17 June 2025
The Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 regional jury meetings continued in Lyon, France, bringing together the continent’s leading professionals in sustainable construction and architectural design to select the winning European projects.
The jury (pictured right) was chaired by architect Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Founding Partner, Snøhetta, Norway, and included a distinguished panel of experts: Thomas Auer – Professor of Building Technology & Climate Responsive Design at the Technical University of Munich, Germany; Sandra Boivin – Head of R&D Department, Solutions & Products, Holcim Innovation Centre, France; Caroline Bos – Co-founder & Principal Urban Planner, UNStudio, Netherlands; Johanna Gibbons – Founding Partner, J&L Gibbons, United Kingdom; Stuart Smith – Director, Arup, Germany; and Pierluigi Turco – Founding Partner, a-fact | architecture factory, Italy.
“It proves that even with a very diverse group, we can agree on what defines quality in architecture.” Kjetil Trædal Thorsen (left) commented on the collaborative nature of the discussions in defining what sustainability means for world-class architecture. The architect, whose firm is known for environmentally sensitive projects such as Powerhouse Brattørkaia (an office building in Trondheim that produces more energy than it consumes), observed that reaching consensus among such varied perspectives in Lyon reinforced the rigour and clarity of the Holcim Foundation’s evaluation process.
“What I like about the Holcim Foundation Awards is that it’s basically about projects not yet finished,” he added. “So in a way, there is an expectation of what is to come it allows us and the Foundation to follow up and see how its decision is actually implemented in the real world.”
The multidisciplinary panel brought together deep expertise across architecture, engineering, and sustainable design, assessing projects against the Holcim Foundation’s core principles: uplifting places, a healthy planet, thriving communities, and viable economics. […]
