Mayor's Urban Design Awards
The Mayor’s Urban Design Awards (MUDA) honour the urban designers, architects, landscape architects, planners and artists who help make our city a great place to live. They also let us show the world our modern, inclusive city. Our urban landscape is being internationally recognized and celebrated now more than ever.
Calgary’s diverse and inclusive physical environment sets an example for high quality urban design, buildings, and public spaces. It helps set the standard for future municipal planning and development. Calgary’s urban spaces make our city feel like home for people who live here now and will in the future.
Over the last 10 competitions, we've seen many incredible projects and met the innovative people who create them. Planning and designing our city defines how we live in it. We could not dream of a stronger community to help us make Calgary the best it can be. Join us as we celebrate our city’s urban landscape again this fall.
MUDA Gala – November 13, 2024
We are excited to host the 10th edition of the MUDA celebration on November 13, 2024 in the Percheron Ballroom at the new BMO Centre in Stampede Park. Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased through the link below.
Award submission categories
See the 2024 project submissions and read about this year's Jury.
For the 2024 MUDA, a biennial awards program, there are 11 categories.
Conceptual or Theoretical Urban Design Projects
This category is for a plan or a study of an area within Calgary that provides a strategy for urban transformation. It is intended for unbuilt work and is not dependent on implementation status. Visionary urban design studies, master plans, redevelopment strategies and community plans of high ambition and inspirational value may be submitted.
Eligibility:
The plan or study must have been completed after Jan. 1, 2018.
Award criteria:
- Employs a wholistic, systemic approach to city-building
- Demonstrates critical thinking and strategic foresight to address current and future challenges
- Reflects the city that Calgary aspires to be - inclusive, diverse, equitable, adaptable and resilient
- Clearly describes and illustrates design concepts
Urban Design Plans
This category recognizes a plan or a study of an area within Calgary that provides a development or redevelopment strategy for urban transformation. It is intended for work that has some certainty of implementation within a mid-term to long-term timeframe. Urban Design studies, master plans, redevelopment strategies, and community plans of high inspirational value with the potential for significant impact on the city’s sustainability or development may be submitted.
Eligibility:
The plan or study must have been completed after Jan. 1, 2018, within Calgary.
Award criteria:
- Addresses a wide a range of factors affecting development
- Highlights new ideas and/or approaches to interventions in the city
- Addresses Calgarians’ shared priorities and vision around inclusivity, diversity, equity, climate, and resilience
- Design rationale should be clearly described and well-illustrated.
Urban Architecture
This category recognizes a building or group of buildings that contribute to, and support, an urban design initiative. The submission may be for an individual building or group of buildings, of high architectural standard, which achieve urban design excellence through their unique relationship with their immediate surroundings because of siting, massing, and pedestrian amenities. The building(s) will also contribute to defining a special relationship with the neighbouring urban fabric. Interior spaces can be included if they have a strong relationship to/influence on the public realm and meet the criteria.
Eligibility:
A new building, a renovated building, or complex of buildings completed after Jan. 1, 2018, within Calgary and designed by a registered architect. Special consideration will be given to buildings that also achieve, or can achieve, a green building rating (such as LEED® or BREEAM). This category is open only to registered architects.
Award criteria:
- Positive contribution to the public realm
- Architectural excellence
- Demonstration of the value of urban design through their unique relationship with/influence on/creation of public realm
- Design rationale should be clearly described and well-illustrated
Civic Design Projects
This category recognizes a civic improvement project such as a park, a public space, civil engineering or infrastructure project. The design will reinforce the value of urban design through its unique relationship with and/or creation of innovative public realm which addresses inclusivity, sustainability, and engagement with community and context.
Eligibility:
A construction project completed or installed after Jan. 1, 2018, within Calgary, and designed by a registered design professional (architects, engineers, registered planners, and landscape architects).
Award criteria:
The primary criteria for assessing the merit of the plan will be:
- Shows awareness of current City of Calgary objectives to respond to issues of equity, inclusivity, accessibility, and climate adaptation positive contribution to the public realm
- Design excellence
- Demonstration of the value of urban design and its ability to creatively address issues of inclusivity and sustainability while engaging with its context
Urban Fragments
Urban fragments are single or multiple small-scale pieces of a building or landscape that contribute significantly to the quality of the public realm. This category includes elements such as street furniture, lighting elements, interpretation media, memorials, public art, or other forms of intervention that contribute to the beautification, sustainability, enjoyment, and/or appreciation of the urban environment. Projects can be of a temporary (but not ephemeral) or permanent nature.
Eligibility:
Completed or installed after Jan. 1, 2018, within Calgary.
Award criteria:
The primary criteria for assessing the proposals will be:
- Positive contribution to the public realm
- Design excellence
- Innovation and uniqueness of the element
- Design rationale should be clearly described and well-illustrated.
Community Initiatives Award
This category is for any built project or community improvement program, however modest, initiated and implemented by a community-based organization or partnership that enhances the public realm. Streetscaping, public art, commemorative or interpretive installations, and environmental initiatives are examples of this category.
