European Prize for Urban Public Space 2018

WHY PUBLIC SPACE?

One of Europe’s great contributions to the world has unquestionably been its particular way of understanding and experiencing urban public space. For millennia, the Old Continent has been producing cities on a human scale, long-lived but always dynamic, and tending to cultural diversity and civic awareness among their inhabitants. Public space is a physical form laden with non-material political values and potent social, economic and historical meaning.

Given the challenges presently being faced by an increasingly urbanised world, defending the European model of the city, far from being a mere exercise in nostalgia, is now more appropriate than ever. When urban sprawl is expanding with unprecedented momentum, when climate change is in good measure a product of the resultant urban mobility, and when the social fractures in cities are more and more evident, public space continues to be the best terrain from which to deal with the main problems arising from the urban phenomenon.

THE PRIZE

The European prize for Urban Public Space is a biennial, honorific competition which recognises the creation, recovery and improvement of public spaces whose condition is understood as a clear indicator of the democratic health of our cities. With this new award, the Prize—now consolidated as a privileged observatory of good practice in projects that testify to the prolific construction of public spaces around Europe—will be presented for the tenth time.

The Prize upholds an open, compact city of universal access, guaranteeing harmonious coexistence of citizens, mixed uses, sustainable mobility, preserving the historical memory of places, and favouring the participation of citizens in the design of its shared spaces.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Seven European institutions are the organisers of the tenth award of the Prize.
The Prize is honorific and is awarded jointly to the authors and promoters of the projects selected. Prize-winning projects receive a commemorative plaque and those chosen for a Special Mention receive a diploma. Prize-winning works, those receiving a Special Mention and finalists will be published in the Prize Archive and will also be shown in a possible travelling exhibition featuring the 2018 Prize.