Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture

April 19, 2024

THE AWARD

The unseen economic, ecological, social, and cultural challenges facing contemporary societies are being addressed by architects and planners as they search for a new definition of progress and the right balance between humankind and the environment.

Each year, The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ recognizes five architects who share the principles of sustainable development and a participatory architectural approach to the needs of society, in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

The Global Award was created in 2006 by the architect and scholar Jana Revedin. The Global Award Symposium is placed under UNESCO’s patronage.

The work carried out by The Global Award has garnered significant international attention, becoming a platform for scientific independence to unite the award winners in a community of collective research and experimentation in architectural and urban self-development projects.

The award

The Global Award was created in 2006 by the architect and scholar Jana Revedin. The Global Award Symposium is placed under UNESCO’s patronage.

The purpose

The purpose of this annual award is to honor five living architects, urban or landscape designers who are moving toward sustainability.

Their work offers clear insights into the search for an ecologically responsible contemporary architecture which is:

fully in step with the ethical, civil, and social concerns of today
innovative in the areas of ecology, energy, materials, and technology
progressive in its search for new standards for both public and private facilities.

The Founding Principles

Sustainable design is the catalyst for a new participative approach in architectural und urban planning processes. The very fundamentals of a project – durability, flexibility, economic, technical and ecological adequacy, cultural and social acceptance – are being readdressed with regard to society’s new concerns: fighting inequality and cultural disrespect. The Global Award Community, which consists of the 85 contemporary architects and teams from around the globe who have already received the award, works towards a sustainable architectural ethics and fosters research, experimentation and transmission in the fields of sustainable architecture, urban renewal and academic social responsibility. The Global Award Community defines architecture as an agent of empowerment, self-development and civic rights.

“Dare, transmit, federate” is its motto.

The jury

The scientific jury is chaired by Prof. Dr. Jana Revedin, architect and founding President of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. Each year, two former Global Award winners, who are also experts in the chosen theme of the year, are invited to join the jury.

©Martin Rauchenwald

PROF DR. Jana Revedin

Architect, Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture Paris, France

Founding President of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™, Venice, Italy

Born in Constance (Germany), Jana Revedin is an architect, theorist and writer. The holder of a Ph.D. in architectural and urban sciences and renowned expert in the Bauhaus movement and its transdisciplinary active pedagogy, she studied architecture at Belgrano University Buenos Aires, Princeton School of Architecture and the Polytechnic University of Milan. After receiving her habilitation, she taught at the Università Iuav di Venezia as an assistant to Aldo Rossi.

In 1996, she founded her architectural practice in Venice, specializing in sustainable architecture and urban rehabilitation. Curator of the first EU Student Competition in Sustainable Architecture gau : di from 2004 to 2012 and Founding President of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture under the patronage of UNESCO in 2006, today she is a full professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the École Spéciale d’Architecture Paris,  a member of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) research laboratory “Environment, City and Society” and serves as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) delegate and advisor to the research and education commission (EDUCOM) of the International Union of Architects (UIA).

Her “Radicant Design” Theory, which calls for situated projects driven by transdisciplinary urban and contextual analysis and the active participation of users and stakeholders in participatory Design and Experimentation processes, is widely recognized. Her latest publications include: Marie-Hélène Contal, Jana Revedin, “Sustainable Design 10: Towards a New Ethics for Architecture and the City”, Gallimard, Paris 2023; Jana Revedin, “L’Architecte et l’existant: Construire avec ce qui est déjà là”, with a foreword by Charles Landry, Gallimard, Paris 2022 ; Jana Revedin, “Radicant Design: How to co-create sustainable living space”, Eliva Press, New York 2021.

Jana Revedin was appointed a French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2014 and was honored with the Médaille de la Prospective of the French Académie d’Architecture in 2017. She became a member of the French Académie d’Architecture in 2023.

Marie-Hélène Contal

Architect, Dean of the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, France

Marie-Hélène Contal (born in Nancy, France) graduated from the École d’Architecture de Nancy, and from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. She was the editor of the review Archi-Créé (1985–91) and the co-curator of exhibitions, among them 40 under 40, which was devoted to new French architecture (1990). She entered the cabinet of Emile Biasini, Secretary of State for the Grands Projects and their Mission (1991–2000), where her responsibilities included the prefiguration of the Palais de Tokyo and the new Cinémathèque Française, both in Paris. In 2001, she joined Jean-Louis Cohen for the feasibility design of the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in Paris.

