The world’s leading green energy prize announced that eight sustainable energy pioneers from the African continent, India and Pakistan have been selected as finalists for the prestigious Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy 2011. The finalists will compete for over £120,000 prize money. The winners will be announced at a ceremony hosted in London on 16 June 2011. The Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan’s (AKPBS,P) innovative developmental programme BACIP (Building and Construction Improvement Programme) has been selected as one of the finalists for the Ashden Awards 2011. BACIP is providing families in remote mountain villages with access to affordable, energy efficient technologies which insulate their homes, heat their water and reduce their consumption of fuel wood. The programme tackles deforestation and climate change by saving 100,000 tonnes of wood a year and preventing emissions of around 160,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. AKPBS,P aims to extend this approach to other Himalayan countries, which face similar challenges and reach another 17,000 homes by 2014. Access to affordable clean energy is fundamental to daily life and should be a basic right yet almost a quarter of the world’s population - over 1.4 billion people - live without access to electricity, and worldwide around 2.5 billion people still rely on wood and charcoal for cooking. Harnessing clean, local and affordable ways to meet the energy needs of the poor and to drive local industry is vital to any efforts to reduce poverty and to tackle the urgent issues of climate change and deforestation. The 2011 Ashden Award finalists provide policy-makers, businesses and communities across the globe with pioneering real-life examples of how this can be done through the use of local clean energy technologies combined with clever marketing strategies. From the production of biomass pellets from crop waste to replace coal in India to the provision of a range of solar-powered products to off-grid communities in Africa, these finalists prove that it is possible to meet the energy needs of the poor in a way that radically improves lives, drives economic growth, cuts CO2 emissions and saves trees. Since 2001 Ashden Award winners have improved the lives of 23 million people worldwide and together are saving over three million tonnes of CO2 a year - this year’s international finalists alone have saved over half a million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to the CO2 emissions of 90,000 UK homes. And it does not stop there: all award finalists have ambitious plans to step up their efforts and to continue in their drive to cut carbon emissions and improve lives.

Sarah Butler-Sloss, Founder Director of the Ashden Awards said: "Our dream is a world where access to clean, affordable electricity and fuel can be enjoyed by the poor, transforming living standards, reducing CO2 emissions and easing the pressure on our dwindling forests. The 2011 Ashden Award finalists are making this vision a reality, and their potential for expansion and replication is high. It is our sincere hope that others are inspired to enable their growth and follow their lead”.

For more details on Ashden 2011 winners: www.ashdenawards.org

 

Portuguese Architect Will Be Presented the 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize in Washington, D.C.

Los Angeles, CA—Eduardo Souto de Moura, a 58 year old architect from Portugal, is the jury’s choice for the 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize; announced by Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation which sponsors the prize. The formal ceremony for what has come to be known throughout the world as architecture’s highest honor will be in one of Washington, D.C.’s finest classical buildings, the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. In announcing the jury’s choice, Pritzker elaborated, “This marks the second time in the history of the prize that a Portuguese architect has been chosen. The first was in 1992 when Alvaro Siza was so honored.”

The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which was founded in 1979 by the late Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy, is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. The laureates receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Generation Next’ at IAPEX 2011 by IAP Karachi Chapter

 

UIA Architecture & Children
Golden Cubes Awards 2011

The UIA Architecture and Children Work Programme announces the results of the 1st UIA Architecture & Children Golden Cubes Awards.

The UIA Architecture & Children Golden Cubes Awards were founded to honour people and organizations that help children and young people to understand architecture.

Almost 300 entrants made submissions describing activities or products designed to teach children and young people, from pre-school up to the age of 18, to understand architectural design and the processes by which our environment is formed.

Following a national selection process, 19 countries submitted their nominations in the four categories - Schools, Institutions, Written and Audio-Visual Media – to an International Jury. The International Jury met on 13 – 14 April 2011 to evaluate the nominated entries and select one in each category for an Award. Because of the high quality of many of the submissions they also selected four additional entries for Special Mention.

Award Category: SCHOOL
Award Winner: ‘Network for Architecture’. L.A.G. (Germany)
Special Mention: ‘Trnovo Model of Basic Education + Learning’. Kindergarten Trnovo. (Slovenia)

Award Category: INSTITUTION
Award Winner: ‘50 Activités pour Découvrir l'Architecture et l'Urbanisme’. Fédération des CAUE
(France)
Special Mention: ‘Casa Sentires’. Fundacion Sentires – Triptopolis. (Colombia)

Award Category: WRITTEN MEDIA
Award Winner: ‘WohnRaum’. Gerhard Weber and Pet Zimmerman. (Switzerland)
Special Mention: ‘La Ville Mode d’Emploi’. Carole Saturno and Perrine Belin. (France)

