Scaling sustainable construction: The Holcim Foundation’s next chapter

LAURA VISCOVICH
Executive Director, Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

Defining what sustainable architecture looks like

Over the past two decades, the Holcim Foundation Awards — widely recognized by the industry as the most significant global competition in sustainable design and construction — has helped define what sustainable architecture looks like.

The numbers speak for themselves. Eight competition cycles covering five world regions, with more than 81 000 participants from 166 countries submitting their work. Independent juries of 260 experts evaluated those entries and recognized 362 winning projects.

These stellar projects have covered the full range of infrastructure, industry and buildings. Everything from a pioneering circular construction project in Winterthur, Switzerland, built from reclaimed materials, and the transformation of neglected water reservoirs into a thriving public park in Medellín, Colombia, to the reimagining of a 113 000 m² former prison in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as a civic space using passive cooling and local craft techniques.

Unlocking excellence: The Holcim Foundation Awards

What set the Holcim Foundation Awards apart was that, rather than rewarding completed projects, the program recognized unbuilt projects in late-stage design — at the moment when teams were fighting for funding or approvals, or simply needed the confidence to move forward. The Awards didn't just recognize excellence, they helped unlock it.

Here’s just one moving example. Pritzker Prize laureate Diébédo Francis Kéré has spoken openly about how winning a Holcim Foundation Award early in his career changed perceptions of his work in the industry. One day he was a young man building schools in Africa, the next he was a world-renowned designer whose ideas commanded serious attention.

Over the years though, the conversation shifted. What started as a question: “Can we build sustainably?”, became an expectation. Thanks to the work of practitioners, researchers, and city leaders worldwide, there is now a shared understanding of what good looks like. Definitions of sustainability that once centered on energy performance and materials have expanded to encompass governance, cultural identity, and community agency.

That evolution is visible across the full arc of the Awards, and you can explore it in detail when you read our new digest, “20 Years of Sustainable Construction Awards”.

Explore “20 years of Sustainable Construction”

The Holcim Foundation Awards Digest traces the evolution of sustainable construction through 362 winning projects across five world regions and eight competition cycles. Featuring thematic chapters — from equity and participation in design, to landscape as infrastructure, and the rise of regenerative practice — the digest offers both a record of what the built environment achieved over two decades and an argument for what comes next. Download or view the publication at holcimfoundation.org.

A new chapter for The Holcim Foundation

Of course, understanding what good looks like is no longer enough. The challenge today is scaling sustainable construction — especially in cities, where climate pressures, population growth, and the demand for resilient infrastructure converge most urgently. Cities concentrate both the greatest risks and the greatest opportunities for sustainable and regenerative development. This is where the Holcim Foundation is now focusing its energies.

With this in mind, the Holcim Foundation has now begun a new chapter. We’ve sharpened our focus on responsible urban development, with a vision to influence how cities are built, renewed, and cared for. Our renewed Board of Trustees, chaired by James Cameron – climate finance leader and barrister – and bringing together expertise from Arup, Ramboll, Urban Partners, and Holcim, reflects the cross-disciplinary partnerships this work requires.

Accelerating responsible urban development

An important first step is our new strategic partnership with C40 Cities through the Reinventing Cities initiative, which bridges city governments, the private sector and the next generation to drive low-carbon, resilient urban development worldwide.

Through this partnership, new competitions for urban planning and design professionals will invite teams to reimagine underutilized city sites. Indeed, a Students Reinventing Cities competition is already live, challenging young people across 10 cities, from Lagos to Barcelona and Jakarta, to envision greener, more resilient neighborhoods.

We aim to connect design excellence with city leaders and delivery partners who can help accelerate responsible urban development. Building on the strong legacy of our Awards — taking the knowledge, networks, and quality standards that 20 years of rigorous independent evaluation produced, we will put them to work where our impact can be greatest — in cities.

As I look back on two decades of hard work – not only from everyone at the Foundation but also all the partners we have had the privilege to work with, I am immensely proud of our legacy, but also energized by the future, and the shared opportunity we have to accelerate responsible urban development worldwide.