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We’ve tried to keep things simple for you to enter the LafargeHolcim Awards. There are tips (“info” icon in the online entry form) and a detailed Step-by-step guide – but sometimes you might have an additional question. That’s when you need to contact our Helpdesk.

We’d love to hear more about every project entered in the LafargeHolcim Awards, but our jury meetings last only two days. That’s why the text fields in the entry form are short: you need to stay on track and be concise.

With the population growing by 2.6 people per second, by 2050 the world will need twice as many homes, highways, streets, and schools – all kinds of built infrastructure. That will require vast quantities of construction materials and untold emissions of carbon dioxide, both for building new structures as well as heating, cooling, and maintaining them over their lifespan.

The LafargeHolcim Awards competition is truly global. In the 2016/17 entry period, we received entries from more than 120 countries. But to ensure the independent regional juries evaluate all submissions equally – and also enable the LafargeHolcim Foundation to share information about the amazing winning projects – submissions must be completed in English.

Please don’t send us any physical printouts of your entry via post or courier. Only print a copy of your entry in the #LafargeHolcimAwards if you wish to keep a physical copy for your own records. We use the data submitted in the online entry form to generate display books of all entries for the independent regional juries. This allows us to present each submission in a standard layout. Creating the same standard layout for each submission gives each entry an equal opportunity to attract the attention of the jury.

Execution of projects entered in the LafargeHolcim Awards competition may not have started before January 1, 2019. It’s important to understand exactly how the start date is defined. The condition means that physical construction/manufacturing of the project must not have started before January 1, 2019 – but it’s perfectly acceptable for design/research work to have already started before they key date. 

If architecture is a culture of ideas then the way to leverage innovation is to enable cultural exchange, states architecture critic Edwin Heathcote in a special issue of L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (AA).

Because architecture has a tendency to look inwards into its own culture, the kind of networking architects often indulge in so often appears to be curiously within its own boundaries. I was always a little puzzled by this craving for peer recognition, but it does make a kind of sense.

The online entry form includes three texts to explain how your project contributes to sustainable construction. These relatively short texts need to be strongly focused to explain the benefits of your project to the independent regional jury. The statements should refer to the “target issues” for sustainable construction – stay fully-focused so your project stands out from the crowd.

A picture is worth 1,000 words – so it’s worth making the most of the image section of your LafargeHolcim Awards competition entry. Images are an important opportunity to explain your project in a compelling way to the independent regional Awards jury, especially since space for text is limited. The images should focus on the key points of your project and how it responds to the “target issues” for sustainable construction.

Staying focused on the “target issues” for sustainable construction will help your project to stand out in the LafargeHolcim Awards. Make sure you understand how your project most contributes according to the target issues when responding to the “statements on sustainability” in the online entry form.

Our Step-by-step guide is a detailed handbook on how to enter the LafargeHolcim Awards. As the name suggests, the guide explains each of the five steps to complete the online entry form – and further information to help you present your project in the most convincing way.

There are only 36 days left to enter the LafargeHolcim Awards competition – so now’s the time to get started. The best way to understand what information is needed to enter the competition is to open an online entry form, and start filling it in.

Moving towards net zero emissions a is critical element of addressing climate change. Together, building and construction are responsible for almost 40% of global carbon emissions. Figures from the World Green Building Council attribute around 11% of global carbon emissions to the “upfront” carbon associated with the materials and construction processes through the whole building lifecycle* – with the remainder attributed to operational emissions (energy used to heat, cool and light buildings). A series of presentations and panel discussion hosted by the Association of Polish Architects examined the urgent need for sustainable construction and what is preventing us from changing now.

Nobody responded to the first attempt of Brinda Somaya to organize a conference for female architects in 1990. Ten years later she was overwhelmed by the interest shown in the inaugural “Women in Architecture 2000 Plus” conference – and two decades later 600 delegates and more than 30 speakers from around the globe have converged upon Mumbai, India, to celebrate the diversity and richness of women-driven design practices. “Some women architects from South Asia have transformed their offices into creative powerhouses,” explained Brinda Somaya. “Much has changed – but much more must still change,” she said in the opening panel discussion.

Entries in the 6th International LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction will close on February 25, 2020. The competition seeks projects by professionals as well as bold ideas from the Next Generation that combine sustainable construction solutions with architectural excellence. The Awards foreground projects and concepts from architecture, engineering, urban planning, materials science, construction technology, and related fields.

The LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction was established in 2003 to raise awareness of the important role that architecture, engineering, urban planning and the construction industry play in shaping a more sustainable future. General Manager Edward Schwarz has been with the Foundation since the very beginning.

The Norman Foster Foundation is awarding 10 scholarships for students to participate in the first edition of the Re-materializing Housing Workshop 2020, to be held at the Norman Foster Foundation in Madrid, Spain. 

The workshop is supported by the LafargeHolcim Foundation and will take place from March 23-27, 2020.

Re-materializing Housing Workshop 2020 debates how knowledge learnt from vernacular architecture techniques can best be combined with the developments of new technologies to design affordable housing solutions.

Construction of the LafargeHolcim Awards winning net-zero energy greenhouse at Wellesley College, USA is now complete. Sustainable design is at the very core of the structure, form, and system – meeting sustainability metrics as a matter of course and then goes much further to achieve a virtuosity of integration. The Global Flora conservatory at the Margaret C Ferguson Greenhouses will open to the general public when renovation of the Science Center is completed in two years. More than 1,000 varieties of plants are housed in the bio-friendly greenhouse – and are showing signs of handling the transition well.

Prof Dr Marc Angélil, Head of the Academic Committee of the LafargeHolcim Foundation delivered a keynote address at the Urban Quality: Density, Diversity, and Sustainability conference in Nanjing, China. The lecture “Terra: Project Earth” examined the effects of urbanization at the global scale. Earth itself can be conceptualized as an unsustainable city – highlighting the urgent need for action.

“The LafargeHolcim Awards are an opportunity to celebrate new ideas and innovations, and to establish a global dialogue with our colleagues,” enthuses Enrique Norten, architect, founder of TEN Arquitectos and member of the Board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation. However, before the LafargeHolcim Awards prizes are conferred, the submissions must be meticulously analyzed and assessed. To facilitate this lengthy process, each applicant must fulfil expectations with regard to several criteria of evaluation set out by the LafargeHolcim Foundation.