The Holcim Awards is the most significant global competition in sustainable design. It seeks leading projects of professionals as well as bold ideas from the Next Generation that combine sustainable construction solutions with architectural excellence. Organized by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, the competition identifies the ideas with the highest potential to tackle today’s challenges to increasing urbanization and to improve quality of life. 

Projects and concepts from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, planning, technology, and civil and materials engineering are eligible to be entered online in the USD 2 million Awards competition; it closes for submissions on March 21, 2017. The competition’s main category is open to architects, planners, engineers, students of related disciplines, project owners, builders and construction firms that showcase sustainable responses to technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues within contemporary building and construction. Projects must have reached an advanced stage of design, have a high probability of execution, and may not have started construction before July 4, 2016.

Participants up to the age of 30 years of age can also submit visionary concepts and bold ideas in the competition, irrespective of the probability of actual implementation of the project: the Next Generation category specifically seeks “blue-sky” solutions by students and young professionals.

The competition is divided in five geographic regions – each with its own jury of renowned specialists. Projects are evaluated according to the region in which they are to be built, and are measured against the five “target issues” for sustainable construction which look at a project from a holistic perspective and take its entire lifecycle into account. The criteria cover innovation and transferability; ethical standards and social inclusion; resource and environmental performance; economic viability and compatibility; and, contextual and aesthetic impact. The juries are headed by Harry Gugger (for region Europe), Ray Cole (North America), Angelo Bucci (Latin America), Nagwa Sherif (Middle East Africa) and Donald Bates (Asia Pacific).

The winners will be announced at a series of five consecutive Awards ceremonies in the second half of 2017. Winners automatically qualify for the global Awards competition in 2018.

Support by world-renowned technical universities

The Holcim Awards is conducted in partnership with some of the world’s leading technical universities. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne) leads the Academic Committee of the Holcim Foundation. Other affiliated universities are:American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon; American University of Cairo (AUC), Egypt; Ecole Supérieure d’Architecture de Casablanca (EAC), Morocco; Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay) in Mumbai, India; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA; Tongji University (TJU) in Shanghai, China; Tsinghua University (THU) in Beijing, China; Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO) in Mexico City, Mexico; Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; University of Melbourne, Australia; and University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

Since 2003 the Foundation advances the discourse on sustainable construction through its international Awards competitions, academic Forums and publications. The Foundation is supported by Holcim, the world leader in the building materials industry, but remains independent of commercial interests.