Globalworth Foundation and Igloo – Habitat and Architecture Association announce the winning projects of the international idea competition 2031 NOW_our cities in 10 years dedicated to students in architecture, city planning and design from Poland and Romania, and launched in November 2021.
The competition theme invited students to develop a sustainable and coherent urban vision that could shape and improve the environment of our cities in the near future. This had to be illustrated for a generic piece of land of 2,031 ha by means of mixed-use buildings, community spaces, parks, infrastructure, all connected in a new design that could be built in 2031.
Competition entries were evaluated by a jury panel composed of internationally renowned urban planners and architects, as well as representatives of the organisers: Bruno Andreșoiu, Arjan Dingsté, Krzysztof Ingarden, Dimitris Pergamalis, Jakub Szczęsny and Andrei Șerbescu.
“2031 NOW_our cities in 10 years is the competition through which we make steps towards fulfilling the commitment to build functional, sustainable and harmonious buildings with respect to the environment and the community. Globalworth develops office buildings and in our day-to-day activity we have all become aware of the increased importance of architects. They are the ones who shape our homes, office buildings, cities – in other words, places where, in our turn, we shape our lives. The applications submitted in the first edition of the competition triggered our imagination and definitely contributed to the establishment of the future of architecture. It was a great honour to evaluate the applications along with the prestigious jury members that we have managed to bring together. We have met very talented young architects with whom we hope to work in the near future”, stated Dimitris Pergamalis, MRICS, Group Head of Workplaces at Globalworth.
“My experience as a jury member of 2031 NOW competition has been a memorable one, owing not only to the projects submitted and to the engaging discussions throughout the evaluation process, but also to the side events that made me realise, once again, the importance and the necessity of such environments of professional debate. Despite the challenging and demanding competition theme, the students succeeded in creating noteworthy designs. I believe the achievements of an idea contest are rendered not only by the value of the winning projects, but also by the richness and diversity of the visions proposed. And in our case, although the number of valid entries was not remarkably high, their quality counterbalanced the quantity and gave the competition the substance we were looking for. I hope we can carry on this initial success through a new creative and stimulating competition addressed to those representing the future of architecture and, implicitly, the future of our cities.” – Arch. Bruno Andreșoiu, Igloo – Habitat and Architecture Association.
The jury members appreciated those projects that proposed original approaches of the competition theme while also accurately identifying pressing urban problems and finding appropriate tools to solve them. Proposals able to articulate a responsive language for our future cities’ development were valued for their visionary ideas, for their ways of treating density, and the stress on sustainability. Given the competition complexity and its open, generous character, the following criteria were taken into consideration: imagination, vision, innovation, presentation, coherence.
According to the competition rules and to the correspondence between the entries and the evaluation criteria, the jury unanimously decided to grant 2 prizes. 2031 NOW winning projects are as follows:
1st prize – €5,000 + publication
Eduard Untaru – CK0000_Carthage (“Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning Bucharest)
2nd prize – €3,000 + publication
Andrei Nițu Săraru – AN1153_A/Spire (“Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning Bucharest)
Motivation of the jury:
“The project CK0000 Carthage (1st prize) reflects a poetic approach to urban structures, referring to a nostalgic yet dystopian past structure. The proposal highlights the essence of Roman ancient urban developments as a reference point to the future European city, creating a mature proposal that transcripts into good historical and urban knowledge and highly trained architectural talent. The project gives a unique human scale to the city, although designing high density. The whole presentation gave a specific sensibility to the whole approach.”
“The proposal AN1153 A/Spire has a sense of reality, having the quality that it can behave as an immediate reply applied to an existing context. The project proposes a bold and balanced statement over the self-sustaining idea of an urban plot that is designed as a “green machine” that continuously reuses and generates its own resources. Although not entirely feasible, the project offers an interesting attempt and bold vision that shows great potential. The layered structure has an interesting concept of multifunctionality.”
Please find details about the winning projects as well as the other nine short-listed entries at https://www.2031now.com/projects.
All eleven projects will be published in a special catalog this year and displayed at the High-Tech Learning Center within “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning Bucharest.
For other inquiries please contact us at welcome@2031now.com. For updates and further development of the competition please check the official website.
We would like to thank all the participants for their insightful proposals, as well as our institutional, academic and media partners for their kind support.
2031 NOW_our cities in 10 years is a competition powered by Globalworth Foundation and organized by Igloo – Habitat and Architecture Association.
Institutional partners: The Romanian Order of Architects, The Romanian Order of Architects – Bucharest Branch, The Union of Romanian Architects, SHARE architects, Romanian Register of Urban Planners, The Romanian Professional Association of Urban Planners
Academic partners: “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning Bucharest, „G. M. Cantacuzino” Faculty of Architecture Iași, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism Timișoara
Media partners: aici a stat, Architektura-murator, Arhitectura, de-a arhitectura, Designist, ENTR, feeder, Graphic Front, IQads, Modernism, The Institute, urbnews.pl, zeppelin