International regeneration award

The reconstruction of 2.5 km of waterfront (or malecon) in the city of Guayaquil is one of the largest urban renewal projects Latin America has ever seen. Over seven years from 1997, a team of academics and professionals from Oxford Brookes University’s International Development Projects Office worked with designers from the Engineering University of Lima to plan and build the $150m (£86m) development. Not record rainfall of 9 m, nor the collapse of the Ecuadorian currency, nor the six changes of president were allowed to derail the project. Where once there was dereliction and decay, now there is a national museum and art gallery, a commercial centre, food court, restaurants and bars, botanic gardens, a public square and an Imax cinema. Incredible.

The Malecon 2000 project in Ecuador regenerated 2.5 km of waterfront under astonishingly difficult conditions

Runners-up

A certain F Gehry has already had a crack at regenerating Bilbao, with no small degree of success. But one building does not an urban renaissance make, and that’s where Zaha Hadid comes in. The London practice is shortlisted this year for two projects in the Spanish city. The first is for the hilly, riverside district of Olabeaga, north of the city centre. Instead of trying to extend the urban grid and turning away from the River Nervion, Hadid organised workshops to find a new identity for the 341,500 m2 district. The result was a proposal to promote jobs growth in the engineering, medicine and media industries already found in Olabeaga, to rethink a planned motorway and to transform the steep hillside into a series of parks linking upper communities to the river.

CityQuartier DomAquarée, Berlin – DIFA Deutsche Immobilien Fonds

It’s the first of two German urban quarters, and this one is by far the larger – 69,500 m2 and *500m (£338m) to be precise. Once home to a hotel, the site now houses, well, a hotel, but also flats, shops, restaurants and entertainment facilities. Developer DIFA didn’t just want to show Berliners a good time, though. It asked local architecture firm NPS Tchoban Voss to recreate the district’s historic street layout and to reflect the riverside setting. It certainly does that: in the foyer of the hotel is the world’s largest cylindrical aquarium, home to 2500 fish.

Kamp- Promenade, Germany – AM Development

This tight city-centre site has been a car park since WWII. It still is, only now the cars are parked below ground, beneath 13,000 m2 of shops and restaurants and 3230 m2 of offices.

As designed by Dutch architect T+T Design for Co Antrim-based AM, Kamp-Promenade is not a mall but a collection of diverse buildings and pedestrian routes. The *54.6m (£37m) scheme has created 200 jobs and attracted 10 million visitors since September 2004.

Masterplan, Zorrozaurre, Bilbao, Spain – Zaha Hadid

Back in Bilbao, on the opposite bank of the Nervion, Hadid has prepared a masterplan for the 60 ha district of Zorrozaurre. New uses will be found for the industrial buildings constructed when the area was a bustling port. A series of bridges will connect Zorrozaurre to Olabeaga and other neighbourhoods. These crossings, plus new waterside promenades and parks, will enhance Bilbao’s reputation as a city for walkers.