The international Jury of the 2022 European Prize for Urban Public Space has chosen the 5 finalists for this year’s award, which recognises works carried out between 2018 and 2021.
The European Prize for Urban Public Space is a biennial, honorific award which, since 2000, has recognised the best projects of creation, transformation, and recovery of public spaces in European cities.
With record figures of participation –326 projects– and a high level of representation –35 countries– the Prize confirms the relevance and great importance of public space in the development of cities, in present and future contexts.
The countries that have presented the greatest number of works are Spain, Poland, Italy, France, and Portugal. Moreover, notable among the 35 countries represented—once again, a higher number than in previous awards—are the inclusion, for the first time, of Armenia; the return of Cyprus, Iceland, Georgia, and Latvia; as well as the participation of Ukraine.
After its deliberations at the meeting on 14 and 15 July at the CCCB (Barcelona), the international Jury—with the agricultural engineer and landscape designer Teresa Galí-Izard, who teaches Landscape Architecture at the ETH, Zurich, as its president, and consisting of Hans Ibelings, architecture critic, historian, and editor of The Architecture Observer; Eleni Myrivili, who has a PhD in Anthropology and is an advisor on Resilience and Sustainability in Athens; Andreas Ruby, director of the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basle; Paloma Strelitz, architect, creative director of Patch, and founder of Assemble, London; and Špela Videčnik, architect and founding member of the architects’ studio OFIS in Ljubljana; with the support of Lluís Ortega, architect, lecturer at the UPC, and Secretary of the Prize—has decided to select the following works:
Catharijnesingel, 2020. Utrecht, Netherlands. OKRA landschapsarchitect
The restoration of the Catharijnesingel removes vehicular traffic that occupied this street and brings back water to rewild a new public space for the city and make it accessible for cyclists and pedestrians. This project is an excellent example of revitalising the qualities of the city by means of recovering water and its biodiversity. Inspired by the environment, all the elements, including trees, vegetation, paving materials, and street furniture have been meticulously selected and envisage how nature will evolve in future. It introduces a new, natural, and healthy microclimate that will play an important role in the present situation of global climate crisis.
FLOW, 2021. Brussels, Belgium. POOL IS COOL, Decoratelier Jozef Wouters Flow, designed and built with the participation of fifty young people, is the first open-air swimming pool to be constructed in Brussels in forty years. This project introduces a temporary structure that establishes a rich meeting place for enjoying fresh air and water. As a simple, economical, modular system that can easily be built by many hands, it presents a good example of how everyone can participate in creating an active, healthy public space.
Hage, 2021. Lund, Sweden. Brendeland & Kristoffersen architects, Price & Myers Lund Cathedral decided to use its properties to develop a public space that would be an alternative to the logic of rapid urbanisation in its surroundings.
A courtyard, closed on three sides by walls made of bricks recovered from a demolished factory building, is set in still-undeveloped land on the outskirts of Lund. The owner of the land has decided not to keep pace with the urbanising development of the area, but to let it follow its own course open to the citizens. The courtyard is a first intervention, an anticipation of a gradual evolution of the place: an hortus inconclusus.
Saint Sernin Square, 2020. Toulouse, France. Joan Busquets, Pieter-Jan Versluys, BAU The project for Saint Sernin Square in Toulouse restores eminence to the historic urban fabric of the city. The cars that occupied its surface have been removed, and lost trees are reinstated as organisers of the public space. The simplicity of the proposal, its use of materials, and recognition of the heritage of the site have become the project’s mechanisms for reactivating a new, once- jeopardised public space and regaining its vertical dimension and establishing an area that can accommodate a range of public uses.
“Sporta pils dārzi”urban garden in Riga, 2021. Riga, Latvia. Artilērijas dārzi The urban community garden “Sporta pils dārzi” is the result of a popular initiative to recover an abandoned lot and becomes a new typology of public space. The project consists of a system of seedling distributions and interstitial spaces that will be occupied during events and encounters.
The resulting project is a new system, a model of urban space that incorporates productive, cultural and social logics and integrates emerging natural elements as part of the community space.
Among the works submitted, the jury has selected 20 projects that will become part of the Archive of the European Prize for Urban Public Space:
- Thermal fountains in Baden and Ennetbaden, Baden (Switzerland), 2021. Bagni Popolari Association
- Gare Maritime, Brussels (Belgium), 2020. Jan de Moffarts, OMGEVING, Sweco | Boydens engineering, NEY & Partners, Bureau Bouwtechniek, Neutelings Riedijk Architects
- substandardPLUS, Bucharest (Romania), 2019. Atelier Ad Hoc Arhitectura
- Cycling and pedestrian connection path, Esplugues de Llobregat (Spain), 2018. Batlleiroig
- Girona's Shores, Girona (Spain), 2021. Franch Batllori
- Krater, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 2021. Authors: Prostorož, Trajna, Društvo za permakulturo Slovenije, Agrodivizija, Abandoned Plants Sanctuary, Rok Oblak, John Buscarino
- Kiosk Outsider, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 2021. Outsider Magazine (Nina & Matevz Granda)
- Anna Gardens in the Fuzja development, Lodz (Poland), 2021. Medusa Group
- Ruskin Square, London (United Kingdom), 2018. muf architecture/art, J & L Gibbons
- Reconstruction of Koliivschyny square, Lviv (Ukraine), 2021. Urban Ideas / RUTHENIA
- Can Sau. Emergency scenery, Conill and Carme squares, Olot (Spain), 2021. unparelld'arquitectes (Eduard Callís, Guillem Moliner)
- Law Faculty Université-Paris I , Modernisation of the Lourcine Barracks, Paris (France), 2019. ChartierDalix, D&H Paysages
- Clichy Batignolles - Martin Luther King Park, Paris (France), 2021. Osty et associés
- Local Activity Center, Rybnik (Poland), 2019. Marlena Wolnik – MWArchitekci
- Renaturalization of Llobregat river in its passage through Sallent, Sallent de Llobregat (Spain), 2020, Sergio Sangalli Borrego, Roser Garcia Llidó, Eduard, Álvaro Alcázar Del Águila
- Albanian Carpet, Shkodër (Albania), 2020. Casanova + Hernandez Architects
- Fahle Gallery Street, Tallinn (Estonia), 2021. Kino Maastikuarhitektid
- Spoorpark Tilburg, Tilburg (Netherlands), 2019. KruitKok Landschapsarchitecten, Blom&Moors , Timmermans Architecture
- Bakalarska Marketplace, Warsaw (Poland), 2021. Aleksandra Wasilkowska
- WolkenWerk, Zurich (Switzerland), 2021. mavo Landschaften.
The winner of the eleventh award of the European Prize for Urban Public Space will be made public at a prize-giving ceremony that is to be held at the CCCB the 14 and 15 November.
The 25 selected works will be published in the online Archive, which brings together the best projects presented for the Prize since it was first awarded in 2000.
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