ECC Awards

Since 2010, the European Cultural Centre has honoured outstanding architecture, art, design, and academic projects through the ECC Awards. With a mission to celebrate innovation across creative disciplines, the Awards recognise those who rethink space, people, materials, and perspectives to shape a better future. As of 2023, a dedicated jury evaluates the most compelling works presented in the architecture exhibition Time Space Existence as well as the art show Personal Structures. All projects featured in the biennial exhibitions are automatically eligible and considered across different categories, assessed for their originality, execution, storytelling, and relevance to the year’s themes.

A group of esteemed industry experts will carefully select the winners of the ECC Awards 2025, celebrating excellence in four categories:

• Architecture Project – Recognising outstanding built or unbuilt projects that redefine how we live, work, and interact with space;
• Design Project – Celebrating innovative design solutions that merge creativity with functionality;
• University Project – Showcasing visionary academic research work in architecture;
• Art Installation – Celebrating projects that adopt an artistic approach, utilising various media and/or creatively transforming the space.

The Winners

Architecture Project Category

Celina Abba + Enrique Cavelier

• Country: USA
• Title of the project: Plantation Futures
• Location: Palazzo Mora

The project uncovers overlooked plantation narratives by foregrounding Black landscapes forged for refuge, joy, and resistance: the swamp, the ditch, and the plot. It critiques heritage practices shaped by colonial legacies, weaving together archival research to amplify voices that have long been forgotten. Plantation Futures advances decolonial approaches to conservation by highlighting the interconnected stories of human and non-human worlds, envisioning pathways toward restorative futures grounded in repair and regeneration.

Christele Harrouk affirms: Celina Abba and Enrique Cavelier’s project safeguards memory while reconciling with the past through research on cultural sites and a multidisciplinary series of interventions. By addressing the enduring legacies of plantation landscapes, it transforms a problematic challenge into a call for action, pushing the boundaries of conventional conservation practices.

Martha Thorne adds: In these difficult times, it is necessary to look to unexpected places for messages and actions. Landscape is certainly one that can tell us about our past, who we are today and where we hope to go.

University Project Category

Slovak University of Technology, VA Gregor Varga Smatanova

• Country: Slovakia
• Title of the project: Manor and small noble houses in Slovakia
• Location: Palazzo Mora

The Manor and Small Noble Houses project delves into the layered histories of forgotten estates, exploring their adaptive reuse in contemporary contexts. In collaboration with local communities, NGOs, and the Monuments Board of Slovakia, they examine their architectural narratives, their role in shaping cultural identity, and their potential for social and ecological renewal. Through research, photography, and spatial storytelling, they seek to bridge past and present, revealing these estates as silent witnesses of time, resilience, and transformation.

Amit Gupta says: An artistic expression that reflects the lateral thinking of students and faculty, while talking about a simple concept of adaptive reuse, heritage and preservation.

Design Project Category

Polyhedral Structures Laboratory, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Masoud Akbarzadeh with Sika

• Country: USA
• Title of the project: Diamanti
• Location: Palazzo Bembo

Diamanti structure is an industry-academic collaborative research that showcases a high-performing, sustainable modular spanning funicular system developed using a comprehensive design method considering new and existing fabrication and construction technologies. The structural form, including the load paths inside the structure, is determined from Polyhedral Graphic Statics involving pure compression and tensile forces through its funicular geometry.

Ivan Blasi explains: Diamanti is a groundbreaking exploration of long-span structural systems that combines elegance, efficiency, and sustainability. Using funicular geometries optimised through polyhedral graphic statics, the project reduces concrete usage by nearly 60% and steel reinforcement by 80% compared to conventional methods, while achieving exceptional load-bearing capacity. Through robotic 3D-printing, post-tensioning, and modular construction, Diamanti minimises waste, enables full disassembly, and ensures complete
recyclability, demonstrating how advanced design can reshape the future of resilient, resource-conscious structures.

Art Installation Category

WHYIXD

• Country: Taiwan
• Title of the project: Tender Soul of Ocean: A Marine Climate Preservation Initiative
• Location: Palazzo Bembo

For its Venice iteration, Tender Soul of Ocean: A Marine Climate Preservation Initiative captured wind data using an anemometer. This information was transformed into dynamic light patterns through generative programming, with LED filaments emitting soft, 360-degree light evocative of flowing water. The immersive design invited audiences to experience the rhythms of nature, moving through a space inspired by the fluidity of ocean waves. Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the installation archived wind data, serving as a climate recorder and prompting reflection on environmental fragility.

Ursula Schwitalla affirms: An immersive art installation that translates local wind data into moving light patterns, touching viewers emotionally and making them part of the artwork. At the same time, it vividly conveys the connection between the outside and the inside, between nature and humans, between technology and art. Beyond its artistic appeal the installation archived climate data during the Biennale months.

Special Mention

Semillas

• Country: Peru
• Title of the project: El Museo Itinerante del Bosque (The Wandering Forest Manifesto)
• Location: Palazzo Mora

The Museo Itinerante del Bosque was born from the Mencoriari community’s dream to retrace their relationship with the forest, acting as a catalyst for collective memory and inspiring neighbouring communities to recognise their own knowledge of the environment. The Wandering Forest Manifesto features paintings by native students that tell the story of the forest: from myth and colonisation to the loss and revival of knowledge.

Rachele De Stefano highlights: The Semillas’ project, Territory of Wisdom, is a reflection on the deep relationship between architecture, pedagogy, and the Amazonian forest. The work by Semillas invites visitors to imagine new ways of practicing architecture and education, where local knowledge, cultural heritage, and the forest itself shape how we learn and how we live.