Bombardier YouCity design competition launched

Bombardier is sponsoring the YouCity Innovation Competition, seeking design concepts for 'the future of urban mobility'.

The online competition, open to design students and professionals, focuses on the evolution of mobility in fast-growing urban areas. With more than two thirds of the world's population expected to live in cities by 2050, the issue of transportation is one that the organizers feel needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. 

Bombardier has selected three cities that represent the different markets for urban mobility around the world: London, UK (mature market), Belo Horizonte, Brazil (BRIC market) and Vientiane, Laos (emerging market). Each entrant – whether individual or team – will choose one city on which they will base their proposal.

The first task involves providing an overview of the issues of their target city's urban mobility currently and in the future, giving a detailed analysis of the most pressing issues. The challenge is to provide a solution, presenting a concept that will solve or significantly improve the current situation, or that will prevent a future problem.

The second task concerns how the proposal fits in the global picture for their chosen city in terms of engineering, business and urban planning.

Registration is now open, with the first task starting on 16 April and ending on 13 May. The second task starts on May 14, 2012 and ends on June 10, 2012. The 3rd task is a bonus task held as an offline workshop in Berlin in September 2012.

Visit the competition website for more information.

By Rufus Thompson