Holcim Foundation Awards

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Over the past twenty years, the Holcim Foundation Awards has committed USD 20M to spotlighting projects from an industry-changing cast of architects, designers, and engineers who champion innovative practices in sustainable design and construction.

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The world's leading competition for sustainable design, Holcim Foundation Awards 2025, is calling for entries. The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation invites innovative projects at any scale, supported by clients and in the late-stage design phase, to compete for global recognition. The competition is free of charge with a prize pool of USD 1M and will be awarded across 20 winning entries.

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The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction announced the winners of the 2023 edition, celebrating projects that showcase innovative approaches to sustainable construction practices. For the Europe region, the Gold Prize was awarded to Husos, Elli, and Ultrazul for their project “Composition of Knowledge House.” In a video interview with the winners, they explain the details of this rehabilitation project. Developed for the Carasso Foundation headquarters, the project uses an innovative “360° co-design process” to promote inclusivity and community involvement.

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Celebrating groundbreaking projects that showcase sustainable construction practices, this year’s winners of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction 2023 highlight innovative approaches across various scales, forms, geographies, and forms. The Gold Prize for North America was awarded to Partisans Architects and Well-Grounded Real Estate with their high-tech, low-cost modular housing solution for urban living in Toronto. In a video interview for ArchDaily, Jonathan Diamond from Well-Grounded Real Estate discusses the development of the winning project and the forces that shaped it.

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Located in Mexico City, the municipality of Iztapalapa has some of the most densely populated areas within the metropole. Serving a population of 1,800,000 people, many of them with lower incomes, the municipality struggles to provide sufficient public spaces and amenities. In an effort to correct this, the administration set out to take underutilized and abandoned plots of land and transform them for public use. Utopia Estrella is one of these initiatives. Located near Mexico City’s largest water treatment plant, the project combines a socially engaging architectural program with a pedagogical approach to the role of water infrastructures in the larger ecosystem. Designed by Cano Vera Arquitectura, the project has been recognized as the Gold Prize Winner of the Holcim Awards 2023 for Latin America. In a video interview for ArchDaily, Juan Carlos Cano of Cano Vera Arquitectura discusses the impact of this project, its goals, and the unique conditions that led to its development.

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At the initiative of the Surf Ghana Collective, architects Glenn DeRoché and Jurgen Strohmayer, the co-founders of DeRoché Strohmayer, set out to transform a small waterfront plot in Busua, a surfing hotspot on Ghana’s western coast. The result is a dynamic community hub, complete with amenities for local surfers, but also providing spaces for the entire community to gather in and off-season. The project has been recognized as the winner of the Gold Prize of Holcim Awards 2023 for the Middle East and Africa commended for the profound local impact and the resourceful approach to construction techniques. In a video interview for ArchDaily, architects Glenn DeRoché and Jurgen Strohmayer discuss the development of this initiative and the innovations that shaped it.

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In the mountain valleys of China’s Fujian Province, thousands of large, rammed earth fortresses lay abandoned. Once used for both defense and collective housing, the tulou typology is an integral part of the region’s cultural heritage, with 46 of them being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Despite this, the rural communities surrounding them have struggled to find new roles and purposes for these buildings. Going beyond the need for conservation, architect Xu Tiantian of DnA_Design and Architecture set out to develop and adapt this heritage to reintroduce it into community life. The Fujian Tulou | Adaptive Reuse project recently won the Gold Prize of Holcim Awards 2023 for Asia-Pacific, recognized for creating “an exemplary model for building conservation initiatives.” In a video interview for ArchDaily, Xu Tiantian discusses the principles that underpin this initiative and the potential outcomes of adaptive reuse in rural communities.

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Moderated by David Basulto, Co-Founder and editor-in-chief at ArchDaily, the panel featured Jury Chairs for the Holcim Awards 2023 competition, Lesley Lokko, Belinda Tato, Craig Dykers, Manit Rastogi, and Tatiana Bilbao, who explained how the winning projects contributed to the industry's global knowledge network across regions, and how the construction industry is heading towards a sustainable practice.

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has revealed the winning projects for the Holcim Awards 2023 competition, as well as the silver, bronze, and acknowledgement prizes, at a ceremony on November 18 in Venice, Italy. Evaluated by a jury comprising five independent expert panels from around the world, these projects were chosen to highlight contextual and practical approaches to sustainable construction, showcasing diversity across scales, budgets, geographies, and forms. On another hand, Francis Kéré winner of the Global Holcim Gold in 2012 and Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2022 took the stage at the event to talk about the influence of the Holcim Award on his career.

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Watch live the Holcim Awards 2023 Ceremony on November 18, broadcasted from Venice, Italy during the final weeks of the Biennale Architettura 2023 - 18th International Architecture Exhibition, to discover the winners and the ranking of the nominees. Consisting of five independent expert panels from around the globe, the jury has chosen projects that demonstrate contextual and practical approaches to sustainable construction, divided into regional categories: Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, and North America.

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has unveiled the list of 20 finalists for the Holcim Awards 2023 competition. The jury, composed of five independent expert panels worldwide, has selected the projects to showcase contextual and practicable approaches to sustainable construction, exemplifying a diverse range of scales, budgets, geographies, and forms. The ranking of the nominees will be announced at the Holcim Awards 2023 Ceremony scheduled for November 18 in Venice, Italy during the final weeks of the Biennale Architettura 2023 - 18th International Architecture Exhibition.

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The built environment shapes all our lives. It is also largely responsible for human-made alterations to our planet’s ecosystems. So, to allow all life on earth to be sustained, we must urgently transform the way we build – at pace and at scale. As a non-profit organization deeply committed to enabling this change, the Holcim Foundation has reshaped its flagship Holcim Awards competition to focus on bringing to light and rewarding real-world case studies that exemplify the most innovative practice in sustainable construction.

Led by American Lebanese architect Hashim Sarkis, the jury of the global Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction has announced the winners of the sixth edition of the global competition at a handover ceremony at the 2021 Venice Biennale in Italy.

Emerging from over 6,000 entries, three winners of the fourth Global Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction have been selected. The international competition, occurring every three years, recognizes designs that provide sustainable solutions to local issues faced by communities throughout the world. This year's winning projects addressed sites in Colombia, Sri Lanka, and the United States and will receive monetary prizes ranging from $50,000 to $200,000.

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Teams from Turkey and Lebanon have received top honors in the 2014 regional Holcim Awards for Africa Middle East, an award which recognizes the most innovative and advanced sustainable construction designs. Among the top three winners is an “Eco-Park” sustainable research and technology center embedded within the terraced, industrial landscape of Ankara.