The Holcim Foundation Awards are the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design. 

The competition offers total prize money of USD 1 million across five regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and North America. USD 200,000 in prize money per region is allocated to winners in each region.

Independent expert juries for each region will evaluate entries using the Holcim Foundation’s goals for sustainable construction that serve as a road map to drive system change: uplifting places, a healthy planet, viable economics, and thriving communities.

The Holcim Foundation conducts the global competition to spotlight real-world case studies that accelerate the global movement for sustainable construction.

The Holcim Foundation is a pioneer of the sustainable design and construction movement. It has served as a beacon of thought leadership for the building industry since 2003.

Projects must be client-supported and/or commissioned by a client with the intention of real-world execution. The Holcim Foundation Awards competition is open only to client-supported projects. Prototypes, installations, proof of concepts, interior design, or projects like databases and online directories are not eligible for entry in the competition.

Yes, but construction must not be completed before February 11, 2025. Completion of construction occurs: 

For buildings: when a building completion certificate is issued by the relevant local authority.

For landscape projects: when the space is opened for public use. 

For infrastructure projects: when commissioning is completed. 

No. All submissions will be evaluated according to the Foundation’s goals and principles for sustainable construction.

No. Members of the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 juries are not eligible to be a member of any project submitted in the competition, irrespective of region. 

Yes. Previous entrants / winners are welcome to enter the Holcim Foundation Awards competition again. 

Yes. Provided the entry meets the criteria for participation in the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 competition. If the project has been submitted in another competition, please select “yes” for “Submitted in any other competition*” in Step 3 of the online entry form and provide the relevant details.

No. The Holcim Foundation Awards competition is open only to building and civil engineering works, landscape, urban design and infrastructure projects. Entries in the competition are assessed by independent regional juries using the Foundation’s goals for sustainable construction. A database or online directory would only be able to address these criteria by extrapolating to the sustainability impacts of the component projects and/or products that it lists.

Please note that the online entry form is not optimized for use with In-Browser Translation Apps such as Google Translate, DeepL Translator, etc. These apps may reduce functionality of the system and prevent content from saving. 

Should you wish to translate the entry form from English, we recommend copying text from the online entry form into your translation software and saving your work in a word processing application such as Google Doc, MS Word, etc.

No. You may complete the steps of the entry form in any order. Click in the navigation bar to move between sections: General project information, Sustainability goals, Data sheet, and Project images.

The entry may only be confirmed after all mandatory information is completed and other requirements (eg: character limits in various fields) are met. Error messages will alert you throughout the application process to highlight mandatory fields and other requirements.

The allowed number of characters includes spaces, blank lines and line breaks. It is an approximated value with a certain tolerance. The character limit and remaining number of characters are listed for multiple-line fields. 

The juries will receive all data provided via an online integrated platform.

All participants must be registered before Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 14:00 hrs UTC. Only registered participants can then edit and complete their submission until Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at 14:00 hrs UTC.

A high volume of users accessing the online entry form in the final days of the competition is anticipated. This may slow down the response time of the online entry form as well as the turn-around time for enquiries submitted to the Helpdesk. It is recommended to complete submissions well ahead of the final deadline.

Competition winners will be announced online in mid-October 2025.

Representatives of each winning team will be invited to a Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 ceremony to be held in Venice, Italy on November 20, 2025. Winners of the special recognition prize for each region will be announced at this event. Travel and accommodation expenses for winning team representatives are covered by the Holcim Foundation.

The presentation of winners will be available on livestream, and be accompanied by media releases and media engagement, website updates and social media posts.

The Project Contact will be advised if a submission is nominated for a prize by the end of August 2025. The Project Contact will be further advised of the outcome of the verification process and winner’s confirmation if applicable by mid-October 2025.

Results of the competition must remain confidential until announced by the Holcim Foundation in mid-October 2025.

Entries are evaluated using the Holcim Foundation’s goals for sustainable construction.

The Holcim Foundation believes that a number of interdependent goals and principles for sustainable construction must be understood, mainstreamed, and implemented to succeed in building a better world.

Breakthrough ideas and solutions are needed to accelerate the construction industry’s transformation at speed and scale. These innovative solutions must be transferable to the entire sector to drive further impact. Furthermore, all sustainable building and infrastructure projects must address four interdependent goals with equal conviction:

Uplifting places: Beautiful and spatially relevant structures that work in unison with the local context and culture. Newly designed elements shall be responsive towards the specificities of the place and make an overall positive contribution. Proposals enhance the existing place by leveraging on contextual environmental conditions and biophilia to increase quality and aesthetics.

Healthy planet: Structures that minimize resource use, avoid emissions, and embed solutions to repair ecosystems and restore biodiversity. Resources are used conscientiously, in the logic of minimizing new resources use and carbon footprint. Management of materials, energy, water and waste flows is optimized, while net positive solutions, recovery and regenerative paths are explored and pursued.

Viable economics: Financial planning that combines short term project feasibility with long term circular value creation. Financial planning of projects shall decouple growth from materials and consumption, enabling a circular economy that considers flexibility of use, longevity and reuse. Minimization of externalities and remediation of existing ones, through responsible design practices, are key.

