Holcim Foundation

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Holcim Foundation

It is the mission of the Foundation (created 2003) to select and support initiatives that combine su

The initiatives of the Holcim Foundation

Holcim Awards competition

The international Awards competition recognizes innovative projects and future-oriented concepts – and is the most significant global competition for sustainable design. The Awards encourages architects, planners, engineers and project owners to go beyond conventional notions of sustainable construction in their work and to harmo

nize economic, ecological and social concerns. Projects and concepts in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, civil engineering, mechanical engineering and related fields are eligible for entry in the competition. Each competition cycle spans three years, from announcement to completion and a total of two million US dollars in prize money is awarded. Holcim Forum symposiums

Together with its partner universities, the Foundation advances the academic discussion of sustainable construction through the Holcim Forum. Every three years around 300 experts from all over the world meet to discuss challenges of today’s urbanization processes and built environment. The conferences are complemented by the release of technical publications, and offer architects, engineers, building professionals and experts from all generations and geographic locations an interdisciplinary academic platform for exchanging ideas and information. Disseminating knowledge

Through its activities, the Foundation has developed a close-knit global network of stakeholder groups, and it has grown to assume the role of information hub. The Foundation publishes booklets on exemplary sustainable construction projects, as well as maintaining a comprehensive Internet presence and Social Media engagement.

22/05/2026

🌊 How Rotterdam is Redesigning for Water

Rotterdam sits at a crossroads. Water arrives from the sea, the sky, and upstream rivers. The city can no longer choose whether to engage with that reality. It can only choose how.

In the opening film of Future Tides, the Holcim Foundation’s new documentary series on flood-resilient cities, Henk Ovink, Saskia Van Stein, and Winy Maas make the case that Rotterdam isn’t just adapting to climate change — it’s prototyping the future for the rest of the world.

The Netherlands as a Petri dish. And what grows here matters everywhere.

The first of three films following European cities reinventing themselves in the face of climate change — by the citymakers leading that transformation.

▶ Full film now streaming — link in bio.

12/05/2026

💭 What does the next generation of urban thinkers believe cities need to get right before 2035?

Last December, 14 early-career architects, engineers, and planners gathered in Zurich to find out. Working with industry experts, they mapped the forces most likely to reshape cities — climate migration, AI infrastructure, supply chain fragmentation — and built three scenarios to stress-test the decisions being made today.

The result is Leadership through Interdependence: Enabling the Future of CityMaking, a new report co-published with Arup offering a transferable methodology for navigating urban uncertainty.

🔗 Read & Download the report - link in bio

🙏 A huge thank you to everyone who made this possible.

To our lead authors — Charlie Warwick, Thomas Robinson and the Holcim Foundation team — for shaping the thinking at the heart of this report.

To our contributors — Maria Atkinson AM, Dan Brodkin, Jonas Hunziker, Jan Mischke, Matthias Thoma, Omid Aschari, Roger Walther — for the expertise and generosity you brought to the week in Zurich.

And above all, to our 2025 Emerging ChangeMakers — Solomon Ayres, Daniel Blanco Lozano, Marney Coleman, Sebastian Delgado, Stephanie Koziol, Jacob Meyers, Carmelo Nastasi, Connaught Lee, Adriana Rodríguez Zamudio, Antonio Santa, Océane Seba, Laura Suvieri, Maggie Smith, and Katie Taylor — for asking the right questions and refusing easy answers.

30/04/2026

Përparim Rama, Mayor of Pristina, has a clear message for anyone trained in architecture or urban planning: the legal frameworks shaping our cities are being written by people who don’t understand the transformative power of design. That needs to change.

He didn’t plan a career in politics. He was invited to run for mayor, given long odds, and won. Now in his second term, his conviction only runs deeper: “I encourage students of architecture and existing architects to get involved as much as possible in politics — because that is where the true power is.”

🎙️Rama is the first guest of CityMakers Voices, a conversation series from the Holcim Foundation gathering the people whose decisions shape the cities we live in — mayors and architects, planners and patrons, financiers and engineers — for open discussion on the work of building better urban environments.

02/04/2026

🌍 Mapping 20 Years of Sustainable Construction

From 362 winning projects across 5 world regions, the Holcim Foundation Awards chart the evolution of sustainable construction over two decades.

See how architects and engineers around the globe tackled sustainable design and construction — project by project, region by region.

🔗 Explore the full digest - link in bio

31/03/2026

⚡ 81,000+ participants. 362 winning projects. 260 jury members. Eight cycles. Twenty-one years.

In 2025, the Holcim Foundation Awards for sustainable construction concluded its eighth and final cycle. Over two decades, the program assembled what the built environment had never quite produced before: a sustained, independent, peer-reviewed record of how the discipline evolved — project by project, as it happened.

Today, we’re sharing that record in its most complete form.

“20 Years of Sustainable Construction Awards” traces the full arc of the Awards through eight narrative chapters — from the growing centrality of social equity in design, to scarcity as a driver of innovation, to the emergence of nature-positive and regenerative approaches to how we build.

Each chapter connects winning projects across time, showing how standards rose and evidence got sharper with every cycle. Four chapters include Words with Winners — conversations with past winners about why recognition matters and how it changes what a practice can achieve.

🙏 To every winning team, every jury member, and the tens of thousands of practitioners who put their work forward: this is your record. Thank you.

→ Read the full Digest - link in bio

20/03/2026

🎥 Winner Interview: Portland International Airport

Architecture Hunter speaks with Vince Granato of the Port of Portland about the Portland International Airport Main Terminal Expansion, recognized as a Regional Winner at the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025.

