CSAM Maintenance Awards 2025
Kyrkogrottan in Limhamn - Winner of the CSAM Maintenance Award 2025.
Kyrkogrottan is one of the city's most unexpected and cherished places, used for generations for play, gatherings, reflection, and everyday life. In a city shaped by increasingly commercial and over-designed spaces, it stands out by remaining open, unmarked, and free to be shaped by people's imagination. For its endurance, its ability to bring people together over time, and for showing that the city's true magic lies in the unexpected, Kyrkogrottan is awarded the CSAM Maintenance Award 2025.
CSAM Maintenance Awards is a newly established award that, with seriousness and humor, aims to celebrate the city's everyday places. Those that work, endure, and are cared for with attention. Places where maintenance happens without major investments or spectacular interventions, but which nevertheless, or perhaps precisely because of this, play an important role in urban life.
At a time when architecture and urban development awards often go to new, shiny projects, we at CSAM want to highlight what already exists and risks disappearing in the shadow of the new.
The prize is part of CSAM's artistic practice and seeks to contribute to a broader discussion about what we value in our urban environment. By rewarding what has survived everyday wear and tear and been managed with limited means, we want to emphasize the sustainable, the subtle, and the often overlooked.
The CSAM Maintenance Awards is a recognition of the city's caretakers and the places that, thanks to their efforts, continue to be part of our shared story.
- Lifra and CEO Anders Fransson
- Lifra, under CEO Anders Fransson, shows that true stewardship is about long-term responsibility for both places and people by caring for what already exists, taking responsibility in times of crisis, and building sustainable relationships instead of chasing short-term profits - therefore we nominate Lifra and Anders Fransson for the CSAM Maintenance Awards.
- Återbyggdepån, Inre Hamnen
- Återbyggdepån in Malmö shows how everyday reuse can build a city's sustainability by allowing functioning materials and practices to keep functioning without drawing attention to themselves - therefore we nominate Återbyggdepån for the CSAM Maintenance Awards for its robust, low-key, and indispensable work.
- Almvik 4H Farm, Almvik
- Almvik 4H Farm is a long-term stewarded place where animals, cultivation, and volunteer engagement give children and young people a living relationship to nature and the city - therefore we nominate the farm for the CSAM Maintenance Awards for keeping an invaluable environment alive with small means and great care.
- Kyrkogrottan, Limhamn
- Kyrkogrottan in Limhamn is a simple and self-sustaining place where history, play, and community have been allowed to live on without being over-designed - therefore we nominate it for the CSAM Maintenance Awards for showing that the city's most valuable spaces are often those that are allowed to remain free and used on their own terms.
- Alta Art Space, Sorgenfri
- Alta Art Space shows how worn but functioning spaces can become long-term engines for art and community when they are stewarded with care and flexibility - therefore we nominate Alta Art Space for the CSAM Maintenance Awards for letting creativity grow within what already exists.
- Öresundsparken, Ribersborg
- Öresundsparken is Malmö's quiet green backdrop which, through its robust and timeless design, continues to carry the city's everyday life without demanding attention - therefore we nominate the park for the CSAM Maintenance Awards for its low-key but indispensable presence.
- Long-term functionality
- The place should have been in use for a long period of time and continue to function well for its users, without extensive renovations or investments.
- Everyday significance
- The place should be part of everyday life and matter to many people, even if it is not spectacular or widely known.
- Careful stewardship
- The place should have been cared for in a way that shows consideration, creativity, or perseverance - often with small means and simple solutions.
- Sustainability over time
- The place should demonstrate social and ecological sustainability by having adapted to and survived changes in society.
- Unnoticed quality
- The place should exemplify something that is often overlooked or not recognized in traditional prizes and awards.
Malmö, Sweden