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Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

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🏙️ Supporting citymakers to advance responsible urban development

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🏙️ A new chapter begins...

For over 20 years, the Holcim Foundation has helped shape the global conversation on sustainable construction — from emerging ambition to industry benchmark.

Now, we’re focused on where the greatest impact can be made: cities.

Our Executive Director Laura Viscovich shares why now, what this evolution means for our community and what comes next.

📖 Read the full message - link in bio

✨ This is only the start. Over the coming days, we’ll be introducing the renewed Board of Trustees guiding this next phase, and announcing a new strategic partnership that marks our first concrete step in bringing this vision to life. Stay tuned! by @holcim_foundation

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5 months ago

⚡️Are you ready to reinvent cities?

Cities are where the greatest challenges and opportunities converge. With our new sharpened focus on responsible urban development, we have entered a five-year partnership with @c40cities through the C40 Reinventing Cities initiative.

This collaboration bridges city governments, the private sector, and the next generation to drive low-carbon, resilient urban development worldwide.

🟢 Students Reinventing Cities — Now Live

Students are invited to reimagine sites across 10 global cities: Amman, Barcelona, Bogotá, Bucharest, Chicago, Jakarta, Lagos, Lisbon, Nairobi, and Rome. Transform neighbourhoods into green, thriving urban spaces — and build the skills to become the urban leaders of tomorrow.

⚫ For Professionals — Coming Soon

A new competition series inviting urban planning and design professionals to transform underutilised urban sites into beacons of sustainable architecture.

→ Check out the competition sites: c40reinventingcities.org

#reinventingcities by @holcim_foundation

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5 months ago

Meet the Board steering our next chapter

We’re happy to introduce the renewed Holcim Foundation Board of Trustees — bringing together multidisciplinary expertise across sustainable finance, urban design, resilient infrastructure, and public policy to steer our vision for responsible urban development.

A warm welcome to our newly elected Trustees:
- James Cameron, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London, who assumes the role of Chair of the Board
- Alice Charles, Director Cities, Planning & Design, Arup
- Signe Kongebro, Global Director for Future Resilient Design, Ramboll
- Thure Krarup, Head of Global Public Affairs and Policy, Urban Partners

Continued thanks to Carmen Díaz and Miljan Gutovic for their ongoing commitment to the Foundation’s mission.

We also extend our sincere gratitude to Maria Atkinson AM for her six years of dedicated leadership as Chair of the Board, and to our outgoing Trustees for their lasting contribution to the Foundation’s development.

🔗 Learn more about our new chapter and partnership with C40 Cities at holcimfoundation.org by @holcim_foundation

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5 months ago

CityMakers Voices #3: Brogan MacDonald

Where others see aging urban stock, engineer Brogan MacDonald sees an inventory of value waiting to be put back to work.

As Head of Sustainability in Building Structures at Ramboll UK, she believes the building materials a sustainable future needs are already here, part of the infrastructure that surrounds us.

This month, she was named the Royal Academy of Engineering’s overall Young Engineer of the Year, receiving the Sir George Macfarlane Medal.

🔗 Read & Listen to the Full Conversation: link in bio

🎙️This interview is part of CityMakers Voices, a conversation series from the Holcim Foundation that gathers the thinkers, designers, and decision-makers whose work shapes the cities we live in. by @holcim_foundation

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10 days ago

An evening hosted by a consortium of international architecture awards on the occasion of UIA 2026 (@uia2026bcn) at the Mies Van der Rohe pavilion in Barcelona (@miesvanderrohe)

Thank you to all who joined us!

Consortium:
@obelfoundation⁠
@agakhanawardforarchitecture⁠
@ammodoarchitecture
@eumiesawards⁠
@holcim_foundation⁠
@miescrownhallamericasprize⁠

