Introduction

All trophies of the LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction represent the golden ratio. The balanced proportionality of the golden ratio symbolizes the objectives of sustainable construction, which always strives for a harmonious balance between today and tomorrow, between resources and consumption, between needs and opportunities.

5th LafargeHolcim Awards competition 2017-2018

The current (5th) cycle of the LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction was open for entries from July 4, 2016 until March 28, 2017. Submissions will be evaluated by independent regional juries in June/July 2017 before prizes are presented at regional Awards ceremonies in September/November 2017.

Recognition of forward-looking projects

The LafargeHolcim Awards is an international competition that recognizes innovative projects and future-oriented concepts on regional and global levels. A total of USD 2 million in prize money is awarded in each three-year cycle.

The competition seeks projects that go beyond balancing environmental performance, social responsibility, and economic growth. Projects should, in addition, exemplify architectural excellence, a high degree of transferability, and thereby extend notions of sustainable construction and design throughout all stages of a project’s lifecycle.

“Target issues” for sustainable construction

To evaluate the competition entries, the LafargeHolcim Foundation has identified five “target issues” for sustainable construction:

Innovation and transferability – Progress

Ethical standards and social inclusion – People

Resource and environmental performance – Planet

Economic viability and compatibility – Prosperity

Contextual and aesthetic impact – Place

Awards (main category) and “Next Generation” (young professionals and students category)

There are two categories within the competition. The Awards (main category) is open to architects, planners, engineers, project owners, builders and construction firms that showcase sustainable responses to technological, environmental, socio-economic and cultural issues affecting contemporary building and construction. In the “Next Generation” category, the Awards competition also seeks visions and bold ideas of young professionals and students up to 30 years of age.

Two-phase global competition

In the regional phase of the competition, independent juries supported by partner universities of the Foundation evaluate submissions in each of the five regions: Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific.

In the global phase, the 15 projects that received Gold, Silver or Bronze prizes in the regions automatically qualify for the Global Awards.

Extending global reach even further with LafargeHolcim

The sponsor of the Foundation, Holcim Ltd completed a global merger with Lafarge S.A. in July 2015 and launched LafargeHolcim, the world leader in the building materials industry. With a well-balanced presence in 90 countries and a focus on cement, aggregates and concrete, LafargeHolcim is the world leader in the building materials industry.

The Group has 115,000 employees around the world and combined net sales of CHF 33 billion (EUR 27 billion) in 2014. LafargeHolcim is the industry benchmark in R&D and serves from the individual homebuilder to the largest and most complex project with the widest range of value-adding products, innovative services and comprehensive building solutions. With a commitment to drive sustainable solutions for better building and infrastructure and to contribute to a higher quality of life, the Group is best positioned to meet the challenges of increasing urbanization.