Thriving communities: Inclusive and affordable living environments that cultivate equity, health, and well-being. Projects shall foster socially viable environments, enhancing and rebuilding the social fabric whenever possible, seeking participatory design and informing social equity practices and policies. Fairness and equality of access to services and resources are prerequisites.

For more information on the Holcim Foundation’s goals and principles, visit the Holcim Foundation’s main website at Our Vision.
 

After a technical pre-assessment, individual juries in each of the five regions will evaluate and rank the entries. The juries consist of independent, renowned experts from architecture, urban planning, engineering and related disciplines.

Five regional juries (Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and North America) select the competition winners, using the Holcim Foundation’s goals for sustainable construction. The Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 juries consist of independent experts representing academia and industry. The adjudication process is completely independent of the Holcim Foundation and its sponsor, Holcim.

All goals for sustainable construction are equal in their importance.

After a technical pre-assessment, individual juries in each of the five regions will evaluate and rank the entries. The independent, renowned experts from architecture, urban planning and engineering will meet initially online and then in person to evaluate submissions and select projects to be nominated for Holcim Foundation Awards prizes.

Prize-winning projects receive a jury citation that is published on the Holcim Foundation website on the project page of each winning submission. Due to the large number of projects submitted in the competition it is not possible for the jury to prepare comments for submissions that are not selected to receive a prize.

The competition offers total prize money of USD 1 million with USD 200,000 allocated to each of five regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and North America.

Within each region, the Jury will select four (4) winning projects to receive USD 40,000 each. Winning projects will exemplify best practice and diverse innovative approaches to regional challenges relating to sustainable design and construction.

In addition, the Jury will select one of the four winners to receive a special recognition prize of an additional USD 40,000.

Representatives of each winning team will be invited to a Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 prize event to be held in Venice, Italy on November 20, 2025. Travel and accommodation expenses for team representatives are covered by the Holcim Foundation.

All authors as listed in the submission receive the prize. Members of the team must agree to the distribution of the prize money before the entry is submitted in the competition.

No. The author(s) is/are free to decide how the funds will be used.

The Holcim Foundation Awards are arranged in five geographic regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and North America. Entries are allocated to the region based where the project is located.

Asia Pacific:Afghanistan, American Samoa, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, French Polynesia, Guam, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pitcairn, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam. 

Europe: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican City. 

Latin Americas: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British), Virgin Islands (US). 

Middle East & Africa: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic), Congo (Republic), Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Réunion, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

North America: Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, USA.

External territories are allocated to the geographical region in which they are situated. External territories are land areas that do not possess full political independence or sovereignty and are located outside the controlling state’s integral area. For example, Aruba (an external territory of the Netherlands in the Caribbean) is allocated to region Latin America and not to region Europe.

Transforming the construction sector is a huge task. We are convinced that several interdependent goals and guiding principles for sustainable construction must be understood, mainstreamed, and implemented to succeed in building a better world. These goals for sustainable construction are interdependent and must be pursued with equal conviction:

Uplifting places: Beautiful and spatially relevant structures that work in unison with the local context and culture.

Healthy planet: Structures that minimize resource use, avoid emissions, and embed solutions to repair ecosystems and restore biodiversity.

Viable economics: Financial planning that combines short term project feasibility with long term circular value creation

Thriving communities: Inclusive and affordable living environments that cultivate equity, health, and well-being.

No. There is no charge to enter the Holcim Foundation Awards competition. 

No. The Holcim Foundation Awards entry form and Helpdesk questions may only be submitted in English.

The Project Contact acts as the sole contact between the Holcim Foundation and the legal entities and design teams. The role of Project Contact can be assigned to a Main Author, Further Author, or non-author. 

Only one person may be designated as Project Contact (authorized representative) at any time. The Project Contact can be changed using the “Transfer Contact” button on the “Team Members” tab of any open project with multiple team members.

No written applications (hard copy) will be accepted. The submission of entries is only possible using the online entry form. If you have any difficulties in using the online entry form, please contact the Helpdesk.

It is mandatory to include a figure under cost of construction. This is an important element because it gives a sense of the scale of the project and informs regarding its economic viability. 

Please use US dollars (USD) and include the following elements: 

Construction works: including excavation, foundations, external walls, internal walls, floors and ceilings, roofs, structural fittings and other construction-related activities such as site equipment, scaffolding, and demolition work.

Services: including sewage, water and gas systems, heat supply systems, air treatment systems, power installations, telecommunications and other communications systems, transport systems, function-related equipment and fittings, building automation and other services-related work.

Images must be:

Minimum size: 2,400 x 1,800 pixels

Maximum size: 25MB

Format: .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .png only

Ratio: there is no restriction on image ratios. You can include landscape, portrait, square, etc.

No. It is not possible to submit files or include links to any additional material including video or slide presentations.

The design of a standardized entry form aims to provide each project author/team with an equal opportunity as all other submissions to capture the attention of the independent regional jury.

The Internet speed may be too slow, or security settings may be preventing uploads. If you are unable to resolve the problem, please contact the Helpdesk.

