NEB Prizes 2023: All Applications

Mărțișor (Urban) Community Orchard is an initiative born from the need of Bucharest citizens living in center of the city, after the pandemic social distance and isolation, to reconnect and work in a positive and healthy space. The project stated in spring 2021 and finished its first stage in May 2022. The second scope was to regenerate an old orchard belonging to a very known Romanian poet named Tudor Arghezi using permaculture technics together with the local citizens living in the proximity.

Once every two years during Spring, across the border between Portugal and Spain, a touring, pocket-sized orchestra performs free concerts by the dozen in sparsely populated rural regions. Composed by young musicians from both countries, it promotes the reconnection between communities and territories via the contact of local populations with the aesthetic power of classical music, while nurturing local talent in an effort to halt brain drain across these rapidly aging communities.

Food Market 4.0 Dashboard is a system of HW and SW solutions to track and monitor the flow of fruit and vegetables in covered markets in Milan.
It is composed of a set of reusable crates, a Smart Scale, a Smart Gate system, and a Dashboard for recognizing and tracking products entering and leaving the market through digitised checkpoints and tags; monitoring direct sales and those made through delivery services, and collecting and aggregating data on product flow to prevent food waste.

Positive Energy Park is an original concept of a modular polygon with variable size and shape, applicable anywhere in the world, in various locations with the implantation of modules for the production of green electricity from a large base of modules, according to the geographical position and climate profile. The greatest ontological value is the inclusion of all generations of the local community through educational - recreational - scientific programs, which makes it unique in the world.

Founded by the Custom Circus – a transdisciplinary theater and visual arts company, this 3-hectare venue pioneered the Portuguese avant-garde scene by introducing several successful projects. For its inspiring irreverent path has been attracting visitors, nationally and abroad, most due to the original theme upcycling architecture and it´s outdoor art gallery. Being the main attractions the artistic sum this place consolidated through hundreds of shows, concerts, exhibits and events .

A cooperative of young friends who have worked with enthusiasm for recovering and subsequently opening the Catacombs of San Gennaro, afterwards started a process to recover their local heritage and to bringing about the tangible revitalisation of the Sanità, a Naples' neighbourhood that was once prey to the Camorra, creating somewhere for arts and culture to flourish.
The culture of care and the care for culture: following this guideline this place has become a living and generative territory.

Bamboopod® is the first and only system combining the natural beauty of bamboo with the cutting-edge technology of tensile architecture, fully prefabricated and easily buildable by only 2 people. Suitable both for temporary installations and permanent uses, it is calculated to stand snow loads and wind speeds over 120 km/h. It provides the unique experience of being instantly transported to a peaceful state of mind, bringing the feeling of impressive order due to the natural beauty of bamboo.

DoppelPlus benefits you and the climate at the same time: it enables tenants in Tyrol to contribute to the protection of the climate while improving their financial situation and quality of life at the same time. Volunteers are trained to become energy and climate coaches who support households in Tyrol by giving individually tailoredand easily applicable advice to optimize living, heating, electricity, mobility, procurement and nutrition.

The project PHIM – Heritage and History of the Marble Industry, is dedicated to the promotion of the area, called the Marble Zone in Portugal, located in the Alentejo region. It investigates the heritage value of the marble as an endogenous resource, and its usage in the architecture, in the sculpture and in urban environment. It was developed in three phases and was funded by the FEDER Program and the Regional Operational Programme Alentejo 2020. Link: https://www.marmore-cechap.pt/

Latvian architecture office NRJA (No Rules Just Architecture) has completed the first phase of the Riga Circus reconstruction. NRJA follows the principle of "adding by removing" - by revealing hidden historical layers, a sense of newness is created, while simultaneously embodying the 135 years of existence of the Riga Circus building. The reconstructed arena features a unique CLT (cross-laminated timber) panel dome that houses the historical construction and a new, contemporary culture program.