Heritage and Tradition: Innovating for a Sustainable Future

• Tiantian Xu, Architect, DnA_Design and Architecture, China - Fujian Tulou in China
• Joshua Bolchover, Director, District Development Unit, Hong Kong - Ger Plug-In 3.0 in Mongolia
• Moderated by Nirmal Kishnani

Sustainability is a journey. Ecogradia is back with a new series of ten episodes to find out from world-leading players how to forge ahead, keep faith, beat the odds, and put ideas to work, right from the drawing board.

We traverse the globe, weaving a tapestry of stories and solutions through conversations that delve into the journey and motivations of practitioners who have become sustainability champions. We want to know how they got “here”.

August 1 – December 19, 2023

The climate crisis is here. Extreme weather is perturbing all lives rapidly across the world. How should buildings and cities respond? Should action be rooted in science or vernacular know-how? Or maybe both?

One word sums up the interviews: diversity. We spoke with practitioners from regions as far-flung as Africa, Mexico and India. We also asked thought leaders about their takes on questions feeding the global conversation: How does carbon shape design? What products should we buy? How do boardrooms affect thinking at the drawing board?

November 18, 2023

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has announced the winners of its international Holcim Awards for 2023, underscoring the breadth of diverse and innovative real-world approaches to transforming the built environment.         

Find out more about the 20 Holcim Awards 2023 winners and watch a replay/highlights from the Holcim Awards 2023 ceremony.

October 24, 2023

This event featured four speakers presenting the latest technologies that are transforming construction: Claire du Plessis, Architect, Start Somewhere; Max Rudolph, Co-Founder, Form Follows You; Dominik Campanella, Co-Founder and CEO, Concular; and Alexander Happ, Alexander Happ Managing Director and Founder, Assiduus³. They were joined by three industry experts to challenge their ideas: Emanuel Heisenberg, Founder and CEO, Ecoworks; Christine Lemaitre, CEO, German Sustainable Building Council; and Stuart Smith, Director, ARUP and Member of the Board, Holcim Foundation.

August 26, 2023

Focusing on the Javanese vernacular Joglo typology, this one-day roundtable explored building strategies, emerging digital technologies, and broader analyses of architecture and cultural change. The panels and keynotes explored approaches to preservation from building strategies and emerging digital technologies to broader analyses of architecture and cultural change.

June 19, 2023

This event featured four speakers presenting their cutting-edge ideas for sustainable construction: Matteo Baldassari, Founder and CEO, Concr3de; Nadia Fani, Founder and CEO, Coastruction; Marvin Henry, Senior Manager Avoided Emissions, WBCSD; and Friso Klapwijk, Global Director Urban Climate Resilience, Wavin. They were joined by three industry experts to challenge their ideas: Lot Locher, International Director Climate, One Architecture & Urbanism; Jan Wurm, Europe Venturing Lead and EU Engagement Lead, Arup; and Harm Albert Zanting, Director Enviro-Socio Planning at Global Business Area Resilience, Arcadis.

January 25 – June 6, 2023

Ecogradia Season 2 podcasts examines how better buildings and better urban systems contribute to achieving a sustainable future. Across ten episodes, Ecogradia hosted by strategist, author, and educator Dr Nirmal Kishnani, examines the importance of considering natural systems in delivering innovation and solutions on the sustainability frontlines.

April 4, 2023

Columbia University, New York City, USA

The Holcim Foundation Impact Summit brought together key players across the construction and real estate value chains under the theme “Embodied Carbon: America’s Next Frontier”. The goal was to identify innovative ways to accelerate the reduction of embodied carbon for buildings in the US in the short term.

March 7, 2023

Zurich, Switzerland

At the first Sounding Board, three speakers presented their cutting-edge ideas on material-efficient construction, re-use beyond recycling, and fabrication-aware generative design. These ideas were then challenged and put to the test by three industry experts.

November 18 - December 13 2022

Ecogradia is a new podcast looking for answers and more through stories, ideas and solutions from experts and practitioners at the front lines of sustainable architecture and urbanism. Hosted by strategist, author and educator Dr Nirmal Kishnani, the podcast is devoted to sustainable architecture and urbanism. The series includes interviews with experts and practitioners about innovation and solutions on the sustainability frontlines.

November 14-18, 2022

Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid

The Holcim Foundation supported the Norman Foster Foundation workshop Cities: Affordable Housing held in Madrid in November 2022. With contributions from a multidisciplinary range of leading experts, the workshop addressed the provision of affordable housing in cities of different contexts globally. The workshop looked at how the various stakeholders can meet demand for housing in cities while exploring what architecture and design can do to meet the challenge.

