Holcim and Norman Foster Foundation Demonstrate Sustainable Living Solutions for Displaced Populations

(IN BRIEF) Holcim and the Norman Foster Foundation have unveiled the Essential Homes Research Project at the 2023 Biennale of Architecture in Venice. The project aims to address the essential needs of displaced individuals by providing safe, comfortable, and sustainable housing solutions. Holcim has implemented a range of its sustainable building solutions to create low-carbon, energy-efficient, and circular homes. The prototypes showcase innovative features such as rollable concrete sheets, permeable pathways made of low-carbon concrete, energy-efficient insulation systems, and the use of recycled materials. The collaboration between Holcim and the Norman Foster Foundation aims to demonstrate that sustainable building can be accessible to all.

(PRESS RELEASE) ZUG, 17-May-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Holcim (SWX: HOLN), one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates, concrete and related services, announces that The Essential Homes Research Project, its collaborative effort with the Norman Foster Foundation, was officially inaugurated at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. The partnership aims to address the essential needs of displaced individuals by designing housing concepts that prioritize safety, comfort, and wellbeing. Holcim has played a vital role in bringing the project to life, incorporating its sustainable building solutions to create low-carbon, energy-efficient, and circular homes, demonstrating the possibility of sustainable building for all.

Norman Foster, President, Norman Foster Foundation: “How can we ensure everyone, including some of our world’s most vulnerable populations, can have access to decent living conditions? During the Venice Biennale we show our work-in-progress on this idea; the outcome of a few months of intensive activity in collaboration with Holcim.”

Jan Jenisch, Chairman & CEO, Holcim: “I am very excited about the potential for impact coming out of this collaboration. It enables essential homes that are built with some of our low carbon, energy-efficient and circular building solutions, showcasing how sustainable building can be possible for all.”

The Essential Homes Research Project provides a foundation of safety, comfort, and wellbeing. These highly sustainable homes boast a remarkable 70% lower CO2 footprint compared to traditional structures. They feature a range of Holcim’s sustainable building solutions, including low-carbon rollable concrete sheets for external safety, permeable pathways constructed with ECOPact low-carbon concrete that reduce energy use and light pollution, energy-efficient insulation systems utilizing Elevate boards and low-carbon Airium foam for thermal and acoustic comfort. In a commitment to circular construction, Holcim incorporates their ECOCycle® recycled construction demolition materials to create a weather-resilient base for the Essential Home. The homes are also designed with modular units, allowing for future reuse or recycling of each component, embodying circular principles.

The Essential Homes Research Project serves as a catalyst for the crucial conversation surrounding the accessibility of sustainable building solutions for all, shaping a future that prioritizes the wellbeing of both people and the planet.

Practical Information

Project Name: Essential Homes Research Project
Partners: Holcim, Norman Foster Foundation
Location: Time Space Existence Exhibition, May 20, 2023, to November 26, 2023, Venice, Italy

A physical prototype is on view at Marinaressa Gardens, Exhibition in Palazzo Mora.

About Holcim

Holcim is a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions. Driven by its purpose to build progress for people and the planet, its 60,000 employees are on a mission to decarbonize building, while improving living standards for all. The company empowers its customers across all regions to build better with less, with its broad range of low-carbon and circular solutions, from ECOPact to ECOPlanet. With its innovative systems, from Elevate’s roofing to PRB’s insulation, Holcim makes buildings more sustainable in use, driving energy efficiency and green retrofitting. With sustainability at the core of its strategy, Holcim is becoming a net-zero company with 1.5°C targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Learn more about Holcim on www.holcim.com, and by following us on LinkedIn.

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About Norman Foster Foundation

The Norman Foster Foundation promotes interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations anticipate the future. The first mission of the Norman Foster Foundation is to make visible the centrality of architecture, infrastructure, and urbanism for the betterment of society. To this end, the second mission is to encourage new thinking and research across traditional boundaries in order to help younger generations anticipate the challenges of future change. In particular, the foundation speaks to those professionals who are concerned with the environment: architects, engineers, designers, urbanists, civic leaders, planners, and artists. This is at the heart of the Foundation’s holistic approach to design and is ever more relevant as populations shift to cities. With the implications of climate change, robotics and Artificial Intelligence, sustainable design is not about fashion but about survival.

The Foundation holds the Norman Foster Archive and Library, which provides a window into the larger narrative and history of our built environment through the work of Norman Foster. This is complemented and supported by drawings and models from other significant architects such as Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Charles and Ray Eames, Buckminster Fuller, Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando. Through its research initiatives and programmes, the Norman Foster Foundation encourages the transfer of advanced knowledge in a wide range of design fields. The Foundation’s educational initiatives are structured around research, workshops, fellowships and forums, built around the Foundation’s core objectives.

The Norman Foster Foundation acts from the United Kingdom, New York and Spain, with its headquarters in Madrid.

Important disclaimer – forward-looking statements:

This document contains forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements do not constitute forecasts regarding results or any other performance indicator, but rather trends or targets, as the case may be, including with respect to plans, initiatives, events, products, solutions and services, their development and potential. Although Holcim believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions as at the time of publishing this document, investors are cautioned that these statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Holcim, including but not limited to the risks described in the Holcim’s annual report available on its website (www.holcim.com) and uncertainties related to the market conditions and the implementation of our plans. Accordingly, we caution you against relying on forward-looking statements. Holcim does not undertake to provide updates of these forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE: HOLCIM