Urban Design Award / O nejlepší urbanistický projekt

25/03/2026

🏆1st PRIZE: New Town - Banská Bystrica
Authors: Nina Belásová, Victoria Betušová
Fakulta architektúry a dizajnu STU, Institute of Urban Design and Planning; supervisor: doc. Ing. arch. Viera Joklová, PhD.

✍️Anotation:
The core idea of our urban design proposal is to create a vibrant, sustainable residential district that fosters community life while maintaining ecological balance. Our approach is inspired by the concept of the 15-minute city, where residents can access all essential functions—housing, work, education, recreation, and shopping—within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. The project area is located in Banská Bystrica. A key component of the site is the original campus of Matej Bel University (UMB), serving as the natural center of our design. On the eastern side, the area includes the former lido, which has been revitalized and complemented with new functional developments. This part of the site has been further enhanced with a versatile marketplace designed to serve both the local community and vendors. The western section consists of residential houses with community housing, ensuring connection between the existing development and contemporary urban principles.

🦹‍♀️🦸‍♂️ Jury statement:
The New Town project addresses a situation familiar to many Central and Eastern European cities. The site, located outside the city centre, contains a mix of urban layers ranging from an abandoned production area to a university hospital and campus, including sports facilities and housing of different scales. The proposal connects these fragmented layers through the insertion of a new residential structure that introduces diverse housing typologies and enhances accessibility to key functions and amenities, with a strong emphasis on pedestrian and cycling movement.
Key project principles such as human scale, ecological sustainability, connectivity, and community life are consistently applied, resulting in a vibrant residential district seamlessly integrated into the existing, fragmented urban fabric. Particular attention is given to the quality and diversity of public spaces, fostering social interaction, outdoor recreation, and community engagement. The proposal also naturally incorporates elements of green and blue infrastructure that support biodiversity, enhance ecological stability, and improve the local microclimate.
The awarded project responds in a clear and graphically appealing way to the most of contemporary urban challenges, while offering a flexible framework for future development. It can serve as a strong reference for similar urban conditions across many European towns and cities.

24/03/2026

🥈2nd PRIZE: Follow the flow
Author: Barbora Husáková
Fakulta architektury ČVUT v Praze, Ústav krajinářské architektury FA ČVUT; Supervisor: doc. Ing. Klára Salzmann, Ph.D.

✍️Anotation:
The proposed concept reflects current issues related to the recent floods in the Czech Republic. It addresses the problem of water management on steep forest slopes around the historic centre of Carlesbad, as well as the associated adjustment of the water regime. During heavy rainfalls, water quickly flowed from the forests into the streets, causing damage to the urban infrastructure.
The design proposes a series of small interventions as a solution for flood protection of the built-up area and the reduction of property damage. A key element of the proposed solutions are stone walls that follow the contours of the land, thus promoting even water spread, mitigating surface runoff, and enhancing water retention. The solution also includes the support and delineation of river floodplains.

👨‍⚖️Jury statement:
„Follow the flow“ distinguishes itself through programmatic precision and territorial intelligence. The project identifies a critical site condition—hydrological vulnerability on steep forested slopes adjacent to Carlsbad‘s historic core—and proposes a landscape-infrastructural response calibrated to contemporary climate realities. The spatial proposition demonstrates sophisticated reading of terrain as active agent. The design refuses mere symptomatic treatment; instead, it constructs a gradient-based system that redistributes flow, modulates velocity, and choreographs water across threshold conditions. The representational apparatus communicates a coherent territorial vision rather than episodic gestures.
From the perspective of design research that insists on material consequence and ecological performance, several fundamental insufficiencies demand articulation: Phytotectonic Ambiguity, Hydrological Modeling Deficit, Unquantified Performance Claims.
„Follow the flow“ exemplifies landscape architecture operating at its conceptual and territorial best: it reads site as dynamic system, proposes infrastructure as ecological medium, and organizes intervention across scalar gradients. These strengths warrant recognition and merit the 2nd Prize. This scalar and ecological consciousness represents precisely the kind of systemic design thinking demanded by our present condition.

24/03/2026

🥉 3rd PRIZE: Revitalization of the Bratislava's ́winter harbor
Author: Róbert Lipták
Fakulta architektúry a dizajnu STU, Institute of Ecological and Experimental Architecture; Supervisor: Doc. Mgr. art. Martin Uhrík, PhD.