@uia2026bcn⁠
@uia_architects⁠ by @holcim_foundation

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24 days ago

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined us at our UIA event - Beyond Recognition - exploring the role of architectural awards. ⁠
⁠
A special thanks to our speakers and front row peers.⁠
⁠
Speakers: ⁠
🔵Christele Harrouk (@christeleharrouk), architect, urban designere and editor-in-chief @archdaily⁠
🔵Amit Gupta (@amit_stir), founder and editor-in-chief @stir_world
🔵Frederica Sofia Zambeletti (@zambesmile), architect, researcher and founder of @koozach⁠
⁠
Front Row Peers:⁠
🔵 Jesper Eis Eriksen, Executive Director of OBEL (@obelfoundation)⁠
🔵 Margarita Jover, Co-Founder of Aldayjover (@margarita_jover, @aldayjover)⁠
🔵 Kate Orff, Founder of Scapestudio (@scape_studio)⁠
🔵 Dirk Denison, Director of Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (@miescrownhallamericasprize⁠)⁠
🔵 Laura Viscovich, Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction (@holcim_foundation⁠)⁠
🔵 Gustavo Utrabo, Founder of Estúdio Gustavo Utrabo (@gustavoutrabo)⁠
🔵 Farrokh Derakshani, Director of Aga Khan Award for Architecture (@agakhanawardforarchitecture⁠)⁠
🔵 Maurice Pezo, Co-Founder of Pezo von Ellrichshausen (@pezovonellrichshausen)⁠
🔵 Tatiana Bilbao, Founder of Tatiana Bilbao Studio (@tabilbaoestudio)⁠
🔵 Alejando Echeverri, Architect & Professor (@cachoecheverri)⁠
🔵 Gabriella Carillo, Founder of Taller Gabriela Carillo & Co-Founder of Colectivo c733 (@t.gabrielacarrillo @c733_)⁠
🔵 Marleen Van Driel, Director of Ammodo Architecture (@ammodoarchitecture)⁠
🔵 Rahul Mehrotra, Founder Principal of RMA Architects (@rma_architects)⁠
🔵 Loreta Catro, Co-Founder of Taller Capital (@tallercapital)⁠
🔵 Jóse Pablo Ambrosi, Co-Founder of Taller Capital (@tallercapital)⁠
🔵 Ivan Blasi, Director of EUMies Awards (@ibmbcn, @eumiesawards⁠)⁠
⁠
⁠
@obelfoundation⁠
@agakhanawardforarchitecture⁠
@ammodoarchitecture⁠
@eumiesawards⁠
@holcim_foundation⁠
@miescrownhallamericasprize⁠
@uia2026bcn⁠
@uia_architects⁠ by @holcim_foundation

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a month ago

What role should architectural awards play today?

At @UIA2026bcn, Beyond Recognition brings together six leading international architecture awards to examine how recognition systems shape architectural culture—not only by celebrating projects, but by influencing the values, priorities, and futures of the discipline.

Building on a conversation initiated during the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, architects, critics, award directors, and researchers will explore whether awards can move beyond recognition to become instruments for critical reflection, accountability, and change. The discussion asks how architectural excellence is defined, who gets to define it, and what forms of practice remain overlooked at a moment when the profession faces profound social, environmental, and political challenges.

Hosted by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture @agakahnawardforarchitecture, Ammodo Architecture Award @ammodoarchitecture, EUmies Awards @eumiesawards, Holcim Foundation Awards @holcim_foundation, Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize @miescrownhallamericasprize, and the OBEL Foundation @obelfoundation.
Monday 29 June | 15:00–16:20 | CCIB, Stage 11 | UIA World Congress of Architects, Barcelona by @holcim_foundation

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a month ago

PULSOS DEL RÍO
Límites y Temporalidades | Paisajes Estacionales

Los cursos naturales de agua se transforman constantemente. Sus niveles, ritmos y dinámicas responden a las estaciones, las lluvias y los periodos de inundación, configurando paisajes en permanente cambio.

MEMORIAS DEL AGUA reconoce estas temporalidades como una oportunidad para reconstruir la relación entre las personas y el río. A través de senderos elevados y espacios de contemplación, el proyecto permite convivir con los pulsos naturales del agua sin imponer barreras rígidas sobre el territorio.

La propuesta construye un borde permeable, amable y cambiante donde naturaleza y ciudad se encuentran, haciendo posible un contacto más cercano, consciente y respetuoso con el paisaje fluvial.

RIVER PULSES
Edges and Temporalities | Seasonal Landscapes

Natural watercourses are constantly transforming. Their levels, rhythms, and dynamics respond to seasons, rainfall, and flood cycles, shaping landscapes in continuous change.

