Call for nominations: The Urbanism Awards 2026

The Urbanism Awards are the Academy’s primary platform for recognising the best, most enduring or most improved urban environments. Through the Awards we promote and learn from places that demonstrate positive social, physical and economic urbanism.

Help support this work, and have your say by submitting a nomination for 2026. The four categories are: Streets + Spaces, Neighbourhoods, Towns or Small Cities and European Cities.

The call for nominations is open to all, whether you are a member of the AoU or not. Later stages of the process - shortlisting, assessment visits, and voting - are Members only.

What are we looking for?

Old or new, large or small, known or unknown - we are looking for the places that work well. These could be places you've lived in, visited, worked on, or researched. The categories are as follows:

European City of the Year
This is open to any* city in the UK or elsewhere in Europe with a population of more than 150,000

Great Town / Small City
This is open to any* town or small city in the UK or Ireland with a population of less than 150,000

Great Neighbourhood
This is open to the smaller scale urban areas that provide places for local residents to live, work, and play.

Great Street or Space
Formerly two separate categories, Great Street and Great Place, this category is open to streets and public realm schemes such as squares, parks, harbours.

In particular we want to hear about the places that have taken and continue to take action, delivering the transformation required to provide positive social, physical, and economic urbanism.

*Places that have been shortlisted for an Urbanism Award in the past 10 years are exempt from inclusion. Please click here for the full list of exemptions.

Click here for a preview of the questions listed in the form.

Nomination form

The process & restrictions

The Urbanism Awards programme runs throughout the year and comprises four major stages: nomination, shortlisting, assessment, and voting. It culminates in the Urbanism Awards Ceremony in November.

Nomination is the first part of the programme, and enables us to consider a wide range of candidates including ones our panelists haven't heard of, and ones in new locations. Click here for the online submission form.

All categories are open to places in the UK and Ireland, with the European City category open to cities in the UK, Ireland, and Europe.

Places that have reached the finalist stage within the past 10 years are not eligible for nomination in 2026 - the list of these places can be found below.

Contact

If you have any questions, or require any guidance, please contact Connie, Senior Communications + Programmes Manager, on [email protected]

Deadline

Sunday 15 February 2026

Exempt from nominations in 2026

The following have been shortlisted in the last 10 years and are therefore not eligible for the 2026 Urbanism Awards. You can use Ctrl+F to search by name.