About rise in the city
rise in the city 2018 was a unique international architecture competition for students and recent graduates worldwide. Here’s a brief video summarising how it all went down!
The challenge was to design affordable and sustainable housing solutions for Africa’s growing population. The competition was organised by rise International and BOND Events building on the success of rise in the city 2017. All innovative problem solvers in the built environment were invited to design a low-income housing prototype in an effort to curb Lesotho’s housing problem in an environment challenged by: increased urban migration, climate change and scarcity of resources. Here’s a summary on how it worked. Here’s the competition brief.
Here are Important Questions & Answers for all competition entries to read.
How it works
Lesotho is a lower middle income country completely surrounded by South Africa. For this competition, its capital city, Maseru is being split into 100 virtual blocks. Virtual residency was offered for 3 entities per block:
Phase One – deadline September 30, 2018: 100 students and recent architecture graduates were invited to enter the architecture competition and design an affordable residential house for low income families in an urban setting for Maseru.
Phase Two – deadline Oct 31, 2018: 100 Leading architecture and design firms were invited to take up virtual residence of one of the blocks for free. In return, they mentored and critiqued the student competition entry who also took up virtual residency of the same block. AND offered an architectural experience to the sponsor of their block. This architectural experience was a networking lunch with the senior design team or a tour of a building they have designed if one is located close to their office.
Phase Three – deadline Jan 31, 2019: 100 companies keen to gain a one-on-one networking opportunity, chose a Maseru block to sponsor for only $1,200 and got to enjoy the experience with the resident architecture firm in their block.
A high profile jury shortlisted the best entries that are being exhibited at various events internationally. There will be one International winner and one winner from Lesotho who will be announced on March 8, 2019. 100% of proceeds goes directly towards the project – a design & build training program for Lesotho unemployed youth who get to construct a community development project.
If enough additional funding is raised from the competition, we will then build the prototype, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government, so that people in Lesotho can see the design, get inspired and adapt to build houses that are equally as sustainable and made from locally sourced materials.
By getting involved with rise in the city, either by mentoring a student competition entry, sponsoring one of the city blocks or entering the competition, you have helped give the people of Lesotho the opportunity to better their lives for themselves.
Who you help
rise is working towards a world where sustainable social enterprises, created by local entrepreneurs are the norm. Through our professional network, rise links social entrepreneurs from low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa to fundamental resources that they would otherwise not have access to, in order to fulfil their potential.
The first rise project, followed the in loco “hands-on, bottom-up” approach, to deliver a new building with accommodation, study and service facilities for the children at a very overcrowded orphanage in Lesotho, Southern Africa. Learn more. This combined with entrepreneurship training and mentoring, will enable the orphanage to provide enough accommodation for the children and to become more self-sustaining by launching income-generating activities.
True to the rise ethos, the local community will be instrumental through this process, with the support and expertise of industry experts. rise is a not-for-profit organization, co-founded by BOND Events as an integral part of its Social Responsibility Program.
