Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™
GRAITEC continues its proud support of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ in 2024, recognizing and celebrating outstanding achievements in sustainable architecture while fostering inspiration for future innovations.
GRAITEC is committed to modeling the future. We believe that sustainability is the future of the built environment and we are dedicated to taking action to support green initiatives without compromising on iconic design.
GRAITEC is proud to support the 2024 new edition of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ in partnership with Saint-Gobain.
Image on the left: IWLAB
Recognizing the best of sustainable design
The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™, created by architect and researcher Jana Revedin, promotes innovative thinking and encourages the adoption of sustainable solutions in architecture. The award is guided by the motto “Dare, transmit, federate.”
Since its launch in 2006, the award has annually recognized the work and approach of five international architects. Their common denominator? All are committed to sustainability, seeking a contemporary architecture that is rational and ecologically responsible, in line with today’s ethical, environmental, and social concerns. The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ highlights the work of architects engaged in a forward-thinking approach, concerned about the footprint left by humans on their environment.
18 years ago, when I launched the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, I wanted to honour a stance, a political, social, technical, and artistic commitment, a lifelong learning process, and not just a project. Today, I am proud to see that our laureates are all pioneers in their field”.
image on the right: Ciro Pirondi, photograph Alexander Marks
ARCHITECTURE IS EDUCATION
The five laureates of the 2024 edition were distinguished by an international panel of architects and researchers according to the theme “Architecture Is Education”. The jury rewarded an innovative educational approach, capable of thinking and practising architecture differently while promoting among the new generations an ethical and responsible understanding of the profession.
The 2024 jury
- Prof. Dr. Jana Revedin, architect, École Spéciale d’Architecture Paris, France, Founding President of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™, Venice, Italy
- Marie-Hélène Contal, architect, Dean of École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, France
- Prof. Dr. Jacopo Galli, architect, Università Iuav di Venezia, Venice, Italy
- Prof. Dr. Spela Hudnik, architect, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Prof. Dr. Deniz Incedayi, architect, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey
- Prof. Dr. Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, architect, Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen, Denmark (laureate of the 2023 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture)
- Prof. Xu Tiantian, architect, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China (laureate of the 2023 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture)
The 2024 laureates
- Iyas Shahin and Wesam Al Asali, founders of the IWLAB laboratory (Syria)
- Andrés Jaque from the Office for Political Innovation, Dean of Columbia University School of Architecture (Spain/USA)
- Marina Tabassum, architect (Bangladesh)
- Ciro Pirondi, co-founder of L’Escola da Cidade (Brazil)
- Klaus K. Loenhart, architect and landscape architect and director of the Institute of Architecture and Landscape in Graz (Germany/Austria)
They all have a deep commitment to architectural innovation and place great importance on education and pedagogy. Their singular contributions work towards a more sustainable future and are attentive to the needs of society’s changing.
Discover the winners of the 2024 edition of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™
IYAS SHAHIN and WESAM AL ASALI, founders of the IWLAB – SYRIA MULTIDISCIPLINARY LABORATORYIWLab is a multidisciplinary research laboratory founded in 2009 by architects Iyas Shahin and Wesam Al Asali, dedicated to the exploration, education, and practice of cultural and architectural design. With offices in Syria and Spain, IWLab architects collaborate closely with students and fellow architects to develop a network of creatives with diverse and interdisciplinary skills. Initially founded in response to the lack of vitality in architectural practice in Syria and the Arab region, IWLab has become a pioneer in architecture, heritage, and urban studies within a socio- economic context. Since 2009, the founders have recognized the importance of the city in its various forms, developing approaches to modernize traditional techniques and map informal urban areas. |
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ANDRÉS JAQUE – SPAIN / USA, FOUNDER OF THE OFFICE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATIONAndrés Jaque founded the Office for Political Innovation (OFFPOLINN) in 2003 after meeting the French philosopher Bruno Latour. According to Latour, architects are critical actors in the fight for social justice, as access to decent housing is now the key parameter of equity. According to him, architects must question inhabited space’s ecological and political factors: How can progress and democracy be advanced? How do we shape struggles for equality in the urban context? OFFPOLINN’s work addresses these questions by combining design, research, and activism and by challenging the mechanisms through which architecture plays a role in exclusion. For OFFPOLINN, collaboration is not just about sharing architectural outcomes but also actively engaging with diverse communities, creating spaces for attentive listening and collective action. People, buildings, and local resources must come together in a joint project to which architects contribute by their ability to rearticulate, combat, and assemble. |