Eligibility:
The improvement must have been completed after Jan. 1, 2018, within Calgary.
Award criteria:
- Wide community involvement: Demonstration of how the community was involved and supported the improvements
- Positive contribution to the public realm
- Innovation and uniqueness of the built project
- Design rationale should be clearly described and well-illustrated
- Reflects neighbourhood cultural and resident diversity
The Confluence Award
This category is for a public space, building, or group of buildings that achieve urban design excellence and creativity through awareness of the Calgary context, particularly its history and culture. Submissions should demonstrate visionary city-building and aspire to be culturally and historically reflective and aesthetically significant.
Eligibility:
All types of buildings and public spaces are eligible. This could be a landmark, background piece, new construction or a restoration/transformation. The project must have been completed after Jan. 1, 2018, within Calgary.
Award criteria:
- Innovation in response to existing context, sensitive infill, and revitalization
- Positive and enduring contribution to the public realm
- Enhancement of community identity, history, and Calgary culture
- Demonstration of the influence of local context and culture on the design outcome
- Design excellence
- Design and contextual-fit rationale should be clearly described and well-illustrated
City Edge Development
This category is for site plans, studies, architecture, landscape designs and site elements that respond specifically to the challenges and opportunities presented on sites located in all recently developed and newly developing areas of Calgary.
Eligibility:
The plan, study, or design must have been completed after Jan. 1, 2018, and be located or proposed within Calgary but outside the “Established Communities”; it may or may not yet have been implemented. All project types are eligible, including large and medium retail and multi-residential designs.
Award criteria:
- Innovation in addressing challenges specific to sites in new and developing communities
- Demonstration of attention to issues of scale, animation, connectivity, accessibility, interface between public and private realm and other key urban design principles; in particular, evidence of place-making and prioritization of the pedestrian realm should be highlighted
- Presents new approaches to design and development in the new communities within Calgary
- Demonstrates a commitment to sustainability and addresses social equity issues such as affordability and accessibility
- Design rationale should be clearly described and well-illustrated
Green & Resilient Design
This category recognizes projects that are boldly responding to the Climate Emergency through excellence in sustainable design that reduce energy and resource consumption of buildings, and improve occupant health and wellness, all while showcasing urban design excellence.
Eligibility:
Projects registered for, or certified by, a recognized green building standard or rating system are eligible. The project must have been completed after Jan. 1, 2018, within Calgary.
Award criteria:
A wide range of criteria from the City of Calgary Sustainable Development Inventory will be considered, including:
- Energy efficiency and measures to reduce operational GHG emissions
- Efforts to reduce the project’s embodied carbon
- Design measures to improve occupant health and wellness
- Water efficiency and storm water management
- Design approaches that respond to the increasing risk of extreme weather
- Use of renewable energy technologies
- Design approach which highlights innovation in sustainable design
- Promoting alternative means of transportation (cycling, pedestrian experience, etc.)
- Promotes positive public experience, contributes to the betterment of the surrounding community, and addresses social equity issues such as affordability and accessibility.
- Design rationale should be clearly described and well-illustrated
Housing Innovation
This category is for residential design projects, constructed or approved, of any size or scale, which demonstrate innovation in the areas of neighbourhood intensification, accessibility, affordability, “aging in place”, and promoting wellness through healthy living environments. Particularly, the award focuses on designs which contribute to providing creative solutions to the problem of housing affordability, providing improved livability for seniors, and providing simple, viable housing design options for those citizens facing mobility challenges.
Eligibility:
A building or complex of buildings approved or completed construction after Jan. 1, 2018, within Calgary.
Award criteria:
- Exhibits innovations which address one or more of the challenging design issues listed above
- Illustrates an awareness of and response to existing surrounding context
- Contributes to the public realm in a positive way
- Strives to achieve a healthy and high quality of life for its occupants through design innovation
- Supports social outcomes and/or community well-being through partnerships or collaboration
- Design rationale should be clearly described and well-illustrated
Student Projects
The Student Projects category will be administered through participating Canadian Universities, programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and/or urban planning. Students may submit for each of the following categories:
- A submission from a structured Urban Design, Landscape, Architecture or Planning studio
- A submission as a result of a final project or an individual thesis
Eligibility:
This category is open to students in urban design, architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning at the undergraduate or graduate level. Projects should investigate sites or be implementable on sites within Calgary.
Award criteria:
- Comprehensiveness: Addressing a wide range of factors affecting development and providing solutions to the stated problem
- Conceptual clarity and urban design excellence, as demonstrated in the illustrations showing physical improvements
- Design rationale should be clearly described and well-illustrated
Liveable cities are an organic collaboration of nature and design. They hold our memories of long walks and warm welcomes, the safe places where we played with friends, and the open pathways that drew us into the future.
Highlights from the 2022 Gala
More Information
For more information and to speak to someone in regards to these opportunities, please contact:
Email: MUDA@calgary.ca