The prize is awarded each year to bioarchitecture projects that have been realized in the last five years or to degree theses focussed on sustainability and the correct balance between building and environment.

The International Award for Sustainable Architecture, now in its eighth edition, arose from the important international manifestation of the decennial of the foundation of the School of Architecture of Ferrara, held in 2003. Conceived and promoted by the School itself and the Fassa Bortolo, leader in innovative solutions for construction industry, the Award is intended to redirect attention to the necessity of reexamining the relationship between the process of construction and the habitat through the pursuit of compatibility among economic productivity, the safeguarding of resources and the quality of the environment.
The spirit and the goal are to contribute to the research of a system of development in the building sector, which represents one of the fields of human activity with the greatest impact on the environment, that is more sustainable than our current model, which has lead to a state of deterioration and pollution, bringing us to the verge of a global crisis of the Earth’s entire ecological system.
The Award therefore provides incentives for and promotes architecture that is in greater harmony with the environment and designed for the needs of man, capable of satisfying the needs of our generations without limiting those of the future by the indiscriminate consumption of resources and the production of pollution.
The Award was created from an understanding of the importance of sharing with a large public the results of research in the field of civil construction, recognizing in architecture the fundamental role of environmental qualification, education and social promotion, as well as the responsibility of representing the concrete expression of cultural development and of the society’s collective interests.
The Award is given annually to a work designed by individual architects or architectural or engineering firms that best represents the fundamental principles of the idea of sustainability. The work must have been realized in the course of the last five years. In addition, two Special Mentions are awarded to projects considered outstanding for particular aspects.
The Award is also open to the world of Academia, hosting a section dedicated to projects developed as degree theses on themes pertaining to the Award’s objectives, thus providing a space for the important ideas and works that arise from the breeding grounds of future professionals.