✍️Anotation:
Bratislava’s Winter Port, once an industrial hub, has unique urban, transport, and cultural potential. Its transformation envisions a modern, sustainable district integrating housing, services, culture, recreation, and administration while extending downtown. The site has three zones balancing heritage with contemporary needs, with green spaces improving environmental performance, biodiversity, and urban life quality. The first zone focuses on housing and transport, including new transit stops, a future tram link, and a rooftop park, while a heritage hall becomes a modern railway terminal blending history with functionality. The second combines administration, sports, and leisure, with a multifunctional hall and revitalized riverside promenade with cafés, housing, and cultural spaces. The third emphasizes culture and recreation, with a concert hall, ship museum, creative studios, and a flood-resilient park, preserving historic cranes and tracks as public landmarks.

👩‍⚖️Jury statement:
An attempt to rebuild the city port into a multifunctional residential, service and cultural space is carried out with panache and a visible pleasure in designing. The work draws attention with its engaging visualizations, designed on a scale closer to architectural than urban planning. The visualizations reveal a remarkably vivid and attractive vision. The detailed design, as well as the numerous diagrams illustrating functional solutions, communication, greenery systems, and public spaces, were highly praised. The decision to design a public space – a boulevard – and to utilize the remains of the port development to commemorate the original character of the site was consistently implemented. The glass philharmonic building and the remains of the port infrastructure, surrounded by skyscrapers, create a monumental composition, perhaps somewhat overwhelming, yet with the potential to create a new central space. The abundant greenery, pedestrian bridges providing access to the water, and low-rise commercial buildings lend selected areas a more intimate, human character. This is particularly evident in the cultural zone. Several concerns arose during the discussions and work about context and communication links with surroundings. In conclusion, it is an extremely attractive plastic image, showing the author’s potential and aesthetic sensitivity, although not necessarily a good idea for realization.

20/03/2026

AWARD: Beyond Suburbia
Author: Nikoleta Mitríková
Fakulta architektúry a dizajnu STU, Institute of Ecological and Experimental architecture
Supervisors: Ing. arch. Tibor Varga, PhD., Ing. arch. Lukáš Šíp, PhD.

📝Anotation:
Hviezdoslavov, a growing village near Bratislava, is under pressure from rapid suburbanization. Once rural, it now attracts young families but struggles with weak identity, car dependency, and lack of civic infrastructure. The proposal envisions a resilient settlement structured around the railway hub, supported by multimodal mobility. A green corridor links natural lakes, open spaces, and Šamorín, enhancing ecology and recreation. Housing ranges from family houses to mixed-use blocks, each tied to public spaces and services. Historic landmarks are reactivated as cultural anchors.
Phased growth foresees 2,000 residents in 5 years and up to 17,000 in 50, ensuring balanced social and environmental development.

🗣Jury statement:
This student project was awarded because it delivered a genuinely feasible and real-life solution to the challenges of a fast-growing suburban municipality. Instead of drawing an idealised masterplan, the team worked with what the territory actually is: a fragmented village under suburban pressure, struggling with mobility, identity, and missing public infrastructure. The proposal stands out for its ability to structure growth around the railway hub and to connect housing, services, and public spaces in a way that feels achievable, not theoretical. Green and blue infrastructure is used as a practical planning tool—linking lakes, open landscapes, and neighbouring settlements—while strengthening ecological and recreational functions.
The jury appreciated the project’s careful balance between everyday needs and environmental responsibility. The housing mix is thoughtfully diverse, responding to different household types and supporting social cohesion. Mobility is addressed with clear, realistic steps toward reducing car dependency through multimodal connections and accessible public spaces.
Climate adaptation, water management, and phased development are integrated into the concept as natural components of good planning. The proposal does not “replace” the village; it strengthens it and gives it a clearer structure for future growth.
Overall, the project convinced the jury through its strategic clarity, ecological sensitivity, and its grounded, implementable vision that could genuinely guide the real development of Hviezdoslavov.

20/03/2026

AWARD: UNDER BRIDGE - FLORENC
Author: Bc. Grigorii Matiunin
Fakulta architektury ČVUT v Praze, Ústav krajinářské architektury FA ČVUT
Supervisor: Ing. Vladimír Sitta

📝Anotation:
Welcome to the «Under Bridge - Florence» project, a visionary urban and architectural endeavor that promises to redefine the landscape of Prague’s Florence district. Nestled beneath the imposing structure of the Willsonova highway bridge, this transformative project represents a bold leap into the future of urban development, blending innovative design, sustainable practices, and community engagement.

