Lateral Office wins Holcim Gold

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Congratulations are due once again to Lola Sheppard and Mason White for having won the 2011 Holcim Gold Award for their project entitled Regional
food-gathering nodes and logistics network, Iqaluit, NU, Canada.

The Holcim Awards program honours sustainable construction projects and visions from North America.

One Gold Award was given. It carries a $100,000 prize.

Holcim Awards Gold to an infrastructure network for Inuit communities in Canada. 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 America of USD 100,000. 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.

Mohsen Mostafavi, Head of jury and Dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, congratulated the project for creating a cohesive strategy that responds to the landscape, climatic and site conditions. “The project includes purposeful interventions which are integrated without any grand gestures or expensive structures – but instead bridges between the traditions of the Inuit and the expectations of the young generation. The project thereby provides an opportunity to create an improved future, in terms of both economic opportunity and a sustainable way of living,” he said.

For the full announcement please visit the Holcim foundation website.