News
The ten finalists of the WUR Urban Greenhouse Challenge 2020 announced
After two preliminaries that began with more than 50 student teams from all over the world registering for the Urban Greenhouse Challenge organised by Wageningen University & Research, the ten finalists have now been announced. The challenge for the ten teams is to impress the jury with their final design of an Urban Greenhouse.
During the impressive (240 participants) online event on 22 June, live from the WUR campus, the ten finalists were announced by Green City Development China specialist and jury chairwoman, Tiffany Tsui.
The Urban Greenhouse Challenge invites multidisciplinary student teams to bring professional food production to the city as a cohesive concept with social, economic, ecological, and technical aspects.
Ten Finalists
The ten teams that made it to the finals come from Brazil, China, Spain, Austria, and the Netherlands. The urban greenhouse concepts they designed vary between high- and low-tech solutions. In addition to the spectacular, iconic architecture, the final will also feature robust, modular buildings that can be assembled in different locations. Some teams opted for a “back to nature” approach, while others focused on the latest vertical farming technologies and apps to involve citizens in food production in the city.
China Remains the Location for Urban Greenhouse
The largest urban region in the world is located in Dongguan in China. As the Challenge progressed, the coronavirus pandemic constantly presented the WUR organisation team with new challenges and choices to be made. Was China still an option? Should meetings with students still be held? The guidelines and recommendations were pushing and pulling us in all different directions. The organisation persevered and continued to actively guide the Challenge.
Challenge Prioritised
In this day and age, innovation is of unprecedented importance. Partly because of this, this Challenge was given higher priority. Truth be told, it was in a different way than we ever imagined, but with the same passion and even greater significance. At the end of August, the winning team will be announced via an online event.