Awards LATAM Jury | London Fellowship Film | Urban Biodiversity

The Latin America jury for the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 met in Medellín, Colombia, to evaluate the leading sustainable construction projects from across the region. Chaired by Sandra Barclay, the panel examined diverse approaches to design, material innovation, and community impact, assessing entries against the Foundation’s four goals: uplifting places, a healthy planet, thriving communities, and viable economics. The Latin America jury panel includes Sandra Barclay, Loreta Castro Reguera, Loreto Lyon, Ricardo Pérez Schulz, Jorge Pérez-Jaramillo, Federico Torres, and Gustavo Utrabo.

With the Latin America meeting, the series of regional juries across all five world regions has now concluded. Winners will be announced in late October, and prizes presented in Venice at the Awards Ceremony in November.

The Holcim Foundation’s first European Fellowship brought an interdisciplinary cohort to London in July 2025 for two intensive weeks of studio work, site visits, and practitioner dialogues. Hosted by UCL, the Fellows explored the city’s planning culture and investigated The London Plan, with inputs from AL_A, BDP, Buro Happold, Eckersley O’Callaghan, Expedition Engineering, RSHP, Publica, AKT II, and the Greater London Authority.

The Fellowship concluded with a public presentation at the Royal Academy of Engineering and a collective “What If?” manifesto by the fellows.

Nature in cities isn’t garnish. It cools streets, cleans water, buffers floods, and supports pollinators and people. When we design to integrate habitat and not just add “green”, there are multiple returns.

We focus on four approaches, with examples from former Holcim Foundation Awards–winners that prove the ideas are scalable and real-world ready: 

• Habitat-first planting: layered natives, living soils, year-round food and shelter
• Blue–green spines: creeks, wetlands and rain gardens that slow, soak and cool while cleaning water
• Connected corridors: stitch parks, streets and waterways together so people and species can move across the city
• Ecology + everyday life: pair biodiverse places with schools, sport and recreation to build-in community support and maintenance

Be inspired by how cities can move from decorating with biophilic décor to benefiting from biocentric systems.

The Holcim Foundation Forum will take place in Venice on 18–21 November 2025, convening a curated global community to confront flooding under the theme RETREAT, RESIST, RESPOND. Attendance is by invitation only. The Foundation will share the expert inputs and discussion outcomes on its website in 2026.