As climate change redraws coastlines, alters rainfall, and shifts ecosystems, more people will be forced to reckon with water not as a force to resist, but as a companion to live alongside. These Holcim Foundation Awards prize-winning projects offer lessons from communities who have learned to do just that — not through high-tech defences or emergency responses, but by integrating water into the rhythms of daily life, with grace, care, and imagination.

We look at how eight former Holcim Foundation Awards winning projects have designed with water, rather than against it:

Rebuilding an Island Community Means Restoring Belonging

Saving Portete | Ecuador

Disasters don’t just damage buildings — they disrupt social fabric, memory, and identity. But rebuilding offers more than a chance to restore what was lost; it’s an opportunity to reassert values, adapt traditions, and strengthen community ties. Research shows that community-led reconstruction efforts, when grounded in local knowledge, produce more durable, culturally resonant outcomes than externally imposed solutions [1]. Architecture, in this context, becomes a vessel for continuity as much as for change.

In 2016, a devastating earthquake displaced the entire island community of Portete in Ecuador — more than 80 families forced to leave their homes. Working closely with residents, the design team from RAMA studio sought not only to rebuild but to reimagine the island’s future. The result was a new settlement plan that combined affordable, decent housing with low-impact infrastructure, blending traditional construction techniques with seismic resilience. More than a physical upgrade, the project re-established the island as a place of dignity, connection, and self-sufficiency.

Living on an island amplifies the stakes of community design. Access to resources, mobility, and daily survival are all conditioned by the surrounding water. In Portete, embracing water meant strengthening the internal bonds of the community — restoring not just buildings, but autonomy. The project shows how architecture can support both environmental balance and social continuity, even at the margins.

A School Can Ground a Community — Even When it Floats

San José de Nueva Venecia School | Colombia

Schools are more than spaces for learning — they provide stability, routine, and identity, especially in places where the physical environment is in flux. In low-lying or water-bound settlements, educational infrastructure must contend not just with access, but with health, hygiene, and long-term habitability. Studies show that access to decentralised sanitation and clean water in schools directly improves student attendance, public health, and community resilience [2].

In the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta — a wetland region recognised by UNESCO for its ecological significance [3] — the San José de Nueva Venecia School is built on palafitic architecture: traditional wooden stilts that lift structures above the swamp. Designed by FP-Arquitectura from Medellín, the school honours local building traditions while integrating contemporary systems for safety and sustainability. Since the community has no sewerage infrastructure, the school treats wastewater through biodigester tanks, which purify it before releasing it back into the marsh — improving water quality and reducing ecological impact.

The project also manifests itself as a meeting place that extends beyond school hours, encouraging adult literacy and lifelong learning. In a landscape defined by water, the school becomes a civic anchor — fostering education, public health, and social connection all in one. It teaches by doing: showing that architecture can ground a community even when the ground itself is water.

Floating Isn’t Futuristic — It’s Ancestral

Re-adapting Buoyant Vernacular Architecture | Indonesia

Long before the term “amphibious architecture” entered design discourse, communities in Southeast Asia had mastered it. In floodplain and delta regions, people developed lightweight, flexible homes that could respond to seasonal water fluctuations — rising and falling with the tides, rather than resisting them. These vernacular systems reflect a form of lived resilience: one rooted in ecology, cultural knowledge, and the realities of place [4].

With support from a Holcim Foundation Research in Practice Grant, the Re-adapting Buoyant Vernacular Architecture project revisits these traditions in Bandung, Indonesia. The team investigates how indigenous construction methods — including timber frameworks, floating foundations, and open floor plans — offer valuable models for affordable, low-impact housing today. By adapting these systems for contemporary use, the research highlights the potential of heritage-based innovation. It’s not about going backward, but moving forward with knowledge that has already proven its worth — especially in a world where water is no longer optional, but inevitable.

Rivers Aren’t Barriers — They’re Civic Connectors

Flussbad Berlin | Germany

Urban rivers have long been treated as back-of-house infrastructure — channelled, concreted, and hidden from public life. But across Europe, cities are rediscovering waterways as civic assets: spaces for recreation, ecological recovery, and cultural renewal. Research shows that integrating blue infrastructure into urban public space can strengthen community identity, increase biodiversity, and contribute to climate adaptation [5]. When water is treated not as a boundary but as a place, it reconnects the city to itself.

In Berlin, the Flussbad project proposes to transform a disused arm of the River Spree — running alongside Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site — into a 745-metre public swimming precinct. The design by architects realities:united includes a natural reed-bed filtration system, removal of hard canal walls, and stepped access that invites Berliners to return to the river. More than a leisure facility, it’s a reimagining of urban heritage: turning industrial water into a living, accessible commons.

Progress has been steady. Since winning a Holcim Foundation Awards prize in 2011 and 2012, the Flussbad Berlin association has built public support through education programs and demonstration events. Water quality tests have shown promising results, and planning permissions for pilot infrastructure are underway. In a city defined by its layers of history, Flussbad Berlin shows how even protected urban cores can adapt — bringing water back not just as memory, but as experience.

Restoring Waterways Starts with Restoring Relationships

Living with Lakes Centre | Canada

Freshwater ecosystems are under increasing pressure from urbanisation, industry, and climate change — yet they remain some of the least protected and most essential elements of ecological health. In Canada, the Boreal Shield contains one of the world’s largest intact freshwater systems, playing a critical role in biodiversity, climate regulation, and Indigenous lifeways [6]. Supporting its long-term resilience requires not just better environmental policy, but spaces that foster meaningful research, dialogue, and stewardship [7].