🗣Jury statement:
The “Under Bridge - Florenc” project features an understandable concept that responds adequately to the problems and potentials of the site (which is now a collection of residual spaces along and below the main road artery) and transforms it into a vibrant urban space, a local hub beneficial to its surroundings. The jury appreciated the realistic nature of the proposal as well as its convincing presentation.
In the analytical part, the project provides a good analysis of the site and its spatial context, maps other projects in the territory, and identifies the main challenges that cities face today - whether it is adaptation to climate change, efficient use of space, energy management or strengthening social cohesion.
The proposed concept works correctly with the spatial context of individual locations, logically connects these places and offers a suitable use for them. In addition to civic amenities along the under-bridge pedestrian axis (food-court, exhibition space for neighbouring museum, shopping), it also develops the district square, park areas and other public spaces. Unfortunately, the project does not include compelling spatial details - the “zoom in” drawings are somewhat schematic and do not sufficiently capture the character of individual spaces.
Overall, the “Under Bridge - Florenc” is a well-grounded and convincing concept, the implementation of which would lead to a desirable positive transformation of the area.

20/03/2026

AWARD: Vršovice: Trains, Parks 'n Strolls
Authors: Bc. Faris Jašarević, Bc. Jan Stuchlík
Fakulta architektury ČVUT v Praze, Department of Architectural Design 1
supervisor: prof. Ing. arch. Miroslav Cikán

📝 Anotation:
Vršovice, in their northern part, are full of landscaped spaces, shopping streets and pleasant places for recreation. Southward, however, the territory is unorganized and defined by industrial zones and railway. It is precisely this part that the project focuses on. Permeability, imaginability and availability are the main keywords that define the new urban structures. The topic was not only the search for places for new construction with the aim of fulfilling the considerable potential of Vršovice, but mainly the improvement of the environment for the current residents. New parks and open spaces offer picturesque places for meeting, shopping and relaxing, or just a leisurely stroll.

🗣 Jury statement:
“Vršovice-Trains, Parks‘n Strolls” was distinguished for its complex yet clearly structured response to the challenges of a fragmented, rail‑dominated urban district, treated as a real place rather than a blank site. The proposal systematically works across scales: it redefines the role of the railway and main corridors, clarifies the network of local streets and passages, and carefully reshapes key public spaces, such as the station area, Eden and Kubánské náměstí.​
The project stands out for its capacity to organise future growth around robust public transport and green‑blue infrastructure while respecting the existing urban fabric and the historic industrial identity of Vršovice. Instead of erasing difficult spaces, it transforms underused rail‑side and industrial areas into a sequence of accessible parks, promenades, improving everyday conditions for current residents.​
The jury particularly appreciated the project’s complexity in the positive sense: mobility, landscape, public space and development potential are consistently integrated into a single, readable framework, rather than treated as separate themes. The work convincingly demonstrates how climate adaptation, sustainable mobility and heritage‑sensitive renewal can be combined into an implementable vision, which justifies the special distinction it received.

19/03/2026

Which projects were nominated by the jury for the second round of judging, and which ones walked away with awards after a two-hour debate? ▶️ We’re kicking off a series on the projects from the 30th edition of the competition!

Of the 61 entries, 10 projects of various forms and scales advanced to the second round of evaluation. In addition to the 6 award-winning projects, which we will discuss in more detail later, the jury was impressed by 🍺 the revitalization of a brewery, 🧰 the exploration of possibilities for small-scale transformations of inconspicuous urban corners, 🏡 a vision for the sustainable development of a small village, as well as 📏 a regulatory plan for a city center.

You can view all submitted projects, including their accompanying texts, at https://formular.fa.cvut.cz/award/prehled?semestr=14.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

07/03/2026

The International Student Competition Urban Design Award celebrated 30 years: Half of the awards of last year went to students from the Fakulta architektury ČVUT v Praze, half to students from Fakulta architektúry a dizajnu STU. The main prize goes to Bratislava for a project New Town – Banská Bystrica!

The projects will be on display at the Faculty of Architecture until March 15, after which they will travel to other partner universities.

Thanks to the partners, sponsors and all of the students, who entry their projects to the competition. Last yer it was 61 projects from 8 partner universities. Thank you!

photo credits: Jiří Ryszawy

07/03/2026

02/03/2026

The results of the 30th Urban Design Award have just been announced! Among the winners are new urban districts, a conceptual approach to suburban development, and a landscaping project focused on the sustainability of suburban forest landscapes. First prize went to students from FAD STU in Bratislava for their vision for a new urban district in Banská Bystrica.

This is followed by a discussion with the award-winning students about how urban and landscape projects are taught in various studios. You can join us via MS Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NmVmZDNjZDItOGVkOC00ZjdjLWFjN2MtNGMyMjg4ODFiYjBm%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22f345c406-5268-43b0-b19f-5862fa6833f8%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22192153c2-7bc0-43ec-b839-6634ea18d4d9%22%7d