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Is the idea of building more with less a Utopia? Maybe. But to me, it’s the key to our future and a challenge we must urgently address. We must all tackle the social, economic, and environmental problems created by population growth, migration, climate change, and dwindling supplies of resources. How do we do this? By building differently and by reforming a construction industry that is famously resistant to change while creating a built environment that requires significantly less material.

How will the Covid-19 pandemic affect the built environment? Will we have to rethink concepts such as urban densification – or will we simply return to “business as usual” once the crisis abates? Experts from the network of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction from around the globe share their views.

In his capacity as member of the Academic Committee of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction since 2014, Philippe Block has been instrumental in realising exemplary projects and in leading debates to promote and enhance sustainability in how and with which materials we build. Philippe Block is Professor of Architecture and Structure at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland and was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of LafargeHolcim Ltd at its Annual General Meeting 2020.

The ability to grow synthetic wood, open cell foams, and leather analogs is only a small demonstration of what mushroom materials are capable of. Our knowledge of mushrooms is fractured between different industries, areas of expertise, and histories of study. In this new field of applied materials, there is an urgent need for basic measurements and standardized physical parameters at the microscopic level. If we are to fully understand this emerging area of husbandry, it’s going to require significant investment – as well as smart people focused on thinking about rotten things.

To promote the health and well-being of communities, LafargeHolcim – sponsor of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction – is implementing an extraordinary range of measures at country level. Everyone has their part to play in the fight against the Coronavirus (Covid-19), from big to small.

The 21st century needs to face a radical paradigm shift in how we produce materials for the construction of our habitat. While the first industrial revolution resulted in a conversion from regenerative (agrarian) to non-regenerative material sources (mines), our era may experience the reverse – a shift toward cultivating, breeding, raising, farming, or growing future resources that goes hand-in-hand with a reorientation of biological production methods and goals.

The 6th International LafargeHolcim Awards for projects and visions in sustainable construction attracted almost 5,000 entries by authors in 121 countries. More than 40% of the projects were submitted in the Next Generation category for students and professionals up to 30 years of age.

The LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction is committed to the underlying principles of sustainability, which assert that long-term development of the built environment requires a balanced interplay of responsible economic, ecological, and social agendas.

The five “target issues” aim to clarify principles for sustaining the human habitat for future generations and serve as criteria for projects submitted for the LafargeHolcim Awards.

A jury of nine experts headed by Hashim Sarkis, Dean of the MIT School of Architecture & Planning, will evaluate entries in the Global phase of the 6th International LafargeHolcim Awards in 2021. The competition is currently open for submissions at the regional level. The USD 2 million Awards seek projects by professionals as well as bold ideas from the Next Generation that foreground design excellence and sustainability in the built environment.

The “Towards a low-carbon urban environment” panel discussions and workshops in Madrid and Barcelona brought together key actors in the construction sector to examine the challenges and responsibility to reduce carbon emissions. Hosted by LafargeHolcim Spain, the workshop commenced with welcome addresses by Isidoro Miranda, CEO of LafargeHolcim Spain who explained the steps being taken to reduce carbon emissions, and Mariano Garcia, Industrial Director of LafargeHolcim who outlined low carbon products and solutions.

The Board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has welcomed three new members to further support defining the strategies to encourage innovative approaches to sustainable construction. In addition, the Academic Committee (AC) of the Foundation has been augmented with a new member and a coordinator. The AC is based at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich/EPFL Lausanne) and provides support by developing, implementing, and monitoring initiatives of the Foundation.

The LafargeHolcim Awards competition closes at 14:00hrs Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) no matter where you’re located in the world. Registration is open until Tuesday February 25, 2020 (14:00hrs UTC) at that time, it is no longer possible to start a new entry.

There is no charge to enter the LafargeHolcim Awards competition. It’s free – and you can enter as many projects or concepts as you wish, from architecture, engineering, urban planning, materials science, construction technology, and related fields.

We’re incredibly pleased with the level of interest in the LafargeHolcim Awards competition and anticipate a large volume of submissions by the close of entries on February 25, 2020. To enable your entry to stand out during the jury evaluation, make the most effective use of the spaces allocated in the online entry form – it’s important to make each element count. Keep your eye on the details and make sure you include specifics, avoid assumptions, and back up your claims.

There’s a new feature in the LafargeHolcim Awards Main Category entry form. For the first time, we’re asking all Main Category entrants to provide a qualitative narrative on CO2 Lifecycle Assessment. Global greenhouse emissions must be significantly reduced in the future, and the LafargeHolcim Awards seeks projects that make a contribution toward this objective.

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.