“Reinventing Cities” Awards Innovative Urban Projects

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C40 Cities, an international network of 94 municipalities committed to realizing the goals of the Paris Agreement, has announced the 15 winners of its Reinventing Cities competition. The competition rewards urban building projects designed to net-zero-carbon standards that also demonstrate resilience, noteworthy architecture, and replicable strategies. Winners include:

• Garfield Green, a Chicago housing complex designed by Perkins+Will and NIA Architects. Aiming for Passive House certification, this project is designed to produce all its own energy and process all its water onsite.
• Three projects in Madrid— a renovation of an abandoned market, student residences for a music school, and even a battery factory that will create more than 100 jobs.
• Four projects in Milan, including a carbon-neutral housing project located at a former freight terminal, and a hostel built with natural materials whose building envelope is designed to provide energy recovery and ventilation.
• Two projects in Oslo—a mixed-use project designed for net-zero energy that aims to use construction waste for 90% of its building materials, and the Urban Village, which will feature greenhouses for urban farming and is aiming for net-zero carbon by incorporating cross-laminated timber structural materials.
• Two projects in Paris, including a retrofit of an industrial space that will serve as a business incubator and educational space.
• Two projects in Reykjavík—a mixed-use Passive House that will become Iceland’s largest wood building upon completion, and a co-working and co-living space fostering biodiversity with green walls and roofs, greenhouses, and a thermal winter garden.

“More than 1,200 architects, urban designers, community groups, artists and engineers submitted proposals to participate in this unprecedented competition,” said Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and chair of C40 in a press release. She added, “We need to deliver the city of tomorrow, today. We need to act fast and scale up these solutions to create a new standard of sustainability in our great cities.”