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MARINA TABASSUM – BANGLADESH, FOUNDER OF MARINA TABASSUM ARCHITECTS (MTA)Marina Tabassum leads a triple life as an architect, educator, and community empowerment project leader, uniquely blurring the boundaries between learning, action, and teaching. These projects bring together experts, students, and residents to find models to improve the living conditions for all. It is no coincidence that Marina Tabassum has created a specific tool, the Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity (FACE), to carry out these projects. Today’s most committed architects in the development of equitable mass housing have also understood that this issue requires an alternative economic model to the usual activity of architecture. |
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CIRO PIRONDI – BRAZIL, CO-FOUNDER AND FORMER DIRECTOR OF ESCOLA DA CIDADE, SÃO PAULOEscola da Cidade, with its educational program, embodies the educational goals of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture through its interdisciplinary approach, influenced by the Brazilian revolutionary educator Paulo Freire. Escola da Cidade began admitting students in 2002. It was founded by Associação Escola da Cidade – Arquitetura e Urbanismo (AEC), an association of intellectuals, architects, artists, and technicians with a non-bureaucratic operational structure and democratic and financially autonomous management, which turned away from solely training architects to focus on profitability in real estate. |
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KLAUS K. LOENHART – GERMANY / AUSTRIA, DIRECTOR OF THE IA&L – INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE OF GRAZEco-innovator Klaus K. Loenhart experiments with and teaches a new generation of bioclimatic architecture to reconceptualize the engagement between living planetary ecosystems and human activity. According to him, the architect’s role is to design eco- buildings and facilitate transformative co-creation processes between ecological agents and human activities. To reduce energy consumption and increase well-being, Loenhart explores, with his LandLab at the Graz University of Technology, the co- creation of an architecture that, in the face of climate deregulation, could regenerate biodiversity and improve the health of all life through a societal ecologically based design practice. |
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About the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™
The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ was founded in 2006 by architect and researcher Jana Revedin. It promotes the principles of sustainable development and a participatory approach to architecture in both the North and South of the planet. The Global Award Symposium is placed under UNESCO’s patronage. The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ has in 2024 85 laureates from all over the world who share the ethos of sustainable architecture.
This community pursues research, experimentation, and transmission in the fields of architecture, urban renewal, and academic social responsibility. As a sign of its pioneering role, five winning architects or teams have since been awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize: Wang Shu (GA 2007, Pritzker 2012), Alejandro Aravena (GA 2008, Pritzker 2016), Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (GA 2007, Pritzker 2018), Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philippe Vassal (GA 2018, Pritzker 2021) et Diébédo Francis Kéré (GA 2009, Pritzker 2022).
Symposium under the patronage of UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) whose objective is to promote peace and security in the world through international cooperation in the fields of education, arts, sciences, and culture. Founded in 1945 and based in Paris, France, it has 194 member states and 12 associate members, as well as partners in non-governmental, intergovernmental, and private sectors.
UNESCO’s main priorities for achieving Sustainable Development Goals and improving human conditions are as follows: mobilizing education to transform lives; reconnecting with nature; promoting science and technology for humanity’s service; promoting inclusion and mutual understanding.
The symposium of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ is held under the patronage of UNESCO.
Official Partner: Saint-Gobain
Other partners:
- Università Iuav di Venezia: Institutional Partner – Scientific Committee
- École Spéciale d’Architecture: Institutional Partner – Scientific Committee
- Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana: Institutional Partner – Scientific Committee
- Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University: Institutional Partner – Scientific Committee
- Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine – Institutional Partner
- ArchiTangle – Editorial Partner
MORE ABOUT THE GLOBAL AWARD FOR SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE 2023