Her curatorships at the Cité include: Voralberg, a constructive provocation (2003), which focused on pioneering Austrian green architecture and strongly influenced French discourse, Living Ecological – section International (2009), Reenchanting the World (2014), and the touring annual exhibitions Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (2009–22).

Contal was an auditor of the French-American Foundation and of the Palladio Foundation and was elected to the French Académie d’Architecture in 2018. From 2016 to 2019 she served as President of the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Lyon and was appointed dean of the École Spéciale d’Architecture de Paris in 2023.

Other positions she has held include: Scientific Committee of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, Board of Daw’an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation, Urban Strategy Council of Engie (2007–18), Board of Solar Decathlon Europe (2014), and Nomination Committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2015).

©Gernot Gleiss

Prof dr. Jacopo Galli

Architect, Università Iuav di Venezia, Venice, Italy

Jacopo Galli (born in Crema, Italy) received his Ph.D. in architectural design from Università Iuav di Venezia with a dissertation titled Tropical Toolbox. Fry&Drew and the search for African modernity. He was curator of the architecture section for the “Africa Big Change – Big Chance” exhibition at La Triennale di Milano and CIVA Brussels; the author of the book « Arturo Mezzedimi. Architetto della Superproduzione » (with Benno Albrecht and Filippo De Dominicis) and project manager for the “Makoko Floating School II” project by NLE Studio which was awarded the Silver Lion at the 2016 Venice Biennale.

He was assistant director of the Venice Program at the University of Virginia and visiting professor at Escola da Cidade in Sao Paulo and École Nationale d’Architecture Paris Val de Seine. He is currently an associate researcher at FEEM Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and project manager for the Venezia Sustainability Foundation-VSF.

Since 2014, he has been dealing with the topic of urbicides and reconstructions, organizing the “Urbicide Syria” conference, promoting the “Sketch for Syria” initiative and coordinating the international workshop WAVE 2017 “Syria the Making of the Future”. He has provided consultancy on reconstruction issues to private companies, international agencies such as UN-ESCWA, UNDP, the World Bank with the “Building for Peace” project and public administrations. These research experiences have been collected in the book « Cities Under Pressure » (with Benno Albrecht).

Prof. Dr. Spela Hudnik

Architect, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Spela Hudnik has been working in architectural practice, research, and teaching for more than 20 years. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana (1986) and continued her postgraduate studies at the Akademie der bildenden Künste, and Angewandte Kunst in Vienna with prof. Michael Sorkin and Peter Sloterdijk. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Ljubljana (2003). She also received Recognition for Important Works of Art from the University of Ljubljana (2013).

She is the co-founder of the architectural studio MONOCHROME ARCHITECTS (1986) together with Peter Vezjak. The field of activity focuses primarily on the study of global impacts on spatial transformations, with an emphasis on social and cultural context, heritage, border areas, postindustrial areas, and military architecture – bunkers. The research and pedagogical practice is based on an interdisciplinary approach and in cooperation with international institutions. She is currently involved in research for the World Health Organization (WHO), HEI Transformer, European Cultural City GO2025.

She is internationally published and represented in Slovenia as well as abroad through exhibitions, research, critical debates, writing, workshops, and lectures. Her innovative, experimental, and multidisciplinary approach and critical local and global debates were internationally recognized in the Architecture Biennale Ljubljana (IABL) series, which she founded and organized between 2000 and 2008.

The studio operates in an international environment with architectural projects in Klagenfurt, Paris, London, Portugal, and Croatia. Its works have been awarded and published in many international journals. She has also been a member of the Global Scientific Awards for Sustainable Architecture in Paris for more than 10 years. She participates regularly in the CA2RE and Ph.D. programs as a jury member, reviewer, and chair of the panel. In the last few years, she has organized a Ph.D. International Seminar together with the Universities of Lisbon, Porto and Manchester. She is a visiting professor in many European Universities including Lisbon, Paris, Trieste, Gdansk, Copenhagen, Fiume… She regularly leads international workshops in Europe. Her current position is at the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Architecture.

