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Brick Award 24 honors international pioneers in brick architecture

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Jury of internationally renowned architects chose five winning projects out of 743 entries from 54 countriesWinners showcase the potential of brick architecture for sustainable and innovative construction

VIENNA, June 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The international biannual Brick Award, created in 2004 by wienerberger to promote innovation and excellence in brick architecture, was held in Vienna for the 11th time. With a total of 743 entries from 54 countries, this year’s iteration once again showcased the relevance and innovative potential of brick architecture around the globe.

Brick Award 24 honors international pioneers in brick architecture

From the pre-selected 50 nominees, the jury chose winning projects in five categories — “Feeling at home,” “Living together,” “Working together,” “Sharing public spaces,” and “Building outside the box” — and an overall grand prize winner, based on criteria such as aesthetics, sustainability, and innovation.

“Today, architects face several major challenges at once,” says Heimo Scheuch, CEO of wienerberger. “They must create spaces that both reduce our impact on the planet and protect us from the effects of climate change, while also making homes more affordable as the costs of living have surged over the last years. To find answers, extraordinary architects explore new ways to utilize material and structure, as this year’s Brick Award winners demonstrate.

“Their projects, apart from their aesthetic and structural qualities, are physical manifestations of exactly the kind of innovative spirit that today’s challenges require. From saving resources to building into existing environments, these creative minds found solutions by tapping into the still vast potential of brick. We are proud to honor and support these pioneers.”

From living quarters to art installations: Winners showcase the potential of brick architecture
The award is endowed with a total of €27,000 prize money — €7,000 for the grand prize winner and €5,000 each for the other four category winners.

The grand prize went to the British studio Níall McLaughlin Architects and their project “International Rugby Experience,” an exhibition and events center in Limerick dedicated to the sport of rugby, in the Brick Award category “Sharing public spaces.” Its design takes inspiration from Limerick’s famous churches while still upholding a modern aesthetic, allowing the building to fit within the environment while at the same time enhancing it aesthetically.

The category “Feeling at home” was won by Paraguayan studio Equipo de Arquitectura, whose “Intermediate House” uses compressed soil blocks, allowing for low-emission temperature control.

The prize for “Living together,” the category for multi-party housing, went to the Argentinian team of Estudio Arqtipo for achieving a combination of 10 living units on a narrow corner lot while giving every unit a private outdoor space.

In the category “Working together,” two collaborating Irish studios — Grafton Architects and O’Mahony Pike Architects — came out first with their new office headquarters for the Electricity Supply Board of Ireland, which succeeded in bridging modern building standards with Dublin’s historic aesthetic.

The prize for “Building outside the box” went to a joint project between the studios HANGHAR from Spain and PALMA from Mexico. For an architecture and design festival, they built a temporary artistic brick construction titled “Types of Spaces” in a narrow passageway in the Spanish town of Logroño, which leads visitors through several architectural styles.

The jury consisted of five internationally renowned architects:

Christelle Avenier, France — architect and co-founder of Avenier Cornejo ArchitectesChristine Conix, Belgium — architect and co-founder of Conix RDBM ArchitectsIngrid van der Heijden, Netherlands — architect and co-founder of CIVIC architectsWojciech Malecki, Poland — architect and founder of Maleccy biuro projektoweBoonserm Premthada, Thailand — architect and founder of Bangkok Project Studio

The BRICK 24 Book
As in previous years, wienerberger has published a book entitled “BRICK 24,” which accompanies the architectural competition. It features the 50 shortlisted projects, including the winners. Five essays by international authors complete this overview of contemporary brick architecture. The book puts the spotlight on clay building materials, which are timeless and a perfect fit for forward-looking and innovative architecture. “BRICK 24” is published in cooperation with Park Books.

All information regarding the projects, as well as photos available for download, can be found at www.wienerberger.com.

wienerberger
wienerberger is a leading international provider of innovative, ecological solutions for the entire building envelope, in the fields of new buildings and renovations, as well as infrastructure in water and energy management. With more than 20,000 employees worldwide, wienerberger’s solutions enable energy-efficient, healthy, climate-friendly, and affordable living. wienerberger is the world’s largest producer of bricks and the market leader in clay roof tiles in Europe as well as concrete pavers in Eastern Europe. In pipe systems (ceramic and plastic pipes), the company is one of the leading suppliers in Europe. By acquiring Meridian Brick, wienerberger further strengthened its position as a leading supplier of facade products in North America. With its more than 200 production sites, wienerberger generated revenues of approx. € 4.2 billion and an operating EBITDA of € 811 million in 2023. 

