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EFL Design Challenge 2021: Affordable Community Design in Smart City Kalasatama

Sponsor: The European Federation for Living (EFL) 
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Type: Student, international
Languages: English and Finnish
Eligibility: Students and start-up professionals (leader must be a student)
There is no age limit to participation, as long as a minimum of 2 team members are actively students at the time of the competition.
Fee: none
Timetable:
21 May 2021 – Registration deadline
21 June 2021 – Submission deadline
Awards: 
1st prize €4000 
2nd prize €2000 
Innovative thinking award €500
Undergraduate award €500
Jury:
The Jury will be chaired by Anni Sinnemäki, Deputy Mayor for Urban Environment, City of Helsinki, and a preparatory committee will be selected from amongst its members.
Site:
The site lies in the middle of Helsinki, in the Kalasatama neighbourhood, 6 minutes from the city centre. It is located by the sea with 6 km of seaside promenade, parks, playgrounds, and sports fields, and is equipped with AAL and smart technologies, such as innovative waste and urban-level energy management. Kalasatama is a 175-hectare city wherein a total of 1.200.000 m2 residential and 400.000 m2 commercial spaces have been planned. By 2030, living spaces for 25.000 residents and 10.000 jobs are to be provided.
Design Challenge:

The year 2020, notably the COVID-19 pandemic, brought challenges that are already provoking new thinking about how urban communities live, work, and congregate. 

We invite designs that speak to our current and future challenges. We want to see:

  • Dwellings that can accommodate diverse types of households across their life cycles, while supporting their well-being, privacy, and social and economic inclusion. 
  • Community facilities that will help residents help each other, and buildings that will complement and improve the surrounding neighbourhood.
  • Design that addresses the urgent need to mitigate climate change, and to adapt our built environments to its impacts.
  • Design that incorporates sharing, learning, working, co-living, and other support scenarios, as and where needed.

Teams will not only design a building – the hardware – but also envision local networks, services, and value streams – the software and the blockchains – that will support affordable community living on and around the site. 
To meet this multifaceted challenge, we encourage teams to include interdisciplinary expertise where possible, and to think across disciplinary boundaries within their design process.

The chosen concept will form the basis for a real-life development on the actual site that will be inhabited by a real co-living community.

For more information and to register:
https://ef-l.eu/helsinki-village-co-living-competition-2021/