Design as a Springboard to Sustainability

The Holcim Foundation successfully concluded its inaugural two-week Fellowship in New York City this past August. This intensive program brought together a diverse cohort of 15 master’s students, young professionals, and 36 experts in sustainable design and construction from across North America.

Fellows engaged in a dynamic program of workshops, lectures, site visits, and collaborative projects hosted by partner firms Henning Larsen, Arup, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Key highlights included decarbonization workshops led by David Benjamin, site visits to notable sustainable projects like the Bloomberg Center at Cornell Tech, Hunters Point South Park, and the future site of the New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island. Presentations from leading experts on sustainable materials, the circular economy, and social sustainability sparked interdisciplinary discussions among Fellows and professionals.

For a closer look at the experience, visit the Holcim Foundation website to watch an after-movie, and explore a digital publication where the Fellows present 15 innovative projects addressing net-zero developments, social equity, and resilience.

The 9th webinar in our series focusing on Holcim Awards winning projects will be held in Spanish and features two winners of the Holcim Awards 2023 from Latin America which demonstrate environmentally conscious approaches to reviving local communities and making them more resilient to shocks. In this conversation steered by urban planning scholar Andrés Ramirez, the two projects’ respective team members – Iván Forgioni and Carolina Rodas – will unpack their designs and reveal what it takes to revive at-risk communities.

San José De Nueva Venecia School (Colombia) will expand and renovate an existing school that caters to about 2,000 people living on the Great Swamp of Santa Marta. It is envisioned as a set of four pavilions on water to curb the region’s high-illiteracy rate (currently at 57%). Interventions like passive cooling, modular design, use of local wood, and in-built wastewater treatment systems will reduce emissions and pollution.

Saving Portete - Sustainable Island (Ecuador) aims to revive the ecology and culture of Isla Portete from urbanisation impacts and the aftermath of the 2016 earthquake. By creating opportunities for ecotourism, improving amenities, using endemic building materials and techniques, and involving the locals in the design-construction process, the project will help them rebuild, and mitigate the need for migration.

The conversation Reviviendo Comunidades: Diseñar para la Resiliencia will be followed by a Q&A round, where you will get the opportunity to ask your most pressing questions about realising sustainable architecture to the Holcim Awards winners.

Following a community-driven design process led by our Next Generation Ambassadors, a rural health facility is starting to take shape on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. Funded by the Holcim Foundation grant program, the Clinic of Care: Tanzania project in the village of Nkweshoo will deliver a 200-square-meter extension and upgrade to the current maternity and community health facilities.

The aim of the project set for completion in early 2025 was to design and build the new maternity ward while documenting and choreographing the design process, and maintaining a high degree of care. The project serves an acute local healthcare need, while also creating an opportunity to employ, learn from, and empower the local community.

The Holcim Foundation’s six Next Generation Ambassadors are emerging practitioners who work together to enable the transfer of sustainable solutions ideas across regions. They focus on building a culture that amplifies the exchange of the latest thinking and best practice in sustainable design.