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SOURCE wienerberger

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JAMS Launches AI for Enterprise Job Scheduling: JAX and JAMS MCP, on the Model You Choose

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July 24, 2026

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A new AI agent and an open-standard connector let IT teams query, diagnose, and manage automation in plain language, on the model they choose, with operational data staying inside their own network

LONDON, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — JAMS Software, an orchestration solution for scheduled and event-driven automation, today announced the general availability of two AI capabilities for enterprise job scheduling: JAX, an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client, and JAMS MCP, a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard that brings JAMS into external AI coding tools. Both capabilities ship at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

Automation environments grow faster than the teams that run them. Jobs multiply across SQL Server, Azure Data Factory, Airflow, SAP, JDE, and Banner, and when one fails, finding the root cause often means searching several consoles at once, frequently outside business hours. At the same time, IT leaders carry pressure to adopt AI while staying accountable for where operational data goes. JAX and JAMS MCP close both gaps together.

Full details on how JAX and JAMS MCP work, including the control model behind every action, are available at jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

JAX is an AI agent that runs inside the JAMS Web Client. It finds jobs, troubleshoots failures, and answers how-to questions in plain language, with each response grounded in the JAMS user guide and checked against a built-in glossary. JAX acts only when a user asks it to. Reads flow freely, and every write action pauses for the user’s explicit approval before it runs. JAX does not learn between sessions, and conversations are not retained on the server.

JAMS MCP is a connector, built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, that brings JAMS into the AI tools engineering teams already use, including Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex. Users query jobs, investigate failures, and manage runs in plain language without leaving their tool.

Both capabilities run inside the customer’s own network and act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions. There is no elevated AI account: whatever a user cannot do in the JAMS interface, JAX and JAMS MCP cannot do on that user’s behalf. Every JAX and MCP operation is recorded in its own dedicated log, and changes made through the JAMS API land in the JAMS audit trail like any other change. Customers choose their own AI model, whether a commercial provider such as OpenAI or Anthropic or a model running entirely on their own hardware, and JAMS never trains on customer data. In the current release, neither feature edits or deletes a job, folder, schedule, or agent definition. For teams that must keep operational data within a defined boundary, JAX runs on a local model entirely inside the customer’s own network, so nothing leaves at all.

“Adopting AI usually means giving something up, most often visibility into where your data goes,” said Pete Hegland, Chief Executive Officer of JAMS Software. “We built JAX and JAMS MCP so that trade does not have to happen. Every action runs as the signed-in user, every change waits for approval, and the model itself can run entirely inside your own network.”

“IT teams across the United Kingdom and EMEA tell us the same thing: they want the benefit of AI without losing sight of where their data goes,” said Greg McLaughlin, Account Executive for EMEA at JAMS Software. “JAX and JAMS MCP let them keep operational data inside their own network and still get answers in plain language. That combination is what makes this practical for the teams I work with.”

JAX and JAMS MCP are available now to all JAMS Web customers across the United Kingdom and EMEA, with no separate licence, SKU, or additional cost. AI-assisted creation of new jobs and workflows from a plain-language description is on the roadmap for a future release, gated by the same approvals and permissions as every other action.

Learn how JAX and JAMS MCP work at https://jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

Fast facts

JAX is an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client for job scheduling and workflow automation.JAMS MCP is a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, for Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex.Both act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions, and there is no elevated AI account.Customers choose the AI model, including a local model that runs entirely inside their own network.JAMS never trains on customer data.Both are available now at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

About JAMS Software

Founded in 1987, JAMS Software is an orchestration solution that helps IT teams centralize, automate, and manage scheduled and event-driven jobs across complex, hybrid environments. Over 850 customers rely on JAMS to run their automated workloads. JAMS Software, LLC is headquartered at 108 Patriot Drive, Suite A, Middletown, DE 19709.

