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Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Spain Architecture News - Jul 05, 2016 - 19:39   9783 views

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

The European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 is awarded jointly to the recovery of thermal allotments in Caldes de Montbui in Spain and to the new Solidarnosc Square in Szczecin, Poland. The irrigation system in the thermal allotments in Caldes de Montbui in Spain, by Marta Serra and Elena Albareda (Ciclica) and Jordi Calbetó (Cavaa), and the Przelomy Centre for Dialogue in Solidarnosc Square in Szczecin, Poland, by Robert Konieczny (KWK Promes), have been awarded joint first prize in the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space, promoted by the CCCB together with six European institutions. 

The winners were announced at the official award ceremony, which took place at the CCCB on Monday 4 July 2016.

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Adria Goula

This year’s Prize jury also awarded four special mentions to the projects Barkingside town centre improvements in London, the Multipurpose Hall in MolenBeek-Saint-Jean in Belgium, Ring of Memory: International Memorial of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette in Ablain-Saint Nazaire, France, and the Garden of the Heavenly Hundred in Kiev, Ukraine, as well as a special recognition to the city of Copenhagen in acknowledgment of its public policies to improve the quality of life in public spaces.

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Adria Goula

The Prize is an initiative of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), jointly with The Architecture Foundation (London), the Architekturzentrum Wien (Vienna), the Institut français d’architecture / Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine (Paris), the Museum of Finnish Architecture (Helsinki), the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (Frankfurt) and the Museum of Architecture and Design (Ljubljana). 

The purpose of the Prize is to acknowledge and promote the public nature of urban spaces and their capacity to encourage social cohesion. It acknowledges and promotes spaces that are both public (open to everyone) and urban, with the emphasis on their relational, civic and democratizing nature.

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Adria Goula

The 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 shortlisted 25 projects of the 276 candidatures submitted from 33 countries across Europe. The winners and finalists will be included in the touring exhibition which, over the next two years, will be visiting various European cities. 

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Adria Goula

The works will also be published in the Online Archive, which contains the best projects submitted since the Prize was created in 2000. The Prize has become a recognised showcase of the evolution of public space in Europe, and is a finger on the pulse of the main concerns of European cities today.

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Adria Goula

The international jury, on this occasion presided by the architect Enric Batlle on behalf of the CCCB, is made up of Matevz Celik, Director of the Museum of Architecture and Design of Ljubljana, Hans Ibelings, a Dutch architecture historian and critic, Juulia Kauste, Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture in Helsinki, Ewa P. Porebska, an architect and architecture critic from Warsaw, Francis Rambert, Director of the Institut français d’architecture in Paris, Peter Schmal, Director of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt, Dietmar Steiner, Director of the Architekturzentrum Wien, and Ellis Woodman, Director of the Architecture Foundation in London.

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Ciclica&Cavaa

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Ciclica&Cavaa

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Ciclica&Cavaa

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Promes Robert Konieczny

The new Solidarnosc Square in Szczecin, Poland designed by Robert Konieczny KWK Promes, is a joint winner of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016. Solidarnosc (Solidarity) Square was a physical expression of the historic fracture in Szczecin after the Second World War. Named in memory of sixteen workers who were killed in 1970 when they demonstrated against the Soviet regime, the square had little relevance beyond this purely commemorative function. 

Its urban surrounds, anonymous and featureless, had not recovered from the massive destruction of allied bombing attacks at the end of the Second World War, after which the city went from German to Polish control, whereupon its entire population was replaced, with all the tragic effects of such a change. 

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Promes Robert Konieczny

The square, which recently recovered its lost centrality with the construction of the new Szczecin Philharmonic Hall, has been completely refurbished. It is now the site of the underground “Przelomy” Centre for Dialogue, a branch of the National Museum, which aims to heal the wounds of collective memory. Meanwhile the sloping contours of its roof offer the city a public space for intensive, vibrant use in its everyday life.

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Promes Robert Konieczny

Two joint winners of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016 revealed

Image © Promes Robert Konieczny

Top image © Adria Goula

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