Holcim Unveils Carbon-Negative Concrete at Venice Biennale

At the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, global building material market leader Holcim, in partnership with Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena and his practice ELEMENTAL, revealed a revolutionary innovation in green building. The focus is on a new mix of biochar-based concrete, formulated not only to lower emissions, but to actually capture carbon dioxide from the air. This innovation is a forward-looking move toward making buildings carbon sinks over the long term, breaking new ground for climate-resilient architecture.

The new carbon-negative building material is highlighted in an entire Basic Services Unit prototype constructed by ELEMENTAL and Holcim. It presents an innovative use of biochar—an organic, charcoal-based material that locks away carbon—introduced into Holcim's low-carbon cement paste. Rather than breaking down and releasing CO₂, the organic content is turned into biochar, which stores the carbon away. With Holcim, every kilogram of biochar employed in construction can avoid up to three kilograms of CO₂ emissions, making the building material a potent climate weapon.

Holcim CEO Miljan Gutovic shared the company's dedication to driving the sustainable construction revolution with strategic collaborations and innovative technologies. "Holcim is the pioneer partner for sustainable construction, and we collaborate with stakeholders along the value chain to provide innovative and sustainable solutions for our customers," stated Gutovic. "Through our collaboration with Alejandro Aravena and the ELEMENTAL team, we have shown how Holcim's new carbon sink technology can define the future of construction."

Not only is the innovation environmentally progressive, it's practical and scalable as well. The precast-panel prototype house illustrates ELEMENTAL's incremental design ethic—delivering a fundamental form that has requisite infrastructure on which residents may then build out. This versatile strategy is engineered to keep pace with the rapid growth of the city and with the need for affordable, low-impact homes. The precast panel solution also facilitates the quick deployment of fundamental housing requirements, thus suitable for regions where housing demand is increasing.

Aravena, who is renowned for marrying social purpose with architectural merit, highlighted the need to merge scale and sustainability in housing. "In Venice, we are taking incremental housing to its essence: a structural sanitation unit with precast panels addresses the basic requirements of dwelling," he said. "Holcim's new decarbonization technology enables us to respond to the scale and pace of the housing crisis' need without straining the environment."

One of the highlights of Holcim's new material is that it utilizes 100% recycled aggregates, aligning with the company's vision for a circular construction strategy. This aligns with its wider portfolio of sustainability solutions ranging from technologies such as ECOPact (its low-carbon concrete product range), ECOPlanet (its green cement offerings), and ECOCycle®, a system of material recovery and reuse. This innovation by introducing a direct function of carbon sequestration in construction materials joins these efforts.

The launch of this technology is the first large-scale implementation of Holcim's carbon sink solution, and it indicates readiness for mass adoption. It is a meeting of cutting-edge materials science, considered design, and climate-smart engineering—highlighting the need for cooperation between industry and design experts in leading environmental innovation.

Since the built environment contributes to a major portion of the world's emissions, breakthroughs such as this biochar concrete are vital. Holcim's new strategy not only keeps embodied carbon to a minimum but actually reverses it by incorporating CO₂ into the building structure itself. By making houses and infrastructure carbon sinks, this technology redefines the construction sector's position in the climate transition.

Holcim's collaboration with ELEMENTAL, a company famous for socially responsible architectural designs, guarantees that the technology is not only planet-friendly but also people-friendly. The Basic Services Unit exhibited in Venice is a real-life proof of how innovative materials can work for people and the planet.

While urban centers worldwide are faced with the double burden of climate change and housing deficiencies, such as Holcim's carbon-negative concrete, may transform the urban future of sheltering life to sustaining it.