Globally, the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Rising global average temperature and rapid global warming are causing alarming consequences on human beings and all other forms of life on earth. The climate crisis will aggravate social, economic, and environmental threats. Thus, urgent actions are needed to address the climate crisis and strengthen the implementation of responses to create a resilient planet. Faced with these challenges, it is imperative to understand that creativity is a strategic factor for sustainable development and that designers are key contributors to this process, with capacity and ability to provide the solutions our world urges for. As creators of models, prototypes and proposals, designers occupy a dialectical space between the reality we have today and that we aspire for in the future. Armed with knowledge from the past and present, our work is oriented towards what lies ahead. With the work of the Youth and Education Working Group, the Cities of Design Subnetwork is eager to foster international cooperation and promote interdisciplinary pathways that highlight the importance of design. One strategy to democratise urban design is to beautify the streets in peri-urban areas of our cities. With this and the aforementioned premises in mind, we created this challenge as a thought-provoking experiment that will take place during the same days of the UN Climate Change Conferences (COP) every year.

We believe in the transformative power of design and that, by working together, we can imagine a better future for all.

The Street Design Challenge aims to raise awareness about the discussions happening at the COP each year, the effects of climate change in the urban environment, how much it detriments our quality of life, and what actions are necessary to turn our cities into more liveable, enjoyable, and equal environments, ensuring none is left behind. Every year a new theme or “Edition” is decided to tackle among UNESCO Creative Cities Newtork according to the UN Climate Change Conferences objectives. 

Before the challenge, Focal Points in every participating city engage the universities to enroll their participating teams and start preparing their Street Profile. The organizing committee, which includes representatives of the cities of Queretaro in Mexico, Curitiba in Brazil and Wuhan in China, collects these Street Profiles and draws the profiles among the participating universities. 

During the challenge, groups of university students, assisted by their professors, will work on a proposal to tackle issues present in a foreign street, considering its different territorial, social, financial, and cultural backgrounds. 

Each team is matched with a street from another member city of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and receive an in-depth briefing, created by a city expert, detailing the current situation and a list of priorities that should be addressed in the proposal. After the challenge begins, teams have 48 hours to submit their projects in the specified format.

In the 2021 edition, the subject was “Healthy, Green Recovery” and we had the participation of 19 academic teams from 7 different cities of 6 different countries. This edition was exclusively opened for UNESCO Creative Cities of Design.

In the 2022 edition, the subject was “Biophilic Design for Periurban Areas” and we had the participation of 32 academic teams from 17 different cities of 12 differenf countries. This edition was opened for any UNESCO Creative City, no matter the sub-network (design, crafts and folk-art, gastronomy, music, literature, cinema, media arts) they belonged to. 

Every year this competition is turning into a more efficient model of cooperation among cities that brings together the efforts of the public, private, academic and cultural sectors.