Media Contact
Bobby Schmidt, Vice President of Marketing
press@jamssoftware.com
800.261.4267

 

 

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Video: CNPC offers green chemical answer

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July 24, 2026

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BEIJING, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from chinadaily.com.cn:

Located on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Tarim 1.2 MTA Phase II Ethylene Project and its supporting green and low-carbon demonstration facility of PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, are offering a new example of China’s low-carbon industrial transformation.

Watch the video to discover how CNPC is exploring a cleaner and more circular future for the industry.

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SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn

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Shanghai Electric showcases embodied intelligence robot matrix and AI-native smart factory solutions at WAIC 2026

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July 24, 2026

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Featuring humanoid robots with 41 degrees of freedom, pipe‑inspection robots with ±1mm positioning accuracy, and 51 industrial‑grade AI agents

SHANGHAI, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Operations in high-end equipment manufacturing often involve confined spaces, complex objects, and fine manipulation tasks that demand sustained and stable precision. At the recent 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance (WAIC 2026), Shanghai Electric (SEHK: 02727, SSE: 601727) showcased its comprehensive portfolio of embodied intelligence solutions tailored to a range of industrial scenarios.

Themed “AI for All: Smart Squad, Shining Without Limits,” Shanghai Electric highlighted its capabilities across embodied AI robots, robot core components, and AI-native smart factory solutions, demonstrating end-to-end capabilities spanning complete robot systems, critical parts, industrial software, and smart factory architecture.

“The true value of embodied intelligence lies in understanding real industrial tasks: combining the strength, precision, and stability of machines with human experience and judgment to drive a genuine paradigm of ‘machine-assisted, human-machine collaboration,'” said Wang Chunlei, deputy general manager of the Robotics Business Unit at Shanghai Electric Automation Group.

Shanghai Electric’s robotics portfolio covers five key industrial scenarios: connector insertion, electrical operations, flexible sorting, intelligent assembly, and pipe processing. Highlights include:

“SUYUAN” bipedal humanoid robot: With 41 degrees of freedom for enhanced mobility, it is equipped with a multimodal visual sensing system on the head and torso, along with a dual-battery hot-swap system. It is well-suited for inspection, material handling, and assembly tasks.”TUOYUAN” industrial wheeled humanoid robot: Powered by an embodied intelligence foundation model and force-position hybrid control, it is capable of multi-spec connector insertion, material sorting, and loading/unloading of automotive sheet metal parts.”Mermaid” bionic wheeled humanoid robot: Capable of autonomously identifying buttons, knobs, and air switches, it generates real-time operation paths.Autonomous pipe inner-wall chamfering robot: Designed for confined spaces, it can position and process thousands of hole edges with accuracy within 1 millimeter while transmitting data in real time.

Shanghai Electric also showcased its portfolio of core components ranging from power-output to end effectors. Among them, the planetary roller screw offers more than three times the load capacity of traditional ball screws, while the DexHand dexterous hand is designed to meet diverse gripping and manipulation requirements.

Shanghai Electric launched 51 AI models and agents under its “StarCloud Intelligent Manufacturing” series across three domains: R&D and design, production and manufacturing, and operations and maintenance—covering critical equipment processes such as process optimization and wind power facility maintenance.

These industrial agents are embedded in robotic decision-making systems and the operational logic of AI-native smart factories, transforming industrial expertise into digitized, reusable capabilities. They support production-line scheduling, quality inspection, and predictive maintenance, driving the evolution of manufacturing systems from experience-driven to data-driven operations.

Shanghai Electric also released the “AI-Native Smart Factory Technology White Paper,” proposing an active evolution architecture that enables real‑time, closed‑loop optimization of production data, giving the factory self‑perception, self‑decision, and self‑execution capabilities. Built on First Principles, the AI‑native smart factory vertically integrates process flows, industrial software, agents, and smart equipment to dismantle traditional hierarchies while horizontally bridging data silos. The architecture features three core layers: the AI factory brain as the “control center,” industrial agents and embodied robots as the “execution network,” and the physical twin as the “digital mirror.”

Leveraging its deep industrial expertise and comprehensive solution capabilities, Shanghai Electric will continue to drive the implementation of AI in industrial settings, tackle technical challenges facing embodied intelligence in complex scenarios, accelerate the large‑scale deployment of AI‑native smart factories, and deliver replicable solutions across diverse manufacturing environments.

SOURCE Shanghai Electric

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