Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com are pleased to announce the first ever Reburbia competition: a design competition dedicated to re-envisioning the suburbs.
With the current housing crisis, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, and rising energy costs, the future of suburbia looks bleak. Suburban communities in central California, Arizona and Florida are desolate and decaying, with for sale and foreclosure signs dotting many lawns. According to the US Census, about 90% of all metropolitan growth occurred in suburban communities in the last ten years. Urbanites who loathe the freeways, big box stores and bland aesthetics stereotypical of suburbia may secretly root for the end of sprawl, but demographic trends indicate that exurban growth is still on the rise.
In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It's a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision!
Calling all future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers:
Show us how you would re-invent the suburbs! What would a McMansion become if it weren't a single-family dwelling? How could a vacant big box store be retrofitted for agriculture? What sort of design solutions can you come up with to facilitate car-free mobility, ‘burb-grown food, and local, renewable energy generation? We want to see how you'd design future-proof spaces and systems using the suburban structures of the present, from small-scale retrofits to large-scale restoration-the wilder the better!
Enter the Inhabitat / Dwell REBURBIA competition, by sending up to 5 images and a statement about your design proposal. You can submit as many entries as you like, but each individual entry should be focused on one singular design problem/solution (i.e. a McMansion farm rehab, a bicycle transportation hub, a piezoelectric, energy-generating freeway paving system). Entries will be judged on clarity of idea, usefulness of design, and visual/aesthetic appeal of renderings.
Prizes
Grand Prize
1.000 Dollars cash prize
Feature in December issue of Dwell Magazine
Editorial feature on Dwell.com & Inhabitat.com
Second and Third Place
Readers Choice Winner and 2 Runners Up
Feature in December issue of Dwell Magazine
Editorial feature on Dwell.com & Inhabitat.com
Jill Fehrenbacher
Sarah Rich
Fritz Haeg
Geoff Manaugh
Thomas Ermacora
Paul Petrunia
Eric Corey Freed
Allan Chochinov
Competition Schedule
08 July 2009: Competition announced
01 August 2009, 12:00 EST: Submission deadline
01 - 05 August 2009: Round 1 of judging, selection of finalists
10 - 20 August 2009: 20 finalists on published on reburbia.com and opened to the public for voting
10 - 17 August 2009: Online voting
18 August 2009, 12:00 EST: Online voting closes
19 August 2009: Winners announced on Inhabitat.com & Dwell.com
November 2009: Winners published in December issue of Dwell Magazine