Designed to scale the airport from 20 to 35 million annual passengers, this project reimagines what sustainable large-scale infrastructure can look like—transforming the terminal into a civic space rooted in the natural beauty and resources of the Pacific Northwest.

In this conversation, Vince describes how Oregon’s identity as a natural resource state shaped every decision. All lumber and materials were sourced within a 300-mile radius of the airport, including locally produced steel and low-carbon concrete. The team partnered with local indigenous tribes and invested in small, family-run, sustainably managed forests to reduce the project’s carbon footprint from the ground up. By reusing existing structures and channeling significant investment toward local and minority-owned businesses, the project proves that airport remodels—even ones 15 years in the making—can be done fundamentally differently.

_prize: Holcim Foundation Awards North America Regional Winner
_project location: Portland, Oregon, USA
_project team: Sharron van der Meulen & Gene Sandoval, ZGF
_client: Port of Portland

👉 Learn more about the project at awards.holcimfoundation.org

19/03/2026

🎥 Winner Interview: Buffalo Crossing Visitor Centre

Architecture Hunter speaks with Michael Banman of Stantec Architecture about the FortWhyte Alive Buffalo Crossing Visitor Centre, recognized as a Regional Winner at the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025.

This 1,675-square-meter visitor centre serves as a public gateway to a restored 660-acre nature preserve in Winnipeg, Manitoba—where temperatures swing from +40°C to −40°C—proving that environmentally responsible architecture can thrive even in the most extreme climates.

In this conversation, Michael reflects on the magnitude of the challenge the team didn't fully grasp at the outset: achieving Passive House certification in one of the world's harshest climate zones.

_prize: Holcim Foundation Awards North America Regional Winner
_project location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
_project team: Michael Banman, Steph F., Evan Fuller, Jordan Lanoway, Arvinder Hirkewal, Anders MacGregor & Constantina Douvris, Stantec Architecture
HTFC Planning & Design, Dieter Herz, GEOptimize, FortWhyte Alive
_client: Liz Wilson, FortWhyte Alive

👉 Learn more about the project at awards.holcimfoundation.org

18/03/2026

🏘️ Inevitable but Controversial: The Human Side of Retreat

Managed retreat is increasingly recognized as an inevitable adaptation strategy in a world where heavier rainfall, rising sea
levels, and cascading floods are already displacing tens of millions
of people each year.

But it is never just a technical fix. It is a profound ethical and social dilemma that determines who is safe, who thrives, and whose histories and rights are valued.

Question 2 of 5 for a flood-resilient future: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭?

A review of 140 relocation cases worldwide found a troubling pattern: rushed, top-down retreats strip people of their homes, livelihoods, and communities. But done differently — with communities as partners, not subjects — retreat can become a catalyst for justice and renewal.

The difference lies in who decides, who benefits, and whether people are empowered to shape their own futures.

📥 Read the full findings from the Holcim Foundation Forum 2025 - link in bio

Special thanks to the insights of the speakers Jola Ajibade, PhD, Thomas Thaler and Sofian Sibarani on the Retreat topic.

17/03/2026

🎥 Winner Interview: Lawson Centre for Sustainability

Architecture Hunter speaks with Rodrigo Louro of Mecanoo Architecten about the Lawson Centre for Sustainability at Trinity College, recognized as a Regional Winner at the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025.

Replacing a former parking lot and fenced-off field at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, this urban infill project delivers 343 student residence beds alongside academic and community spaces in a low-rise, human-scaled building that integrates sensitively into the historic campus.

In this conversation, Rodrigo describes how the team chose to forgo the originally envisioned high-rise in favor of a walkable T-shaped volume that respects the campus’s intimate scale while forging connections to the city, to Philosopher’s Walk, and to the college grounds. By keeping the building low, the design opens up extensive roof terraces for urban farming and photovoltaic arrays—supporting Trinity’s farm-to-table ambition through a community kitchen where students learn to grow, prepare, and share food. The project further reduces its carbon footprint through locally sourced mass timber and calcium silicate brick, geothermal systems, and native, drought-tolerant plantings that restore biodiversity where pavement once stood.

_prize: Holcim Foundation Awards North America Regional Winner
_project location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
_project team: Francine Houben, Sara Navrady & Rodrigo Louro, Mecanoo Architecten; Bob Goyeche & Shelley Vanderwal, RDHA
_client: Trinity College, University of Toronto

👉 Learn more about the project at awards.holcimfoundation.org

06/03/2026

🎥 Winner Interview: Gelephu Mindfulness City

Architecture Hunter speaks with Giulia Frittoli of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group about Gelephu Mindfulness City, recognized as a Regional Winner at the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025.

Spanning 2,500 square kilometers with only 4% built area, this project responds to His Majesty the King of Bhutan’s vision to retain young talent and create job opportunities while preserving Bhutanese values of mindfulness, environmental respect, and community.

In this conversation, Giulia shares how the design mapped where nature, water, and biological corridors exist—outlining where not to build first, with development becoming the negative of that framework. The team tracked elephant migration routes with GPS and preserved all corridors, using rivers as the city’s framework that allow elephants to move, respond to floods, and bring construction materials. The ribbon-like urban structure employs passive strategies inspired by traditional dzongs, uses locally sourced bamboo, timber, and river stone, and incorporates photovoltaic panels and monsoon-driven hydropower to maintain Bhutan’s carbon-negative status.

_prize: Holcim Foundation Awards Asia Pacific Regional Winner
_project location: Gelephu, Bhutan
_project team: Bjarke Ingels, Giulia Frittoli, and Frederik Lyng, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
_client: Royal Government of Bhutan & Gelephu Mindfulness City

👉 Learn more about the project at https://awards.holcimfoundation.org/

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