The International Urban Project Award recognizes outstanding built projects that demonstrate how architecture and urban design can shape vibrant cities. The award focuses on the interface between architecture and urban space, highlighting projects that go beyond isolated buildings and contribute to the city as a whole.

The 2025 topic, Endurance, frames permanence not as a static condition, but as the capacity of architecture and urban space to remain in use, adapt, and evolve over time. Endurance is understood as continuity through transformation: existing structures and spatial frameworks are modified and extended rather than replaced.

More than 75 projects from over twenty countries worldwide were submitted, demonstrating a high degree of precision in their response to the brief. The winning projects were selected in Beijing and honoured in Shanghai in November. The works establish new relationships between buildings, public space, landscape, and infrastructure. Embedded in dense, fragmented, or historically layered environments, they respond to existing conditions and improve accessibility, connectivity, and everyday use. Across different contexts, previously underused or inaccessible areas are activated and integrated into the urban fabric. Together, they show how cities can en-dure by building on what already exists, creating urban environments capable of evolving with changing needs. my


Conception and organization
Bauwelt, Berlin; World Architecture Magazine, Tsinghua University Beijing
Support
BAU China, Messe München
Jury
LI Cundong, CAO Jiaming, ZHANG Yue, HU Yue, Binke Lenhardt, Nicola Borgmann, Boris Schade-Bünsow

First Prize
Bulevar de Oriente, Cali
Alcuadrado Arquitectos

The Bulevar de Oriente was unanimously awarded the IUPA First Prize 2025. The jury highlighted the project’s understanding of urban transformation as a collective, open, and adaptive process, fostering collaboration, human agen-cy, and a strong sense of identification. With exceptional spatial and programmatic clarity, the Bulevar reclaims a formerly fragmented and ecologically degraded in-frastructure, transforming it into a vibrant public space of high spatial, social, and climatic quality.

Aligned with the 2025 theme, Endurance, the project redefines longevity as the capacity to adapt, be appropriated, and evolve over time. Through the interplay of re-claiming, integrating, and activa-ting, it creates an urban environment that combines ecological regeneration, social inclusion, cul-tural expression, and everyday usability. The jury particularly prai-sed the young Columbian architects‘ ability to mobilize communities, foster shared ownership, in-tegrate art and culture, and streng- then civic life. It demonstrates how collective effort, local knowledge, and civic engagement can generate strong identification and serve as an international reference for resilient, inclusive, and future-oriented urban transformation. Nicola Borgmann

Special Prize
Urban Intervention at the Tortosa Cathedral
Camps Felip Arquitecturia

Excellent design often employs a restrained formal language to ad- dress complex challenges, a principle clearly demonstrated by the Urban Intervention at Tortosa Cathedral. The project’s roof serves a dual purpose, doubling as a public plaza for the adjacent church and ingeniously reconnecting a city long fragmented by archaeological remains, a riverside roadway, and pronounced topography. This intervention creates a serene urban space with commanding views, effectively bridging the historic city and its riverfront. As a natural extension of the church entrance, the elevated square uses its height to buffer the space from traffic while establishing a direct visual connection to the river. Beneath the plaza, the museum presents itself as both understated and distinctive. Its continuous glazed façade facing the river not only provides gene-rous natural daylight, but also acts as a contemporary interpretation of the stone plinths characteristic of the riverside architecture. Ultimately, this subtle intervention seamlessly weaves together heri-tage, topography, and public space, injecting new vitality into the an-cient city. HU Yue

Special Prize
Thoravej 29, Copenhagen
pihlmann architects

The most sustainable building is one that already exists. Pihlmann Architects demonstrate this convincingly with their transformation of a former factory building from 1967 in Copenhagen’s Nordvest district. Today, the building accom-modates a diverse and vibrant program. It is home to a community of more than 150 people working across 30 organizations. The spa- ces include stages, galleries, studios, workshops, offices, meeting rooms, a production kitchen, a canteen, and a street-facing café. Public and private functions are carefully interwoven, creating a lively and open environment. What makes this transformation particularly remarkable is that the architects did not limit their intervention to renovating the facade, structure, or interior. Instead, they worked almost entirely with the existing components and systems, often assigning them completely new functions. Former floor slabs become staircases or reappear as counters and tables; bricks are reused as paving. In total, 95 percent of the original materials are reused, resulting in a significant reduction of CO2 emis-sions. Even more important, how-ever, is the underlying attitude of the young Danish architects, which points toward a new aesthetic of architecture – one rooted in reuse, transformation, and architectural imagination rather than replacement. Boris Schade-Bünsow


Special Prize
Futian High School Campus, Shenzhen
reMIX Studio

Located in a high-density urban context, Futian High School exemp-lifies an innovative campus model that successfully balances outward openness with inward comfort. The project transforms spatial and environmental constraints into opportunities, offering a forward-looking paradigm for the coexistence of school and city. Spatially, the design breaks away from the conventional, enclosed campus typology. Sports and cultural facilities are oriented toward the street, while transparent glass facades replace solid walls, creating an active and permeable urban interface. The recessed main entrance forms a public plaza, inviting the community to share the space and seamlessly integrating the campus into urban life. Environmentally, the porous building form and terraced volumes respond directly to Shenzhen’s subtropical climate. By aligning with the prevailing southeast winds, the design facilitates natural ventilation: 80 percent of the sports halls beneath the elevated running track operate comfortably without air conditioning, significantly reducing energy consumption. Through careful spatial articulation and climate-responsive design, the project establishes a balanced model that integrates education, ecology, and community within a dense urban environment. ZHANG Yue