The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Europe has announced ten built environment projects from eight countries as finalists for the sixth annual ULI Europe Awards for Excellence. The awards celebrate exemplar projects that achieve the highest standards in land use practice across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.
This year’s finalists include cutting-edge refurbishment, restoration, and new-build projects, spanning diverse categories such as residential, mixed-use, healthcare, education, community, laboratory, and office spaces. The selected projects come from Italy, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, France, and Spain.
Record Entries Reflect Industry Innovation
The 2025 competition saw a significant increase in participation, reflecting a rising commitment to excellence and sustainability across European real estate.
Simone Santi, Chair of the 2025 ULI Europe Awards for Excellence Jury, said: “We have had an incredibly high standard of entries showcasing successful, inventive and transformational solutions for delivering excellence in land use that positively impact communities and are standard bearers of ULI’s core mission focus. This year, we received 26 submissions for projects pushing the envelope for the European real estate profession and its practices. We’ve more than doubled the entries from last year and, for the first time, received an entry from the Middle East.The jury applies rigorous criteria to assess every project, and while the high standard of submissions made shortlisting a real challenge, it was also an immensely rewarding process.”
Projects are rigorously evaluated across multiple factors, including financial viability, sustainability, resiliency, community impact, and architecture.
Spotlight on the Finalists
The ten finalists demonstrate innovation across repurposing existing structures, driving social housing, and supporting essential public services:
| Project Name | Location | Category | Key Feature |
| 5Square | Milan, Italy | Residential | Social housing project creating a vibrant community on an abandoned commercial site. |
| Das Neue Gesundheitshaus | Dortmund, Germany | Mixed Use | Repurposed 1950s listed city centre site integrating a hotel, kindergarten, residential, and office space. |
| Eden Dock | London, UK | Community | Urban community space designed to positively impact biodiversity and habitat gain. |
| Egied van Broeckhovenschool | Brussels, Belgium | Education | New secondary school developed in a converted and refurbished brewery bottling plant. |
| Forskaren | Stockholm, Sweden | Other/Labs | New circular life sciences hub (24,000 sqm) encouraging collaboration in industry, research, and academia. |
| Inventa | Oxford, UK | Other/Labs | Redevelopment of disused retail warehousing into purpose-built laboratory and office space. |
| Kaktus Towers | Copenhagen, Denmark | Residential | Newly developed residential tower complex designed to address shifting accommodation needs. |
| Midland Metropolitan University Hospital | Birmingham, UK | Other/Healthcare | Acute healthcare facility intended as a catalyst for community regeneration in an area of high deprivation. |
| Racine | Paris, France | Office | Project transforming the former National Forestry Office headquarters into a mixed-use office space. |
| Ruiz Picasso 11 | Madrid, Spain | Office | Office refurbishment project focusing on enhanced productivity, wellbeing, and sustainability in the CBD. |
Legacy and Future Focus
The awards are seen as a critical tool for building a directory of best practice in equitable and sustainable urban development.
Lisette van Doorn, CEO, ULI Europe CEO, said: “All of these finalists address challenges and opportunities that our members and the wider industry come across every day and have created solutions for, such as the housing and sustainability crises, the need to reuse and repurpose existing buildings in a sustainable and socially inclusive way and respond to trends such as changing ways of working and the integration of different uses, while ensuring projects are financially viable. I think this has been its important legacy ever since the awards were established, and I wish all this year’s finalists well.”
Anne Kavanagh, ULI Europe Chair, added: “The ULI Europe Awards for Excellence are an important opportunity to celebrate all round excellence in impactful project delivery by our industry… These are truly boundary pushing, transformative projects. My congratulations to all our finalists as we now look forward to the next exciting stage in this competition.”
The overall winner or winners will be revealed on 26 November in Paris at a special dinner held prior to the C Change Summit on 27 November, which is part of a ULI-led program focused on accelerating the decarbonisation of real estate. The jury will also consider “special mentions” for projects demonstrating excellence in ULI’s mission priorities, including decarbonisation, increasing housing attainability, and educating the next generation of diverse real estate leaders.
For further information about the competition, each finalist and project images, please visit the ULI Europe Awards for Excellence website.
