BUAS-Research team wins prize at international Holcim Awards 2011
A research team from Bern University of Applied Sciences (BUAS) received an Acknowledgement Prize on 8 September 2011 in Casablanca, at the international Holcim Awards for the Africa and Middle East region. The prize, which honours outstanding projects in the field of sustainable construction, is worth US$ 18,750. It was awarded for a project in which structural panels were developed using agricultural waste materials; the panels are to be used in Nigeria to create affordable housing.
The international Holcim Awards recognise innovative projects and forward-looking concepts in sustainable construction, regionally and globally. Five target issues by which the Holcim Foundation defines sustainable construction are used as evaluation standards. Three of these target issues are oriented to the concept of an achievement in which social, ecological and economic aspects are in accord. The others relate to contextual and aesthetic impact, innovation and transferability.
Corn cobs, rice husks and groundnut shells
The prize-winning project deals with turning reusable agricultural resources into structural panels. The project arose out of the idea of building cheap housing in Nigeria. Most buildings in Nigeria are built of cement blocks. The sand and cement mixture has to be imported and is costly, as well as often being of poor quality and durability. As the BUAS has competencies in the areas of architecture, civil engineering and the production of wood materials, the project team under the guidance of Charles Job, professor in the BUAS’s architecture school, aimed to approach the problem of poor quality and relatively expensive building from the fundamentals, and develop new construction materials using locally available resources. Laboratory work was carried out together with partners from Nigerian universities, and was coordinated by Andreas Rosenkranz. He is a student on the international master’s degree course in Wood Technology and an assistant in R&D; he prepared his master’s thesis within this project.
The prize money for the Holcim Awards comes to US$ 2 million. The Acknowledgement Prize given to the BUAS project is worth US$ 18,750. The money is to be spent on further research on optimising the construction material and its planned use in Nigeria.
Prize ceremony in Casablanca, from left: Sani Mustapha, Ahmadu Bello University, Department of Architecture, Nigeria; Heinz Müller, Director Departement Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering of the Bern University of Applied Sciences; Mas'ud Abdulkarim; Charles Oluwole Job, Head of project, Bern University of Applied Sciences; Okey Nduka, University of Nigeria, Nigeria.
