Designed by 2019 winner Rozana Montiel, Common Unity is a rehabilitation project for the San Pablo Xalpa Housing Unit in Azcapotzalco, which has opened up the public space that had become divided by walls, fences and barriers.
Created in 2006 by the architect and academic Jana Revedin, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture has since grown in prominence, and for the past nine years has been under the patronage of UNESCO. Recognizing five architects annually who share an equitable and sustainable approach to development, and who create innovative solutions to meet the needs of today’s society, the award is credited with discovering many of the 21st-century’s talent, and the winners of the 2019 award have just been announced.
German architect and structural engineer Werner Sobek, Ersen Gürsel from Turkey, Mexican architect Rozana Montiel, Jordanian architect and artist Ammar Khammash and Chile’s Jorge Lobos have each been recognized this year, and will be officially honored at a ceremony in Paris on 13th May.
Werner Sobek has been recognized for his innovative research work as Director of the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) at the University of Stuttgart, which focuses on how to build more using less material. Ersen Gürsel was chosen for his lifelong context-and-society-concerned design pedagogy at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul; and Rozana Montiel, Ammar Khammesh and Jorge Lobos have each been honored for their dedication to interdisciplinary scientific research, as well as their artisanal and artistic approaches to architecture, and efforts in making the discipline understandable, desirable and affordable for all.
Previous recipients of the award include Wang Shu, Alejandro Aravena, Carin Smuts, Francis Kéré, Al Borde, Assemble, Rotor, Bijoy Jain and Marta Maccaglia, who together with this year’s winners join a community of contemporary architects and teams from around the globe working towards a more sustainable architectural ethic, and fostering social responsibility.
