By Karine Keuchkerian
In a recent win to Lebanon, Lebanese University students won the Student Prize for their eco-friendly project during the 19th edition of the Architecture Student Contest, where more than 224 universities from 29 countries participated.
The Lebanon project, titled "Eco-Habitat: Greenhouse Dorms and Urban Microclimate," stood out among other winning projects from Portugal, Poland, South Korea, and Malaysia.
The 2024 competition, which is organized by Saint-Gobain in collaboration with the University and City of Helsinki, Finland, asked competing students to deliver building ideas and solutions for four different zones in a plot located in Viikki, a northeastern district of Helsinki.
In the details, students Reem Lichaa Khoury, Ralph Sayah, and Mohamad Ali Faour, under the supervision of Professors Salim Abou rizk, Charbel Maskine, and Roland Mitri, created a concept combining Helsinki's farmhouse heritage with contemporary urban elements, including traditional shapes and a central greenhouse courtyard for passive solar heating.
Their project aims to construct a cozy microclimate for citizens as a self-sustaining city model, with residential blocks, aquaponics, gardens, and waste management, and to form a closed-loop system, which includes luxuries such as a library and birdwatch tower.
Speaking with LBCI English, one of the winning students, Mohamad Ali Faour, confirmed that in each country, a national stage is held, where a project gets selected.
Then one project from each country competes on the international stage.
He stated that the competition's main goal is to strive for sustainability.
This year, the project took place in Helsinki, Finland. The task was to create an academic residency, with the main goal of each project focusing on long-term eco-friendliness, self-sufficiency, and sustainability.
"We worked on the project from January through April, winning the national stage, and then continued our efforts until May," he affirmed.
Faour stated that there are three prize categories. The jury, consisting of architects from various countries and universities, selects the first, second, and third-prize winners.
"Then, all participating students vote to select a winning project. Following that, the participating doctors also vote for a winning project. We won the Student Prize and were the students' choice," he expressed.
Talking with LBCI English, he provided details about the project, stating that since they were working in a cold climate, "We worked on something called 'greenhouse architecture,' where people can live."
"We developed a system consisting of units, each designed as a greenhouse with a glass structure. Half an hour of sunlight is enough to warm up the greenhouse and create a microclimate, that can be 30 to 40 degrees warmer than outside. Inside this greenhouse, we created residential units, where people can live," he revealed.
He indicated that the project's main goal was to eliminate the need for heating, which is both costly and causes high carbon emissions in cold climates.
Furthermore, the three students focused on using eco-friendly materials, sourcing them locally, and conducting a "Life Cycle Assessment" to study the project's carbon emissions.
Their project emitted 65 percent less carbon than concrete constructions because they used wood. As a result, "We won," concluded Faour.