France takes First Prize with Winners from Around the World
by Suman Gupta
May, 2019, Mumbai: A team of two students from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture in Grenoble, France won the US$ 25,000 first prize in 2019 Schindler Global Award (SGA), for their project “Flood Me if You Can.” The SGA, now in its third cycle, is the leading international student urban design competition. Students were asked to respond to the competition brief, titled “Leapfrogging Development: Urban Transformation in Mumbai.” A jury of experts and practitioners, including Nathalie de Vries of MVRDV, Momoyo Kajima of Atelier Bow-Wow, and Rahul Mehrotra of Harvard University, among others, awarded 12 prizes with a total prize value of US$ 105,000.
“What impressed all the judges was not just the creativity and detail of the competition entries, but the intelligence and sensitivity they applied to balancing sustainable habitats with sustainable communities and sustaining cultures” said Neil Runcieman, Head of Employee and Customer Communication Schindler Group.
Urbanization presents some of the greatest challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. The SGA asks students of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and planning to contribute their ideas towards a better urban future. The 2019 competition used Mumbai as its site, focusing on the urban transformation of a large waterfront area, with a focus on mobility. On May 10, 2019 the results of the competition were revealed in an award ceremony held in Mumbai.
Schindler Group hosted the Schindler Global Award 2019 with academic partners ETH Zurich and the University of Liechtenstein. The Schindler Award was established in 2003, and went global in 2015.
The SGA competition in Mumbai, India follows competitions sited in São Paulo, Brazil in 2017, and Shenzhen, China in 2015. Over the years students have been challenged to look at how these international megacities could be improved through specific urban design ideas, addressing environmental, social and spatial conditions, along with attention to political and economic forces.Hundreds of student teams from around the world have competed in the Schindler Global Award since its inception. The SGA offers students a unique and vital chance for students to engage in a global exchange about urbanization.The SGA 2019 publication presents the results of the competition, along with insights from a diversity of experts about sustainable urban development.
