European Prize for Urban Public Space

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The Architecture Foundation is delighted to be the British Partner of the European Prize for Ubran Public Space. The biennial prize – the only one of its kind in Europe – is distinctive in both recognising and promoting a public space that is at once public (open and universally accessible) and urban.

Given the reductionism and programmatic simplicity 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, the prize believes that promoting public space and making known 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 public space has always played in European cities. The prize seeks architecture with a social vocation, and aims to provide funding for the winning projects to help both the architect and the social administration behind it.

In highlighting the relational and civic aspects of the typically urban space, the award differs from other initiatives that are focused on the figure of the architect, and from awards given for landscape-centred projects.

Created in 2000, the European Prize for Ubran Public Space is organised by seven European institutions including the AF. 

The official publication, In Favour of Public Space: Ten Years of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, can be purchased by visiting our online shop – or in person from the AF Project Space in Central London.