The ONE Prize 2012 competition is powered by the idea that social, ecological, and economic struggles can simultaneously be addressed through collaborative action and innovative design. Situated in the context of a struggling U.S. economy and the tension of stagnant unemployment, ONE Prize 2012 is a call to put design in the service of the community, to reinvigorate deindustrialized and depressed urban areas, and to repurpose spaces for economic growth and job creation. It aims to explore the socially, economically, and ecologically regenerative possibilities of urban transformation and design.
Seeking architects, landscape architects, urban designers, planners, engineers, scientists, artists, students and individuals of all backgrounds:
Can we rework the skeletons of 20th century manufacturing for 21st century innovation?
Can former plants in Detroit become greenhouses, schools, theaters?
Can mill towns be revamped as digital fabrication hubs?
Can vacant parking lots become farms or parks?
Can abandoned strip malls be reinvented?
Can we reboot the American economy?
The ONE Prize Award is an international competition and it is open to everyone. The teams can have one or more members. The proposals can be for a real or speculative project, for one or more real sites, and located either in the U.S. or abroad, but applicable to the U.S. Further, the proposals need not be generated exclusively for this competition, provided that they address the intent of the competition.
Project Background
In the 21st century, innovators are needed to address critical global issues, revamp stagnant economies, and create stable and dignified jobs. Everyone – from President Obama to Congress to laid off auto workers and recent college graduates – is concerned about the economic crisis, and is making efforts in one way or another to rebuild the U.S. economy. American innovators are facing fierce foreign competition next to the rapid development of technological and ecological solutions for growing urban centers in Europe and Asia. To some extent, the U.S. is beginning to lack leaders in the innovation sector. To move towards a sustainable and humane global community, innovators from all disciplines must rethink the way we conceptualize economic as well as ecological sustainability. How can the U.S. best demonstrate its creative forces and realign its prominence in the discipline of innovative design in the global community?
Designers should be an absolutely crucial component in this development. They are the creative pioneers that will rethink infrastructure and work with other disciplines to reboot the economy through innovation. ONE Prize 2012 is an open call to retrofit our future by transforming the aging infrastructure of the U.S. and thereby paving the way for domestic job creation. Science and technology haven’t just changed the way we live and do business; they’ve also changed the way we understand and invest in innovation itself—and we have to keep up. This is a call for action to convert vacant buildings, abandoned factories and deindustrialized cities into the building blocks of creativity and entrepreneurship, and to empower the next generation of innovators to reinvigorate communities on both a local and global scale.
Prizes
Cash Award of $5,000
Press coverage by One Prize media sponsors.
Presentation of Designs at Lectures and Exhibitions.
Prominent Year-Long Exposure on the Competition Website
THREE Honorable Mentions
Cash Award of $500 each.
Entry Requirements
Each entry should include:
Two 24” by 36” color boards in horizontal format presented as a single digital file in PDF format at 150 dpi. Total file size is 15 MB. These boards are the visual summary of the transformation each team envisions for its selected site. At a minimum, boards must include before and after photo and/or rendering; Sufficient visual information to clearly communicate your design intent; Adequate annotations to guide viewers through the visualization; An abstract statement of no more than 150 words.
No identifying information should be included, as entries will be presented and judged anonymously. The presence of identifying information will be grounds for automatic disqualification. Upon receiving registration applications, Terreform ONE will issue each registrant a registration number. To identify submissions, each applicant will receive a registration number that must appear on the upper right corner of each board. The files must be named after the registration number. For example: 0101.pdf.