NEB Prizes 2022: All Applications

Uzana Fest is the largest festival in Bulgaria, related to green ideas and ecological lifestyle. Three days under the stars, among the crickets and trees on the highest herb meadow in Bulgaria, life seems to flow with a different rhythm. We share our big and small ideas for living in harmony with nature. We meet kindred spirits and prove to our children that we can be part of it.
Spiritual practices, organic food, lectures, friendships, music, community, arts and crafts - this is Uzana Fest!

Formerly a military barracks, the Caserne de Reuilly became a property of the City of Paris. As an urban planner on its own behalf, Paris Habitat began in 2013 to develop this ambitious urban project delivered last year. In the context of a highly urbanized city, the Reuilly Barracks now houses affordable and social dwellings, a student residence, a nursery, gardens, and commercial activities. A new neighborhood out of this previously inaccessible area emerged from this transformation.

“Equidistanze | Artistic Residences ” is a residence for artists: a period lived in close contact with the curators of the project, who also live in the same house for the duration of the project, a relevant way for constructing a strong relationship between artists, curators, works and, above all, community. The artists are authors of a continuous transformation, participating in happenings and performances, creating bonds with the local community and the public.

Our project “Zukunftsraum”, space for future, turns the Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) into a promising campus. It ranks among the most sustainable university buildings in Germany. The driving forces of the project are economic, ecological, and socio-cultural sustainability. “Zukunftsraum“ combines these principles with education and inclusion. The building is both usable and sustainable over a long period of time. As an educational space, it creates an identity for a climate-friendly future.

3 buildings in Munich’s center were saved from certain demolition and rehabilitated on a tight budget thanks to the work of many volunteers. „hirner & riehl architects“ developed the concept for the cultural center doubling as an apartment building for refugees in dialog with residents as they were forming an association. The firm’s architectural mission: to preserve the possibilities and qualities offered by the existing structure while making highly efficient use of available resources.

The project consists of two exterior murals 20sq/m painted in rural and urban environment. We used eco-friendly paints and eco-friendly exterior panels (can be recycled) to paint on. We paint motifs inspired from traditional embroidery and the hand-woven Carpet-making (recognized by UNESCO for Intangible World Heritage. We declare that its possible for art to take new path in its eco-development and using the power of the ancient symbols GENUS aims to unite the new with the already established. 

In an attempt to exercise the resource and ecologically friendly right to repair, the structure of a building from the first third of the last century was kept and gradually transformed into a modern, inclusive, aesthetically appealing structure of the 21^st century.

The result of the transformation is a highly energy efficient, wheelchair friendly building that proves old and new can coexist and that a changed, simplified and improved structure benefits all current generations that live there.

Our “Community fridge” is a refrigerator in the terrace of the locally beloved contemporary culture center in Riga, Latvia – it gives opportunity to local communities, café’s and small retailers to drop off unused food items and is open for anyone to exchange or take them thus reducing food waste and food scarcity, building trust, promoting solidarity, civic activism and inclusion. It's one of the first community fridges opened in Eastern Europe and it has paved way to the opening of more.

Recycling, proper waste management, is one of the main priorities for our Municipality. With the central goal of improving our daily lives, we are currently implementing a series of actions for the separate collection of municipal waste in collaboration with alternative management systems, individuals and organizations. We all work to improve the functionality of the city, reduce the cost of waste management and harmonize it with national and European legislation.

This study refers to the use of forest and agricultural waste, such as bushes or tree bark, to improve the performance of compounds and the construction method with which to build with compressed earth in regions or geographical latitudes where, until now, it was possible. With up to 90% of local resources, the objective of this study is to demonstrate the viability of the Circular Economy, taking the construction of architecture with earth as a demonstrative example.