Five winners announced at the 2024 ULI Awards for Excellence

The winners of the 2024 Urban Land Institute’s Awards for Excellence were announced at the C Change Summit in Barcelona. The successful projects include a data centre that is powered entirely by renewable energy, two industrial heritage sites that have been reinvented as European headquarters buildings, an affordable, biodiverse and sustainable housing/mixed-use district built on brownfield land and a multifunctional cultural landmark. 

The winners of the 2024 ULI Awards for Excellence at the prize-giving ceremony in Barcelona

The annual award programme focuses on celebrating excellence in land use practice across the whole development process, and the judges have taken into consideration various factors including architecture and design, planning, construction, economics, management, sustainability and community impact.

“What a fantastic showcase of truly impactful and excellent real estate projects that are making great strides in relation to factors such as environmental sustainability and energy use, but also in terms of how they positively impact the communities that they serve”, said Anne Kavanagh, Chair, ULI Europe.

The EcoDataCenter 1 in Falun, Sweden, is a new build, sustainable data centre. The project has been designed to address the growing global demand for data while minimizing its environmental impact and carbon footprint. To achieve that, the data centre is powered solely by renewable energy sources utilizing nearby renewable energy ecosystems, in addition to the use of low carbon materials in the construction.

The Grainhouse in London, one of the five winners of the ULI Awards Photography: Philip Vile

The Grainhouse in London is a former Victorian warehouse in Covent Garden that, following a three-year restoration and refurbishment project, has been reimagined to deliver a European HQ for Hines that includes prime office and retail, and consolidates five buildings originally developed in the mid-19th century, retaining original features to reflect its industrial heritage. The jury noted that it represents a great example of how to attract people back to the office, focusing on the user experience in the delivery of services and amenities.  

L’Atelier in Paris is an industrial heritage project focusing on environmental performance. The project regenerates a former telephone exchange, reconnecting two buildings from the 1920’s and 1930’s to create a new European HQ for Covivio that integrates design input from its users. The jury praised the people-centric approach in the design and delivery of the project, achieving the successful renovation of a difficult high density building space.

Minerve, in Edegem, Belgium, is a brownfield development creating a new biodiverse and sustainable mixed-use residential and commercial area providing 330 homes with a variety of typologies including social and co-housing. It utilises residual heat from a nearby factory to deliver domestic heating and hot water, and rainwater collection for reuse. The jury appreciated the innovative solutions to deliver a very sustainable, affordable, replicable, future proofed and nature inclusive project. 

The Polish History Museum in Warsaw, designed by WXCA Architects, is a multifunctional cultural and educational facility which incorporates a permanent and temporary exhibition rooms, concert hall for 600 people, cinema and theatre hall, library, conference and learning suites. The jury noted that the project is much more than a museum and has been designed to have a strong community impact to create social dialogue to discuss the complexity of Polish history.  

The five successful European projects will be automatically entered into the 2024 ULI Global Awards for Excellence, the winners of which will be announced soon.

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