Gelephu Mindfulness City Wins 2025 Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction

Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) in Bhutan has been honoured with the 2025 Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction, recognising its visionary design that unites spirituality, sustainability, and innovation. Led by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), GMC stands among global trailblazers redefining the future of sustainable urban living.

Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) won the 2025 Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction Award, one of the world’s most respected accolades in sustainable architecture and urban design. The recognition celebrates forward-thinking projects that redefine how humanity and the planet can coexist in balance.

Led by the visionary collaboration between Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City team and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), GMC stood out for its deep integration of Bhutan’s spiritual and ecological values with innovative design. Rooted in the country’s philosophy of Gross National Happiness, the project reimagines urban living as an ecosystem of mindfulness — where infrastructure, community, and nature thrive together.

The award underscores the shared vision between BIG and Bhutan to explore how tradition and innovation can advance hand-in-hand. This same partnership also shines at the 2025 Venice Biennale, where BIG’s Ancient Future installation brings to life the design of the upcoming Gelephu International Airport — a poetic blend of Bhutanese craftsmanship and modern technology.

The project is “a city shaped by nature rather than imposed upon it,” reflecting the holistic spirit that defines Bhutan’s approach to progress.

Global Recognition Among Trailblazers

GMC joins a stellar line-up of visionary projects recognised in the 2025 Holcim Awards across five regions:

Asia Pacific

• Gelephu Mindfulness City - Gelephu, Bhutan | BIG – BJARKE INGELS GROUP
  A bold design in Bhutan integrates spiritual values, passive design, and renewable energy into a large-scale urban plan. Shaped by the landscape and local materials, it aims to set a global benchmark for sustainable urban planning and development.
  
  
• Healing Through Design - Bengaluru, India | THE AGAMI PROJECT / A THRESHOLD
  A compact health center in Bengaluru uses recycled stone and timber, passive cooling, and community-led design to form a vibrant, inclusive hub for healing, culture, and social resilience.
  
  
• Old Dhaka Central Jail Conservation - Dhaka, Bangladesh | FORM.3 ARCHITECTS
  A historic jail site in central Dhaka is reimagined as a vibrant public space, blending adaptive reuse, passive cooling strategies, and local craft to deliver a culturally rooted, economically viable model for sustainable urban renewal.
  
  
• Pingshan River Blueway Landscape - Shenzhen, China | SASAKI ASSOCIATES
  A 40km river corridor in Shenzhen is transformed into a biodiverse public landscape, integrating passive measures to reduce the urban heat island (UHI) effect, material reuse, and regional cultural heritage to create a flood-resilient, inclusive urban greenway.

Europe

• Art-Tek Tulltorja - Pristina, Kosovo | RAFI SEGAL A+U, OFFICE OF URBAN DRAFTERS, ORG PERMANENT MODERNITY, STUDIO REV
  A former brick factory in Prishtina is reimagined as a creative and tech program, combining clean energy, circular construction, and community-led programming to drive cultural, social, and economic regeneration in post-conflict Kosovo.
  
  
• School in Gaüses - Girona, Spain | TED'A ARQUITECTES
  A rural school in Catalonia built from local earth, timber, and tile rethinks education through sustainability, turning its forested site into a space where children learn by doing—inside and out.
  
  
• The Crafts College - Herning, Denmark | DORTE MANDRUP
  A vocational campus uses recycled materials, passive design, and shared public space to connect education with sustainable building and craft, offering students a hands-on model for learning by making.
  
  
• The Southern River Parks - Madrid, Spain | ALDAYJOVER ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE
  A large-scale restoration of Madrid’s southern riverbanks turns degraded land into resilient green infrastructure, using native planting, water reuse, and community-led design to address climate, biodiversity, and social challenges.

Latin America

• Barrio Chacarita Alta Housing - Asunción, Paraguay | MOS ARCHITECTS & ADAMO FAIDEN
  An innovative social housing project in Asunción’s Chacarita Alta district upgrades an informal settlement through resident participation, providing safe, affordable homes and transforming a polluted ravine into vibrant public spaces and pathways.
  
  
• Origin: The Reunion with the Lost Gardens - Medellín, Colombia | CONNATURAL
  Shaping a new landscape in Medellín, the project removes an obsolete concrete structure to uncover a buried creek. Integrating urban farming, water gardens, and outdoor classrooms, it reconnects a university campus with its natural hydrology.
  
  
• Schools for Flood-Prone Areas - Porto Alegre, Brazil | ANDRADE MORETTIN ARQUITETOS ASSOCIADOS, SAUERMARTINS
  A Brazilian public school is redesigned to act as a multi-level refuge during annual floods, ensuring vital shelter for the local community, whilst offering a unique architecture that acts as a learning tool in itself.
  
  
• Sesc Parque Dom Pedro II - São Paulo, Brazil | UNA ARQUITETOS
  In central São Paulo, a derelict triangular lot wedged between highways and a river is reborn as a vibrant community center for the city’s underserved downtown population.

Middle East & Africa

• Brookside Secondary School - Asaba, Nigeria | STUDIO CONTRA
  A school harnessing locally crafted, low-carbon clay bricks revives nearly lost artisanal skills, whilst providing economic opportunities for the area.
  
  
• Qalandiya: The Green Historic Maze - Qalandiya, Palestinian Territory | RIWAQ – CENTRE FOR ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATION
  An incremental restoration project looks to revive a fragile historic village, honoring vernacular architecture, championing community engagement, optimizing ecological rehabilitation, and highlighting adaptive reuse.
  
  
• Waldorf School - Nairobi, Kenya | URKO SÁNCHEZ ARCHITECTS
  A semi-permanent primary school campus in Nairobi's forest poetically merges classrooms with nature, utilizing modular, earth-filled walls and lightweight roofs.
  
  
• Zando Central Market - Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo | THINK TANK ARCHITECTURE
  Redeveloping Kinshasa’s central market, this project provides safe, comfortable, shaded stalls for 20,000 vendors using passive design, breathable brick façades, and open concrete structures.

North America

• Buffalo Crossing Visitor Centre - Winnipeg, MB, Canada | STANTEC ARCHITECTURE
  A net-zero visitor centre in Winnipeg reconnecting communities to reclaimed landscapes, drawing on Indigenous design collaboration, and passive strategies.
  
  
• Lawson Centre for Sustainability - Toronto, ON, Canada | MECANOO ARCHITECTEN
  A climate-conscious urban infill education hub at Toronto’s Trinity College is deploying passive design strategies that foster community, circularity, and ecological restoration.
  
  
• Moakley Park - Boston, MA, United States | STOSS LANDSCAPE URBANISM
  A community-led waterfront park in Boston that integrates restored marshes, stormwater management, adaptive landscapes, and native plantings to create a resilient and inclusive public space.
  
  
• Portland International Airport Main Terminal - Portland, OR, United States | ZGF
  A sustainably expanded airport terminal with locally sourced materials, passive daylighting, and community-informed design.

A Step Forward for Bhutan’s Global Vision

For Bhutan, the Holcim Award is a reaffirmation of the country’s commitment to compassionate and sustainable development. As GMC evolves, it stands as a living example of how mindful design can lead the world toward a more harmonious and hopeful future.