“Once people know how important their environment is, they can make it better." - Mojdeh Baratloo

The Urban Urge Awards honor the legacy of architect, educator, community advocate and urban designer Mojdeh (Moji) Baratloo (1954-2013).  Through the lens of architecture, installation, and urbanism, Moji's work addressed challenges of climate change, energy, education, post-industrialization, public space,  public policy, technology, waste, and water to the modern urban environment.

Moji believed in the importance of ideas and in the practice of making one’s work real, “for the experience of a human or environment.”  She challenged and urged her students, friends, colleagues, and collaborators to have conversations across disciplinary or social boundaries making our cities, regions and world more livable, sustainable, enjoyable, and responsible. 

The Intent

The Urban Urge Awards recognize that multidisciplinary perspectives generate creative interventions to challenges of the urban environment. The Awards encourage new avenues of urban artwork, performance, installation, and support novel means of developing inquiry and generating discussion. 

The Awards

The Urban Urge Awards are designed to push urban and design ideas to have a realized impact in urban communities. The awards are small project grants that will fund physical and/or programmatic interventions. There are six design competition design awards (Urge and Emerge categories), and six project Seed grants. Each award or grant will support testing urban concepts and doing projects that seek to have a positive community, urban or environmental impact:

• 3 $4,000 Urge Awards (open)

  • Awards open to any architects, landscape architects, urban designers or planners and their collaborators

• 3 $1,000 Emerge Awards (specific criteria for entry)

  • Awards open to recent (within the past 5 years) graduates/alumni from the following institutions:

    • Columbia University GSAPP

    • Parsons the New School for Design

    • University of Michigan Taubman College

• 3 $500 Urge Seed Grants (open)

  • Grants available to anyone under 40, of any disciplinary background (including artists, performers, science and technology, community and environmental, etc.)  

• 3 $500 Urge School Seed Grants (specific criteria for entry)

  • Grants available to teachers and/or students doing projects in New York City middle or high schools (5-12)

Guidelines

The Urban Urge Awards is an open international competition. Entries may be submitted by professionals and non–professionals, individuals and teams, and students.

The $4,000 Urge Awards and $1,000 Emerge Awards will be awarded by design competition, based on the criteria outlined below, and on the design proposal submission. 

The $500 Urge Seed Grants and Urge Seed School Grants will be awarded based on the criteria below. 

Entrants must e-mail [email protected] with "Registration" in the subject line, by 11:59 pm on Friday, June 15, 2014. The body of the email should include your name(s), location (city, state, country), affiliation and award category or categories for which you would like to enter (Urge Award, Emerge Award, or Urge Seed Grant). University students or recent alumni should include their academic affiliation, program, and year of graduation. 

All entries will be judged according to the following criteria:

1.Innovate: Presents creative and unique ideas that push the boundaries and ‘test’ concepts of transforming urban environments

2.Transform: Reimagines or transforms an urban space through the conceptual design and execution of a real project that can be experienced at the human scale

3.Engage: Engages or convenes a public community to participate in the proposed space, design or activity

4.Realize: Demonstrates feasibility within timeframe and budget and/or the ability to raise additional funds to realize and document the concept and project (this can include crowdfunding/resourcing)

5.Teach/Inform/Communicate:Helps people to learn about their environment and/or makes their environment better, even if temporarily

6.Record:Realistic and effective plans for documenting the project/ event for presentation at the final event

7.Practice:The background and experience of the entrant or team (diverse backgrounds, interests, disciplines and collaborations are encouraged) as demonstrated by work samples, statement and resume

All entrants must use the provided template to include a preliminary budget and timeline demonstrating a capacity to realize their proposals by January 1, 2015. This budget should include all materials, labor, travel, and other expenses needed to execute the project, and may exceed the Urge Award or Grant amount. For budgets that exceed the award or grant amount, entrants should indicate the source of other funds (personal or crowdfunded funds, in-kind services and resources or other sources).

The competition will have a two-step judging process. Entries are due on July 15, 2014.  All complete submissions will be considered for the $4,000 Urge Awards and $500 Seed Grants; but entrants must meet the listed criteria to apply for one of the $1,000 Emerge Awards or $500 School Seed Grants. An interdisciplinary committee will evaluate all entries and select 10 Urge Award finalists and 10 Emerge Award finalists by July 25, 2014. A final award jury will review the finalists’ entries and select the winners by August 1, 2014. Winning entries may alter or expand their project proposal and budget based on crowdfunding campaign for the Urge Award winners on ioby.org.

Award Committee (selecting the award finalists)

Fatou Dieye

Skye Duncan

Dongsei Kim

Justin G. Moore

Nadereh Nouhi

Angela Soong

Laura Stedenfeld

Philip Tidwell

Ward Verbakel

Gia Wolff 

Halleh Baratloo Balch

Final Award Jury (selecting the award winners)

The interdisciplinary final award jury will be announced by the registration deadline on June 15, 2014. In addition, responses to any questions or clarifications from entrants received by June 1, 2014 will be posted to the competition website by June 15, 2014. 

Eligibility

All interested parties, including multidisciplinary teams, are invited to enter, and may submit as an individual, a member of a team, or a firm. No Urban Urge Awards committee or jury member may advise or assist a competitor in any way. If it is determined that a competitor has been helped by any member of the jury or committee, that competitor's project will be disqualified.

Schedule

April 15, 2014: Competition announced

June 1, 2014: Q&A deadline

June 15, 2014: Registration deadline, Q&A responses posted to competition website

July 15, 2014: Project Submission deadline, jury announced

August  2014: Finalists announced

September 2014: Winners announced, kick off ioby.org crowdfunding campaigns

September 2014 – July 15, 2015: Project development, completion and documentation

July 15, 2015: Project completion deadline

Summer 2015: Final exhibit boards and presentations prepared

Summer/Fall 2015: Final Exhibit and Event in New York City

For detailed information,please visit website

> via urbanurge.org