Re:Paris Prize

Van Alen Institute has launched Re:Paris Prize, an open call seeking a US-based designer for a $35,000 travel fellowship to research how design plays a transformative role in Africa.

The competition is in partnership with the Pan-African Biennale, the first continental biennale dedicated to architecture and the built environment.

Competition details

• Organiser: Van Alen Institute and Pan-African Biennale
• Competition: Re:Paris Prize
• Judges: Nora Akawi, assistant professor of The Cooper Union; Ifeoma Ebo, founding principal of Creative Urban Alchemy; Mark Gardner, principal of Jaklitch / Gardner Architects; Kabage Karanja, co-founder of Cave Bureau; and Mphethi Morojele, managing director of MMA Design Studio
• Submission Deadline: 22 November 2026
• Winner announcement: winter 2026 to 2027
• Prizes: $35,000 travel fellowship to research how design plays a transformative role in Africa and its diaspora; presentation of learnings at Van Alen Institute and the second Pan-African Biennale in 2028
  

Competition overview

Van Alen Institute has relaunched its long-running Paris Prize in Architecture (1904 to 1997) as the Re:Paris Prize.

With a new focus on reparative and regenerative urbanism, the Re:Paris Prize focuses on cities and communities across the global post-colonial landscape.

For the inaugural prize, Van Alen Institute has partnered with the Pan-African Biennale, the first continental biennale dedicated to architecture and the built environment.

Alongside the team, the biennale’s founding curator Omar Degan has helped articulate its themes and supports the mentorship of the winning designers.

Two Africa-based winners were selected from participants in the 2026 Pan-African Biennale, and a third US-based winner will be chosen through an open call.

Eligibility and judging criteria

The competition is open to designers based in the United States who, through their background, expertise, and/or experience, contribute to how cities and public spaces are formed and inhabited. Information on how to enter can be found on the competition’s website.

While most applicants are anticipated to have graduated from accredited degree programs in design, designers with relevant work experience and professional ambition are also welcomed and encouraged to apply.

Proposals should require international travel to:

• connect with experts and opportunities for impactful field research
• move an important new concept or existing projects to the next phase of development
• meaningfully engage communities impacted by historical and ongoing harm in a spirit of cross-cultural collaboration and exchange
• help ideas scale up to achieve greater impact or connect with a wider audience

Proposals should also address one or more of five critical themes in reparative and regenerative urbanism:

• land use, planning, and regenerative development – how can new models of land use, planning and development repair blighted neighbourhoods and promote broad-based prosperity
• materials, making, and resilient design – how the physical building blocks of cities can support climate action, circular economies, and waste reduction
• data, algorithms, and the public realm – how digital infrastructures reshape public spaces, civic life, and spatial perception
• interdependent ecosystems – how urban design supports environmental repair, ecological stewardship and resilience
• cultural hybridity – how can we recenter local, indigenous and underrepresented knowledge?

Submission deadlines:

Applications must be submitted by 22 November 2026.

The winner announcement will take place in winter 2026 to 2027.

About Van Alen Institute:

Van Alen Institute is a driving force behind community-led urban design, which believes that local knowledge and care enrich the design process.

Since 1894, Van Alen has invested in people with a passion for improving cities through the power of architecture and design.

Its public space projects build unconventional coalitions of designers, local stakeholders, and city leaders, and support their visions through project scoping, hands-on guidance, and seed funding.

From its home in New York City, Van Alen’s work confronts longstanding power imbalances in citymaking, showcases the vanguard of community-led design, and supports the next generation of designers in creating more just cities.