The European Prize for Urban Public Space took part in two of the activities organised by the UIA Public Spaces Work Programme

As part of the UIA World Congress of Architects, held in Barcelona from 28 June to 2 July, the Prize took part in two sessions held on 30 June at the Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB).

In the morning, the symposium “Rethinking Public Space Evaluation – Frameworks, Indicators, Impacts” brought together representatives of the UIA and international institutions to reflect on the criteria, indicators and impacts used to assess the quality of public spaces. The session included the presentation of the Global Instrument for Public Space Evaluation and the special issue of The Journal of Public Space dedicated to new frameworks for evaluating public space.

The symposium was led by the co-directors of the UIA Public Spaces Work Programme, Thomas Chung and Natalia Brener Maceiras. Speakers included José Chong, from UN-Habitat; Luisa Bravo, founder of City Space Architecture and Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Public Space, who introduced the special issue of the journal; and Judit Carrera, Director of the CCCB, who presented the characteristics and history of the European Prize for Urban Public Space.

The subsequent roundtable brought together María Samaniego Ponce, President of the Pan-American Federation of Associations of Architects (FPAA); Lluís Ortega, Secretary of the Jury of the European Prize for Urban Public Space; Robin Abad Ocubillo, from the City of Oakland, San Francisco; and Jacek Ludwig Scarso, from London Metropolitan University.

In the afternoon, the expert meeting “Public Space Futures: Governance, Networks, and Global Agendas” took place. This invitation-only session brought together the Work Programme’s international strategic partners and representatives of the UIA leadership to discuss future lines of work on public space at a global scale.

The meeting was attended by Elisabet Goula, Head of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, together with Hendrik Tieben, from the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU), and Şebnem Hoşkara, from Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU).