Across the Holcim Foundation’s Awards, Forum, and Fellowships, what stood out was the way people from different disciplines and geographies came together, shared perspectives, and shaped one another’s understanding. It was through these exchanges—structured and spontaneous—that people were able to share practical ideas and approaches that support real change.

For more than two decades, the Holcim Foundation Awards have demonstrated that sustainable design has no single formula. The 360 projects recognised across this period reflect a wide spectrum of approaches, each grounded in local realities and shaped by collaboration.

The 20 winning projects of the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025, selected by our independent regional juries, carry this legacy forward. They exemplify thoughtful material choices, meaningful community engagement, and design strategies that work with natural systems rather than against them. In Venice, when we gathered with the winning teams, jurors, and partners, what resonated most was how recognition from the Awards can strengthen community trust, accelerate momentum, and open pathways for ambitious ideas to be realised. These projects provide practical and credible direction for an industry confronting urgent challenges.

The Awards also attracted attention from leading design and sustainability publications worldwide, including ArchDaily, Domus, e-flux, Wallpaper*, BauNetz, Architectural Digest España, DesignWanted, World Architecture, and Monocle. This coverage, complemented by a dedicated film by ArchitectureHunter (see above) featuring the Awards ceremony and exclusive interviews with winners, has helped amplify the ideas behind the winning projects, sharing their approaches and lessons with a wider design community and contributing to ongoing conversations about the future of sustainable construction.

This commitment to learning from one another continued at the Holcim Foundation Forum, where more than 120 participants explored how buildings, cities, and infrastructures can adapt to rising waters. Over four days and seven venues in Venice, discussions moved fluidly between keynote talks, collaborative workshops, and exchanges shaped by the city’s own long relationship with water.

What emerged was a shared understanding that resilience depends not only on technical innovation, but on governance, culture, and community agency. Participants reflected openly on the need to rethink assumptions, work across disciplinary boundaries, and approach complex challenges with humility as well as ambition. Perhaps the Forum’s most lasting contribution will be the sense of connection it fostered among people who rarely can engage this deeply together.

Our Fellowship programs in Mexico City, London, and Brussels offered immersive environments where students and early-career professionals could connect theory with lived experience. Through site visits, conversations with practitioners, and collaborative project work, Fellows engaged closely with the realities of construction at community scale.

Across all three programmes, Fellows brought forward diverse cultural perspectives and a strong appetite for learning — challenging one another, questioning their own assumptions, and broadening their understanding of what sustainable and regenerative design can look like in different contexts.

The year closed with the Emerging ChangeMaker Retreat in Zurich, where selected Fellows examined leadership, systems thinking, and the responsibilities inherent in shaping transformation. Together, they are forming a purpose-driven global network whose impact will continue to grow in the years ahead.

As we move into 2026, the Holcim Foundation will not rest on its laurels. The urgency of transforming the global construction value chain requires ongoing curiosity, new partnerships, and increasingly adaptive approaches.

We remain committed to supporting the people who are accelerating sustainable and regenerative design and to ensuring our programmes, platforms, and publications help them connect, collaborate, and lead. 

My deepest thanks go to the Holcim Foundation team, whose rigour and commitment underpin our work. And finally, our sincere thanks to you: our partners, supporters, and global community for your engagement, encouragement, and belief in what is possible.

We wish you a very happy festive season and look forward to continuing this journey with you in 2026.

Warm regards, Laura Viscovich