European Prize Highlights Climate-Responsive Reuse of Car-Dominated Spaces

The European Prize for Urban Public Space released its shortlist, featuring five proposals that turn car-focused sites into climate-adapted public realms. Designers are converting roundabouts, thoroughfares and former parking lots into cooling water features, shaded green corridors and rain-water gardens.

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• Round About Baths, Logroño, Spain – Swiss architect Leopold Banchini erected a temporary structure on a concrete island that once housed a broken fountain. The installation created a shallow pool and a steam-room fire bowl, operating for one week during the Concéntrico architecture festival in June 2025.

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• Zuidpark, Antwerp, Belgium – Bart Van Gassen of Tractebel transformed a former free car park into an 800-metre green strip. Seventy percent of the site was excavated and covered with a 1.5-metre soil layer, supporting 500 new trees, rain-garden depressions, and a four-storey underground car park with 2,000 spaces.

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• Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, Barcelona, Spain – The three-road interchange was partially buried to create open green space.

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• Leça Green Corridor, Portugal and Peace Park, Vicenza, Italy round out the shortlist, each proposing similar climate-responsive interventions.

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• Installation period for Round About Baths: 1 week (June 2025).

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• Zuidpark length: 800 m; excavation depth: 70 % of site; topsoil depth: 1.5 m.

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• Tree count in Zuidpark: 500 new trees.

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• Underground parking capacity beneath Zuidpark: 2,000 spaces.

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Leopold Banchini warned that cities have surrendered extensive public space to automobiles, creating safety concerns for pedestrians, especially children. He noted that permanent conversion would require navigating municipal safety regulations and political reluctance.

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Bart Van Gassen described Zuidpark as a climate-driven departure from conventional designs, highlighting rapid tree growth, measurable temperature reductions, and rain gardens to manage heavy precipitation. He acknowledged criticism of the retained underground parking, arguing that without it the park could not have been realised.

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• “We have given up so much public space to cars, and if you live in a city with kids you live in constant fear that they will be hit by a passing vehicle” — Leopold Banchini

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• “If we had built something more permanent, we would have had to engage with safety concerns” — Leopold Banchini

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• “I have done projects like this for 25 years, but this park had to be completely different to anything we’ve done before, and that’s because of the climate issue” — Bart Van Gassen

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• “You could be critical because it’s still a car park with 2,000 spaces that is very close to the city,” — Bart Van Gassen

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