Streetlife and Landezine call multidisciplinary teams of young designers to submit ideas for redesigning ‘Lost Sites’!

6 recognitions / €15.000 in prize money
2024 registration deadlines:
– Early Registration before 31 July: €50
– Registration fee: 1 August – 30 September: €75
– Late Registration fee: 1 October – 5 December: €100

– Final submission deadline: 12 December 2024

Lost Sites

In times of social and environmental distress, the world is increasingly more aware of the significance of open space and the issues of urbanisation. Qualities of urban sites are lost due to various social changes, rising parking needs, inappropriate design, neglect, and, unfortunately still – war. The competition is looking for multidisciplinary solutions to spatial issues concerning urbanisation.

Streetlife Design Competition calls students, young landscape architects, architects, industrial designers, artists, visual artists to submit concepts for the redesign of lost open spaces.

Pick a lost site and redesign it.

Lost sites are all around us. Fortunately, there are designers like you that know how to improve them. In times of social and environmental distress, the world is increasingly more aware of the significance of open space and the issues of urbanisation. Qualities of urban sites are lost due to various social changes, rising parking needs, inappropriate design and neglect. The competition is looking for multidisciplinary solutions to spatial issues concerning urbanisation. From urban centres to residential housing on the margins, the competition seeks ideas to improve the quality of urban outdoors and challenges modes of urbanisation.

There is no site chosen by the competition organizers and the winning proposal will not be built. Teams need to pick their own site and make a design for improving it. Sites must be publicly accessible and must not exceed the size of 1 hectare (2,4 acres).

Your chosen must be located in European or North American territories: Canada, United States, United Kingdom and the following countries of the European continent: Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine.

The winning project will be an innovative and strong conceptual work that successfully deal with several spatial issues where the conditions allow: memory of the site / genius loci / sustainability / user-centred design / urban biodiversity / climate resiliency / inclusive social space / empowerment of communities / sustainable mobility …

The winning project will not be built. However, participants may choose to work with local communities and hand them their project to empower their ambitions to improve public spaces in their immediate vicinity.

Timeline

There are three deadlines for registration with corresponding fees:

Early Registration fee: before 31 July: €50
Registration fee: 1 August – 30 September: €75
Late Registration fee: 1 October – 5 December: €100

After successful registration, teams must submit the material before or on 12 December 2024.

Finalists will be announced in mid-February and will be invited to present their proposals at the award ceremony in front of the jury. The winners will be announced after the presentations of the finalists at the award ceremony in Leiden, the Netherlands on March 28th 2025.

Prizes

Prizes for students and young professionals

Winning entries will receive online promotion through Streetlife and Landezine – Landscape Architecture Platform, along with the following prizes:

First Prize: €7,000 + physical award trophy + certificate
Second Prize: €3,000 + physical award trophy + certificate
Third Prize: €2,000 + physical award trophy + certificate
Three Honorable Mentions: €1,000 + physical trophy + certificate for each recognition

NEW: University Award New in 2024-25

Schools that will participate with 3 or more teams will compete for the University Award.
University Award: Physical Award trophy + certificate + Landezine’s promotional package for universities
Three Nominees: €1,500 for travel expenses to the award ceremony / per university

The Jury

Sylvia Karres
Founding partner of karres+brands
karresenbrands.com
Giulia Frittoli
Partner & Head of BIG Landscape
big.dk
José Almiñana
Principal at Andropogon
andropogon.com
Peter Krouwel
Director and owner Streetlife
streetlife.com
Zaš Brezar
Founder and editor-in-chief, Landezine
landezine.com

Quick Rules

Teams that are not registered can not participate.

Teams can comprise students, young professionals or both. No team member must be older than 35 on 12 December 2024. In other words; if you were born before 12 December 1988 you can not participate.

All members of teams will need to present proof of age and education/study.

Each team must include a landscape architect (or landscape architecture student). It is highly recommended that the teams are multidisciplinary, comprising at least one designer from another design or other relevant discipline (architect, industrial designer, visual artist, sociologist, ecologist etc.)

The sites must be located in European or North American territories: Canada, United States, Mexico, United Kingdom and the following countries of the European continent: Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine.

Sites can be privately owned, but the design must assume public accessibility and use.

The site can be any urban space, from urban centres to the margins of urbanisation in the countries subjected to this competition (European and North American territories). The maximum size of the site is 1 hectare (2,47 acres).

The final deadline for submissions is 12 December 2024. All competition entries will need to be submitted by the deadline. Material that will be received later, will not be included in the judging process and the registration fee not returned to the registered team. If a registered team will fail to submit the material according to the rules of the competition, the registration fee will not be returned.

Registration and Fees

All teams that wish to take part in the Streetlife Design Competition must register before 5 December 2024 (fill out an online form and pay the registration fee). Teams are registered when the registration form is submitted and the registration fee paid. After successful registration teams must submit the material no later than 12 December 2024.

