Solutions in Sustainable Construction

This entry is focused on the development of a smart but simple methodology to design and prefabricate building elements with complex geometries, which is resource efficient and considerably reduces construction waste. Complex geometries are utilized in contemporary architecture for the construction of concrete or mortar building envelopes, partition walls, horizontal and vertical shading elements and pavements.

This winner of the first Global Holcim Awards Gold (2006) places the railway station underground to recover land and to create a new urban area, combining structural and landscape aspects. The Deutsche Bahn project to add a new high-speed line for this city laid out in an underground tunnel at a right angle to the existing tracks started construction in 2015. This will free up development space for a vast new urban quarter. 

The Dryline (BIG U) addresses New York City’s vulnerability to coastal flooding with a protective ribbon in Southern Manhattan. The 12 km-long infrastructural barrier incorporates public space with the high-water barrier doubling as parks, seating, bicycle shelters or skateboard ramps. Embankments add green areas and spaces beneath elevated roadways are built out with pavilions for public use. In an emergency, the shutters close forming a floodwater barrier.

The Droneport supports cargo drone routes capable of delivering urgent and precious supplies to remote areas on a massive scale. Cargo drone routes have utility wherever there is a lack of roads, and transcend geographical barriers such as mountains, lakes, and unnavigable rivers without the need for large-scale physical infrastructure. The project offers an “infrastructural leap” using drone technology and clean energy systems to surmount the challenges of the future.

Elementary school and craft training center: A learning complex that uses architecture, form, and space to claim artisanship and handiwork as living and modern traditions.

Strategic design for a mixed-use civic hub with durable architecture and long-term financing in the neighborhood of Paraisópolis, Sao Paulo.

Organic farm promoting agriculture as professional vocation in the town of Parung located on the fringe of the metropolitan region of Jakarta, Indonesia.

Using simple construction, this “micro library” creatively promotes literacy and community in Bandung and across Indonesia.

Project for a school that is more than a mere educational facility – as hub for multiple communal activities and vocational training center in Ruteng on the island of Flores, Indonesia.

Infrastructure-landscape project for the generation of electric power based on tidal currents in the Río Gallegos estuary at Punta Loyola in Argentina.