NEB Prizes 2024: All Applications

We renovate houses without roofs, where there is no hot water, nor electricity. Where it’s cold. We renovate homes because it can be the starting point of a new life and improves health and energetic efficiency.
We rebuild lives because we bring volunteers full of joy to people’s homes, because we mobilize the community to help and recover their neighborhood, because home is the most important place in the world, and we all deserve to have one.
RENOVATING HOMES, REBUILDING LIVES

In 2003 a nomad theater company called Custom Circus discovered an old army fort which was for sale. They were touring with their post apocaliptic convoy formed by 30 theatrical trucks, thus the ruined fort was a dream come true for them to settle the troupe and families. That dream came with a huge price, but they decided to risk everything they possessed to start this new adventure, creating the Nirvana Studios - a place that is credited to be the first portuguese alternative cultural center.

La Finestra (Italian word for window) is the smallest community hub in Italy: an outpost of culture, community building, placemaking, identity and innovation. The Hub is housed in an ancient tower in the heart of Casertavecchia, a medieval village located a few kilometers from Caserta, surrounded by the Tifatini hills. Today this public space, refurbished and returned to an open community use, aims to be the center of activities, services and socio-cultural initiatives.

Manufacturing of eco-responsible decorative products for the home with natural and biodegradable materials, to accelerate the global transition to a sustainable ecological resource scheme.

'We do not live in a house but an ecosystem'
The project develops the research for a new model of production and consumption for global social justice and well-being started in Life Reusing Posidonia (2012-2020), a climate change adaptation project winner of the 2021 LIFE environment Award by the EU. One of the main improvements over the previous projects is standardisation to compensate the extra cost of local low carbon vernacular materials.

How do you transform 500 m² of warehouse into a pleasant place to meet and shop in a few months and with limited resources?
In co-creation and with relatively limited resources and recycled materials and furniture, we succeeded in creating a reception and shopping concept for this target group.
The routing and experience value were given a thorough upgrade with the integration of daylight and a smart concept.
Everyone deserves to go to a healthy and pleasant shop, poverty or not.

The world's smallest exhibition hall is a 10x10x10 cm transparent cube, and every visitor has a chance to look at the artwork by peeking into the keyhole of Linmeijers's door on Pasta Street 6, Aizpute (Latvia). The idea and concept author of exhibition hall is architect Ivars Šmits. The exhibition hall was created with the support of the Kurzeme cultural program in autumn 2022 and is operated by the Linmeijers society and its hosts-Vilis Brūveris and Helēna Zīlīte.

Virtual Gallery is a digital community with 500+ local artists.The initiative emerged during the lockdown period to showcase the work of a sector severely affected by the pandemic, applying a cooperative logic that increased its visibility and multiplied its opportunities.This social initiative continues to grow and is currently exploring the physical dimension of artistic exhibition through ingenious interventions in unconventional spaces to highlight their potential and ignite positive changes

The project aim was to activate a process of collective and inclusive rediscovery of the built and natural environment of the village of Altavilla Irpina through the creation of participatory events, in a context far from debates on contemporary architecture and urban planning, but at the same time rich in local history and traditions. This process constituted the main reference for the drafting of the new General Urban Plan of the Municipality of Altavilla Irpina

There has been lots of work for a long time to free the rapids of river Hiitolanjoki. In 2021 and 2022, the dams in Kangaskoski and Lahnasenkoski were demolished. The surrounding area was built and developed to serve better hikers, tourists and local residents. A virtual museum was opened in Kangaskoski on the site of an old wood grinder. In addition to the natural values, there is also a lot of industrial and cultural history associated with the Hiitolanjoki area.