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European Prize for Urban Public Space 2024: 10 Finalist Projects Across Europe

Laura Puttkamer

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Public spaces are key collective meeting places that have shaped European cities for millennia. To honour their importance, the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona awards the European Prize for Urban Public Spaces every two years. For the 2024 edition, the Centre has chosen ten finalists with two prizes to be awarded in October.

Over the last 24 years, the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), a cultural centre dedicated to exploring the big themes of contemporary society, has given out the European Prize for Urban Public Space. In a total of 12 editions, 19 awards and 35 special mentions have been announced. The Prize has received almost 3,000 entries. For its 2024 edition, the CCCB has now announced ten finalists, selected from 297 projects from 35 European countries. Five finalists compete for the prize in the General category and five in the Seafronts category, which addresses climate vulnerabilities in coastal cities. This is the first time this dedicated Seafronts category is part of the European Prize for Urban Public Space. The CCCB wants to recognise the importance and the particular challenges faced by coastal cities with this new category. Winners for both categories will be announced on October 29, 2024.

An observatory of good practices

Since the year 2000, the CCCB recognises “the best interventions of creation and transformation in the public spaces of European cities”. The prize is honorary and goes to authors and promoters of works carried out in the 47 countries that make up the Council of Europe. A key goal of the European Prize for Urban Public Space is to offer a unique perspective on European cities, becoming a space of reference to discuss the challenges of urban public space among experts from architectural, academic, and cultural institutions from all over Europe.

Despite the diversity of European cities, they share some common historical elements such as human scale, compact design, and a mixed-use character. In this traditional idea of the European city, public space plays a very important role in encounters and is loaded with political, economic, and social values inseparable from the physical design.

At the same time, European cities are facing numerous challenges and transformations, like other cities around the world. These include the climate emergency, shortages of goods, inequalities, mobility, migrations, and other emergencies. With this in mind, the Prize wants to showcase Europe’s immediate reality and add this experience to the global debate surrounding the future of cities. The awarded projects provide an observatory of good practices.

Five finalists in the General category

The 2024 edition will include interventions in public space that took place between 2022 and 2023, with the exception of projects related to the transformation of seafronts. The first round saw 25 selected works that are published on the Prize website and included in the online archive. Now, the CCCB has announced five finalists for each category. Projects are located in Belgium, Spain, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland, most of them corresponding to medium-sized cities.

For the 2024 edition, the International Jury was led by the urbanist architect, landscape, and industrial designer Beth Galí, and made up of Sonia CurnierFabrizio GallantiŽaklina GligorijevićBeate HølmebakkManon MollardFrancesco Musco, and Lluís Ortega.

On October 28th, the five finalists in the General category will present their projects to the jury, with the winner announced just one day later. The events will take place at the CCCB and be open to the public. Out of 253 entries in the General category, these are the five finalists:

  • Park at the Warsaw Uprising Mound in Warsaw, Poland by topoScape, Archigrest
  • Boca de la Mina Promenade in Reus,Spain by Batlleiroig
  • Seven interventions in Monte in Castel San Pietro, Switzerland by studioser
  • CHAPEX in Charleroi, Belgium by AJDVIV, AgwA
  • Urban Forest in Tbilisi, Georgia by Ruderal

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Transforming, recovering, and creating seafronts

On September 9th, the five finalists of the Seafronts category will present their projects to the jury. This exceptional category is a response to the particular vulnerability of coastal cities to climate change. It belongs to the framework of the Cultural Regatta, a programme of activities promoted by Barcelona City Council to celebrate the America’s Cup in the city.

Participants could enter projects that have transformed, recovered, and created seafronts over the last five years, from 2019 to 2023. Out of 44 entries, these are the five finalist projects:

  • Beach improvement and redevelopment of the harbour edge in Porto do Son, Spain by CREUSeCARRASCO, RVR Arquitectos
  • Redevelopment of Dún Laoghaire Baths in Dublin, Ireland by DLR Architects’ Department, A2 Architects
  • Coastal walk in Palamós, Spain by Estudi Martí Franch Arquitectura del Paisatge, Ardevol Consultors Associats
  • Sea Park in Rímini, Italy by Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects
  • Beach boulevard in Delfzijl, Netherlands by LAOS landscape urbanism

In addition to shortlisting the finalists for the European Prize for Urban Public Space, the jury has selected another 20 projects for their high quality. They will be included in the Digital Archive of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, an excellent source of inspiration and mutual learning. It brings together the best projects submitted since 2000, showcasing a total of 320 exemplary public spaces in 200 European cities.

Read more about the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2018

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