Led by Laurentian University, the Living with Lakes Centre was created to do exactly that. Located in Sudbury, Ontario, the project brings together scientists, students, and community members to research and restore the ecological integrity of northern lakes and wetlands. The building is LEED Canada–NC v1.0 Platinum (2014). In operation (2013-15), it averaged ~367 ekWh/m²·yr with energy intensity improving from ~384 → ~334 ekWh/m²·yr; natural-gas use fell ~58% (38,568→16,073 m³) as the geothermal system took more load [8]. Nestled beside Ramsey Lake, the centre treats its site as a teaching tool — integrating naturalised landscaping, stormwater filtration, and lake-sensitive design to model the very principles it promotes.

Here, sustainability is not a separate function — it is embedded in both form and mission. Living with Lakes demonstrates how architecture can serve ecosystems not just symbolically, but materially — supporting the long-term health of land and water by enabling the people who study, protect, and depend on them.

Reviving the Stream as a Catalyst for Urban Renewal

Stream Co-Habitat | Türkiye

In many cities, urban streams have been diverted, enclosed, or confined to engineered channels — often reducing their ecological function and separating them from everyday life. Yet restoring a watercourse can yield far more than environmental benefits. Research shows that integrating natural water systems into urban design supports biodiversity, reduces urban heat, and enhances community wellbeing [9].

Led by Openact Architecture based in Madrid, the Stream Co-Habitat project reimagines a neglected stream corridor in Tuzla, on the outskirts of Istanbul, as a shared ecological and social space. The design includes 8.9 km of cycleways, the conversion of 11,000 m² of asphalt into permeable green surfaces, and habitat restoration features such as bioswales for runoff filtration and nesting areas for native fauna. Rather than relegating water to the background, the project brings it to the centre of community experience.

Here, co-habitation means more than just species sharing space — it reflects a design approach that integrates movement, landscape, and life. Stream Co-Habitat demonstrates how reviving a waterway can knit together fragmented environments and create spaces where both ecosystems and urban communities can thrive.

You Can’t Keep Withdrawing Water If You Never Make a Deposit

Utopia Estrella Iztapalapa | Mexico

Cities often treat water like a bank account — withdrawing from aquifers, importing supply, and draining runoff without ever replenishing the source. But groundwater is not infinite. Without recharge, subsidence, scarcity, and structural instability follow. Urban design that facilitates aquifer recharge is becoming an essential part of climate adaptation, especially in water-stressed regions [10].

Designed by Cano Vera Arquitectura, Utopia Estrella transforms a formerly hardscaped site in Mexico City’s borough of Iztapalapa into a civic space where water is both resource and theme. The project introduces a wetland treatment system covering 1,644 m², with the capacity to filter over 20,000 litres of water per day. In a borough of over 230,000 people, it creates vital green space — not just for leisure, but for learning.

The site operates as a pedagogical landscape: where runoff is filtered, aquifers are recharged, and water becomes visible again. Fountains, gardens, and educational installations shift public perception — helping residents reconnect with a system that sustains them. In a place long defined by scarcity, Utopia Estrella reframes water not as crisis, but as care — a shared civic responsibility, and a starting point for regeneration.

Being Flexible to the Ebb and Flow Isn’t a Strategy — It’s a Way of Life

Life on the Amazon Waters | Brazil

In river-based communities, change isn’t a disruption — it’s a constant. Water levels shift dramatically with the seasons, redrawing the boundaries of daily life. Homes rise and fall, paths become canals, and classrooms take to boats. While much of the world is designing for resilience, these communities have long lived it. Studies in environmental anthropology and vernacular architecture highlight that adaptive practices evolve not from formal planning, but from deep, continuous observation of nature [11].

Life on the Amazon Waters is a Holcim Foundation Research in Practice Grant project that explores these everyday adaptations in Brazil’s riverside communities. The research by Danielle Gregorio, published as a book in 2024, documents how residents live with—and through—water: from floating clinics and stilted homes to seasonal migration and informal infrastructure. These systems aren’t high-tech, but they are highly attuned — shaped by necessity, culture, and experience.

The second part of the book presents the practical application of this knowledge through a proposed social housing project for at-risk riverside populations in Manaus. Drawing inspiration from traditional Amazonian architecture, the design challenges conventional approaches to social housing by prioritising adaptability, cultural continuity, and ecological sensitivity. The goal is to develop a replicable model that addresses the region’s severe housing deficit while integrating sustainable practices and rooted local knowledge. Here, flexibility becomes more than a design principle — it’s a framework for equity, resilience, and connection to place.

In Short

The water’s edge is more than a line on a map — it’s a state of mind. These eight projects remind us that resilience isn’t only built in response to crisis; it can also emerge from quiet, daily acts of cohabitation, adaptation, and care. From stilted schools and recharged aquifers to rewilded streams and amphibious housing prototypes, these communities aren’t just surviving water — they’re shaping lives around it with purpose and ingenuity.

They teach us that embracing water doesn’t always mean building walls or retreating from risk. It can mean listening to tradition, restoring connection, and designing systems that are responsive rather than rigid. Living with water — whether on an island, in a marsh, or beside a canal — invites us to reimagine how we build, plan, and relate to our environment.

So as you sit by the sea or stroll a river path this summer, consider what it means to live on the edge — not in fear, but with presence and care. These lessons from the waterline don’t just offer survival — they offer inspiration, dignity, and a different kind of design intelligence: one that flows.