March 31 - April 1, 2022

Zweideln, Switzerland

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction held a workshop with a hand-selected group of next generation experts to plot future challenges and ideas on transforming the built environment. In a first-of-its kind event for the Holcim Foundation, the workshop brought together the 11 members of its Next Generation Accelerator (NGX) group representing ten countries and five continents – to develop suggestions for the Foundation’s future strategy and activities.

November 15-19, 2021

Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid, Spain

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction joined forces with the Norman Foster Foundation to support a workshop dedicated to housing. This workshop offered a platform for the next generation of researchers and practitioners to meet in a week-long laboratory to explore how to rematerialise housing in the long term.

April 4-6, 2019

American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction invited leading thinkers from architecture, engineering, planning, and the construction industry to a three-day forum hosted by The American University in Cairo. The keynote speakers, panel discussions, workshop exchanges and site visits expanded knowledge on how materials management, materials flows and circular design must play central roles to achieve a more sustainable world.

September 6, 2018

Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO) in Mexico City, Mexico

50 Next Generation 2017 Awards winners from around the world met at the Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO) in Mexico City to encourage progress towards sustainability in building and construction. The Lab provided a platform to further develop cutting-edge projects and exchange ideas in concurrent workshops across scales from micro to macro – from innovative materials and individual buildings, through to regional and global impacts.

March 9-10, 2018

Institute for Lightweight Structures & Conceptual Design (ILEK), University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

The third Holcim Roundtable for Sustainable Construction “Re-materializing Construction” was a workshop positioned to discuss content, choreography and potential outcomes of the Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction “Re-materializing Construction” to be held at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt from April 4 to 6, 2019. The Roundtable included four workshops to devise a clear agenda in preparation for the Forum.

April 7-9, 2016 

Detroit, USA

“Infrastructure Space” was the topic of the three-day symposium and examined how to deliver long-term infrastructure that is aligned with sustaining human habitat. View video/audio recordings of all keynote addresses and a rich gallery of images from the Forum. Leading thinkers from architecture, civil engineering, urban planning, social science, business, and industry from 40 countries met in Detroit at the 5th International Holcim Forum on April 7-9, 2016.

September 24, 2015

New York, USA

53 Next Generation 2014 Awards winners from around the world met in New York to exchange ideas about the future of sustainable construction. Significantly, the event was held during Climate Week NYC 2015, with Pope Francis addressing the United Nations General Assembly on climate change the following day.

June 28 - July 1, 2015

Bibliothek Werner Oechslin, Einsiedeln, Switzerland

The second Holcim Roundtable for Sustainable Construction “Re-materializing Construction” aimed to develop strategies at two scales: material use in individual buildings and the logistical chains distributing these materials across regions.

The Holcim Roundtable brought together experts from 12 countries dedicated to specific topics related to the building sector with the objective of developing strategies to “re-materialize” construction by reducing consumption throughout the material cycle from extraction to processing, transport, installation, maintenance, and removal. The Roundtable was held at the Bibliothek Werner Oechslin, Einsiedeln, Switzerland in June/July 2015.

June 30 - July 2, 2014

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

The inaugural Holcim Roundtable for Sustainable Construction “Re-materializing Construction” concentrated on issues of materials, stocks and flows, availability, lightweight assemblies, life cycle, re-use, and related themes. The Holcim Roundtable brought together experts from 10 countries dedicated to specific topics related to the building sector with the objective of generating and channeling new knowledge to “re-materialize” construction, and was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA in mid-2014.

April 10-13, 2013 

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay), Mumbai, India

The Economy of Sustainable Construction explores new paradigms of construction and prosperity that can work with our environment, rather than against it. No panacea for the environmental, economic, and social problems is presented in the book, but two broad strategies are postulated: firstly, short-term economic incentives for sustainable construction and; secondly, more holistic approaches to building concerned less with profits and more with social and ecological sustainability.

April 13-17, 2010

Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO), Mexico City, Mexico

Taking an array of disciplines associated with the production of the human-made environment into consideration, the focus of the 3rd International Holcim Forum “Re-inventing Construction” was on knowledge mining and dissemination, material and product life cycle assessment, CO2 emissions and energy efficiency, considered deployment of means and economic resources, measured public and private policies, as well as on social welfare and equity.

April 18-21, 2007 

Tongji University, Shanghai, China

What will the city of Shanghai look like 20 years from now? How will the growing city balance economic, environmental and social needs of its people? More than 250 experts and scholars from over 40 countries gathered in Shanghai to debate these and other aspects of tomorrow’s approaches to urban development.

September 15-18, 2004

ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

The first ever Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction was held at the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). Under the banner of "Basic Needs", experts and students from all over the world gathered to take part in workshops, debates, and lectures on a wide variety of topics surrounding housing, water supplies and road access, as essential elements of society's infrastructure.