Award Ceremony of the “UfM Student Competition on Urban Design 2023: Urban Solutions to Climate Change in the Mediterranean”, as part of the celebration of the Day of the Mediterranean

November 2023 (Date TBC), Barcelona (Spain) – 2023 will witness the first iteration of the “UfM Urban Design Student Competition”, which this year will focus on “Urban Solutions to Climate Change in the Mediterranean”. Urban Design solutions/proposals for all kinds of climatic challenges constitute the main subject of the competition.

As part of the celebration of the Day of the Mediterranean 2023, the Award Ceremony of the “UfM Urban Design Student Competition” is foreseen to take place in Barcelona, Spain on in November 2023, in the Presence of the winners, the Jury, the UfM Academic Advisory Committee supporting the competition and UfM high-level representatives.

Over 500 registrations were received from 21 UfM Member States (Albania, Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, North Macedonia, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, and Türkiye). Registered students have until 27 September 2023 to submit their projects.

Context

Mediterranean cities, which will be among the worst hit by climate change, will have to be planned and designed to face sea-level rise, droughts, water scarcity, overheating, and urban heat-island effects. However, attending to their specific cultural and morphologic features, they will require ad hoc innovative solutions to adapt their built environment and urban heritage to the challenge of climate change.

Mediterranean cities have a multi-layered structure. Socio-cultural, physical, economic, political, and technological dynamics are changing in the world, and cities appear as the main places where this change is reflected. The interaction of resulting dynamics rapidly changes and transforms not only the cities but also daily life, which results in a new urban space and new spatial practices.

Against this context, the “UfM Urban Design Student Competition” aims to address several interconnected UfM action areas, namely, a) Sustainable Urban Development, b) youth action, c) climate action d) contributing to better environment and e) contributing to a Mediterranean Identity, embracing a better preservation of its heritage.

The Student Competition has been conceptualized and initiated by the UfM Meetings of Schools of Architecture & Urban Planning, in the framework of the UfM Regional Platform on Sustainable Urban Development.

For more information on the “UfM Urban Design Student Competition”, please visit: https://ufmsecretariat.org/urban-competition-2023/