📔 Competition Brief

In this competition, we encourage participants to come up with a visionary concept for life in a scenario where cities, or even individuals, are energy independent - only 2 drawings, absolute freedom of scale, program or site.

The world is experiencing the first truly global energy crisis in history. Non-renewable energy is highly polluting, and comes from sources that will run out or will not be replenished in our lifetimes - or even in many, many lifetimes - to power our increasingly industrialized society. The challenges faced by the renewable energy industry are many. Political pressures, government policies, corporate influence, age-old infrastructure, lack of proper battery storage system, and present market scenario stand in the way of a wider adoption worldwide.

Participants are asked to propose conceptual ideas for a scenario where there’s no global energy grid and cities, buildings, units or single individuals, have to be fully energy independent, either through renewable energies or creative new ways of producing and storing it.

Powerless Cities is part of the “Cities of Tomorrow” competition series, developed to re-imagine life through a variety of creative design concepts and ideas. What kind of role can we play as designers in reimagining urban life? How can we produce new inspiring visions to trigger a discussion around alternative models of living?