$100,000 Awarded to Project Addressing Inuit Food Networks in Nunavut at the Holcim Awards for North America

Canadian project wins gold at the Holcim Awards for the region of North America

TORONTO, Oct. 24, 2011 /CNW/ - The winners of the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects and visions from North America have been announced. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to ten diverse and innovative projects from Canada and the USA at a ceremony in Washington, DC. The winning projects show how greater levels of sustainability can be reached in building and construction through people-focused designs that include simple adaptation, innovative materials, and clever architecture.

A socio-architectural project to create regional food-gathering nodes and a logistics network in Canada's high arctic territory won the top prize for North. The Arctic Food Network (AFN) secures mobility between the scattered Inuit communities, allows a better distribution of local foods, and serves as a series of bases for the reinforcement of traditional hunting. The infrastructure project by Lateral Office / InfraNet Lab based in Toronto, Ontario, and Princeton, New Jersey, also establishes new foundations for a sustainable, more independent economy.

The Holcim Awards competition recognizes the importance of engaging tomorrow's professionals on the theme of sustainable construction through the "Next Generation" category which shares the visions and ideas of postgraduate university students. Przemyslaw Latoszek of the University of Toronto received a "Next Generation" prize for a materials science project that studies the building properties of foam concrete and the potential for wider use of the material in architecture and construction.

Image with caption: "The Holcim Awards Gold 2011 for North America awarded to Lateral Office/InfraNet Lab for the project "Regional food-gathering nodes and logistics network" in Iqaluit, Nunavut. (L-R): Paul Ostrander (CEO, Holcim Canada), Fionn Byrne, Catherine Godin (Counselor, Environment & Energy Section, Embassy of Canada, Washington DC), Lola Sheppard, Benoît-Henri Koch (Member of the Executive Committee, Holcim Ltd), Mason White, Naullaq Arnaquq (Deputy Minister, Government of Nunavut, Canada) & Nikole Bouchard (CNW Group/Holcim Canada Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20111024_C6896_PHOTO_EN_5316.jpg

Image with caption: "Holcim Awards "Next Generation" 3rd prize 2011 North America for "Foam concrete utilization research" (L-R): jury member, Professor Nader Tehrani, Head of Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, member of the Management Board of the Holcim Foundation, Alexander Biner, & winner Przemyslaw Latoszek, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. (CNW Group/Holcim Canada Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20111024_C6896_PHOTO_EN_5315.jpg

Image with caption: Holcim Awards "Next Generation" 3rd prize 2011 North America for "Foam concrete utilization research" (L-R): jury member, Professor Nader Tehrani, Head of Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, member of the Management Board of the Holcim Foundation, Alexander Biner, & winner Przemyslaw Latoszek, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. (CNW Group/Holcim Canada Inc.)

For further information:

More information is available at www.holcimawards.org