A comprehensive list of responses to the most frequent questions about the Holcim Foundation Awards competition is available on this FAQs platform. If, after consulting the FAQ list, your question is not resolved, or there are specific technical inquiries, please contact the Helpdesk.

The Project Contact and/including Project Authors of any project nominated for a Holcim Foundation Awards prize agree to supply the Holcim Foundation with any additional documentation required to substantiate their submission including evidence of client support as part of the due diligence process (Jun/Sept 2025) before prizes are confirmed (Oct 2025).

The Project Authors agree that at least one (1) representative of any project to receive a Holcim Foundation Awards prize will be physically present for the Awards Ceremony on November 20, 2025 in Venice, Italy. Project authors will be guests of the Holcim Foundation (including transport and accommodation). The authors agree to attend the Holcim Foundation Awards ceremony and participate in related events (such as a media briefing, panel discussion, etc).

The Project Authors agree to provide substantive updates to the Holcim Foundation on the progress of their project every six (6) months until one (1) year after the project is completed. The format of these updates may include a written report or web-meeting as well as imagery and/or interviews. To help put leading-edge thinking and best practice solutions in the hands of everyone, the focus of the updates will be on how the project achieved the sustainability goals stated by the authors in the Holcim Awards entry submission and/or the nature of challenges that arose during the construction stage that impacted the project’s sustainability goals and how those were addressed.

All statements will be subject to an intensive validation process for any submission in the competition that is nominated by the juries. This validation process takes place after the jury meeting and before winners are announced and prizes conferred. 

Projects that are unable to substantiate any data in the submission may be excluded from the competition. 

No. The Holcim Foundation Awards recognize contributions to sustainable construction in architecture, engineering, urban planning, materials science, construction technology, and related fields.

Yes. There is no limit to the number of submissions that any individual or team may enter in the competition.

No. There is no limit to the number of project main authors and further authors that can be listed.

No. Project authors are at complete liberty to select their own construction partners. The Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 competition is conducted by the Foundation and is independent from the commercial interests of the Foundation’s sponsor.

Yes, clients/investors may enter the competition and must acknowledge the professionals who have developed the design of the project. If more than one person has the right to be the author, the details of all team members should be included in the application. All members would receive the prize. Legal entities and design teams must name an authorized representative (ie: Project Contact) who will act as the sole responsible contact person.

Every author is required to individually clarify their eligibility for participation. The eligibility of the authors will be rechecked after the meeting of the jury. The applicant must also advise how any prize money received would be distributed (in %) for each author.

Only if the team member is not directly involved in the preparation or running of the competition. 

According to the conditions of entry (impediments / conflict of interest), “Persons who, due to their collaboration in the preparation or running of the competition, might be in a favored position, able to influence the jury’s decision or have any other (matured or unmatured) conflict of interest are ineligible to enter the competition.

Yes. Any entry that has not been submitted can be deleted from the entry form dashboard by clicking on “View” then “Delete Project”. To withdraw an entry that has been submitted, or after the close of the competition, please contact the Helpdesk.

Projects that are in the late design phase or already under construction are eligible, only if construction is not completed before February 11th, 2025. Completion of construction occurs: 

• For buildings: when a building completion certificate is issued by the relevant local authority.
• For landscape projects: when the space is opened for public use. 
• For infrastructure projects: when commissioning is completed.

In alignment with the Holcim Foundation’s goals for sustainable construction, which include the principle of equity and inclusion, we do not restrict entry in the Awards competition.

If (i) the project location (country/territory) and/or the project contact/team is located, organized or resident in a country or territory that is subject to a comprehensive trade embargo, currently including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, the Crimea region, the Kherson region, the Zaporizhzhya region, the Donetsk People’s Republic region, or the Luhansk People’s Republic region (collectively, Sanctioned Countries), or (ii) if a member of the project team is a sanctioned person or deemed as a sanctioned person, or subject to any restriction or prohibition under any applicable sanction laws including but not limited those enforced by the United States, the European Union, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, United Nations (collectively, Sanctioned Laws), or (iii) if a member of the project team is part of or otherwise affiliated with any government of a Sanctioned Country or of Venezuela, or any political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any political party, of any Sanctioned Country government or the government of Venezuela; or (iv) if a member of the project team is acting for or on behalf of any of the foregoing, it will not be possible to transfer prize money to the project contact.

In such cases, the Foundation will donate the prize money to a non-profit organization mutually agreed with the project contact that is based in a non-sanctioned country.

Although the right of authorship, including protection against the copying of ideas, and the right to publication of the design remains with each author, the latter explicitly grants the Holcim Foundation and Holcim the right to use the data, documents, images and files submitted in its entirety or partly, in original or edited format, internally or externally, in every form and for any purpose whatsoever in relation to the Holcim Foundation Awards competition.

All Holcim Foundation Awards prize-winning projects will be presented in various print and electronic communications by the Holcim Foundation and Holcim. Submitted projects may be compiled by the Holcim Foundation for public access in electronic and/or printed format, giving credit to the authors and their collaborators in compliance with the authorship declaration.