A total of 18 global cities, including Buenos Aires, Paris, Washington D.C., and Delhi have launched Students Reinventing Cities, a pioneering competition that will enable students and universities from across the globe to share their vision for a green and just reinvention of our cities.
In a first of its kind, the competition is being led by C40 Cities - the global network of cities committed to bold climate action. The C40 Students Reinventing Cities Competition is dedicated to transforming cities in the face of the climate crisis, by driving an active collaboration between cities and academia. The competition will ignite creative, imaginative, and tangible ways to decarbonise city neighbourhoods, as well as to support thriving and resilient life for local communities.
Students entering the competition will be given live projects to work on in cities including; Athens, Auckland, Barcelona, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Dakar, Delhi, Dubai, Madrid, Melbourne, Montréal, Paris, Quezon City, Quito, Reykjavík, Seattle and Washington D.C. They will submit their entries designed specifically for the urban area in their chosen city - to help change the way we live in cities for the benefit of our wellbeing and of the climate.
The winning projects will be celebrated in a global communication campaign and winning students will be invited to present their projects to business leaders, city officials and leading climate organisations.
C40 Cities is calling on multi-disciplinary teams formed by students in urbanism, architecture, and environment as well as in business, real estate and engineering. The students will be asked to share and celebrate innovative solutions to environmental and societal challenges, considering models such as the 15 Minute City and 20 Minute Neighbourhood, increasingly adopted as valuable urban planning principles.
The competition is being supported by a collective of academic leaders from across the globe, a number of whom have been instrumental in drawing up the Academic Manifesto for A Green And Just Future. The Manifesto calls for academic institutions to step up in the fight against climate change and to cooperate with cities to take part in the campaign for a Global Green New Deal.
Across the globe, COVID-19 has raised awareness of, and indeed transformed the way we work, travel and live day-to-day. By doing so, it has also urged us to accelerate actions against climate change.
Many young people are inspiring the world with their climate mobilisation, we can see they are ready to contribute solutions, and this competition will give them a chance to share their ideas, creativity and passion for making change. We’re inviting students and academia to reimagine a series of large urban sites that cities participating in the competition would like to revitalise. As we fight with increasing urgency for a more sustainable future, we need a unified global response at all levels of society, and we believe that academics and students have a key role to play in this vital revolution towards cities on a more human scale and a greener, fairer and more equal future.
It is more important than ever to transform our cities and neighbourhoods so that city dwellers enjoy the benefits of healthy, resilient local communities. Paris is committed to strengthening the network of public services that city residents can access a short walk or cycle away, while creating the right conditions for more sustainable and inclusive neighbourhoods. Today, I am thrilled to launch the Students Reinventing Cities with C40 Cities and other leading mayors, and to invite students and academics to work with us to collectively build greener and fairer cities.
Sorbonne University IAE, is a supporter of the competition and one of the first signatories of the Academic Manifesto For A Green And Just Future.
We look forward to seeing the creative ideas that the students present, and the positive impacts for cities that their solutions may provide. As partners, we are excited to raise the challenge to make sustainable living more simple, accessible, and affordable for as many people as possible. Through our new smaller store formats and green deliveries in the cities, we see opportunities to work together for people, cities and the planet.
Academia and students who are interested in entering the competition, follow here. Deadline for entries is March 2021. The finalists will then be selected and invited to submit their final proposals by May 2021. A jury from the city and C40 Cities will select a winner for each city site, which will be announced at a ceremony in July 2021.
The C40 Students Reinventing Cities Competition is being supported by funding partners Ikea and the SNF, Stavros Niarchos Foundation.