2025 Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture
Social commitment, economic challenges, constructive intelligence: since 2006, the mantra of the Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture has remained unchanged, rewarding architects ‘committed to sustainable development and a participatory and experimental approach to design, both in the northern and southern hemispheres’. Invited to Venice for the awards ceremony, AA paints a portrait of these practitioners to watch closely.
Every year since the prize was founded by architect Jana Revedin, the five winning firms have been recognised for their committed, sometimes unconventional, but always virtuous practice, in what some (among AA members) have seen as a ‘stepping stone to the Pritzker’, as we recalled in the previous edition: ‘Diébédo Francis Kéré, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, Alejandro Aravena, Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, and Lacaton & Vassal all received the Global Prize before the Pritzker.’ (AA No.461, June-July 2024).
The 2025 edition, themed ‘Architecture is construction’, honoured: Salima Naji, anthropologist and architect (Morocco); Hoang Thuc Hao, architect, founder of 1+1>2 (Vietnam); Marie and Keith Zawistowski, founding architects of onSITE (France and United States); Marie Combette and Daniel Moreno Flores, architects and founders of the La Cabina de la Curiosidad agency (France and Ecuador); and Andrea Gebhard, geographer, sociologist, urban planner and landscape architect, founder of mahl gebhard konzepte (Germany) [from left to right in the image below].
‘It’s not a club or an association, but a collective utopia.’ This is how Salima Naji described the community of architects who won the Global Award. Originally from Rabat, she is now based in Tiznit, south of Agadir, and is a key figure in the preservation of Moroccan heritage (see our profile of her in issue no. 449, June–July 2022). For over twenty years, she has campaigned for the revival of vernacular architecture in opposition to urban planning codes that prioritised concrete, ‘ravaging entire swathes of the landscapes of the Atlas Mountains and southern Morocco’. She has led iconic projects such as the restoration of communal granaries and Kasbah Aghenaj, a fortress in Tiznit which now houses an open-air theatre, a heritage interpretation centre, and an archive centre. The jury rightly praised the fact that ‘her work proves that, by bringing together all stakeholders — clients, authorities, craftsmen, professionals, residents, and users — it is possible to create inclusive and inspiring projects’. During the awards ceremony, Salima Naji paid tribute to Jana Revedin and Marie-Hélène Contal. Revedin is an architect and the dean of the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, while Contal is the co-author of books on the Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture. According to Naji, these two women ‘have an eye for spotting the architecture of tomorrow, and without them, these models would undoubtedly remain unknown’.
Revitalisation of the Citadel of Agadir Oufella Agadir, Souss-Massa Region, Morocco
‘The new esplanade at the entrance to the kasbah, with new public facilities and their anti-seismic walls, a technology improving a vernacular composite of dry masonry and wooden ties.’
Building locally. This is the same commitment that drives Hoang Thuc Hao, an architect and researcher based in Hanoi, Vietnam. After graduating from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Hanoi University of Civil Engineering in 1992, he went on to obtain a Master’s degree from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 2002, before beginning his career in the 2010s. His work also focuses on rural areas, particularly disadvantaged ones. ‘The countryside is the future of the city,’ proclaims Hao, for whom the concepts of solidarity, co-construction, and social energy lie at the heart of his work, both before and during a project. ‘In most minority regions, inhabitants inherit the experience of their ancestors and build their own architecture. They possess enormous cultural reserves that contribute to the diversity of humanity. This is evident in the Ta Phin community centre, completed in 2013 and housing exhibition spaces, a library and an information centre within a structure made of stone, mud bricks, recycled wood and local pine wood. The building’s design is inspired by the traditional red headscarves worn by Dao women and the outline of the mountains. More recently, in 2021, he and his office, 1+1>2 Architects, completed the Lam Son community centre in Thanh Hóa province. This building combines bamboo and concrete, and was designed in collaboration with the local population.
