Final submissions are due 1 July 2022
(before 11.59pm Australian Western Standard Time)
You can register and submit your entries here.
The Business as (Un)usual competition invites you to imagine a future Australian city that embodies a new Australian Dream for the twenty-first century.
While Australia has so far dodged the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has dramatically reshaped lifestyle, dwelling and transport preferences. These shifts (amongst others) have reignited a raft of planning issues, including regional settlement patterns, public and private open space provision, housing design, urban density, and mass transit connectivity. This refocusing is timely because the traditional suburban Australian Dream is running out of steam on many fronts and fails to acknowledge tens of thousands of years of Indigenous dreaming.
This competition asks you to weave a new dream for Australian cities and express it in a proposal for a future Australian city of 50,000 people or more located in a regional area.. Your future city proposal will consist of an overall vision and the design of a 1km2 precinct.
Entrants need to submit:
Up to 1000 words entered into an online form (not on the panels) under the following headings:
o The name of the city
o Its location
o The ideal population size (>50,000 new residents)
o The impetus behind the city
o The alternative Australian Dream that it embodies
Four A3 panels:
Panel 1: An overarching conceptual image of your future Australian city
Panel 2: A plan of a <1km2 precinct
Panel 3: Supporting imagery of the public domain in your <1km2 precinct
Panel 4: Supporting imagery of the private domain in your <1km2 precinct
All proposals and images must be set in the year 2100.
All panels are to be single A3 landscape format at a resolution of 300dpi
The competition is open to tertiary students currently enrolled in an undergraduate or postgraduate program at an Australian (or international) university or technical college, and recent graduates (within one year of completion at the competition's closing date).
You can enter as an individual or a team.
An expert panel will judge the anonymous submissions.
Winners will be announced at a digitally broadcast event mid 2022 at AUDRC in Perth.
The total prize money is 10,000 AUD.
Four winners to receive 2,500 AUD and a commendation.
Ten honourable mentions to receive a commendation.
We intend that all winners and other selected entries will be featured in an upcoming book and exhibition on future Australian Cities.
There is no entry fee.
The pandemic has been accompanied by a surge in interest in regional living. Reflecting this, you can choose any site within Australia except for the currently urbanised area of existing state, territory and federal capital cities. Your proposal can adapt or expand an existing centre or strike out into unurbanised territory.
The Australian Urban Design Research Centre’s recent national settlement pattern proposals could offer some ideas for non-capital city locations.