Students! Help design Melbourne’s urban future

Our Future Cities has launched its 2020 Interdisciplinary Student Design Competition and seminar series, and is excited to hear the ideas of as many young people as possible.

The competition is a ‘transformative challenge’ in which small interdisciplinary teams will be given space to ask questions, challenge convention and wonder what a brighter urban future could be. They will explore the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and apply them to design challenges in and around Melbourne.

This year, the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities is the major event sponsor, and the contestants will be using our Scenario Tool to inform their submissions.

All contestants will gain real world experience and essential skills, and work alongside leading industry thinkers—plus, be in the running to win $5000 prize money.

Our Future Cities 2020 is open to teams and individuals. To be eligible, teams must comprise 3–5 individual students from a minimum of three different disciplinary backgrounds (i.e., different fields of study).

While the competition is targeted at university students with 2–3+ years of experience, the organisers want to hear from as many young people as possible so they will happily accept entries from students from Year 12 VCE, all levels of university (including Masters), and recent graduates (up to one year post graduation).

If you don’t have a team, don’t worry. The Our Future Cities team will pair individuals with other students interested in competing. Please fill out the individual registration at the link below, and the event organisers will contact you.

Registration is open until midnight on 17 July. Once you register, the event organisers will be in touch with more details about the seminar series and the competition:

If you’re not a student or early career graduate and would like to participate, the Our Future Cities team has room for you. While you cannot compete, they are excited to work with individuals and organisations looking to tackle the status quo and deliver better outcomes for our future cities. For more information, head here.