Bangladesh-based projects win Holcim sustainable construction award

From left, Sumanta Pandit, chief executive of Holcim Bangladesh, and Nusrat Jahan Mim, an architect and lecturer at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, pose with the Holcim award for sustainable construction, in Indonesia recently. Photo: Holcim

Two construction projects based in Bangladesh have recently won the Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction 2014.

At the ceremony held in Indonesia, Nusrat Jahan Mim, an architect and lecturer at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, was awarded for her project titled “Portable housing for urban poor in Bangladesh”.

This is for the first time in the history of the awards that sustainable construction projects from Bangladesh have won the awards, Holcim said in a statement yesterday.

Mim's project focuses on exploring the possibilities of an adaptable and integrated housing system for low-income people in Bangladesh.

The other project titled “Re-made fabric-garment industry intervention” was authored by three French architects: Meriem Chabani, Etienne Chobaux, and John Edom of École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture Paris Malaquais, France.

The project focuses on urban planning in Chittagong, suggesting that garments can be produced at a micro-level in smaller units instead of making the garments industry clustered within the Chittagong metropolis, Holcim said.

An independent international jury selected the winners based on the concept of people, planet and prosperity. They also looked for high degree of transferability.

A total of 2,132 projects were submitted from the Asia Pacific region, of which 13 were selected for the awards.