Founded in 1903, FAD (Fostering Arts and Design) is a Barcelona based private nonprofit that aims to improve the environment and people's lives through design and creativity. FAD, which is divided into five associations representing the various disciplines of design, intervenes through its activities (excellence awards, conferences, exhibitions and other events) in social, cultural and economic nationally and internationally.

 

Within the wide array of activities that FAD promotes, City to City Barcelona FAD Award was born in 2008 in order to track and assess initiatives from around the globe, which proposed effective answers to the challenges that contemporary cities face and will face in the near future. During these years, the award, developed in collaboration with the Barcelona City Council and the Government of Catalonia, has acknowledged hundreds of international projects, both big and small, which have successfully been able to improve the every day life in their cities. 

 

Along the way, the prize has evolved, focusing more and more on projects brought about by citizens’ initiatives, or by the collaboration between inhabitants and institutions, a combination which leads to new directions in a complex and ever changing world. 

 

Since 2016 edition, the award has become biennial and thematic. In this new stage, first focus subject was learning initiatives in the city. We searched for all kind of projects in the intersections of public space and collective production of knowledge. City to City is an open platform, which means everyone, from individuals to institutions or collectives may send their proposals or invite others to join our initiative. In the end, we received 132 candidates from all over the globe, covering the very diverse and rich landscape of education and learning in the city, an urgent and important matter in a somewhat entangled global situation, in which growing cities are called to gain more and more political and social presence. Currently, we are working on our 2018 edition.