Turkish, French and Spanish students crowned winners of UfM Urban Solutions to Climate Change in the Mediterranean competition
- The award ceremony of the UfM Student Competition on Urban Design 2023: Urban Solutions to Climate Change in the Mediterranean took place in Barcelona on January 17, with Istanbul’s Özyeğin University students scooping the €5,000 first-place prize for their exploration of the coexistence of water and life in Türkiye’s Lake Amik basin.
- An ENSA Marseille student was the runner-up for her proposal transforming a post-industrial area in southern France into a sustainable development park, while Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya students came in third for their project transforming a degraded coastal territory in northeastern Spain into a water retention landscape to host tourism. Two additional university teams received honourable mentions.
- The Mediterranean region is particularly vulnerable to climate change and will have to be planned to face rising sea levels and advancing desertification. With this in mind, the competition organised within the framework of the 2023 Day of the Mediterranean invited students in the UfM’s 43 Member States to propose multi-scalar approach solutions to these challenges.
18 January 2024, Barcelona. The award ceremony of the Union for the Mediterranean’s 2023 Student Competition on Urban Design 2023: Urban Solutions to Climate Change in the Mediterranean took place last night in Barcelona with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Özyeğin University, the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, and TMMOB Mimarlar Odası.
Mediterranean cities, which will be among the worst hit by climate change, will have to be planned to face rising sea levels, droughts, and high temperatures. The competition, organised within the framework of the 2023 Day of the Mediterranean, invited students enrolled in schools or departments of architecture, urban design, urban planning, and landscape in UfM Member States to submit multi-scalar approach solutions responding to the challenges posed by this phenomenon in Mediterranean cities and their built environment.
Held at the Barcelona Hilton, the award ceremony saw Özyeğin University students win first place for Symbiosis with Amik Lake, a project aimed at rectifying the delicate relationship between the Turkish lake’s waters and its surrounding habitat. Eda Akarsu, Beril Özelçi, and Özge Keskin were awarded €5,000 by the UfM for their approach to preserving the lake’s memory, enhancing its adaptive capacity, and regenerating its responsiveness to change.
ENSA Marseille student Viktoryia Baravikova came in second place for ALTEO. Transformation of the Post-Industrial Area of Alteo into a Sustainable Development Park. Her design, which was awarded €3,000 by the UfM, seeks to improve water quality in southern France’s Luynes River by relocating a polluting company’s production and restoring permeability in the area.
PR-R1 Camí del Riel earned Elena del Cura Berzal and Clara Domínguez Gallardo of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya the third-place prize. Their project to enhance northeastern Spain’s Tordera River delta and plain’s ability to host campsites in an environmentally friendly manner by transforming the area into a water retention landscape was awarded €2,000 by Özyeğin University.
Two proposals were presented with honourable mentions: Camp with Us by Övgü Resmiye Gülaçar, Zeynep Ece Katipoğlu, Ahmet Hakan Uğur, Kaan Kağızman, and Gizem Baydı of Yıldız Technical University, Gebze Technical University and Istanbul Technical University, and The inhabited lagoon of Camargue by ENSA Marseille’s Liam McCorley and Mathieu Burger. Both teams were awarded €500 by the UfM.
Projects were judged based on their contribution to the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals as well as other cultural, social, economic and environmental sustainability considerations. A jury composed of Euro-Mediterranean of urban design and architecture academics selected the winners from more than 80 proposals from 37 universities in 12 countries.
“The Mediterranean Sea is warming at a rate 20% faster than the global average,” UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel remarked. “This means innovative urban planning and architecture solutions are a must if the region hopes to successfully adapt to the threat of climate change. The Union for the Mediterranean is therefore proud to encourage and honour the students who will undoubtedly lead the way to a more sustainable future for generations to come.”
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