The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is hosting the Rethink: 2025 – Design for life after Covid-19 competition to discover what kind of a world might be coming.
Participants are invited to submit a speculative proposition at any scale – in-detail or wide-ranging – that offers a positive and tangible response to one or more of the issues arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The design idea that, in the judges’ opinion, best encapsulates the new spirit of a post-Covid-19 era will be declared winner of the £5,000 prize. There will also be a £2,000 second prize and £1,000 third prize. Shortlisted and commended entries may also be published.
Details about the Brief are included on the RIBA Journal.
We invite all RIBA members, from any category of membership including student members, to submit a speculative proposition at any scale – in-detail or wide-ranging – that offers a positive and tangible response to one or more of the above issues or others arising from the pandemic. Does it also facilitate the step-change in thinking needed to meet our 2050 climate change commitments? How can your design idea help generate a better paradigm for living once we have passed throughthe portal of the pandemic?
What will your paradigm for living be?
We want architects and students to consider life in 2025 and how the pandemic will have modified the way humans interact with space and one another, and how design can mitigate its worst effects.
Breathing space: We created new hospitals in two weeks. What will healthcare spaces look like in five years?
Schools out: Will remote learning become the norm? Will there be any more ‘gown’ in our ‘town’?
How will we live? Will home life become an increasingly atomised experience? Did the pandemic’s high death rates cause the death of high density?
What will be the future of work and our workspaces? What will be the new business as usual? Will we all be praying for the return of paternoster lifts?
Infrastructure and public realm: How will we move safely through the city? Will the commuter’s rush involve less crush? Will our parks and squares and roads reflect our new-found love of fresh air?
Window shopping? Did covid-19 finish off what online shopping started on the high street? If so, where do you now go to try before you buy?
Travel and tourism: Will we miss the plane but rediscover a love of trains? Will our long-haul world shrink and our seaside towns get an upgrade?
Soft power: Will track and trace apps make us slave to the nanny state or will technology offer a new, democratising potential?
The competition is a call for ideas only. It is open internationally to all RIBA members, from any category of membership including students.
