Carme Ribas started to prepare for the Jury meeting of the eighth edition of the Prize by analysing the 274 works presented, which have been sent from 205 different cities and 30 countries.

The President and the Secretary of the International Jury of the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2014, Carme Ribas and David Bravo, began to study the 274 works presented for the eighth edition of the award. The works have been sent from 205 cities and 30 countries. The two architects  analysed the panels and read the reports sent by all the candidates. This preliminary work aimed to simplify the work of the Jury, which met on 3 and 4 April at the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB). The aim of the preparatory sessions was, first, to introduce some order into the great typological and dimensional diversity of the interventions and to classify them by grouping them into blocks that will enable the Jury members to get an overview of present trends in the ways of understanding and experiencing the public spaces of European cities. Second, they sought to identify the proposals that best represent these trends and, owing to their quality, have the best chances of being among the twenty-five finalists. All in all, however, these preliminary sessions, together with the online votes of the other Jury members, were simply used as the starting point for the meeting in Barcelona of the Jury as a whole. It is this meeting that have, in fact, decided on the prize-winning works, much more as the result of qualitative discussion than as a mere measure of mathematical average. The results of this year’s award of the Prize will not be made known until a prize-giving ceremony on 25 April, which will be broadcast by streaming and concluded with the inauguration of the first stage in Barcelona of an itinerant exhibition offering a detailed display of the prize-winning works, Special Mentions and finalists.