The Students Reinventing Cities competition from C40 Cities tasks students from across the globe with envisioning green cities post-pandemic.

Led by C40 Cities, a global network of cities committed to climate action, the competition aims to drive more active collaboration between cities, students and academia. 

Students Reinventing Cities asks multi-disciplinary teams formed by students in urbanism, architecture, environment, business, real estate and engineering to reimagine large urban sites that participating cities would like to revitalise. 18 cities are currently in competition, including Melbourne, Auckland, Reykjavik, Quito and Quezon City. 

The students will be asked to share and celebrate innovative solutions to environmental and societal challenges, considering models such as the 15 Minute City and 20 Minute Neighbourhood, increasingly adopted as valuable urban planning principles.  

Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Mayor of Buenos Aires and C40 vice-chair leading on urban planning, explains the competition’s ambition: “Many young people are inspiring the world with their climate mobilisation – we can see they are ready to contribute solutions, and this competition will give them a chance to share their ideas, creativity and passion for making change.”

“As we fight with increasing urgency for a more sustainable future, we need a unified global response at all levels of society, and we believe that academics and students have a key role to play in this vital revolution towards cities on a more human scale and a greener, fairer and more equal future.” 

The competition is being supported by a collective of academic leaders from across the globe, a number of whom have been instrumental in drawing up the Academic Manifesto for A Green And Just Future, calling for academic institutions to step up in the fight against climate change and to cooperate with cities to take part in the campaign for a Global Green New Deal.   

The winning projects will be celebrated in a global communication campaign and winning students will be invited to present their projects to business leaders, city officials and leading climate organisations. 

The deadline for entries is March 2021. The finalists will then be selected and invited to submit their final proposals by May 2021. 

A jury from the city and C40 Cities will select a winner for each city site, which will be announced at a ceremony in July 2021. 

Academia and students interested in entering the competition can find out more here.  

Lead photo: Reyjavik, Iceland by Annie Spratt.