European Prize for Urban Public Space 2026 , Barcelona / Spanien

 

The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) announces the 13th edition of the European Prize for Urban Public Space. Since 2000, this biennial honorary competition recognizes the best interventions to create, transform and recover public spaces in European cities. For the first time, in this edition the time limit for works submitted is extended to 5 years (completed between the months of January 2021 and December 2025). The call for entries will be open for two and a half months, from 10 December to 26 February.

 

The European Prize for Urban Public Space is the only one in Europe devoted exclusively to public urban spaces, and recognizes both the authors and the developers of the projects. It offers a singular vision of the challenges facing cities today, such as climate emergency, the transformation of mobility and social inequalities, key elements that directly impact the design of public spaces. These spaces are not only essential for the quality of urban life, they also play a key role in cities’ democratic health.

 

In the course of its 25-year existence, the Prize has become consolidated as an observatory of good practices, with an online archive offering a platform for reflection on possible solutions to the challenges of the future. It is a contribution to the redefinition of public spaces as places for collective meeting and coexistence in European cities.

 

 The Jury will assess the proposals that best respond to the emerging challenges of urban public space, taking into account their cultural, social and environmental impact, as well as the effect of urban transformation on their specific context. Entry is free of charge and has 2 phases.

In the first, the Jury will select 25 projects that will be announced on 9 July 2026. The shortlisted projects will be included in the Prize’s digital archive and the catalogue published on the occasion of each edition, which also includes the reflections of the jury members (available online and in print). In the second phase, the Jury will select the five finalists, who will be announced on 9th September 2026.

Finally, a public event is scheduled to be held at the CCCB during the month of October, when each finalist team will present its project to the Jury. After this session, the Jury will name the winning project, which will be announced at the awards ceremony at the CCCB.

 

 This edition’s International Jury is made up of prestigious professionals from all over Europe:

 

Eva Prats, architect and co-director of Flores&Prats studio and lecturer at the Accademia di Architettura di Medrisio, has a long professional career. Her projects are noteworthy for integrating architectural design with the urban context in a way that is respectful, accessible and sustainable.

 

Angelika Fitz is an architect and Director of Architekturzentrum Wien. She has worked internationally as a curator, lecturer, architect and urban designer. She focuses on the social contextualization of architecture and the use of resources with a planetary perspective.

 

Monika Konrad is an architect and urban planner, and Deputy Director of the Municipal Office of Architecture and Urban Planning in Warsaw. She has designed urban and architectural projects in Europe, Asia and Africa.

 

Inês Lobo is a Portuguese architect and winner of various awards, and, with the studio she set up 2002, has developed projects for public facilities, housing, rehabilitation and public spaces. She was curator of the Portuguese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, with the proposal Lisbon Ground.

 

Bas Smets is a landscape architect with projects carried out in 12 countries. His projects for public space stand out for their innovative and sustainable approach, aimed at addressing the challenges of climate change.

 

Philip Ursprung, Professor of History of Art and Architecture at the ETH in Zurich, was Dean of the Architecture Department of the ETH from 2017 to 2019. In 2023 he represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, together with Karin Sander.

 

Lluís Ortega is a Doctor of Architecture (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-UPC). He has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Barcelona and a Master of Science (AAD) from Columbia University.

 

The European Prize for Urban Public Space has its home in the European city, which, despite its diversity, shares common historical elements, such as humanvscale, compact design and the mixed character of its uses. In this idea of European city, public space plays a key role as a collective meeting place, with all its political, economic and social values, inseparable from a physical design that welcomes them and makes them possible. Over its 25-year history and 12 editions to date, the Prize has received 2,800 proposals from 43 member countries of the Council of Europe. An analysis of them determines the evolution and changes of urban priorities on the continent in this period.

 

Accordingly, in its earlier editions, the winning projects dealt with the regeneration of urban fabrics damaged by decades of industrialization, road traffic and fragmentation. This is the case of the recovery of the final stretch of the river Besòs, in Barcelona, which became a large river park for citizens after years of environmental degradation and industrial impact, and has, since then, been a benchmark project in the restoration of the ecological balance of riverbeds.

 

In the 2010s, the Prize began to reflect a change in sensibility, recognizing projects that saw urban space as a setting for coexistence and social diversity. One example is the recovery of the old port of Marseille, for decades a conflictive, run-down space, which, after the intervention, became a public place for citizens to enjoy.

 

More recently, the winning projects are characterized by renaturalizing infrastructures, promoting sustainable mobility and creating resilient spaces. One example is the restoration of the Catharijnesingel, the 2022 Prize, an intervention that eliminated vehicular traffic and recovered water to renaturalize a new public space in Utrecht in the Netherlands, opening it up to pedestrians and cyclists.

 

The most recent winner in 2024, the Park at the Warsaw Uprising Mound, is a project that combines memory, leisure and ecological sensibility, innovatively integrating World War II ruins.

 

Reflecting the experience of the Prize throughout its 25 years of existence, European public space is conceived today as a system that has to allow for improved urban health and coexistence, mitigate climate change, and promote new ways of relating to nature and citizens.

 

 The Prize Archive, an Online Resource

The Archive of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, is an online, open-access resource that is free of charge, bringing together the best works presented to the Prize since it was created. With 413 projects in almost 200 European cities, it is a permanent witness and observatory of the construction and evolution of public spaces all over Europe.

 

The CCCB is a multidisciplinary arts centre dedicated to exploring the big themes of contemporary society in different languages and formats, with an extensive programme that includes major thematic exhibitions, cycles of talks and literary meetings, audiovisual screenings and festivals. Since its beginnings, the CCCB has promoted reflection on contemporary cities, understanding that they are key places for the transformations and challenges of today’s world.