Brussels, April 12 (EFE).- Projects from Spain clinched awards at the 2024 European Bauhaus Awards (NEB), which honor outstanding initiatives that blend sustainability, beauty, and inclusion, during a ceremony held at the Museum of Art and History in Brussels.
The ‘Rooftop Garden‘ project, a winner in the ‘New European Bauhaus Champions‘ category, was recognized for promoting the social inclusion of individuals with disabilities through horticulture.
Located in Barcelona, the initiative has “conquered” 10 buildings, placing gardens on unused rooftops and terraces, tended by over 200 people with various disabilities. They also harvest the produce and donate the surplus to soup kitchens and food banks.
“The cornerstone of the project is to enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities, which we have been able to verify… We conducted a study on the impact on their well-being index and detected improvements of up to almost three points, discovering that it even enhanced their sleep quality,” Ferrán Urgell, the project leader from Catalonia, told EFE.
Meanwhile, the ‘Regenerative Agriculture Hub‘ project, awarded by public vote in the ‘New European Bauhaus Rising Stars’ category, is based in Andalusia and trains farmers by combining traditional techniques with more modern ones to revitalize local economies, according to the initiative’s representative, Francisco Jiménez, in a video statement.
The fourth edition of the European Bauhaus Awards, part of the New European Bauhaus Festival taking place in Brussels from April 9-13, selected 20 winners from 49 finalists, including nine Spanish projects, awarding a total of 390,000 euros.
This edition was notable for the significant number of Spanish finalists, with at least one in every category except one, featuring initiatives like ‘Sustainable Protocol’ (Barcelona) or ‘Forest of Dreams’ (Zaragoza), which aims to plant 700,000 trees in its streets, one for each city resident.
“Planting a tree can create a sense of belonging in a community that will last a lifetime. It will be a legacy,” Tatiana Gaudes, Zaragoza’s Environmental and Mobility Councillor and project leader, told EFE.
Also selected were ‘A Bite of Extinction‘, a final year student’s project by 22-year-old Carla Rotenberg that seeks to preserve culinary memory and connect Madrid residents with local and forgotten products, and the ‘Mamífera’ initiative (Barcelona).
“Women still feel very uncomfortable breastfeeding in public spaces, and even feel judged. This project is a claim to bring breastfeeding into the public sphere,” Dafne Saldaña, one of the project leaders, told EFE.
Additionally, the ‘FURNISH‘ project (Barcelona), which aims to improve community cohesion by introducing urban design into schools, Programa Asertos (Alicante), responsible for rehabilitating vulnerable neighborhoods, and Els Rajolars d’Oliva (Alicante), an initiative to regenerate an industrial area with a historical identity in this town.
The ceremony was enlivened by a performance of flamenco music, singing, and dancing, provided by the Museum of Sacromonte Caves, last year’s NEB winners.
The winners received their awards from the hosts of the ceremony, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research and Culture, Iliana Ivanova, and the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, who highlighted in her speech the 5,000 applications these awards have received over their four editions.
For the first time, projects from the Western Balkans and Ukraine were welcomed, with two awards given for ‘Special Recognition for the Effort of Reconstruction and Recovery in Ukraine.’
The NEB Awards are given in four categories according to the thematic axes of this edition. Each category is divided into two parallel sections, the ‘New European Bauhaus Champions‘ (dedicated to existing projects with clear and positive results) and ‘New European Bauhaus Rising Stars’ (pilot projects or ideas from young talents aged 30 and under). EFE