Context

Today is an era of change. The urban population is increasing each year and the ways of life are evolving. Our needs and expectations are remaking our habitat. 

Saint-Gobain, Eiffage Construction, Advancity and Descartes Développement encourage responsible innovation, politics of energy efficiency and environmentally sustainable. Through this challenge they wanted to see the vision and the ideas of the tomorrow city citizens: you!

Challenge

With your team, imagine the public place of tomorrow! 

If you feel concerned by your environment, if you have ever thought, designed, or dreamt of the perfect city, this challenge is made for you!  
It gives you the opportunity to propose and to highlight your ideas today to change the city planning tomorrow.

Developing new concepts of eco-sustainability within the city is central and it concerns several domains.

There are some leads you can dig up: 

• Energy Efficiency and public places comfort. How combining a better and more comfortable life?
  
  

• A campus environmentally-friendly made of innovative materials. How conceiving self-sufficiency building, respecting regulations, welfare and comfort (energy, thermic, acoustics, healthland visual)?
  
  
•  An eco-friendly refurbishment of the public places. Today renovation can go hand to hand with environment. 
  
  
• “Green” yards: How bringing closer construction sites, environment, health and comfort? 
  
  
• Historical sites: How gathering together past and future architecture and art respecting the fragile link between heritage, transmission and innovation? 
  
  
• What will be the new uses of your future public place and the new services associated? How to minimize journeys within a city? 
  
  
• How are you planning to deal with the population increase?  What will you choose: a horizontal or vertical expansion? 

You project must be innovative, realistic and accurate. Focus on one public place and one or two leads maximum to explore it.

How to participate

You are a student or you just graduated? To participate, it couldn't be simplier! You only need to sign in on the web site, to establish or join a team and to fill the preselection file (for more details, don't forget to read the modalities)

Fight for your project and show us your determination! 

Finally if you get the chance to be selected among the 30 finalists you will have to come up with a more successful achievement presenting your ideas in a more detailed way.  

Your mission

For Romans ecology within the city was their first source of concern, they created irrigation system, water collectors... This great civilization knew that the public places should be conceived wisely. Centuries after, the concern for citizens welfare stayed the same. 

The city, its heritage, its transit points (airports, train and subway stations), its learning places, (nurseries, schools, colleges), its leisure places (sports complex, theaters, cinema...) and health places (hospitals, retirement homes) all these essential locations must take into account factors of energy efficiency, sustainable development, easy access, comfort... In addition, these public places should be easily integrated to their environment respecting biodiversity and the well being of the residents and their neighbourhood. 

Some examples: 

• Have you ever felt disturbed by the quality of the air or the acoustic of one of your classroom? Think over your campus and its facilities! 
  
  
• Your favorite library is not accessible to everyone - disabled, elderly people, strollers? 
  
  
• The public place you chose hasn’t got much green spaces despite the possibility to create rooftop gardens or walls of greenery? 
  
  
• You have the feeling that an eco-neighbourhood could arise next to your home? 
  
  
• You consider some subway stations’ lighting system as noisy and noxious?
  
  
• Building, re-building and preserve biodiversity. How to build a bicycle parking without destroying the natural habitat around?  
  
  
• Sustainable urban mobility. How to integrate a railway station, tramway station, or a bike station in a homogenous urban environment or in a UNESCO World Heritage listed site?  

Share your eco-revolutionary ideas, and maybe you will become the advocate of the City of Tomorrow!  

Be inspired by what’s around you: schools, universities' campus, sports complex, hospitals...
Think about the indoor or outdoor places where you spend your free time. But be careful personal habitats such as individual homes are excluded from this challenge. It is the community and its integration within the city that you need to highlight. 

 We advise you to follow this process (below) at every step of your reflexion: 

 1. Environment Analysis 

Choose your public place: your school, your city, your subway station, your dental care center, your favorite museum, your local movie theater, ect... 
Then, explain how you will convert it in a sustainable site.
Establish a report evaluating the actual situation. Do not focus only on the developed countries you can also consider the needs and expectations of the BRICs countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) indeed their fast-growing urbanization can be taken as an example. Interrogate yourself!

• Does my project already exist? 
  
  
• Is my project developing itself within a neighbourhood, a city a municipality? In which environment do I want it to evolve? 
  
  
• To whom is my project intended to? Is it designed for a precise population segment? Intergenerational problematics are very trendy. Use it at your advantage, take into account this social reality.
  
  
• Does my project need important funds and human means? 
  
  
• Is my project adaptable to other public places? 
  
  
• To which actors- economics, politics, social landlords- is my project depending on? 

2. Concept

In its conceptualization, materials choice, its construction...your project has to be innovative and unprecedented! Do not put aside the digital dimension of your project. 
For instance you could imagine an app which could allow users to rank several places interior air quality or one which would identify every square meters likely to be transform as a “collective garden”. Once geolocated the available space would be send directly to the Head of the green spaces Unit of your city. Your concept has to be as achieved as possible and almost ready for an immediately use.  

3. Communication campaign 

Once the concept found and developed, imagine the communication campaign you would put into action to inform people of your sustainable project.
It can be digital communication or more traditional with -flyers, posters, TV spots, radio spots-. Describe how you will use it to let people know of your new sustainable public place. Your project has to be environmentally-friendly and your campaign has to last in the media. You need to get public attention not to be forgotten after the buzz has passed!