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As Toronto continues to experience tremendous growth, both the quality and quantity of our public spaces are becoming increasingly important to Torontonians' quality of life. The ability to draw members of the community together is one of the many reasons that these spaces are integral in an urban setting, and more and more people are taking notice of the strengths and weaknesses of our common spaces.
Following on a successful inaugural year, the NXT City Prize is returning this year with the competition theme “Opportunity”, calling on the general public to submit their big ideas to better Toronto's public spaces. Open to all members of the public under the age of 35, the NXT City Prize asks individual entrants and teams of up to four to address three important questions; how can we create new economic, social, or environmental opportunities through public space? How can we connect people in new and meaningful ways? And, how can we make our public spaces great?
The contest, envisioned by urban strategy studio Distl and presented by developer Oxford Properties, will award a $1,000 cash prize to finalists from each category, including best technology-focused public space idea, best idea for energy & sustainability in public space, and best idea in one the city’s Neighbourhood Improvement Areas.
“City building is traditionally a time-consuming and costly process” said Distl co-founder, Mackenzie Keast. “What we’re creating with the NXT City Prize is a lightweight, distributed network of civic improvement ideas that go above and beyond what cities themselves can develop in-house.”
The winning submission will receive a $5,000 cash prize as well as the chance to have their idea implemented. Submissions will be judged by leaders in the planning and design communities, including fashion mogul Joseph Mimran, Jennifer Keesmaat, Chief Planner for the City of Toronto, and the Design Exchange’s Shauna Levy.
“NXT City is an opportunity for our city's greatest asset—its youth—to help address one of its most pressing challenges: access to high quality public space," said Jennifer Keesmaat, Chief Planner for the City of Toronto. “We are thrilled to be a part of this process again this year.”
The competition is open as of May 4, and entries must be submitted by 11:59pm on July 31, 2015. Competition winners will be announced during an awards gala, to be held on September 24, 2015. You can learn more about the contest by visiting the NXT City Prize website.
