Awards 2011

ASSESSMENT VISITS ANNOUNCED FOR
SUMMER 2010

The Academy is delighted to announce the dates and locations for this year's assessment visits, taking in 15 Great Places over the UK, Ireland and Mainland Europe.

Open to all Academicians, the visits provide a unique opportunity to contribute to the Academy's growing knowledge, with findings not only contributing to the Awards voting process, but also to our publication series Learning from Place.

Unfortunately the Academy is unable to fund any aspect of attending the assessment visits

The European City of the Year
Budapest
September 2010
Glasgow
August 2010
Helsinki
September 2010

Due to a limited number of places on the European City visits, Academicians should get in touch directly with Stephen Gallagher to discuss the dates and travel arrangements for these trips.

The Great Town Award
Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire
26 August 1700hrs - 27 August 1700hrs
Stroud, Gloucestershire
27 July 1730hrs - 28 July 1730hrs
Westport, Ireland
15 September 1200hrs - 16 September 1200hrs

The Great Neighbourhood Award
Cathedral Quarter, Belfast
25 August 0900hrs - 1300hrs
Northern Quarter, Manchester
26 August 0900hrs - 1300hrs
Pollokshields, Glasgow
23 August 1230hrs - 1730hrs

The Great Street Award
Exmouth Market, London
22 July 1000hrs - 1400hrs
Patrick Street, Cork
17 September 1000hrs - 1400hrs
Union Street, Aberdeen
TBC

The Great Place Award
Princesshay, Exeter
19 July 1200hrs - 1600hrs
St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh
13 August 1000hrs - 1400hrs
Tobermory Harbour, Mull
12 August 1300hrs - 1630hrs

The assesment reports which are generated as part of the assessment visits are used by Academicians in order to cast their votes to decide which places they will crown as best in 2011.

To find out how more about the criteria upon which our finalists are assessed and judged, please read the next section on this page.

For press enquiries please click here

ABOUT THE AWARDS

The Urbanism Awards are our primary means of developing a strong evidence base for high quality, innovative and sustainable urbanism. The Awards process seeks to identify and recognise the best, most enduring or most improved urban environments at various levels of scale and to understand better the processes by which they are nurtured, used and enjoyed.

There are five award categories:

The European City of the Year
The Great Town
The Great Neighbourhood
The Great Street
The Great Place

The annual Call for Entries is launched in the spring of each year and by early summer 15 finalists (three in each category) are announced. An assessment visit is then made to each of the places by a team of Academicians, who compile a report based on the following published criteria;

Governance
Local Character and Distinctiveness
User Friendliness
Commercial Success and Viability
Environmental and Social Sustainability
Functionality

The team simultaneously assesses the scope for developing Learning from Place, through inviting each place to join our UniverCities initiative.

Informed by the assessments, the Academy then votes and the winners are announced at the end of the year at our prestigious Awards Ceremony.

For more information about The Urbanism Awards, please contact the Academy on 020 7251 877 or here to email a member of the team