KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 23): The White Rabbit — Home for Marginalised Children in Thane, India is the gold winner for the LafargeHolcim Awards 2017 Asia Pacific region.

“This project stood out from the others not so much because of the technical aspects of the project but how it impacted the society of underprivileged children and changed their lives for the better,” said Donald Bates, the head of awards jury for the LafargeHolcim Awards 2017 Asia Pacific at the award presentation tonight.

Meanwhile, the silver and bronze winner for the main category went to project Micro Library — Learning Centre in Bandung, Indonesia, and Floating University — BRAC University Campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Four acknowledgement prizes were also awarded in the main category to projects Growing Grassroots — Organic Agriculture in Parong, Indonesia; Maximize the Minimum — Batasi Urban Regeneration in Beijing, China; Water Collective — Multifunctional Public Space in Thecho, Nepal; and Ban Chang Town Hall in Rayong, Thailand.

For the Next Generation category, the first prize went to Participating Village Transformation in China, while the second prize went to Water Treatment Infra in India. The third prize went to Vocational Training Facility in Indonesia and the fourth prize to Exploring Resilient Ecosystems in Taiwan.

This is the first time the LafargeHolcim Awards for the Asia Pacific region is held in Kuala Lumpur and is the fifth cycle since its inception in 2005.

The award is held once every three years.

The competition’s objective is to seek building solutions and visions that go beyond convention to address the challenges of sustainability.

There are two categories for the awards — the main category for projects at an advanced stage of design with a high probability of execution (no restrictions to who may participate) and the Next Generation category for visions and bold ideas of young professionals and students (exclusively for authors younger than 30 years of age).

The regional awards were spread across five geographic regions — Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East Africa and Asia Pacific, whereby independent juries supported by partner universities for the Foundation evaluated the submissions from September to November this year.

In the global phase taking place next year, the 15 projects that received gold, silver or bronze in each region will automatically qualify for the global awards.

The competition opened for entries on Jul 4 last year and closed for submissions on March 21 this year.

The main category gold, silver and bronze winner will take home a cash prize of US$100,000 (RM412,540), US$50,000 (RM206,270) and US$30,000 (RM123,762).

There will also be four acknowledgement prizes in the main category where they will be awarded US$20,000 (RM82,508) each.

Meanwhile, for the Next Generation category, four prizes are awarded — first prize of US$25,000 (RM103,135), second prize of US$20,000 (RM82,508), third prize of US$15,000 (RM61,881) and fourth prize of US$10,000 (RM41,254).

The LafargeHolcim Foundation has identified a set of five target issues for sustainable construction, which serves as a basis for the evaluation of the submissions in the LafargeHolcim Awards competition.

The “target issues” include innovation and transferability, ethical standards and social inclusion, resource and environmental performance, economic viability and compatibility, and contextual and aesthetic impact. 

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