HONOR AWARD
Urban Design Category
Revitalizing Baku’s Historic Neighborhoods and Waterfront - Azerbaijan
“The project demonstrated great potential through high-quality, easily readable graphics, successful multi-disciplinary collaboration, and regionally sensitive designs that thoughtfully addressed a historical city.”
PROJECT STATEMENT
In 2024, a U.S.-based university urban design studio partnered with a university in Azerbaijan for a live, two-week collaboration involving 63 students. Reimagining eight subdistricts in Baku’s historic core (1,200 acres), the teams addressed pressing urban challenges: housing needs access, waterfront connectivity, and the preservation of cultural identity. The proposal includes human-scale infill housing, intimate district/neighborhood spaces, improved connectivity to major open spaces, and resident-driven programming engaging their neighborhoods with the waterfront. By celebrating local spatial practices, the project offers a replicable model for equitable, culturally rooted urban revitalization balanced with tourism.