Brooklyn-based architecture collective Terreform ONE announces its first annual One Prize, which will award $10,000 to the most innovative urban agriculture concept. The theme of the prize is “Mowing to Growing: A Design Competition for Creating Productive Green Space in Cities.” Terreform ONE writes: “In a country that squanders some seven billion gallons of water every day watering its 40,000 acres of suburban lawns—and in which only two percent of food is grown locally—Mowing to Growing challenges architects to devise workable means for growing more of America’s food closer to more of America’s communities, and to do so at less expense to our economy and our environment.”
Terreform ONE cofounder Mitchell Joachim said: “We want to break the American love affair with the suburban lawn.”
Submissions for vertical farming, land reclamation, hydroponic facilities will be reviewed by a distinguished panel of thinkers and designers, including:
- Cameron Sinclair, Founder, Architecture for Humanity
- Ben Schwegler, Jr., Ph.D., Chief Scientist of Walt Disney Imagineering
- DJ Spooky, AKA Paul D. Miller, electronic and experimental musician, producer and author
- Dickson Despommier, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University and Director of the Vertical Farm Project
- Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, Host and Producer of the nationally syndicated public radio show Smart City
- William J. Mitchell, Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, Director, Media Lab’s Smart Cities research group at MIT
The winning proposal will be awarded $10,000, while five finalists will receive prominent year-long exposure on the competition Web site. According to Terreform ONE, “the winning schemes will also be featured in a web symposium that will match designers with leading experts in the relevant fields of farming, urban agriculture, planning, and market analysis, with an eye towards taking the proposals to the next level.”
There is also a separate competition for high school students. The winner will receive $1,000 cash award and prominent year-long exposure on the competition Web site.
Submissions are due April 30, 2010. Go to the One Prize to learn more and register.
Image credit: Verticalfarm.com / VF- Type 0, Oliver Foster, Queensland University of Technology
It is way more than 40,000 acres. We have that much lawn and more just in Calgary.