Zerofootprint Unveils Winners in 2010 Building Re-Skinning Awards

TORONTO and RIO DE JANEIRO, March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- World Urban Forum 5, Stand #E208 – Zerofootprint, a leading organization in the global fight against climate change, in conjunction with the UN-Habitat and contributing to the World Urban Campaign, today announced the winners of its international ZEROprize Re-Skinning Awards for buildings during a formal ceremony this morning at the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"Today we honor the forward-thinking designers, engineers, developers, and building owners who are reducing our cities' carbon footprint, one building at a time," said Zerofootprint's CEO, Dr. Ron Dembo. "Projects like these make our cities more sustainable and our buildings better places to live and work. They are making market-disrupting improvements in the way we retrofit existing buildings to improve their energy performance."

The overall competition winner is the "355 Eleventh" project located in San Francisco, CA. The project was led by Aidlin Darling Architects. This historic, early 20th century industrial building is now refurbished to be as beautiful as it is energy efficient. Part of the refurbishment includes a corrugated skin to replace the building's original, historically significant steel cladding. The double-skin facade becomes a screen for sunlight and air while maintaining the stoic, industrial character of the original building. Behind that screen, new, operable windows allow user control of airflow. The final building received Gold-level LEED certification and represents the benefits that strong design combined with energy-efficiency brings to our cities.

The winning entries in each of the five Re-Skinning Awards categories are:

• Small/Medium Commercial – 355 Eleventh - Aidlin Darling Architects - San Francisco, California
• Large Commercial – Sparkasse Vorderpfalz - Egon Weiss (1974), Thiemo Ebbert (2009) - Ludwigshafen, Germany
• Large Residential – GESOBAU AG - Osawld Mathias Ungers (1964), DAHM Architekten + Ingenieure (2008) – Berlin, Germany
• Small Residential – Now House - Work Worth Doing Studio and Lorraine Gauthier – Toronto, Canada
• The Future of Re-Skinning – Sydney Tower - Laboratory for Visionary Architecture – Sydney, Australia

For more information and images of each of the winners, please visit www.thezeroprize.org.

An expert panel of global leaders in architecture, engineering, sustainability and design judged the entries. The panel selected the winning entries based on a number of criteria, including: energy efficiency; design aesthetics; return on investment; scalability; use of information technology to make the buildings "smart"; and social benefits accruing from the retrofit. A number of world-renowned green leaders and innovators also served as advisors for the competition.

A traveling exhibition is planned to showcase the designs and innovative technologies behind the winning projects. The exhibition will include materials, designs, images and other processes pertaining to re-skinning.

About Zerofootprint

Zerofootprint is a socially responsible enterprise whose mission is to apply technology, design, and risk management to the massive reduction of our environmental footprint. Zerofootprint operates both in the for-profit and charitable domains through two entities, Zerofootprint Software and Zerofootprint Foundation.

http://www.zerofootprint.net

SOURCE Zerofootprint