C40’s global design challenge, Students Reinventing Cities, celebrates the winning projects from this year’s 11 participating cities: Amman, Barcelona, Freetown, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Lisbon, Milan, Quito, Rome, and Tshwane.
With over 1,200 participants, 280 teams, and 150 universities, this year’s competition brought together a remarkable community of young innovators determined to reimagine the future of cities and tackle the most pressing urban challenges.
From revitalizing historical neighbourhoods to redesigning green public spaces, these projects show how bold, creative ideas can accelerate climate action, improve quality of life, and make cities healthier, more inclusive, and more resilient.
Meet the winning teams
Amman – Urban Purifiers
The Urban Purifiers team approached the competition as a chance to tackle real urban challenges while building their skills as future architects and designers.
Their design proposes a dynamic eco-pedestrian network that reshapes mobility in Amman through bioswales, rain gardens, wetlands, and urban forests. These features are designed to reduce urban heat, improve air quality, manage stormwater, and create healthier public spaces.
“We wanted to create solutions that improve people’s lives,” the team explained, emphasizing how working together in a group of nine taught them that “collaboration creates stronger, more inclusive outcomes.”
The team also reflected on the importance of balancing cultural heritage with innovation. Through community surveys, they discovered that good urban design must be socially responsive, ensuring solutions are both sustainable and rooted in the needs of residents.
Barcelona – Ravian
Barcelona’s Ravian team set out to challenge traditional urban planning and explore how design reflects the stories, people, and places of Ciutat Vella. Their approach centred on community narratives and local insights, ensuring their ideas were rooted in the area’s identity.
Their proposal focused on making the neighborhood greener, more resilient, and more connected by prioritising everyday interactions between people and their surroundings. By blending the cultural heritage with environmental innovation, they created a design that honors the area’s rich cultural heritage and builds resilience for the future.
“Winning this competition means so much to us, and we wish this plan could help the city of Barcelona in its journey forward.”
Freetown – EcoNexo
The EcoNexco team impressed the jury with their innovative approach to urban resilience, incorporating green roofs and gardens as core design features.
The Jury praised the project as a high-quality design with a clear background of Freetown and its history, heritage, sociodemographic, and mobility status.
Their solution focused on a cable car system, supported by green infrastructure to boost the city’s resilience while addressing existing mobility challenges. The jury noted that the team’s thorough research into Freetown’s historical heritage and current sociodemographic conditions “will be so useful during the operation of the cable car”.
ECONEXO represents the kind of thoughtful, locally-informed design that can truly transform urban mobility and environmental resilience in Freetown.
Istanbul – Morphosis
The Morphosis team from Gebze Technical University joined the competition to “contribute our ideas on how to make our city more sustainable, inclusive, and future-oriented,” driven by their belief that young people’s voices can play a vital role in reimagining and shaping the future of cities.
Through the process, the team learned the power of collaboration and creativity in urban design. They experienced firsthand how teamwork and diverse perspectives can lead to more impactful solutions, and how even small changes can significantly improve the quality of urban life.
Their proposal envisions a greener, more vibrant city by expanding green spaces, enhancing pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly infrastructure, and developing community-centered public areas. By addressing both environmental sustainability and social cohesion, their design aims to create a healthier and more connected city for residents.
“Winning this competition is not only a great honor but also a recognition of the value of youth-driven ideas in city-making.”
The team added that the experience “strengthens our motivation to continue contributing to sustainable urban development” and inspires them to engage in future projects that prioritize people, nature, and innovation.
Jakarta – Trust Onrust
The Trust Onrust team, composed entirely of Indonesian students studying at Milan Politecnico, joined the competition with the mission “to implement what we studied here in Indonesia”.
Their diverse academic backgrounds fostered a “multidisciplinary teamwork” approach, enabling holistic problem-solving and encouraging creative thinking within the project framework. Their proposal addresses ecological restoration and socioeconomic regeneration, combining adaptive environmental solutions with strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of the project itself.
“Winning this competition means contributing to society as we hope for a better change for our city.”
By combining innovation with local solutions, Trust Onrust’s project highlights how sustainable design can create healthier, more inclusive urban spaces in Jakarta.
Johannesburg – Subaltern Planning
The Subaltern Planning team, made up of master’s students from LSE and Sciences Po, approached the competition as an exciting opportunity to apply concepts in planning, economics, and development, while learning from diverse local experiences.
By engaging with local community groups, the team gained new perspectives on the power and agency within communities often considered disadvantaged. These insights fundamentally shaped their approach to community-driven development.
