The UIA Gold Medal and Prizes are awarded every three years during the Congress of the International Union of Architects. These honorific UIA Prizes were created in 1961 to reward professionals whose merit, talent or actions are of international renown.

The Gold Medal is the UIA supreme honour. It is awarded to a living architect in recognition of his/her architectural achievement and contribution to the well-being of man and society and the promotion of the art of architecture throughout his/her professional career.

Each of the four UIA Prizes focuses on a specific theme and is dedicated to the memory of the Union’s first Presidents:
- Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize, for town planning or territorial development
- Auguste Perret Prize, for applied technology in architecture
- Jean Tschumi Prize, for architectural criticism and/or architectural education
- Sir RobertMatthew Prize, for the improvement of the quality of human settlements.

2008 Vassilis Sgoutas Prize
A new prize, the 2008 Vassilis Sgoutas Prize, is also launched. Created on the initiative of the UIA Past President, whose name it carries, it is designed to highlight actions or realisations that contribute in an efficient manner to the struggle against the misery of communities living under the poverty line. It will be awarded to architects or teams that have contributed to the significant improvement of the living conditions of the most underprivileged human beings, to their habitat and their environment.

Two prizes, each worth 1.000 Euros, will be awarded: one to an architect, the other to a collectivity, composed of a majority of architects.

Call for Candidatures
Candidatures for the Gold Medal, the UIA Prizes and the 2008 Vassilis Sgoutas Prize should be addressed by UIA Member Sections, to the UIA General Secretariat by 14 March 2008.

The candidatures will be examined by a jury composed by the UIA Bureau members, in Bratislava, on 16 and 17 April 2008. Vassilis Sgoutas will also sit on the jury for the prize of that name.

All the prizes will be officially presented in Turin on 02 July 2008 during the UIA Congress Torino 2008.