How The Holcim Foundation Scales Sustainable Construction

Holcim is a manufacturer and supplier of sustainable construction and building materials, aiding partners to use natural resources, embed circular economies and reduce energy and carbon footprints.

Since 2003, the Holcim Foundation has supported cities to create greener, healthier and more resilient populations.

Over the past two decades, the Holcim Foundation awards have helped to define what sustainable architecture looks like and involves.

Sustainable construction competitions

Over the last two decades, eight competition cycles have covered five world regions, involving more than 81,000 participants from 166 countries.

Within the competition, independent juries of 260 experts evaluated entries, recognising 362 winning projects.

To date, Holcim award projects have varied from circular construction projects in Switzerland, transforming neglected water reservoirs in Colombia to reimagining a 113,000 square metre prison in Bangladesh.

“What set the Holcim Foundation Awards apart was that, rather than rewarding completed projects, the program recognised 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,” writes Laura Viscovich, Executive Director, Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.

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.

Thanks to the help of the Holcim Foundation, he is now a “world-renowned designer whose ideas commanded serious attention.”

Shifting the sustainability conversation

“What started as a question: Can we build sustainably?, became an expectation,” writes Laura.

Due to the range of partners, researchers, and city leaders connected with Holcim, it has a more in-depth understanding of what the answer to this question looks like.

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Sustainability definitions have expanded from only encompassing energy performance to including sustainable materials, governance, cultural identity and community agency.

Holcim states that the challenge today is scaling sustainable construction, especially in cities where climate pressures are increasing, populations are growing and the demand for resilient infrastructure is increasing.

“Cities concentrate both the greatest risks and the greatest opportunities for sustainable and regenerative development,” writes Laura.

“This is where the Holcim Foundation is now focusing its energies.”

Holcim Foundation’s next chapter

Due to the changing climate of sustainable development, the Holcim Foundation is beginning a new chapter.

The company is focusing on responsible urban development, taking into account how cities are built, renewed and looked after.

Holcim’s renewed Board of Trustees brings together expertise from Arup, Ramboll, Urban Partners and Holcim.

The company is also partnering with C40 Cities via the Reinventing Cities initiative.

The initiative brings together governments, the private sector and future generations, aiming to drive low-carbon, resilient urban development.

Through this partnership, new competitions for urban planning and design professionals will invite teams to reimagine underutilised sites in cities. 

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 neighbourhoods.

“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 energised by the future and the shared opportunity we have to accelerate responsible urban development worldwide,” writes Laura.