Memories of Water understands these temporalities as an opportunity to rebuild the relationship between people and the river. Through elevated pathways and spaces for contemplation, the project allows people to coexist with the natural pulses of water without imposing rigid barriers on the territory.

The proposal creates a permeable, welcoming, and evolving edge where nature and city meet, enabling a closer, more conscious, and respectful connection with the river landscape.

Fotografía
@mcarvajal.foto

Entidad:
@scaantioquia
@gobantioquia
@alcaldiarionegro
@catacastro
@naty_merino_a
@jcfs.
@rodrigohernandezalzate
@obrasantioquia

@holcim_foundation
@holcimawardscol
@holcimcolombia

#archilovers #architecturelovers #arquitectura #instaarquitectura architect architecturecompetition thebestnewarchitects arquitectoscolombianos arquitecturacolombiana architecture arquitecturaydiseño paisaje paisajismo naturephotography architizer archdaily @architecture_hunter @go_architecture
@thecreativemultitasker @juanmarq1989
@arquitecturaunivalle @scavalle @sca_nacional @arquitecturapujcali taken in Rionegro, Antioquia, Colombia by @holcim_foundation

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a month ago

Below sea level. Above the rest.

Cities don’t become resilient by accident. They get there through deliberate choices — about what to build, where, and how to design for what’s coming next.

Rotterdam has been making those choices for centuries. But climate change is raising the stakes, and the city is responding with something more ambitious than flood defenses. Public squares engineered to absorb stormwater. Industrial land reclaimed from the sea, reimagined as cultural landmarks. Urban infrastructure that doesn’t just survive water — it’s shaped by it.

This is the kind of city-making we exist to spotlight. Future Tides is our new documentary series following the cities and city makers turning climate urgency into responsible, lasting urban change. Rotterdam is first.

▶ Watch the full 5-minute film — link in bio. taken in Rotterdam, Netherlands by @holcim_foundation

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2 months ago

🌊 Manchester — a city bordered by hillsides, through which rainwater funnels down into a densely built urban core.

Here, flood resilience starts on the moors above the city and extends across Manchester through a range of nature-based and urban interventions — from leaky dams and rewilded moorland to parks engineered as stormwater infrastructure and a long-buried river returned to the surface.

The second film in Future Tides, the Holcim Foundation’s series on European cities reinventing themselves in the face of climate change, brings together four of the city makers reshaping Manchester’s relationship with water: Kathryn Oldham OBE, Chief Resilience Officer at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority; Eleanor Walker, Project Development Manager at City of Trees; Amy Wright of Groundwork Greater Manchester; and Duncan Paybody, Director of Landscape at Studio Egret West, designer of Mayfield Park.

▶ Full film now streaming: link in bio taken in Manchester, United Kingdom by @holcim_foundation

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2 months ago

Loreta Castro Reguera has a name for the kind of urban change she believes in: acupuncture.

Not the sweeping infrastructure overhaul that demands political capital and billion-dollar budgets. The neighborhood-scale intervention — a plaza that holds rainwater, a park that doubles as drainage, a public pool born from a flooding problem — that quietly, powerfully, begins to work. And then inspires the next one.

For the Mexico City architect and co-founder of Taller Capital, the city isn’t a problem to be solved at scale. It’s a garden waiting to be restored, one site at a time.

🎙️ Loreta Castro Reguera is the second guest of CityMakers Voices, a conversation series from the Holcim Foundation gathering the people whose decisions shape the cities we live in — mayors and architects, planners and patrons, financiers and engineers — for open discussion on the work of building better urban environments. by @holcim_foundation

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2 months ago

🌊 How Rotterdam is Redesigning for Water

Rotterdam sits at a crossroads. Water arrives from the sea, the sky, and upstream rivers. The city can no longer choose whether to engage with that reality. It can only choose how.

In the opening film of Future Tides, the Holcim Foundation’s new documentary series on flood-resilient cities, Henk Ovink, Saskia Van Stein, and Winy Maas make the case that Rotterdam isn’t just adapting to climate change — it’s prototyping the future for the rest of the world.

The Netherlands as a Petri dish. And what grows here matters everywhere.

The first of three films following European cities reinventing themselves in the face of climate change — by the citymakers leading that transformation.

▶ Full film now streaming — link in bio. by @holcim_foundation

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2 months ago