Schindler announced the winners of the 14th annual Schindler Global Award, a one-of-a-kind urban design competition open to university students from around the world, at an awards ceremony in São Paulo, Brazil on April 25, 2017. A team of architecture students from the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidad (FAUUSP) in Brazil won the first prize of US$ 25,000. Eleven other prizes were awarded to teams from around the world, including China and the United States. A total of US$ 105,000 in prize money was allocated.
The award, sponsored by Schindler, challenged the architects and urban planners of tomorrow to develop outstanding mobility design concepts for a project site in São Paulo, a thriving, densely populated city, with unique urban design challenges. A team of international experts and practitioners evaluated the entries to select and rank the twelve winners.
The Schindler Global Award is known for its holistic approach to sustainable urbanization using mobility as a catalyst for positive change. The award invites students to use urban-scale thinking to respond to the challenges of the cities of today and tomorrow. Student exposure to the competition format and common urbanistic issues on a global level is intended to foster a sense of competitive and collaborative work prior to professional practice.
“We see it as our responsibility to contribute knowledge about urbanization, both through our expertise and by supporting the work of students, experts and practitioners who shape the world through design and planning,” said Andre Inserra, CEO of Schindler Brazil.
The Schindler Global Award ceremony was the culmination of 10 months of project development and several vigorous rounds of judging. More than 150 teams representing 46 countries entered the competition, which was narrowed down to 12 finalist teams.
“Since our founding in 1874, Schindler has transformed from an engineering company that manufactures elevators and escalators to a company focused on transforming mobility solutions for the cities of today and tomorrow. The award is focused on the total urban environment because that is the context for our work, and it’s where all the major challenges lie for keeping the ever-growing populations of our cities mobile,” said Schindler CEO Thomas Oetterli.
“We see mutual benefit in hosting a competition for these future city makers. We hope they will learn from the competition, and we know that we will learn from them.”
Schindler Group hosts the Schindler Global Award with academic partner ETH Zurich. The Schindler Award was established in 2003, and since 2015 it has a global orientation. Competitions occur every two years, based in cities around the world, including Shenzhen, China in 2015 and São Paulo, Brazil in 2017.