UfM Student Competition on Urban Design 2023

As part of the celebration of the Day of the Mediterranean 2023, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is organising a student competition on Urban Design entitled “Urban Solutions to Climate Change in the Mediterranean”.  Undergraduate/Graduate students in relevant Schools/Departments, based in any of the 43 UfM Member States can participate. However eligible proposals must be located in one UfM Member States around the Mediterranean (see below for details).

Urban Design solutions/proposals for all kinds of climatic challenges constitute the main subject of the competition – taking into account the following:

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. It is possible to note that cities are made up of different contextual layers and these layers ground their original forms by overlapping, juxtaposing, and sometimes even in an intertwined way. The interaction of these dynamics rapidly changes and transforms not only the cities but also daily life, which results in a new urban space and new spatial practices.

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.

Students fulfilling the requirements are welcome to propose solutions in a multi-scalar approach, responding to the challenges posed by climate change effects in Mediterranean cities and their built environment, addressing always the urban design scale. Proposals are expected to contribute to the achievement of SDGs and also to consider cultural, social, economic and environmental sustainability.

• Eligible projects must be situated in a country located around the Mediterranean. Anywhere within the country in Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, or Morocco
• Although in a flexible manner, projects must respond to the challenges posed by climate change effects in Mediterranean cities and their built environment.
• The competition is promoting a multi-scalar approach but above all is expecting participants to tackle an urban design scale.
• Proposals submitted can be produced ad-hoc for this competition or be the result of a design studio

• Students must register by 31^st of August 2023. The registration is mandatory for the submission of proposals.
• The registration is free of charge.
• In the case of proposals to be submitted by teams, only one registration per team is required.
• Once registered participants will receive a link to submit the proposal.
• The title / name of the proposal should appear in all documents. Information that reveals the identity of the student/s – such as name, university or country – is not allowed in the materials of the proposal. All the documentation has to be submitted in English.
• Proposals have to be submitted by 27^th of September 2023 included.

Information to be submitted:

• Title / Name of your proposal.
• Form signed by the University/School in which participant/s were enrolled during the year 2022/2023, testifying that the student/s complies with the registration requirements. In teams, one form per each team member.
• 90sec (max) video presenting the project (maximum size 30 MB).
• 2 panels in pdf format, A1, with graphic documentation, maximum size 10 MB each. The presentation will be generally based on a general plan of the situation, a plan of the location, project plans, sections, details, design processes (sketches, schemes, notes), images (aerial photographs, views, renders, photomontages, photos of scale models, collages) and all other forms of expression to refer to the conceptual approaches.
• A written description of the project in no more than 200 words.

All the documentation should be in English.

The organisers are not responsible for technical and natural problems or delays for project submissions. All the information has to be submitted at the same time. Please do not wait until the last minute to submit your application to avoid last minute problems, such as page loading delays that may occur around the closing of submissions.