The School of Architecture of Talca (Chile), Spanish architect Santiago Cirugeda, Danish architect Jan Gehl, Belgian association Rotor and Finnish architect Marco Casagrande are the five laureates of the 2015 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture.
Awarded by the Locus Foundation and Unesco, this prize has been granted each year since 2007. These five architects have developed innovative and sustainable projects and concepts in developed countries as well as benefiting the most vulnerable populations.
For this year’s crew, the Locus Foundation and Unesco hailed five initiatives that emphasize dialogue between citizens and town planners to raise awareness of environmental issues.
Self-named urban quality consultant Jan Gehl, for example, promotes the reshaping of the urban space by giving more room to walkers. The Rotor’s architects are building an alternative economic society founded on the reuse of materials and resources. Santiago Cirugeda defends the right of the poorest populations to access cheap homes and energy. The Talca School of Architecture opened in a poor rural region to educate students that did not have access to a high quality education. Marco Casagrande is already thinking of the third generation cities where nature will act as co-architect.
