The projects selected for the 2026 European Prize for Urban Public Space and organized by the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), exemplify formal rigor, environmental sensitivity, and urban integration. These five projects directly contribute to improving the quality of life in European cities and—across various territorial scales—offer concrete responses to the climate crisis, ecological restoration, and social cohesion.
Infrastructure projects—ranging from 205 m² to 48 km—transformed into spaces that combat the climate crisis
The jury highlights the transformation of large areas into green spaces, such as the conversion of the former Vicenza airport into the Peace Park (Parco della Pace) and the redevelopment of docks and parking areas in Antwerp (Zuidpark); both projects focus on biodiversity and the water cycle.
The jury also recognized the ability to repurpose former transport infrastructure into spaces for social interaction. At the urban scale, the transformation of Plaça de les Glòries in Barcelona restructures the urban fabric by integrating public transport and traffic at a lower level, freeing up the surface area to create a park and climate refuge.
At the territorial scale, the Leça River green corridor in Matosinhos establishes a 48-kilometer landscape infrastructure connecting four municipalities, thereby promoting sustainable mobility and water management.
Finally, "Baños en la Rotonda" (Baths in the Roundabout) in Logroño demonstrates the value of small-scale intervention—covering just 205 m²—by converting a roundabout into a temporary public restroom that serves as a climate refuge during extreme heatwaves.
Finalist Projects
Zuidpark, 2024. Antwerp, Belgium
Tractebel, Atelier ADR, Georges Descombes
Zuidpark transforms a former car-dominated expanse, situated above Antwerp’s old docks, into a metropolitan "green lung." Its design balances the integration of biodiversity, the restoration of the water cycle, and the creation of new leisure and social spaces for the neighborhood.

Zuidpark by Tractebel, Atelier ADR and Georges Descombes. Photograph by Isabelle Pateer.
Plaza de las Glòries Catalanes, 2025. Barcelona, Spain
Agence Ter, Ana Coello Paisatge i Arquitectura, Meta Engineering–Quadranteka
The square's transformation turns a major traffic interchange into a hybrid space—part park, part plaza—establishing a new urban ecosystem. By moving city-scale traffic underground, the project prioritizes nature at surface level, serves as a climate refuge, and offers accessible green areas for community life.

Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes Square by AgenceTER, Ana Coello Paisatge i Arquitectura, Meta Engineering–Quadranteka. Photograph by Droneti BIMSA.
Rotunda Baths, 2025. Logroño, Spain
Leopold Banchini
Repurposing an obsolete roundabout, this project creates an ephemeral installation featuring public baths and a climate refuge to counter extreme heat. The intervention completely reimagines road infrastructure, transforming a space once dedicated to cars into an intimate, shared, human-scale meeting place.

Roundabout Baths by Leopold Banchini.
Leça Green Corridor, 2024. Matosinhos, Portugal
Laura Roldão
Stretching 48 kilometers and connecting four municipalities, this corridor adds 22 hectares of linear public space, serving as a key landscape infrastructure for environmental regeneration, water resilience, and sustainable mobility.

Leça Green Corridor by Laura Roldão.
Peace Park, 2025. Vicenza, Italy
Martí Franch Batllori–EMF, Studio Franco Zagari, ITS Engineering Company, PAN Associati
The Vicenza Airport Ecological Park transforms the former airfield site into a 65-hectare landscape that, through nature-based solutions, integrates water management, biodiversity restoration, and the creation of new communal spaces.

Peace Park by Martí Franch Batllori–EMF, Studio Franco Zagari, ITS Engineering Company and PAN Associati. Photograph by Isabelle Pateer.
The international jury for this edition brings together renowned professionals from across Europe. The jury is chaired by Eva Prats, architect and co-director of Flores & Prats, who also represents the CCCB. The jury members are Angelika Fitz, architect and director of the Architekturzentrum Wien; Monika Konrad, architect and urban planner, and deputy director of the Warsaw Municipal Office of Architecture and Urban Planning; Inês Lobo, Portuguese architect and recipient of several awards, who founded her own practice in 2002; Bas Smets, landscape architect whose work spans projects in twelve countries; and Philip Ursprung, Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at ETH Zurich. The jury secretary is Lluís Ortega, architect and PhD, who holds a degree in Philosophy from the Universitat de Barcelona and a Master of Science (AAD) from Columbia University.
25 Years: An Award with a European and Social Mission
The European Prize for Urban Public Space finds its natural setting in the European city—a city that, despite its diversity, shares certain common historical elements, such as human scale, compactness, and mixed-use character. Within this concept of the European city, public space plays a pivotal role as a site for collective encounter, imbued with political, economic, and social values that are inseparable from the physical forms that house and enable them.
Over its 25-year history and across 12 editions, the award has received 2,800 entries from 43 member countries of the Council of Europe. An analysis of these entries reveals the evolution and shifting urban priorities in Europe throughout this period.
Award Ceremony
A public session will be held at the CCCB on October 14, where each finalist team will present its project to the jury. Following these presentations, the jury will select the winning project, which will be announced at the award ceremony scheduled for the next day, October 15, at the same venue.