German-designed “House of Cards" wins global award for innovation

Concrete has long been a popular choice as a building material, but still has a tremendous potential for development. This has been confirmed again at the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg. The project for the "Smart Material House" developed by the team at Barkow Leibings Architects received an award at the global "Smart Materials" competition of the IBA Hamburg 2010.
Every three years the Holcim Foundation stages a competition for sustainable building projects: the Holcim Awards. A new category was introduced in 2012 to acknowledge projects that are notable for their material innovation and for blazing new trails in construction technology. The first global Holcim award for innovation was presented for the project "Multi functional building elements for the construction of affordable housing" - and thus to Frank Barkow and Regine Leibinger of Barkow Leibinger Architects in Berlin, together with Mike Schlaich, Technical University of Berlin, and Matthias Schuler, Transsolar Energietechnik in Stuttgart. Yesterday evening, the global Holcim second prize for innovation was presented to Frank Barkow and his team.
The winning projects in the new category "Innovation" were chosen amongst the approx. 6000 submissions from 126 countries in the competition for the International Holcim Award.

Hamburg, 13 September 2012 – The interdisciplinary team received the award for the design of a "Smart Material House". Its purpose is to provide affordable housing in less-developed areas. The concept is based on the future requirements of the City of Hamburg as an efficient and appealing metropolis of the 21st century.
The authors based their design on innovative technologies and materials including infra-lightweight concrete and laminate timber. The solid curved, prefabricated concrete elements stack on top of each other like a house of cards, acting as supporting elements, spatial demarcation, heat insulation and support for a heating and cooling system in one. The prefabricated concrete elements for residential units ranging from 90 to 225 m² weigh only one-third as much as conventional concrete.

For the head of the innovation prize jury, the well-known Basle architect and EPFL professor Harry Gugger, the technology is a quantum leap. "Barkow and Schaich developed a simple monolithic structure while at the same time pursuing a formally ambitious concept so that an aesthetically pleasing environment can also be created for affordable housing."

The prize, which is worth US$ 50,000, was handed over by Werner Sobek on the IBA DOCK, IBA Hamburg's floating exhibition and office building. The renowned civil engineer and professor from Stuttgart was a member of the global Holcim Awards Jury. Guests were welcomed by the managing director of IBA Hamburg, Uli Hellweg. "I am particularly pleased that this project by Barkow Leibinger Architects, with its innovative material concept, has received this globally renowned award. It confirms that that concepts and ideas that were developed for the IBA Hamburg are also held in regard internationally."

Roland Köhler, member of Holcim's executive committee, and Leo Mittelholzer, CEO of Holcim Deutschland, focused their addresses on Holcim's commitment to sustainability. "We are at the beginning of an added-value chain in our privileged and responsible position as the manufacturer of building materials. We commit our product and process innovations to ensuring that the building industry is aimed at sustainability, not only in Germany but all over the world," declared Leo Mittelholzer.

Awards for sustainable solutions in building
The presentation of the Holcim Award for Innovation is a highlight in the Holcim Awards. The Holcim Foundation undertakes this international competition to find specific future-orientated projects that offer sustainable solutions for technical, ecological, socio-economic or cultural aspects of construction.

In the current cycle, which is the third one, architects, engineers and builders submitted over 6000 projects. The competition takes place first at regional, then at global level. All of the 53 projects that received awards in one of the world's five regions in 2011 qualified for the competition for the Holcim Award for Innovation for 2012. Other Holcim Awards for Innovation went to the project "Highly efficient technology in concrete formwork" by Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler, professors of architecture and digital fabrication at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), and to students of the AA School of Architecture in London for their project "Efficient fabrication system for geometrically complex components".

In the main category, the global Holcim Awards Gold went to a school project in Burkina Faso; for several years now, the architect Francis Kéré, who works in Berlin, has been showing there how excellent results can be achieved with the clever use of low-tech. The Holcim Awards Silver went to the project for a music school in the Favéla of Sao Paulo, while the project authors Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner of Urban-Think Tank were also the winners of the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale. The global Holcim Awards Bronze went to the project for a river lido in Berlin by the architects Jan and Tim Edler of realities:united.

The Holcim Awards are worth a total of US$ 2,000,000. They are supported by Holcim Ltd., one of the world's leading suppliers of cement, additives and concrete and the associated services. The group is represented in over 70 countries all around the world. The next cycle of the Holcim Awards will commence on 1 July, 2013. For further information please go to www.holcimawards.org

IBA Hamburg - building a new city
The projects of the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg provide innovative and sustainable contributions to current questions of metropolitan development. The IBA Hamburg will be showing 60 structural, social and cultural projects and programmes at the heart of the Hanseatic city to demonstrate how a 21st-century metropolis can grow ecologically and with social balance. The 35 km² IBA project areas on the Hamburg Elbe islands of Wilhelmsburg and Veddel and in Harburg's inland port are intended to become models of sustainable, future-oriented internal development. Further information is available at:
www.iba-hamburg.de

You will find current images of the event and visualisations at the following link:
Link: http://iba-hamburg.eyebase.com
Pin code: PACS6olo

In the event of any queries please contact:

Media contact Holcim Foundation:
Edward Schwarz, Tel. +41 58 858 8292 or +41 79 433 9933,
email info@holcimfoundation.org
Holcim Foundation, Hagenholzstrasse 85, CH-8050 Zürich www.holcimfoundation.org

Media contact Holcim (Deutschland) AG:
Dr. Jens Marquardt, Tel. +49 (0)40 3 60 02-312,
email jens.marquardt@holcim.com
Holcim (Deutschland) AG, Willy-Brandt-Straße 69, 20457 Hamburg
www.holcim.de

Media contract IBA Hamburg:
Kristina Hödl, Tel. +49 (0) 40 226 227335,
kristina.hoedl@iba-hamburg.de
IBA Hamburg Gmbh, Am Zollhafen 12, 20539 Hamburg
www.iba-hamburg.de