Overview

Every year a one square kilometer of territory will be the subject of the competition. This area, to house 100,000 people living and working, sets the stage for tremendous research and investigation into urban density, verticality, domesticity, work, food, infrastructure, nature, ecology, structure, and program – their holistic integration and the quest for visionary paradigm will be the challenges of this urban and architectural invention.
This new environment will have a full slate of live-work-play provisions, with the residential component making up to 50% of the total floor space.

In the third of this series of competitions, the theme of “Everyone Harvests” will be explored.

By year 2050, food production is projected to increase by about 70 percent globally and nearly 100 percent in developing countries in order to meet the needs of the world’s expected 9 billion-strong population (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation).

However this incremental demand for food worldwide is facing growing challenge with competition for land and water resources, with quarter of all land of the planet being highly degraded (United Nations).

With projections of nearly 80% of the world population to reside in urban centres by the year 2050, the brief is seeking for potential solutions for an entirely new approach to urban agriculture. The proposals should provide visions for a sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply that can first fulfil the basic needs of the daily food consumption of the city and if possible, produce surplus that can support the needs of other cities as well.

The understanding of “harvesting” will be extended to include energy and water resources. The solutions should seek to introduce innovative ways to effectively utilize resources, such as minimizing water, saving energy and their associated costs related to urban agriculture.

Participating teams are to select their site of one square kilometer within the larger territory marked out in the information sheet.