Holcim Foundation Awards

The world’s most significant competition for sustainable design - showcasing projects that contribute to the transformation of the building sector.

The competition is free to enter and is open to client-supported and commissioned projects in the detailed design phase that are yet to be realized. Projects already under construction are eligible, provided construction is not completed before February 11, 2025.

Winners of the 2025 competition will be announced in October 2025, and celebrated at the Awards Ceremony on November 20, 2025, in Venice, Italy.

  • Before, I was seen as a nice young man from Africa building schools. After winning the Holcim Foundation Awards, people started calling me a designer, and it paved the way for my career.

    Francis Kéré | Awards Winner 2012

  • This is not a project trying to bring a solution to a specific location, but trying to answer the common problems we are facing worldwide.

    Zuhal Kol | Awards Winner 2023

  • Global LafargeHolcim Awards 2018 – Jury meeting, March 9 2018 – Zurich

    The Holcim Foundation Awards highlight each project’s contribution to solve a collective need and thus transform it into a collective desire.

    Alejandro Aravena | Awards Winner 2011

  • When the Holcim Foundation awarded BIG, it was a great encouragement to keep fighting the battles and finding the solutions.

    Bjarke Ingels | Awards Winner 2015

  • “The shaping of water” in Fifth LafargeHolcim Awards – Sustainable Construction 2017/2018

    Winning the Holcim Foundation Awards helped us to convince the decision-makers behind this project of its many benefits.

    Loreta Castro Reguera | Awards Winner 2018

  • Winning a Holcim Foundation Award helped to validate the sustainability achievements that we can distil from this building.

    Ünal Karamuk | Awards Winner 2018

Supercharging the best projects in sustainable design and construction

The Holcim Foundation Awards were created to recognise and promote projects that combine sustainable design and sustainable construction with architectural excellence.

The Holcim Foundation Awards competition was created in 2004 by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction to identify and celebrate shining examples of leading-edge thinking from across the building industry. 

Since its launch, seven Awards cycles have been completed with over 340 prizes conferred - recognizing 20 further projects in the Holcim Foundation Awards 2023.


Holcim Foundation Awards 2023 winners

  • Infinito Delicias

    Infinito Delicias

    360° co-design process for rehabilitation of an industrial building

    Infinito Delicias

  • Fujian Tulou

    Fujian Tulou

    Conservation and adaptive reuse of heritage buildings

    Fujian Tulou

  • Surf Ghana Collective

    Surf Ghana Collective

    Youth empowerment and responsible tourism co-operative

    Surf Ghana Collective

  • Utopia Estrella Iztapalapa

    Utopia Estrella Iztapalapa

    Urban forest and social infrastructure precinct


    Utopia Estrella Iztapalapa

  • 1925 Victoria Park Ave

    1925 Victoria Park Ave

    High-tech and low-cost modular housing solution for urban living

    1925 Victoria Park Ave

The winners of the Holcim Foundation Awards for 2023 underscore the breadth of diverse and innovative real-world approaches to transforming the built environment. The projects exemplify the growing global effort to provide holistic design and construction responses that advance multiple aspects of sustainable development.

A chronology of sustainable construction

138 countries

With more than 30,000 entries received from 138 countries over the past two decades.

The reach of the Holcim Foundation Awards competition is truly global. The competition and winning projects inspire us all to continue advocating for the rapid deployment of existing solutions that will contribute to a future where both humanity and our ecosystems can regenerate and thrive.