‘A’A’ Presents LafargeHolcim Awards Prize Winners | Next Generation

22-23 TESTIMONY OF A FORMER LAUREATE TÉMOIGNAGE D’UN ANCIEN LAURÉAT How did the LafargeHolcim Awards impact your debut as a professional architect? In 2011, when Povilas, Diego, Carlos and I submitted our research “the CASTonCAST system” to the LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction we could not imagine that we would end up winning the 3 rd Next Generation Europe prize and later the 1st Innovation worldwide award. The impact of such awards has been enormous. We could meet the most important voices in sustainable construction, got to know their opinion about our work, we gave interviews, wrote articles, we were invited to forums in sustainable construction… These awards boosted our professional careers, opening doors that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. On a personal level, these awards helped me obtaining the “la Caixa” Foundation grant to continue this research in a PhD at the Institute of Technology in Architecture at ETH Zürich. Furthermore, during all these years LafargeHolcim has sponsored part of this investigation, which also has helped me finding further sponsors such as Jakob Rope Systems and Liaver Expanded Glass Technologies. According to you, what could be the main action levers, in the industrial field, for a more sustainable and conscious construction? The last few years have shown the take-off of green industry. Industry is finally understanding that an environmentally-conscious business strategy is not only more ethical, but it is also economically profitable in the long term. The main action lever is, therefore, profit. The focus is on reparing, reusing, recycling, developing new materials with low environmental cost, reducing the consumption of building materials… Cristian Calvo, friend and ex-colleague at the Block Research Group, and expert in sustainable construction, told me once “the most sustainable building is that one that is never demolished”. The future of industry is to transition from a linear to a circular economy, just like nature. Could you briefly tell us about your current research topics and projects? Throughout these years, I have continued to develop the CASTonCAST system, conditioned on the funding that we have obtained at each period. Currently, at the chair of Structural Design led by Prof. Joseph Schwartz at ETH Zürich, I am working on the design and production of a full-scale prototype of a shell structure built using CASTonCAST. The project is now in the production phase and I am expecting to conclude it during the third quarter of this year. — Lluis Enrique Monzo Architect, Head of teaching of the Block Research Group based at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Global Holcim Innovation prize winner 2012 REPARING, REUSING, DEVELOPING