Cam Thanh Community House, Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam
‘The main entrance pavilion, to the east, with its large canopy supported by masonry walls. In the foreground, the coconut plantation is part of the protection system against strong winds.’
The founders of onSITE, Marie and Keith Zawistowski, are active in France and the United States. They were particularly praised for their belief in architecture that can ‘improve the lives of others’. The jury commended their ‘militant commitment to redefining the teaching of architecture as a process of continuous experimental learning’, which benefits from the right technology, materials and techniques in the right place. Having both trained at Rural Studio in Alabama — a project workshop within the School of Architecture at Auburn University in the United States created in 1992, which is particularly invested in learning by doing and working in some of the poorest areas of the country — Marie and Keith Zawistowski are also the co-creators of designbuildLAB. Originally based in the United States, this studio has since established itself at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture (Ensa) in Grenoble. Since 2015, it has enabled students to collaborate with construction stakeholders, such as local authorities and engineers, to design full-scale demonstration projects. ‘The core of our approach is to find the right balance between private life, professional life, and academic life,’ the architects emphasised at last May’s award ceremony.
Restaurant Scolaire Jean Rostand Bourgoin-Jallieu, Isère, France
‘A mature deciduous lime tree to the east protects the building from the morning sun during the warmer months, while allowing it to penetrate deep into the dining areas during the winter.’
Marie Combette and Daniel Moreno Flores, architects and founders of La Cabina de la Curiosidad in Quito, Ecuador, applied the lesson to the letter by experimenting on a scale of 1. For the jury, it was a matter of paying tribute to ‘bold work in a challenging political and social context’. Through their ‘cabinet of curiosities’, the two architects question contemporary urban development practices and are committed to preserving existing culture. Marie Combette, a graduate of ENSA Nancy, obtained her ‘project management qualification in her own name’ at ENSA Grenoble, focusing on the theme ‘Arquisanat: the relationship between architecture and craftsmanship’. Her partner, Daniel Moreno Flores, shares this multidisciplinary approach. He graduated in architecture from the Universidad Católica del Ecuador and holds a master’s degree in Advanced Architectural Design from the University of Buenos Aires. Since 2019, they have been designing projects that consider not only the structural scale, but also the urban environment, territory, and resources, such as water management, recycling, and enhancing local ecosystems. Whether community centres, such as the Chaki Wasi craft centre in the Shalalá community in Zumbahua, or guest houses, such as the Cholan Nests House in Perucho, La Cabina de la Curiosidad’s approach aims to reveal ‘the immense potential of an intact natural environment’. For Combette, architecture must be ‘an act of resistance shared by architects around the world, amplified by this award.’
Chaki Wasi Handicraft Center of the Shalalá Community, Zumbahua, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador
‘The geometry of the center has facilitated the transmission of culture, supported by the collaborative sharing of design and construction.’
Andrea Gebhard, a geographer, sociologist, urban planner and landscape architect, joined Munich’s urban planning department in the 1990s before founding her own agency, Gebhard-Konzepte, in 2006. ‘Her fight to harmoniously balance nature and urbanisation is exemplary,’ said the jury, noting that the urban planner advocates including a ‘green plan’ in every urban planning project, thereby campaigning for environmental issues to be integrated from the earliest stages of planning. She designed the Baumkirchen landscape park in Munich, Germany. Created on a former railway site, it has become an open-air theatre at the foot of a new neighbourhood oriented towards the park. ‘How can we preserve our democracy? By allowing the entire population — not just the wealthy — to enjoy the city,’ she asserted at the awards ceremony.
Baumkirchen Landscape Park Munich, Germany
‘Aerial view of the new district. The park and the former locomotive hub, which will be transformed into an open-air theater; in the background, the new district, densified and oriented towards the park.’
For more information, read the catalogue of the latest edition of the Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture Marie-Hélène Contal, Jana Revedin, Architecture is Construction, Architangle Publishing, 2025
