Eleven winners announced in LafargeHolcim Awards 2017 Europe competition

Out of 792 entries from across the European continent, 11 prize winners were selected for the 2017 LafargeHolcim Awards Europe regional competition. The competition seeks designs (which are in advanced stages of development but not completed) that push current standards, showcase sustainable approaches to technological, environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural issues, and present new and visionary solutions.

It was a tie for the Gold Award, which went to two Brussels-based projects. A UK project received the Bronze and four more projects received Acknowledgement Prizes. Another four projects by students and young professionals (up to age 30) won in the Next Generation category. 

Once the Asia Pacific, Latin America, and North America regional winners are revealed, all the Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners from each region will compete in the Global LafargeHolcim Awards in 2018. The Africa + Middle East winners can be found here.

Have a look at the winning Europe proposals below.

GOLD - Logistics Framework in Belgium 
Main authors: Ana Castillo - TETRA architecten, Brussels, Belgium; Lieven De Groote - TETRA architecten, Brussels, Belgium; Jan Terwecoren - TETRA architecten, Brussels, Belgium; Annekatrien Verdickt - TETRA architecten, Brussels, Belgium

Project summary: “The project satisfies the particular current needs of a waste collection company, while simultaneously being able to adapt to changing future circumstances. Whereas its specificity pertains to the building’s integration in the urban fabric, its structure is functionally indeterminate, allowing the building to transform in time according to future needs.”

GOLD - Mix-City in Belgium
Main Authors: Wes Degreef - BC architects & studies, Brussels, Belgium; Ken De Cooman - BC architects & studies, Brussels, Belgium; Nicolas Coeckelberghs - BC architects & studies, Brussels, Belgium; Laurens Bekemans - BC architects & studies, Brussels, Belgium; Jasper Posen - BC architects & studies, Brussels, Belgium

Project summary: “The project offers an alternative to standard contemporary approaches, suggesting to keep the mixing facility on site rather than relocating it to the city’s edges, while adding a range of functions – both public spaces as well as privately funded workspaces – to densify the site.”

BRONZE - Air Rights in the United Kingdom
Main author: ZEDpods
Additional author: Bill Dunster - ZEDfactory, London, United Kingdom

Project summary: “To partially reduce London’s housing shortage, the project proposes a straightforward and resourceful solution, namely, to erect living units on elevated platforms over public parking spaces all over the city. Intended for young people and key municipal workers (firefighters, nurses, police personnel, etc.), the units are economically affordable, insofar as land costs are replaced by the leasing of air rights.”

Acknowledgement Prize winners: “The Ascociata Culturala Grivita 53 team wants to give Bucharest in Romania its first independent theater in several decades, through the clever use of an existing structure. AGi architects in Madrid plan to develop an archeological excavation site in Pontevedra, Spain; here too, multi-functionality plays a key role. Karamuk Kuo Architekten in Zurich have planned sustainable flexibility into their design of an excavation center at the Roman archaeological site Augusta Raurica in Switzerland. And NP2F in Paris are planning a recreation center in Bordeaux, France, that is as airy as it is audacious.”

Next Generation winners:  “For the first time in the history of the LafargeHolcim Awards, more projects were submitted in the Next Generation category than in the main category. The two top prizes of the European Next Generation category went to Poland. Malgorzata Mader plans to transform an old factory building in Lodz into new flexible living space. Jakub Grabowski won the second prize; he plans the restoration and adaptive reuse of a dilapidated historic building complex in Otyn. Anna Andronova from Russia received the third prize for a virtual model based on Kazan that aims to propel sustainability into the digital realm. The fourth prize went to Frédéric Bouvier of Switzerland. He proposed a structure that could help fight forest fires in the Collobrières region of France.”

Check out the Acknowledgement Prize and Next Generation-winning entries in the gallery below. You can read more about all the winning projects on LafargeHolcim's website.