Top image: Factory on the Earth (JST Malaysia), winner (commercial category) in FuturArc Green Leadership Award 2015

The FuturArc Prize 2016 competition has opened for submissions, and professionals and students alike are invited to submit work based on the brief “Small Things, Big Impact”.

The context:

We rarely have the luxury of tabula rasa. Our cities and neighbourhoods, the complex flows of people and resources that support them, are mostly in place and functioning, successfully or otherwise. Often, the meso-scale between building and infrastructure is neglected – that subtle realm between private development and urban network, that tenuous in-between world between planned and unplanned. This is our commons. It might be civic space, it might be nesting place for birds; it might be a conduit for water. It may well be all of the above. This space functions or dysfunctions informally, with no assistance or attention. And because it has no name, no custodian, it is left to waste or (worse) eliminated in endless cycles of urban renewal.

The Golden Island project by Tobias Kea and team (Indonesia), first place winner (professional category) in FuturArc Prize 2015

What if we could claim that space with small acts of eco-puncture? What would that look like, and more importantly, what manner of change would that offer? How might many small things –functioning as discrete elements but acting together – trigger a systemic change, giving us more liveable, more resilient cities?

Submissions should describe:
1. A Typology of Small Things. What they do depends entirely on the specific context of a particular city/neighbourhood.
2. A Network of Small Things. How many small things, strung together and strategically placed, form a network of relationships.
3. The Impact of Networks. How new networks improve liveability and resilience of the city/neighbourhood.
4. The Making of Networks. How might this network be phased? How will it be extended? Who will make it? How will it be financed? Who will look after it?

The closing date for the competition is 21 December 2015. For full details on prizes, jury and submission requirements, visit futurarcprize.com

In addition, the FuturArc Green Leadership Award is opening up submissions for innovative and ecologically responsible buildings in Asia. The award seeks to give recognition to the team behind the projects – developer, architects, consultants and contractors – who have collectively pushed the limits and the definition of green buildings in this region.

The closing date for the competition is 21 December 2015. For full details on prizes, jury and submission requirements, visit futurarcgreenleadershipaward.com