Brussels, 15 October 2026 – The New European Bauhaus (NEB) Prizes 2026 celebrated some of the most inspiring projects shaping a more sustainable, inclusive and beautiful Europe. We are particularly proud that both projects we supported as coaches in the NEB Accelerator Programme reached the finals, and that one of them went on to win its category.
Sincere congratulations to Tiers-Lab des Transitions from Marseille, France, and their “Circular by Nature” project on winning the Enhancing Circularity, Sustainability, and Innovation category. A big congratulations also to Reclaiming Spaces of Exclusion from Logatec, Slovenia, on being selected as a finalist in Strengthening Local Democracy and Inclusion.
The awards ceremony took place in Brussels on October 15, where our colleague Zdravko Kozinc, Co-creator and Co-founder of Iskriva Institute, represented Iskriva. Since June 2026, Zdravko and our colleague Mateja Softić, Co-creator and Co-founder of Iskriva Institute, have provided technical assistance to both finalist teams as coaches in the NEB Accelerator Programme. The coaching is structured in three areas: navigating the NEB ecosystem and its funding opportunities; developing the project, from roadmapping and pitching to stakeholder mapping and budgeting; and communication around the public vote, social media and video.
Circular by Nature won the Enhancing Circularity, Sustainability, and Innovation category in Strand A (NEB Champions). In the heart of Marseille, Tiers-Lab des Transitions runs a 6,000 m² urban oasis built on circular ecology, where urine becomes fertiliser and waste becomes compost. Volunteers take part as co-researchers, monitoring urban heat, biodiversity and air quality with low-tech, open-source tools that the lab shares freely with other communities in Europe. The project combines citizen science and nature-based solutions with community cooperative governance.
Reclaiming Spaces of Exclusion from Logatec, Slovenia, was selected as a finalist in the Strengthening Local Democracy and Inclusion category in Strand B (NEB Rising Stars). Neža Rejc, a graduate of the University of Ljubljana, entered the competition with her master’s thesis. Rooted in deinstitutionalisation, it rethinks the institutional care of children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties through the renovation of the Juvenile Educational Institution in Logatec. Through participatory design and adaptive reuse, the closed institution becomes an open network of housing units, community programmes and public spaces, social infrastructure where different people meet every day and exclusion gives way to social inclusion.
We are proud to have supported these inspiring projects on their journey to the NEB Prizes and look forward to continuing to help ambitious ideas grow into meaningful, lasting change across Europe.
