Winner of the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2022

The restoration of the Catharijnesingel canal in Utrecht, by OKRA landschapsarchitecten, has been declared winner of the 2022 European Prize for Urban Public Space.

An international jury has awarded the 2022 European Prize for Urban Public Space to the restoration of the Catharijnesingel canal in Utrecht (Netherlands), a project by the Dutch studio OKRA landschapsarchitecten promoted by the City of Utrecht.

The jury considers that the reconstruction of the canal, as well as the recovery of a linear park running along its banks, is an exemplary intervention for the survival of our cities in this new climate era. The jury also highlighted the canal’s role in building up urban resilience in the city: it is increasing Utrecht’s capacity to deal with extreme heat, storms and flooding, and the recovery of water and plant life helps capture carbon and reduce pollution. The canal has become a desirable and playful place to be, for the city’s residents, and it has also created new habitats for other living beings.

The jury has also selected 4 finalist works:
Flow, 2021, Brussels, Belgium, by Pool is Cool and Jozef Wouters
Hage, 2021, Lund, Sweden, by Brendeland & Kristoffersen architects and Price & Myers 
Gardens of Sporta Pils, 2021, Riga, Latvia, by Artilērijas dārzi 
Saint Sernin Square, 2020, Toulouse, France, by BAU (Joan Busquets, Pieter-Jan Versluys), MDP (Michel Desvigne Paysagiste), LEA and EGIS

The 11th edition of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, an initiative of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), has seen a record number of entrants and widespread representation: 326 projects were submitted, from 35 different countries. The works presented for this edition highlight the problems shared by distinct European cities, and some of the solutions that have been proposed to try to deal with them. This is particularly relevant in the present, post-pandemic context: urban projects must address climate change and aim to make cities more liveable places, something that has become a central issue.

The European Prize for Urban Public Space is a biennial, honorific award which, since 2000, has recognised the best projects in terms of the creation, transformation and recovery of public spaces in European cities.

International jury
President: Teresa Galí-Izard, landscape designer, engineer and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich
Hans Ibelings, architectural critic and historian, and director of The Architecture Observer
Eleni Myrivili, doctor of anthropology and global chief heat officer for UN-Habitat
Andreas Ruby, director of the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel
Paloma Strelitz, architect, creative director of Patch and founder of Assemble, London
Špela Videčnik, architect, founding member of OFIS Architects, Ljubljana

The jury was supported by Lluís Ortega, architect, professor at UPC and the Prize’s secretary.

The European Prize for Urban Public Space is organised with the collaboration of the following European institutions:

Arc en Rêve, Bordeaux, France
Architekturzentrum Wien—AzW, Vienna, Austria
ArkDes, Stockholm, Sweden
La Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris, France
CIVA, Brussels, Belgium
Deutsches Architekturmuseum—DAM, Frankfurt, Germany
Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseum, Tallin, Estonia
Kortárs Építészeti Központ—Kék, Budapest, Hungary
Muzej za Arhitekturo in Oblikovanje—MAO, Ljubljana, Slovenia
The Architecture Foundation—AF, London, United Kingdom