The Urbanism Awards
Identifying, promoting and learning from great places
The Urbanism Awards are the Academy’s primary platform for recognising the best, most enduring or most improved urban environments.
We have visited, assessed and celebrated outstanding examples of good urbanism across the UK, Ireland and Europe.
As well as providing a means to build relationships with places that are doing good work, the Awards help us to build a strong evidence base for high quality, innovative and sustainable urbanism, which we share online, in print and at events.
See 2021 winners and finalists here.
Great Place Archive
In the 16 years that the Academy has been producing the Urbanism Awards, we have celebrated 210 Great Places. There are five awards given
The Great Place Award
The Great Street Award
The Great Neighbourhood Award
The Great Town Award
The European City of the Year
Porto, The European City of the Year 2020
Criteria
During each assessment visit we look at the following areas
1. Leadership and Governance: Is the place well managed, inclusive, fair?
2. Local Character: To what extent does the place provide a distinctive sense of place, identity and cultural resonance?
3. Amenity: To what extent is the place an attractive, safe and enticing place for people to live, work, play, visit and enjoy?
4. Commercial Success & Viability: To what extent does the place provide a conducive environment for wealth creation and distribution and is it able to support the maintenance and improvement of its urban environment?
5. Environmental Sustainability: To what extent does the place exhibit and promote environmental sustainability?
6. Community, Health and Wellbeing: To what extent does the place exhibit and promote civic behaviour, social cohesion, health and wellbeing?
7. Connectivity: To what extent does the place provide transport and access options to an appropriate range of urban services?
The Great Place Award Winners
The Great Street Award Winners
The Great Neighbourhood Award Winners
Brixton, London
2013
Byker, Newcastle
2018
The Great Town Awards Winners
The European City of the Year
Antwerp, Belgium
2013
Berlin, Germany
2008
Bilbao, Spain
2018
Bristol, UK
2009
Copenhagen, Denmark
2017
Edinburgh, UK
2007
Glasgow, UK
2011
Leipzig, Germany
2019
Lisbon, Portugal
2012
Porto, Portugal
2020
Rotterdam, Netherlands
2015
San Sebastián, Spain
2016