Van Alen Institute relaunches Paris Prize as Re:Paris Prize with focus on post-colonial urbanism

The Van Alen Institute has announced the relaunch of its historic Paris Prize as the Re:Paris Prize, shifting the program’s focus toward reparative and regenerative urbanism in post-colonial regions. The inaugural 2026 edition will be organized in partnership with the Pan-African Biennale, a continental biennale dedicated to architecture and the built environment.

Originally established in 1904, the Paris Prize operated as an annual design competition until 1997. Early winners received a year of study at Paris’s École des Beaux-Arts, while past recipients included architects William Van Alen, Max Abramovitz, and Richard H. Granelli.

The reformulated prize will initially focus on Africa, with Pan-African Biennale founding curator Omar Degan contributing to its themes and the selection and mentoring of recipients. Three designers will each receive a $35,000 travel fellowship to undertake field research and develop design proposals.

Image credit: Van Alen Institute / Pan-African Biennale

“The Pan-African Biennale does not seek to correct exclusion from within existing frameworks,” Degan said. “It establishes a new one — one in which Africa is the author of its own spatial knowledge, its own architectural discourse, its own futures. The Re:Paris Prize belongs to that project. For a century, recognition required a journey to Paris. This one funds the opposite journey — into African cities, to research what is already being built there.”

Two Africa-based recipients will be selected from designers exhibiting at the 2026 Pan-African Biennale and announced on September 10. A third, U.S.-based recipient will be selected through an open call and announced in December. The recipients will present their research at Van Alen Institute in fall 2027, followed by participation in the second Pan-African Biennale in 2028.

“As Van Alen reflects on its 132-year legacy, we must hold our own archival history accountable,” said Hayley Eber, Executive Director of the Van Alen Institute. “For over a century, the original Paris Prize defined architectural merit from a singularly Western perspective. With the Re:Paris Prize, we are flipping that narrative on its head by celebrating design research and innovation created in regions long relegated to the margins, amplifying reparative approaches that redefine how we shape our built environment.”