BE OPEN and Cumulus Announce Final Winners of their International Student Design Competition in Support of UN's SDGs

LONDON, Aug. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Launching the SDG programme, former UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon encouraged young people to take action: "Be a global citizen. Act with passion and compassion. Help us make this world safer and more sustainable today and for the generations that will follow us." BE OPEN and Cumulus too strongly believe in the creative potential of younger people and their ability to look at the world with fresh eyes and to come up with ideas no one has found before.

"Design for Sustainable Cities" collected hundreds of submissions from students and graduates of art, design, architecture and media disciplines worldwide. The competition aims to encourage creation of innovative solutions for more sustainable cities. The focus of the competition is the United Nations' SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. 

In addition to the Main Prize (€5,000) and Safe City Prize (€2,000) awarded at the decision of the international expert jury, there are two more prizes:

An online vote defined the Public Vote Prize winner (€2,000) – congratulations go to Catalina Mutis Gutiérrez, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Catalina is an architecture graduate from Bogota; her Innovation Laboratory projects gathered over 5000 votes. Innovation Laboratory is an urban renovation project which allows experimentation in areas of architecture such as housing, public space and an innovation center in a disused historical block of Bogotá.

The awardee of the Founder's Choice Prize has been selected by BE OPEN Founder Elena Baturina: €3,000 go to Dharan Koruduvar of CEPT University, India. Dharan is taking a Bachelor course in Urban Design. Sva: A Vision of Self-sustenance pivots on the link between city, food and productive landscapes. Dharan proposes to design and introduce an 'ideal sector' for producing food on an everyday basis that deals with waste, water, energy, food on its own, and therefore is sustainable and self-sufficient.

Elena Baturina, Founder of BE OPEN, commented on her choice: "I was amazed at the depth of the research conducted for the project. It takes a lot of commitment and determination to tackle an issue of such importance and scale. And I find the passion behind designing a sustainable solution for one's home town so very endearing. BE OPEN will further make every effort to make sure all these solutions are seen and heard by those able to make them our common sustainable reality."