There are three deadlines for registration with corresponding fees:

  • Early Registration fee before 31 July 2024: €50
  • Registration fee: 1 August – 30 September 2024: €75
  • Late Registration fee: 1 October – 5 December 2024: €100

Final submission deadline: 12 December 2024

Submissions from unregistered themes will not be considered by the jury.

Registering needs to be done via landezine.com. Registration fees can be paid via PayPal and all major credit card types.

To register, you will need to do the following:

  1. Download the Instructions pdf and receive the registration link. Inside the pdf you will find all the necessary information.
  2. Pay the registration fee and fill out an online form
  3. After registration, you will receive a link where you can download the submission folders. Folders will need to be filled with the submission material and sent to lostsites@landezine.com via wetransfer.com no later than on 12 December, 2024.

Submission material

All material needs to be sent digitally via wetransfer.com to lostsites@landezine.com. There is no printing necessary.

To submit material, you will need to download the submission folders, fill them with the material and send them to lostsites@landezine.com via wetransfer.com. The submission material will need to include the following:

1.) A3 booklet / pdf / max size 100MB / max number of pages: 10 / landscape orientation

The following content needs to be presented in the booklet accross the 10 pages:

  • analysis, problem
  • objectives, project statement
  • siteplan
  • sections
  • details and schemes
  • pedestrian views

2.) A folder with all images separately as jpgs (siteplan, schemes, renders, collages, photos of models …) All jpgs should be at least 2000px by the longer side.

3.) Filled Word file that is included in the submission material

Frequently Asked Questions

please send your questions regarding this competition to lostsites@landezine.com, but first, take a look below, maybe the answer you are looking for is already there.

My question is related to the registration part called “Additional information”, specifically the site location and the submission title. Is this the final input or can it be changed later when we submit the material before the deadline?? I’m asking because we wish to register now but this information we don´t know yet…

You may change it later but please write in the final submission material the old and the new name so we will be able to connect your registration to your submission.

It was not possible to study landscape architecture in my country up until recently. We have a diploma in architecture. Can we still participate?

There are some exceptions. Please let us know your age and country and we will answer as soon as possible.

One of our team members is not from the eligible countries specified in the competition rules. Can she take part in the competition?

It doesn’t matter where the participants are from. Only the sites need to be from eligible countries.

My 36th birthday is on December 10th, can I still participate if my team submits the material before I am 36?

The competition is for students and young designers that were born on or after December 12th, 1988. It is very difficult to define youth, but there has to be a hard-line/restriction set somewhere. Designers can not participate if they were born before 12 Dec 1988.

We wish to pick a site in Ukraine, but obviously, we can’t visit. Can we still pick a Ukrainian site?

Yes of course. Use the available tools (Google Maps, Google Street View etc.) to analyze the site best as you can and develop a design.

We have just submitted our work and would like to promote it on social media, are there any hashtags you want us to include?

No!!! Please keep your work private! Don’t share anything publicly before the announcement of the results! Sharing your submission publicly before the announcement of the winners will disqualify your team.

Is there a template for the A3 booklet we should be following?

No. It is up to you how you design the booklet or how you distribute the content across the 10 pages.

We would like to use one of the existing projects we made at the university last semester. Is that allowed?

Sure, if it fits the competition brief and the competition rules, why not? But make sure to use the format of the competition (A3 pdf booklet, max 10 pages).

Good evening, kindly can you tell me how can I add the name of the participants?

For the online registration, each team must select one contact person. The contact person will register the team alone. After registration, you will receive the material (empty folders) with instructions. In the folders, there will be a Word file where you will be able to list all your team members.

One of the professors from our university is on your jury. Can our team still participate in the competition?

If your professor is on the jury, your university can’t participate or register teams. But you can participate on your own with your fellow students and designers and students of other disciplines. If a professor will recognize the identity of designers behind a submission, they will need to recuse from voting on that submission.

Tips and suggestions

It is difficult to design a successful outdoor project without a landscape architect. But there are other profiles involved in the design. We are looking for multidisciplinary teams that promote and stimulate collaboration between the disciplines: Landscape architecture, architecture industrial design, visual arts, sociology and relevant social sciences. Organize a diverse team!

No site is blank, there is always history and there is always context. Work with layers of time and translate them into something new, fit for the future. If you find something interesting, write about that in the submission material.

Think about the wellbeing of all species, consider the soil, invite insects and birds.

Deal with stormwater input/output. Make all elements storm/climate-resilient.

Consider micro-climate, what heats up and what cools down.

Deal with atmosphere, the character of the place. Try to avoid realistic renders and be more creative and abstract. Include photos of models, collages, drawings, experiments, mood-boards … Think laterally, create an ambience, include some of the references from arts, culture, pick a song for your site. You are designing experience.

Put some effort into the presentation, your submission will be judged by the jury and published on the competition website.