The Plečnik Award and Plečnik Medals represent the foremost recognition for the work in the fields of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and interior design representing the finest realisation produced in Slovenia within the past three calendar years.
The award is given to authors of works that connect artistic imagination with contemporary social, political, economic, technological, and environmental events, works that have a cultural mission and express a contribution to wider society, works that represent excellence, are conceptually, materially, technologically, executionally, and socially inventive, and contribute to the development of the professions and the culture of construction. The award is named after the architect Jože Plečnik, whose recognition extends beyond the architectural discipline and the geographical borders of Slovenia. Plečnik's works represent an upgrade of the physical context, which, in connection with the existing, creates a new quality in the built environment. Plečnik's works are original, distinctive, and architecturally inventive. The Plečnik Award builds on the relationship between Plečnik's and contemporary architectural works. The aforementioned characteristics of Plečnik's works are the basic criteria for selecting works for the awards.
They have been awarded since 1973, when, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik, the Ambient working group from Ljubljana established the Jože Plečnik Architect Fund for the annual awarding of these prizes.
