Miller Hull

Diverse and innovative real-world approaches to creating a more sustainable built environment

From the bustling streets of Madrid to heritage conservation efforts in China, the winning projects – awarded prize money totaling USD 1 million – exemplify the growing global effort to provide holistic design and construction responses that advance multiple aspects of sustainable development.

The competition had 2,380 registrations of interest from 114 countries and 500 submissions that met the entry criteria. Out of these, five projects were awarded a Holcim Awards Gold prize for their outstanding contribution to local sustainable development within their region. These projects, hailing from Canada, China, Ghana, Mexico, and Spain, are beacons of contextually-relevant design which thoughtfully balance the need for inclusive, human-centric spaces and environmental stewardship. The winning projects champion advances in approaches ranging from adaptive reuse and material circularity to participatory design and cooperative business models. They also address critical challenges including energy management, community empowerment and issues of land use and restoration.

Laura Viscovich, Executive Director of the Holcim Foundation, highlighted the common ambition of all the winning projects to enhance community health, wellbeing, and prosperity. She praised the winners for designs which embody the Foundation’s goals for sustainable construction, stating, “In a world where sustainability has multiple interpretations, the Holcim Foundation is proud to shine a light on projects that demonstrate best-in-class solutions for creating uplifting places that meet human development goals while restoring and regenerating natural systems. We encourage all our Holcim Awards winners to use this global recognition as a platform to help speed up the realization of sustainable construction in their regions.”

The Holcim Awards 2023 Gold winners, applauded for their innovative and impactful sustainable design and construction methods, are:

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