European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention (AHI)

Inscriptions for the 6th edition of the European Award AHI, a biennial competition jointly organized with the Architects’ Association of Catalonia (COAC), will remain open until March 17, 2023 at 24:00 (GMT +1). The purpose of this award is to distinguish quality interventions in heritage and contribute to its dissemination.

The 6th edition of the European Award AHI, aimed at all those professionals and associations involved with Architectural Heritage (architects, architectural firms, urban planners, historians, archaeologists etc.), which covers all works carried out or published in Europe between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2022 and meets the requirements of the four categories into which the Award is divided, with the sole exception of the Disclosure category, where works by European authors in other territories will be accepted.

Categories:
- Built Heritage: All those architectural interventions, permanent or ephemeral, on architectural assets of patrimonial interest.
- Exterior Spaces: All those interventions in the historic public space in the area of monuments and cultural landscapes.
- Urban Planning: All planning work aimed at the protection, conservation or enhancement of Architectural Heritage.
- Disclosure: All initiatives, activities, and actions aimed at disseminating the values of Architectural Heritage.

As in previous years, this edition’s international jury, a committee of experts with a proven track record in the field of intervention in Architectural Heritage, is going for a dynamic that gives visibility to a relevant number of works and thus contributes to recognizing the optimum level of good heritage practice in Europe. Following this premise, a maximum of 15 entries will be short-listed in the Built Heritage category and a maximum of 10 in the Exterior Spaces category, from which a prize-winner and finalists will emerge in both cases. In the Urban planning and Disclosure categories, a winner and finalists are selected.

In the same way, as it happens since 2019, among all the works registered the directors of the contest together with a renowned expert will grant a Special Mention for Restoration to the intervention that, from a technical and methodological point of view, stands out for its quality, precision, and respect.

In addition, the awarded works, the finalists, the shortlisted and all the ones signed up for the call, will form part of the catalogue published at the end of each edition with the aim of documenting the award and, will be added to the Archive AHI. A digital catalogue that has more than 1,100 entries from 34 different European countries and that, at the end of this year, will incorporate new search fields -program, period, typology etc.- thus becoming a useful analysis tool in the field of intervention in our surroundings.

The previous edition of the European Award AHI, coinciding with its 10th anniversary in existence, experienced a growth of 25%, with almost 300 projects registered and 23 countries represented. These figures aspire to consolidate and confirm its maturity and its status as a European benchmark in the field of architectural restoration.

The official awards ceremony will take place in June 2023 in Barcelona, in a public event that will coincide with the 6th International Biennial AHI. This is a day to exchange knowledge and experiences, which also has a non-European country as a guest, and is organised by the Architectural Heritage Intervention (AHI) platform with the support of the COAC and the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Architectural Heritage Intervention (AHI)
The AHI platform contributes to the revaluation of Architectural Heritage and includes a European-scale Award, an international Biennial, a digital Archive and, a debate Forum. AHI is committed to an active and continuous dissemination policy. AHI understands and disseminates architectural heritage from a plural and contemporary perspective.

For more information and registration: https://www.eu-architecturalheritage.org/en/european-award/inscriptions