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Dezeen launches £15,000 Redesign the World competition with Epic Games

Dezeen has teamed up with Epic Games to launch Redesign the World, the ultimate design competition that calls for new ideas to rethink planet Earth.

The competition is free to enter for people over the age of 18 of any profession and from any country in the world. It is open for entries until 15 September 2021.

The 15 best proposals will be published on Dezeen in November during our Dezeen 15 online festival celebrating Dezeen's 15th anniversary.

The contest has a top prize of £5,000 and total prize money of £15,000.

Click here for more information about how to enter, including the full brief and submission requirements.

Redesign the World is "ultimate design challenge"

We are looking for radical new solutions to ensure that planet Earth remains habitable for hundreds of years to come.

"The problems the world faces are huge in scale and they demand equally epic solutions," said Dezeen founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs.

"So we have set the ultimate design challenge and asked architects and designers to redesign the world. We're looking for big, bold ideas that show visionary thinking."

"We firmly believe that design can make the world a better place. We're challenging creatives to come up with ideas that will generate debate, optimism and excitement around the greatest design problem of our time."

Competition powered by Twinmotion

Entrants are required to present their concepts using Twinmotion, an architectural visualisation tool powered by Unreal Engine, which is a game engine developed by Epic Games.

"We're thrilled to be part of Redesign the World, a competition which seeks to explore creative solutions for the future of life on our planet," said Belinda Ercan, Twinmotion product marketing and strategy at Epic Games.

"I can't wait to see how our entrants will use Twinmotion's intuitive capabilities to unleash their creative thinking and convey their imaginations in the form of compelling digital stories."

A free trial version of Twinmotion is available for entrants who do not already use the software.

Ercan and Sam Anderson, technical marketing manager at Epic Games, led an online workshop on 5 August providing an overview of Twinmotion, giving practical advice on how to use it and sharing tips and tricks for getting the best out of it. Click here to watch a recording of the workshop.

Brief and judging criteria

Entrants must submit a video animation and still image created using Twinmotion, along with up to 500 words of text about their proposal.

Entries will be assessed by a judging panel comprising Fairs and Ercan alongside a selection of industry experts that will be announced in August.

Redesign the World is primarily an ideas competition. Judges will be looking for visionary concepts and are less concerned with technical mastery of the Twinmotion software. However, the quality of the execution of the idea will also be considered.

Architects and designers turning their attention to planet Earth

Architects and designers are already turning their attention to planet Earth as the ultimate design project. In an interview with Dezeen last year, Winy Maas of MVRDV called on architects to design new planets to help understand how to solve problems on Earth.

"It would be wonderful to design more planets and to compare them because there are different dreams," said the Dutch architect.

Architect Bjarke Ingels has proposed Masterplanet, a planet-wide design approach that will "prove that a sustainable human presence on planet Earth is attainable with existing technologies".

Meanwhile, speculative architect Liam Young has proposed housing the entire population of the Earth in a single metropolis called Planet City. This would free up the rest of the Earth's surface for rewilding and the return of stolen lands.

Designer Jalila Essaïdi called on designers to propose audacious solutions to global problems in a talk with Dezeen in 2018. "I would say yes please, more science fiction," said Essaïdi. "Let's keep dreaming big and doing the impossible."

Competition closes on 15 September

Entries for Redesign the World close at midnight on 15 September 2021.

The 15 finalists will be announced as part of Dezeen 15 from 1 to 19 November.

First place will receive prize money of £5,000, with £2,500 for second place, £1,000 for third place and £500 each for 12 remaining finalists.

For more information about how to enter, including the brief and rules, entry form and full terms and conditions, go to www.dezeen.com/redesigntheworld.