoirs, and a severe water shortage in the growing city. Recent projects have tried to deal with this water crisis with hundreds of kilometers of pipelines and huge water desalination plants. This project aims to revitalize this ecological structure to save increasing rainwater for developing the agricultural sector and urban green spaces.

This project aims to harvest urban floodwater to revive palm tree gardens and expand urban green spaces. The calculations show that more than 65,000 cubic meters of floodwater can be harvest annually and 35 hectares of gardens can be revived with this water. The production of this amount of water through reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants (the main source of water for the city) produces 435.5 tons of CO2. Moreover, palm gardens absorb 2,240 tons of carbon dioxide and produce about 630 tons of oxygen annually. In total 2675.55 tons of CO2 will be reduced annually, which equals the amount of CO2 produced by 446 cars.