European Prize for Urban Public Space

WHY PUBLIC SPACE?
Given the reductionism and oversimplification of some of the large-scale urban projects implemented in Europe in recent years, and the risks of homogenisation and impoverishment of the urban landscape, we believe that promoting public space and making known its political and plural character and the diversity of functions it can embrace, is an ideal way of stimulating urban projects that aim to reinvent and enhance the structural role that this space has always played in European cities.

The European Prize for Urban Public Space is a biennial competition that aims to highlight the importance of public space as a catalyst of urban life, and to recognise and foster investment by public administrations in its creation, conservation and improvement, while also understanding the state of public space as a clear indicator of the civic and collective health of our cities.

CALL FOR ENTRIES
The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine (Paris), The Architecture Foundation (London), the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (Rotterdam), the Architekturzentrum Wien (Vienna) and the Museum of Finnish Architecture (Helsinki) have announced the SIxth European Prize for Urban Public Space, which is to be awarded on 11 June 2010 in Barcelona. The first European Prize for Urban Public Space was offered in 2000 and since then it has been awarded on a two-yearly basis with the aim of recognising and promoting activities for the recovery and improvement of public space in European cities. The sixth award of the Prize is now announced in keeping with the aim of highlighting and making known projects that have been completed in Europe between 2008 and 2009.

CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION
In order to enter for the European Prize for Urban Public Space, the works must be presented for the award by the institutions that are responsible for the intervention, or by its authors. The Prize covers the geographic region of the Council of Europe (http:www.coe.int/).If it is desired to present interventions related with the creation of new urban spaces, it must be borne in mind that, apart from general considerations about the effect as a whole, the results achieved within these public spaces and their impact on community life will be the ones that are specifically evaluated.
Since some urban interventions involve long periods of work before their completion, projects that have not been fully completed in 2008 or 2009 may also present for the Prize if enough phases have been finished so as to enable assessment of the urban repercussions of the intervention as a whole. In order to present for the Prize, the required documentation as specified in these rules must be submitted before the established deadline.

SCHEDULE
15 November 2009
Opening of period for presenting projects

29 January 2010
End of period for presenting projects

25 and 26 March 2010
Meeting of the International Jury of the Prize

11 June 2010
Award of the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2010

Public Space