The inaugural competition run by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Asia Pacific and ULI Australia invites young professionals in the property and design industry to contribute their vision for the improvement of urban areas.

Activating the urban landscape surrounding George Street in Sydney is the focus of this year’s competition, in anticipation of the addition of the city’s new light rail in 2020. The brief requires entrants to consider the social, cultural, economic and ecological value of their redesign.

The competition is divided into two stages, with cash prizes for each. An open ideas competition is run as Stage One. The jury will select finalists from Stage One to enter Stage Two ­- the Idea Development Stage. As part of the competition terms, Stage Two entrants will be offered mentoring from industry leaders in order to further develop their proposal.

The esteemed jury includes John Choi, founding partner of CHROFI, and Michelle Tabet, urban strategist recently announced as one of the creative directors for the Australian Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. The inaugural competition directors include Jessica Paterson, development manager at Lend Lease, Thomas Hale, senior architect and urban project lead at Tzannes Associates, and Clare Sowden, director at PWC.

The Urban Innovation Prize will provide the winning team an opportunity to present their initiative at the 2016 ULI Asia Pacific Summit. Entrants must be under 35 years of age as at 1 June 2015.

To find out more, visit www.urbaninnovations.com.au