In 2012 the Zumtobel Group, an international lighting company, will again be presenting the Zumtobel Group Award. The award is designed to honour sustainable solutions in architecture and engineering that make a pioneering contribution to future quality of life.

As a result of the very high level of interest in the first two Zumtobel Group Awards, in 2007 and 2010, the company has decided to revise the submission process for the Zumtobel Award 2012. For the first time Zumtobel will be issuing a public tender for submissions. Architecture practices, engineering bureaus, universities and other public or private initiatives can submit their projects online.

In the Built Environment category, for which the prize is EUR 80,000, submissions can include architectural or urban planning projects that have been realized within the last two years (i.e. completed by 1 December 2009). 

The Research and Initiative category targets innovative current research projects and social initiatives that need not have been completed at the time of submission. The Award aims in particular to encourage an emerging generation of researchers, architects and planners to focus on trying out new approaches to sustainability and humanity in the built environment. This category of the Zumtobel Group Award is open to individuals as well as to private or public initiatives, universities or NGOs. The prize of EUR 60,000 is intended to foster the progress of the winning project.

You can now download the full text of the tender.  Participants are invited to submit their projects online from 15 September to 1 December 2011.