Guided by the principle of “Subaltern Planning,” their approach focused on small but meaningful interventions, from decorative clay tiles created through community art projects to street lighting designed to improve safety and create inclusive spaces. By prioritizing local voices, skills, and voices, the team sought to give communities the tools and agency to shape their own neighbourhoods.
“Winning this competition expresses the innovation we can achieve when we look beyond traditional binaries of the Global North and Global South.”
Lisbon – OFFscale
The OFFSCALE team approached the competition as an opportunity to work together and bring different skills and perspectives into a single multidisciplinary team. They described the challenge of working in a new context, far from their home country, as a chance to listen, learn, and seek connection with local communities.
Their proposal focuses on restoring the relationship between natural elements and urban spaces. By combining environmental regeneration with innovative design, the team’s solution creates spaces where local cultural assets are celebrated alongside sustainable infrastructure.
“This experience confirms the value of our multidisciplinary collaboration.”
The team’s efforts highlighted how the competition fostered immediate urban solutions and lasting professional partnerships.
Milan – Alpha Vortex
The Alpha Vortex team joined the competition to transform a real urban challenge into an opportunity for sustainable design. Inspired by Milan-Segrate’s connection to the Green Kilometer, they saw the project as a chance to bring their values of ecology, inclusion, and innovation into action.
The experience taught them to think beyond architecture and design with the environment, community, and the future in mind. Their collaborative approach highlighted the value of teamwork and mentorship in developing innovative solutions.
Their EcoLoops concept proposes a continuous ecological corridor connecting nearby green spaces, integrating green atriums, community gardens, and sustainable systems like rainwater harvesting and solar energy.
“It’s all about creating a place that supports nature, people and long-term wellbeing of all residents.”
Calling their victory a huge honor and a motivation to keep going, they see the experience as proof that youth-led ideas can inspire real change, showing that “good design can heal, connect, and inspire cities everywhere.”
Quito – BIO URBANIC
The BIO URBANIC team set out to create an open platform for creativity, inviting young innovators to reimagine the city as a place they truly want to live in. “Our generation is the first to experience the consequences of poor resource and waste management.”
The team demonstrated their commitment to proposing solutions through multidisciplinary collaboration, blending creativity with a technical, real-world approach that uses architecture as a tool to improve quality of life.
Their design tackles the urgent challenge of relocating people from high-risk areas while providing affordable housing and improving community integration through urban gardens and recycling programs. The project transforms existing hard barriers into green corridors and creates public spaces that better connect Quito’s neighborhoods.
Through a participative, youth-led process working directly with local communities, the team developed solutions that responded to real needs.
“Winning the competition means that our hard work and dedication have paid off,” they shared, adding that the victory “gives us valuable visibility proving that our proposals can be realistic and applicable.”
Rome – Luogo3
The Luogo3 team, made up of students and recent graduates from UCL, Columbia University, and LSE, represented six nationalities across three continents.
They joined the competition believing it was a unique opportunity to bring about positive change. Their diverse backgrounds enriched the process, allowing them to learn from each other’s disciplines and experiences while researching local planning policies and Rome’s net-zero targets.
Their proposal envisions a landmark of sustainability in Tufello, creating a vibrant public space that connects surrounding residential and commercial areas. The comprehensive plan addresses flood risk through nature-based solutions and includes revitalizing an abandoned building near the metro station to promote transit-oriented development.
“To our team is a real honor to have been trusted by the city of Rome and by C40 to develop such a significant public satellite project.”
The team expressed their excitement to keep engaging with the community and explore how their solution can become a scalable model.
Tshwane – Desea Architecture
The Desea Architecture team entered the competition with a clear belief that architecture and urban design can play a role in creating more sustainable cities. Their goal was to develop innovative proposals that improve quality of life while addressing urban challenges.
Through the process, the team discovered the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and learned how combining multiple perspectives strengthens solutions to complex urban problems.
Their proposal integrates a range of elements to create a more sustainable and prosperous environment. It features reconnected public green spaces, efficient public transport systems, and other sustainability measures, all designed to reduce carbon emissions.
“Winning this competition is a great achievement for our team and a validation of our hard work and dedication.”
Looking ahead
Congratulations to all the winning teams and every single participant who contributed their creativity, energy, and ideas to this global movement. Your vision is helping to shape a better future for us all.
The next chapter of Students Reinventing Cities is just around the corner. The fifth edition of the competition will launch soon, bringing new challenges and opportunities for students worldwide.
This C40 initiative was supported by Community Jameel and the Grundfos Foundation, along with in-kind contributions from Gensler.