What do we mean by environmental sustainability? This is certainly a good question, and one for which everyone has their own answer, a fact candidly admitted by the numerous scholars who were invited to the ETH in Zurich last year by the Holcim Foundation in order to define a more acceptable future for our planet and to prepare the cultural foundations of the Holcim Awards, one of the most extravagant monetary prizes in existence and aimed at architectural projects that are capable of improving our ecosystem.

With total prize money of two million dollars, the award has met with a significant level of success – the Holcim press release uses the word „triumph“ – attracting 1400 participants from across the globe (including some 400 Europeans) and bringing the first phase to a brilliant conclusion with the announcement of five groups of winners (in addition to numerous consolation prizes) from the five major geographical regions: Europe, Asia and the Pacific, North America, Africa and the Middle East. The winner of each group was awarded 100,000 dollars, while second and third place took home 50,000 and 25,000 dollars respectively. The winners will now participate in a second phase to be held next year, where they will compete for a prize of one million dollars, the kind of conspicuous sum that could only be offered by a multinational corporation like Holcim, the global leader in cement production. The malicious are inclined to suggest that the awards are a means of assuaging an inevitable sense of guilt, while the more benevolent see them as evidence of a desire to make a positive contribution to the physical changes taking place on our planet. The three best European projects, recognized during the prize-giving ceremony held in Geneva on 15 September, were selected by a 12-member jury on the basis of the Holcim Foundation’s five criteria of sustainable construction: innovation, ethics, energy conservation, economic performance and aesthetic and contextual relevance. First prize went to a strategic project for the rehabilitation of the Valle dei Mulini in Amalfi, coordinated by Luigi Centola and Maria Giovanna Riitano; second to the new central railway station in Stuttgart, designed by Christoph Ingenhoven; and third to the „Metropol Parasol“ project by Jürgen Mayer H. and Carlo Merino, in collaboration with Arup.

The Centola/Riitano project, located in one of the most extraordinary ecosystems in Italy, the valley that joins Amalfi and Scala, entails the rehabilitation of ten abandoned buildings that once took advantage of the natural energy offered by the river: mills, small hydroelectric plants and paper mills. Ten design teams developed proposals for their re-use: two foreign teams (Roto and EMBT, the office of Tagliabue Miralles), a transnational group (UFO, composed of Sicilians, British, Swedish and Koreans) and seven Italian teams (King& Roselli, Nemesi, Labics, n!studio, Sudarch, A+AA and Tecla). The proposed new functions include a water museum, a wellness centre and a hydroelectric plant, all of which feature an approach to architecture that is respectful of the existing elements and context, while simultaneously being contemporary and selfsufficient in terms of energy consumption. The investment for the entire project is estimated at 100 million euros, with four interventions being realized by public institutions and six by private investors.