Dutch social venture Shift has launched a €250,000 competition calling for designs for “a new wonder of the world” to promote action against climate change.
Shift‘s ambition is to build a new world wonder on all seven continents, with the first planned for the Netherlands.
Dutch entrepreneur and Shift founder Don Ritzen envisions this world wonder as a cutting-edge example of sustainable materials and construction.
He believes it should create awe on a par with structures like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Petra Temple in Jordan.
“A beacon of hope for human ingenuity”
“The goal is to create a landmark that breaks from traditional notions and functions, and exists as a beacon of hope for human ingenuity and collective action,” said Ritzen.
The competition brief calls for an architectural landmark that inspires and educates people to join the fight against the climate and biodiversity crisis.
“While 75 per cent of Europeans are concerned about climate change, only 10 per cent are taking meaningful action,” stated Ritzen, citing stats from the European Commission and Dutch research institute PBL.
“I truly believe that it is going to take a new wonder of the world to grab people’s attention and inspire them to action,” he said.
The €250,000 prize fund will be shared among five shortlisted entrants; each will receive €40,000, with an additional €50,000 awarded to the winner.
Two of the shortlist spots will be awarded to invited entrants – one major architecture firm and one emerging studio – while the other three will be selected from the open call.
A group of Dutch investors are funding the competition, while the judging panel includes Nieuwe Instituut director Aric Chen, UNStudio founder Ben van Berkel and Hot or Cool Insitute director Lewis Akenji.
Shift intends to realise the design somewhere in the Netherlands but there is no fixed location at this stage. By keeping this open, the company hopes to encourage a wider range of ideas.
The design could take the form of a building or another type of installation. It could be a new build or a reimagination of an existing structure.
Once built, it would host a programme curated by Shift with the aim of engaging up to one million visitors a year.
Ritzen thinks that human behaviour is the main obstacle to reversing climate change. He believes the required solutions have already been developed; they just need to be adopted at scale.
“We have choices that can be adopted and massively scaled up,” he said.
“Create the sense of urgency needed”
Ritzen previously co-founded investment company Rockstart and has experience guiding tech startups to success.
Although Shift is set up as a steward-owned social venture, Ritzen intends for it to be similarly disruptive.
“With Shift, I have created a platform dedicated to giving these solutions, and the people behind them, the same amount of positivity, energy and attention often given to the typical tech startup,” he said.
“By consolidating the most promising climate initiatives, activists and entrepreneurs onto a single platform and space, we can shift the conversation from complacency and powerlessness to create the sense of urgency needed for massive climate and sustainable action.”
The deadline for competition entries is 5 March, with the shortlist set to be announced in April.
Climate initiatives were also at the forefront at the most recent Dutch Design Week, as seen in our roundup of its six main trends.
In the US, Madrid architecture studio Ecosistema Urbano created a modular tower with stacks of native plants to mitigate the effects of climate change in urban areas.
