COLDSCAPES: New Visions for Cold Weather Cities

"COLDSCAPES: New Visions for Cold Weather Cities" is a multi-disciplinary design competition intended to reveal the often overlooked potential of cold climate cities. COLDSCAPES invites artists, architects, landscape architects, and urban designers to submit conceptual or built projects, of various scales, which reveal exciting opportunities for revitalizing cold climate urban places.

A jury of artists and designers familiar with cold weather design issues will select three thought-provoking and visually compelling projects, each to receive a $1,000 award and will be published in Volume 6 of the Urban Infill journal series. A larger set of submissions will receive honorable mentions and comprise an online archive, providing an evolving, interactive resource for designers, residents, and public officials in winter weather communities.

COLDSCAPES aims to provoke a critical assessment of idealized representations from warmer seasons and challenge designers to engage more creatively with the unique conditions presented by winter. Entrants are encouraged to explore responses within a wide range of scales: city-scale urban form, mid-scale public spaces, or smaller street interventions. The competition does not specify a single site for submissions. Entrants may choose their own specific sites from around the world or submit proposed interventions that could be deployed in multiple geographic locations.

The submission should provide an effective visual (and potentially aural, if using video) presentation of a built project or conceptual proposal that responds to critical design questions. What novel urban experiences can designers enable for winter city residents? How can the built environment become more responsive to changing outdoor conditions, enabling long-term resiliency? What visualization techniques can be employed to meaningfully communicate the ephemeral atmospheric qualities of winter environments? How can the urban environment respond to the needs of vulnerable populations in cold climates and increase opportunities for social inclusion?

The confirmed Jury is composed of:

• Shane Coen, Founder and Principal of Coen+Partners | Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Gary Toth, Director of Transportation Initiatives at Project for Public Spaces | New York City, New York
• Aase Kari Mortensen, Senior Architect at Snøhetta | Oslo, Norway
• Greg Peckham, Managing Director at LAND Studio | Cleveland, Ohio
• Patrick Coleman, CEO of The Winter Cities Institute | Anchorage, Alaska

For more details on the submission requirements and to register for the competition, please visit the project website: www.coldscapes.org