NEB Prizes 2023: All Applications

“Pocket Sicily: between Myth and Topos”, a botanical garden that is closely linked to the unique location within the Etna Park in Sicily, Italy. The territory of Mount Etna, with its regular, sometimes dramatic eruptions, is truly a veritable magical register of Sicily. Surrounded by diverse landscape geographies, and imbued with mythological traditions, the Etnean context inspired the manifestation of this educational and recreational garden that inherits both biophilia and topophilia essences.

This project aims to design services that make Vrijbroekpark inclusive for everyone, with a particular emphasis on individuals with physical and visual challenges (Case study: the Multi-Move Path). Finding information about the path both online and in the park itself, finding your way on the MMP and resting on the MMP is now easier, even for those with limited Dutch proficiency or people with visual and mobility issues. Our suggestions can be applied in other recreational places or other parks.

REDEFINE THE EXISTING is a research based platform for regenerative built environment focused on (mentally and physically) neglected socialist legacy. The trend of renovation does not provide any sustainable benefits in the long-term perspective, nor does it see potential for circular-based reuse. Thinking within today’s global sustainability and circular design agenda, the platform acts locally aiming to critically rethink the space and its influence on people reusing socialist building stock.

This project addresses the challenging question of how to reconcile better the prevention of further peatland degradation and future settlement development. Against the background of climate change and the advanced degradation of the peat polder landscapes, this question is highly topical and relevant.The project demonstrates a framework for mitigating harmful environmental and social impacts of peatland drainage and designing these areas by transforming them into a social-ecological landscape.

The project envisions the Venetian lagoon, a fragile and endangered area, as a tree with its roots in the past and aims to reconnect to the hortus conclusus, an agricultural tradition that has been forgotten. It is seen as an expedient that aims to re(n)trace it as a means to mend the community fabric. The project proposes a collective garden restaurant that educates in slowness and exchange between individuals and with nature through cultivating, cooking, and consuming together.

Since December 2019, we have seen many of the assumptions about society, culture and economy upturned or broken. Evidently, we are inside a period of disruption that neither began nor will end with the COVID-19 pandemic and in which the larger social-economic-ecological crises of our time become vivid and present. Therefore, a comprehensive and profound analysis of the crises and exploring the possibilities of just working and living environment today have never been as urgent as it is now.

NADZIEJA is a project of a spatial structure for people in refugee crisis, which supports the process of their integration in a new environment. It has been enriched with an additional function connecting with the local community, facilitating functioning in an unknown place and giving the opportunity to take up a job. The design concept is based on research in the field of homelessness, and the pro-ecological aspect and speed of construction in construction were important issues in the project.

A concept building, where the view of the historical heritage of Rome and sustainable innovation meet. This innovative design finds its roots in the need to allow people of all backgrounds to expand their knowledge horizons in an immersive experience. Through the symbiosis of nature and culture, embedded in the green design of the structure and the facilities provided, we aim to inspire current and future generations to actively pursue green initiatives and leave a positive mark on society.

After years of malfunction, the Vogršček water reservoir has finally been repaired. This proposal imagines a future where any natural landscape in proximity to water that has been neglected or abandoned can be recovered and re-naturalized in a similar manner. The main focus is put on re-establishing the ecosystems and developing a more sustainable and efficient relationship between people and the landscape while fulfilling the needs for further development.

Why are crucial infrastructural buildings treated as degraded areas that need to be eradicated from urban areas and transferred outside of cities where they destroy vast rural landscapes? Because a city cannot live without this areas, our project treats them as organs in the human body. We are capable of regenerating them and give them a second life where they keep the city running and also become an integrated part of the communitys fabric.