2026 Laureate – The Patrick Abercrombie Prize for Urban Planning and Design
Paola Viganò (b. 1961, Italy) is an architect, urban planner, and professor of urban theory and urban design.
Her work focuses on the transformation of cities and territories, with particular attention to ecological systems, landscape, and infrastructure as structuring elements of urban form.
Through both research and practice, she has developed approaches that address the ecological and social transition of cities, exploring the relationships between water, soil, environment, and urban development.
A professor at EPFL, where she directs the Habitat Research Center and the Laboratory of Urbanism, and at IUAV University of Venice, she has led numerous projects and research initiatives across Europe.
Across her work, she has contributed to the development of contemporary urbanism, combining theoretical research with design practice and engaging with metropolitan, territorial, and environmental challenges.
Widely recognised internationally, she has received major distinctions including the Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme (France, 2013) and the Golden Medal for Career of the Milano Triennale (2018), and her work has been exhibited at international biennales and institutions.
Jury’s remarks
“Paola Viganò is recognised for her decisive contribution to contemporary urban planning and her influential theoretical work on the city. “
For over three decades, she has advanced a territorial understanding of urbanism in which water, soil, landscape, and infrastructure are conceived as structuring conditions of spatial transformation, repositioning ecological systems as generative frameworks for metropolitan form and territorial development.
Through both practice and research, she has translated these principles into realised projects and influential publications addressing the ecological and social transition of cities and territories. Her work demonstrates how ecological infrastructures and everyday urban life can be integrated within coherent and durable spatial frameworks, influencing generations of planners and shaping contemporary urban debate.
