Background
Every year the national selectors select five projects from their country which compete for the Piranesi Award. The most important criterion for the selection is to have made a step forward in finding architectural solutions within a certain "milieu". The jury consists of the participating lecturers of the international conference Piran Days of Architecture.
In 2009 a cash prize was awarded to the winners by the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning – a grant of 3,000 EUR for Piranesi Award winners, and a grant of 1,000 EUR each for both Piranesi Honorable Mentions and the Student Piranesi Award.
Piranesi Award
In 2010 a total of 34 projects, exposed at the Piranesi exhibition were selected by national selectors from Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia. The International 2010 Piranesi Award was granted to Maruša Zorec and Matjaž Bolčina from Slovenia for the renovation of the Vetrinje Mansion (Naskov dvorec) in Maribor, which became the headquarters of the Maribor, European Capital of Culture 2012.
Recent Piranesi Award winners were Miha Klinar, Špela Kuhar, Blaž Medja, Uroš Pavasovič, and Robert Potokar from Slovenia (2004), Idis Turato & Saša Randić from Croatia (2005), Dean Lah & Milan Tomac – Enota Architects from Slovenia (2006), Studio Njirić+Arhitekti from Croatia (2007), Ján Studený and Martin Vojta from Slovakia (2008), and decaARCHITECTURE from Greece (2009).
Piranesi Honorable Mention
The International 2010 Piranesi Honorable Mention went to STUDIO UP (Lea Pelivan and Toma Plejić) from Croatia for the project Hostel Golly & Bossy in Split.
The International 2009 Piranesi Honorable Mention went to Laura Peretti (Studio Insito) from Italy for the project Watermills Houses' renovation, and Andreas Cukrowicz and Anton Nachbaur–Sturm (Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architekten) from Austria for the project Community Center in St. Gerold.
Student Piranesi Award
In 2009 the competition for the Piranesi Student's Honorable Mention took place for the first time with an international competition and for the second time with an international jury.
From the 16 exhibited works by students from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana and faculties of architecture of Maribor, Trieste, Pescara, Zagreb, Split, Graz, and Vienna, the jury granted the International 2010 Piranesi Student's Honorable Mention to Ambrož Bartol for the project River bath in Podpeč under mentorship of Miloš Florijančič and Mitja Zorc from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana, and to Suzana Lunic and Tina Busatto and their mentor Hrvoje Njirić from the Split Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture in Croatia for the project Algae Island at the Kastela Bay.