Prof. Dr. Deniz Incedayi

Architect, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey

Deniz Incedayi graduated from the German High School in Istanbul in 1979, and studied architecture at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Architecture, graduating in 1986. She completed her Ph.D. thesis at the same university in 1995, her subject being a model for low-cost housing and the rehabilitation of a squatter area in Istanbul through the user participation method.

Since 1986, she has been teaching at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University-Faculty of Architecture in undergraduate and post-graduate programs. Her academic work focuses mainly on social and cultural concerns in the architectural design process, the construction projects studio and on taking an interdisciplinary approach in the architectural design process.

She published and edited several books about architectural design issues, architectural education, the housing environment and participatory methods in architectural design; she has many articles and papers in her academic area and joined many national and international work programs, juries, councils and commissions on national and international platforms. Since 2018, she has been a permanent Jury Member of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture.

She has also held many administrative positions at university such as; Vice Rector, Head of the Department of Architecture, Senate Member, Vice Director of the Institute of Sciences and International Relations Coordinator etc. She has worked at the International Union of Architects (UIA) since 2009 and taken responsibilities in many UIA world congresses around the globe. She was elected as the UIA-Vice President-Region II (2011-2017), as a Council Member-Region II (2009-2011) and as a member of the UNESCO-UIA Education Commission and Validation Council (2009-2023) and performed in several validation visiting panels. Recently she was appointed Co-Director of the Validation Commission for the triennial 2023-26.

She has also undertaken several responsibilities at the Chamber of Architects of Turkey and Istanbul, and was elected as President of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey between 2020-2022; and as the President of the Chamber of Architects of Istanbul Metropolitan Branch between 2010-2014. Since 2006, she has worked as the editor of the architectural journal (mimar.ist), published by the Chamber of Architects of Istanbul.

Prof. Dr. Salma Samar Damluji

Architect, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Global Award for Sustainable Architecture^TM 2012 laureate

Salma Samar Damluji is a British-Iraqi architect, a graduate of the AA School of Architecture, London 1977 and the Royal College of Art, London, where she obtained her Ph.D. in 1987.

Damluji worked with the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in Cairo during 1975-6 and 1984-5.

She was appointed Professor of the Binladin Chair for Architecture in the Islamic World at the American University of Beirut (2013-2024) and works on post-conflict reconstruction projects in Yemen.

Between 2001 and 2004, she served as Advisor to the Chair of the Public Works Department in Abu Dhabi and Head of the Technical Office of the Chairman. In 2007, she co-founded Daw‘an Architecture Foundation for earth construction with colleagues in Hadramut, Yemen. The Foundation was actively involved in reconstruction efforts in Hadramut, Yemen, in partnership with the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) and The Prince Claus Fund, the Netherlands, from 2008 to the present. Since 2019, the collaboration extended to the Cultural Protection Fund of The British Council, UK, and more recently, to the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH), Switzerland.

In 2022, she established Dawan Eco Arch Collaborative with colleagues in London to expand her work outside Yemen and the region.

Damluji was awarded the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2012, received the Académie d’Architecture Silver Restoration Award in 2015 and became a member of the French Académie d’Architecture in 2017. In November 2022, she received the 2020-2021 Silver Middle East Africa Regional Holcim Award for projects completed over 2019- 2021 in Yemen.

She is a prolific author with publications that include: The Architecture of Yemen and its Reconstruction (2007 & 2021), Hassan Fathy: Earth & Utopia (2018), The Architecture of the UAE (2006), The Architecture of Oman (1998), and Zillij, The Art of Moroccan Ceramics, with John Hedgecoe (1993).

Her projects can be reviewed at www.dawanarchitecturefoundation.org.

©Rene Mueller

Prof. Dr. Dr. Werner Sobek

Architect and engineer, Emeritus Universität Stuttgart, Germany
Global Award for Sustainable Architecture^TM 2019 laureate

Werner Sobek is an architect and structural engineer. He was formerly professor at the University of Stuttgart as successor of Frei Otto and, at the same time, of Jörg Schlaich. From 2008 until 2014, he was professor at the IIT Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago as successor of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Visiting Professor at Harvard, Graz, Singapore and Hamburg, he has received numerous outstanding honors for his scientific as well as for his architectural and engineering work. He is the Founder of Werner Sobek AG and Co-Founder of several non-profit foundations of benefit to the public. The magazine CICERO lists Werner Sobek as the only architect und engineer amongst the 500 most influential intellectuals in the German-speaking world.