November 2021
(image courtesy of Holcim Foundation)
The Most Mira Peace Centre; a sustainable cultural arts centre to be built from rammed earth, which brings together divided communities in war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina, has won the International LafargeHolcim Award for Sustainable Construction - European Silver Award. This includes a trophy and monetary prize of $50,000, which will contribute towards the building of the Centre, planned to start in 2023.
The project, which is also acknowledged as Finalist in the Global LafargeHolcim Award 2021 cycle, is a beacon of peace and sustainability in the Balkans, located between two ethnically divided villages in Prijedor: Kevljani and Petrov Gaj, near the former Omarska Concentration Camp. Since 2009, Most Mira have brought over 1500 young people and volunteers of all ethnicities to this site, though arts festivals and programmes over the past twelve years.
The design has been lead by Sarajevo born architect Vernes Causevic, director of Project V Architecture, with offices in Sarajevo and London, who have worked closely with UK-BiH grass-roots peace-building charity Most Mira (‘Bridge of Peace’), founded by peace activist Kemal Pervanic, a survivor of the former Omarska concentration camp. The Centre will soon become a new home for Most Mira.
The award was received as part of the 17th international Biennale of Architecture in Venice, organised by the Holcim Foundation. The 6th Cycle of the Award received 4,742 submissions in the main category from 121 countries, featuring projects to be built in 134 countries. The submissions were evaluated by esteemed independent juries of experts, headed by the head curator of the Venice Architecture Biennale Prof. Hashim Sarkis. Link to the competition results and projects - https://www.holcimfoundation.org/projects/restoring-common-ground
The project is the only awarded project from Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as the wider South-East European Region, while Project V Architecture and Most Mira are also the only authors based in the UK or Balkans.
They have developed the project through a holistic community-engaged design process over the past six years. A series of design workshops embedded in the local community that have become an integral part of Most Mira’s peace building activities, bringing together students, youth, engineers and communities from across the ethnic divide from Prijedor and BiH, as well as the UK.
The project will also be built using low carbon environmentally sustainable building technologies and materials, including a rammed earth structure and facade. Since 2016, the design and material prototyping has been developed in close collaboration with global rammed earth expert Martin Rauch, an Honorary Professor at the UNESCO Chair of Earthen Architecture, director of Lehm Ton Erde from Austria - https://www.erden.at.
Natural materials will be sourced within a few kilometres of the site, which reference local building traditions and invite all generations of the community into the process. More details about the design can be found on the architect’s website - http://projectv-arch.com/projects#/most-mira-peace-centre/
The Peace Centre project was initiated by co-founders Kemal Pervanic and first chair of Most Mira Kirsteen Tait in 2014, who organised the first workshops for young architects. The team hope to use the momentum of this award to gather more support and raise the remaining funds required to complete the construction. More information about the charity’s work and future plans can be found on their website - https://www.mostmiraproject.org
The unique community-engaged architectural process has been developed by Project V Architecture and Most Mira into an educational programme called ‘Architecture for Democracy’, which they will continue as a ‘live project’ summer school programme of architectural and design residencies, both throughout and after the construction process.
This is planned as part of the Global Free Unit educational framework with long term collaborators Prof. Robert Mull (founder of the Global Free Unit, Professor of Architecture and Design at the University of Brighton and Visiting Professor at Umeå University) and Lucy Dinnen (co-director of Project V Architecture and lead design tutor of MArch Studio Resilient Futures at The University of Sheffield School of Architecture). This will sit alongside the charity’s other arts, peace-building and social enterprise programmes.
More information about the awarded project can be found on this Holcim Foundation web link - https://www.holcimfoundation.org/projects/restoring-common-ground