The Award was created as part of the Piran Days of Architecture international conference*, and it is presented by the DESSA Gallery, the Coastal Galleries of Piran and the Piranesi International Jury. The award is named after the 18th century Italian artist and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose family roots are said to be from Piran. It is presented to the best architectural realizations created in the last two years in the territory of Central European countries.
50 architectural realizations and 37 student projects compete for the Piranesi Prize 2023. The winners of the Piranesi Prize, two Piranesi Honorary Mentions and the Piranesi Honorary Mention for students will be selected by an international Piranesi jury, one of the jurors is Alberto Alessi, university lecturer for "Built Heritage & Upcycling" at the Liechtenstein School of Architecture.
Besides practicing architects, part of the exhibition for the Piranesi Award is also an international (since 2008) student exhibition in which 21 European architecture faculties participate. Each faculty can nominate two projects designed in the last two academic years.
* Piran Days of Architecture (PDA) is an international architectural conference initiated by a group of Slovene architects in 1986. The aim of the conference is to evaluate the social architectural situation and to present the most progressive and innovative ideas of contemporary architectural and spatial production which preserve cultural identity and diversity through the understanding and respect for the geographical and cultural context. Many architects have lectured at the conference, including: Amateur Studio, Bernardo Bader, Odile Decq, Enrique Miralles, Yvonne Farrell, Sverre Fehn, Kenneth Frampton, Francis Kéré, András Pálffy, Carme Pinos, Sami Rintala, Armando Ruinelli, Alvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Studio Mumbai, Heinz Tesar, Gino Valle, Peter Zumthor.