Award Category: AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA
Award Winner: ‘Architecture Series 1 – Workplaces’. Georges Nivoix + CRDP de Franche-Comté (France)
Special Mention: ‘NEXT Eco Web.’ Next.cc (USA)

The four Awards will be formally presented September 27th 2011 at the Official UIA Award Ceremony in Tokyo during the 24th UIA Congress of Architecture www.uia2011tokyo.com

The members of the International Jury were: Patrick Werquin, Senior Analyst - Education, UNESCO (Chairman of the Jury); Eva-Maria Kabisch, Educational Media Specialist; Pablo Katz, Architect; Ann McNicholl, Architect, Ewa Struzynska, Co-director UIA Architecture & Children Work Programme and Hannes Hubrich, Co-director UIA Architecture & Children Work Programme.

The Jury was encouraged and impressed by the range of projects presented and the work done by individuals and by organizations of all sizes. Many works with limited resources to develop young people’s awareness of architecture so that, as adult citizens, they will be able to make their voices heard and influence the political, economic and social strategies which will shape their cities and their environment.

As Louise Cox, President of the UIA, says: “The creation of a humane and sustainable environment is a challenge that involves us all – architects, planners, politicians and communities. I am convinced that if everybody had more understanding of the processes by which our environment is shaped, our towns and our countryside would be better and happier places to live.”

ArchMedium organizes International Architecture Competitions for Students that are believed to help them get motivated and enriches their learning experience

Proposal 

Tourism is without a doubt one of the largest economical activities in the world. 
This development has in many ways damaged seafronts to an almost irreparable point. There are many cities that can serve as an example for this; such as Benidorm in the coast of Spain, Playa del Carmen in Mexico or Cartagena in Colombia. Ironically many of these destinations lose their charm when they become too crowded even for the same tourists who flock to them. Architecture is definitely one of the main responsible for all this process, but at the same time has the opportunity to remake and correct its errors.

We propose a redesign of the seafront of Cala Millor while taking advantage of the fact that the city council has decided to push back the automobile accessible area away from the seafront, making more space for pedestrian walkways and public spaces. 
This investigation is at the same time based on the pilot plan for the zone that is being promoted by the “Consell Insular de Mallorca” to accomplish the “European treaty for landscape preservation”.

The call is public and is open to all of the undergraduate architectural students as well as related careers: Engineering, Urbanism, Design, etc. that can prove by the means of an official document (registration receipt, student id., etc.) their condition as a student at the moment the inscription process is opened, as well as postgraduate students who have a degree that is no more than 3 years old (this way we consider it to be a continuing student). Participation can be individual or in groups, with a maximum of 6 contestants per group. Groups of different nationalities as well as different universities are welcomed.

Jury: 

The Jury will be formed by:

• Jury's President   Carlos Ferrater
• Architect and Urban Planner:  Biel Horrach
• Architect and Landscape:  Maria Goula
• Architect and Urban Planner:  Ricard Pie
• Geographer and a PhD in Earth Sciences:   Luís Gómez
• Hotel Asociation of Cala Millor: José Marcial

Prizes:

• 4000 Euros in Cash
• Publication of the project in the TC Cuadernos magazine, Future Arquitecturas and WA+wettbewerbeaktuell
• 1 year subscription to the ON Diseño magazine.
•  Exhibition at the Architecture University of Barcelona (ETSAB) and Buenos Aires (UBA)

Calendar:

May 15th 2011	Registration period begins
November 4th 2011	Submision deadline

You can find the complete rules of the contest at the following link:
http://es.archmedium.com/Concursos/RMS/Descargas/EN_Bases_RMS.pdf

• Conservation of Gjirokastra, Gjirokastra, Albania
• Chandgaon Mosque, Chittagong, Bangladesh
• Nishorgo Visitor Interpretation Centre, Teknaf, Bangladesh
• CBF Women’s Health Centre, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• Bridge School, Xiashi, China
• Tulou Collective Housing, Guangzhou, China
• Palmyra House, Alibagh, India
• Green School, Bali, Indonesia
• Reconstruction of Ngibikan Village, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
• Dowlat II Residential Building, Tehran, Iran
• American University of Beirut Campus Master Plan, Beirut, Lebanon
• Restoration of the Rubber Smokehouse, Lunas, Kedah, Malaysia
• Rehabilitation of the Al Qaraouiyine Mosque, Fez, Morocco
• Souk Waqif, Doha, Qatar
• Wadi Hanifa Wetlands, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Madinat al Zahra Museum, Cordoba, Spain
• Yodakandyia Community Centre, Hambantota District, Sri Lanka
• Revitalization of the recent Heritage of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
• Ipekyol Textile Factory, Edime, Turkey