The International Prize for Sustainable Architecture: Achievements and potentials

The International Prize for Sustainable Architecture, now in its seventh edition, arose from the important international manifestation of the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Ferrara School of Architecture, held in 2003. Conceived and promoted by the School itself and Fassa Bortolo company, the Award is intended to redirect attention to the necessity of re-examining the relationship between the process of construction and the habitat through the pursuit of compatibility among economic productivity, the safeguarding of resources and the quality of the environment. The spirit and the goal are to contribute to the research of a system of development in the building sector that is more sustainable than our current model, which has lead to a state of deterioration and pollution, bringing us to the verge of a global crisis of the Earth’s entire ecological system. The Prize therefore provides incentives for and promotes architecture that is in greater harmony with the environment and designed for the needs of man, capable of satisfying the needs of our generations without limiting those of the future by the indiscriminate consumption of resources and the production of pollution. It was created from an understanding of the importance of sharing with a large public the results of research in the field of civil construction, recognizing in architecture the fundamental role of environmental qualification, education and social promotion, as well as the responsibility of representing the concrete expression of cultural development and of the society’s collective interests. Receiving every edition more of one hundred submitted projects the Prize during the past years has become one of the most important European event for sustainable architecture.