In September, VM Zinc Australia launched the fourth edition of the Archzinc Trophy, a competition which is held every two years and awards prizes to the most beautiful projects for their architectural quality, the ease with which they blend into their surroundings and the way in which they highlight zinc as a material in innovative and original applications. 

VM Zinc demonstrates its commitment to the promotion of architecture through the Archizinc Trophy, which also illustrates the strong relationship that has been created between architects and the brand and between players in the building industry and zinc as a material.

Projects in the VM Archzinc Trophy can fall into one of four categories of buildings:

  • Individual Housing
  • Collective Housing
  • Public Buildings
  • Commercial Buildings
The jury of the VM Archzinc Trophy will award certain projects with special prizes:
  • The Special Jury’s award
  • The Environment award
  • The Innovation award
  • The Tradition award

The competition can be entered by downloading registration forms from VM Zinc Australia’s website and projects must be submitted by 31 December 2009 at the latest.

The jury, comprising 13 international architects, will meet in March 2010 to allocate the prizes. Innovative use of materials, elegance, functionality and respect for the environment are all taken into consideration.

The Archzinc Trophy prize winners will be presented with their awards during a grand ceremony that is to be held in June 2010. These projects will feature in a special issue of Focus on Zinc to be published in October 2010.

In 2008, almost 150 projects from seventeen different countries competed in the Archzinc Trophy.