Building Sense Now Global Award
Anupama Kundoo is honoured for her commitment to climate and culture-friendly construction
The Building Sense Now Global Award was presented at a digital award ceremony on November 11, 2021 with the participation of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and in the course of the world climate conference COP26. The Building Sense Now Global Award is looking for new, innovative design strategies from around the world that want to achieve ambitious goals and deal with climate change and sustainability issues. The award is given to work that has made a difference and has shown special qualities on all levels and scales. This award focuses on architects and their design process as well as the philosophical and ethical questions – not just the final solution in the built project. The initiative seeks disruptive thinking that shows the potential to address large-scale problems in a variety of areas, such as: buildings, urban renewal and transformation projects, urban systems and ecosystems, and people-centered urban design.
This year, the award went to the Indian architect Prof. Dr. Anupama Kundoo. She was honoured for her commitment to climate and culture-friendly construction. She has already implemented more than 100 projects with her offices in Pondicherry and Berlin, most of them in India. She currently holds a professorship for structural design at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences and a Guest Professorship at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Her projects have a special focus on social issues and consider people with their need for a place of refuge in a meaningful way. In doing so, she specifically uses simple, natural materials, which she processes in a sensitive way into functional structures. It was recognized by the international planning initiative Building Sense Now for this exemplary type of architecture, which is culturally, climate and socially compatible. Kundoo thus succeeds Anna Heringer, who won the first edition of the competition in 2019.
Video: Building Sense Now 2021 Global Award – Meet this Year’s Winner © Building Sense Now
Dr. Christine Lemaitre, Managing Director of the DGNB and co-initiator of Building Sense Now states that with Anupama Kundoo, the initiative is able to honor an inspiring personality showing with her projects what a carefully crafted architecture can produce when focusing on people.
In addition to Lemaitre, the other initiators of Building Sense Now are Prashant Kapoor (IFC Climate Business Group, World Bank Group), Ashok Lall (Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture, Mumbai), Peter Sharratt (Fhoras Consulting), Bruno Sauer (Green Building Council España), Thomas Auer (Technische Universität München) and Edward Mazria (Architecture 2030).