European urban and regional planning awards
The winners of the European Urban and Regional Planning awards have recently been announced by an independent jury selected by the European Council of Town Planners acting on behalf of the European Commission. A total of 170 entries were submitted to the contest designed to raise the standard of urban and regional planning in the EU. A total of thirteen awards were granted in four main categories with five highly commended entries and four special merit awards. These will handed over at a special ceremony which is to be held in Brussels, Belgium, on 18 November 1998. The winners were as follows: - The spatial plan for the protection and rehabilitation of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, won the local planning award category, with the historic rejuvenation project in Dublin, Ireland, and the re-opening of the Arhus river project in Denmark being highly commended; - The regional planning award went to the Veneto region in Italy for the Po Delta area plan with the spatial structure plan for Flanders, Belgium, and the German Bitterfeld/Wolfen masterplan being highly commended; - The winner in the cross border planning category was a project from German and Dutch authorities for the Aachen Heerlen cross-border industrial estate; - In the category for planning between the EU and other countries the winner was a project on revitalising Toledo's historic core submitted by the city of Toledo, Spain, in conjunction with Harvard University in the USA. A German/Polish scheme on a common spatial structure for the city of Guben was highly commended in this category. In addition, awards of special merit were granted to: - County Kilkenny, Ireland, for the project on rapid participatory planning; - The St. Nicholas park project in Naoussa, Greece; - The urban plan for Horta and the renovation of the Faial theatre in the Azores, Portugal; - The metropolitan infrastructures and general systems project in Barcelona, Spain.