PERSPEKTIVE open call—Architecture Ideas Competition

For its fourth edition, the Perspektive Fund’s Architecture Ideas Competition invites architects, designers, and artists—working individually or collectively within the French and German scenes—to submit proposals responding to the theme “HEATWAVE: Adapting Public Spaces to Extreme Weather Conditions”. 

There is no denying it: over the past several decades, heatwaves have become increasingly frequent in summer (and even during other seasons!) in cities and rural areas across Europe. These extreme weather conditions have direct impacts on everyday life—rendering certain public spaces unusable for extended periods, increasing the risk of wildfires, and significantly raising mortality rates among vulnerable populations.

In both France and Germany, we are increasingly compelled to adapt our daily lives to temperatures far higher than those experienced throughout much of the last century. While Southern European countries have historically and culturally learned to cope with high temperatures, the situation is markedly different in cities such as Paris, Berlin, Dortmund, Besançon, Lille, or Chemnitz—not to mention rural areas and suburban communities.

Faced with this growing challenge, it is essential to develop new strategies for adapting, transforming, and modernizing public spaces. The aim of this competition is to ensure that squares, parks, sidewalks, and natural environments remain accessible and usable for all, even during periods of extreme heat. While a range of solutions already exist, we are convinced that many more ideas remain to be explored.

The HEATWAVE ideas competition invites artists, architects, and designers—whether students or graduates, working individually or collectively—to select a site that becomes unusable during periods of extreme heat. The site may be located in France or Germany and may be situated in either an urban or rural context. All ideas are welcome. Proposals are encouraged to demonstrate creativity and ingenuity and show how public spaces might be adapted to the dramatic realities of a climate-crisis driven future—even with limited resources, but also through utopian or radical solutions.

The jury requests submissions consisting of three to six images (collages, drawings, etc.) accompanied by a 500-word text in English, compiled into a single PDF document. Particular attention will be paid to two aspects. First, the choice of the project site and its significance for local inhabitants. Second, the originality of the proposed solution for adapting a public space to new climatic conditions while minimizing the environmental impact of the intervention.

The three best ideas will be awarded the following prizes: 5,000 EUR for first place, 2,500 EUR for second place and 1,500 EUR for third place. 

PERSPEKTIVE is a Franco-German fund for contemporary art and architecture initiated in 2014 by the Office for visual arts (BAV) of the Institut français Germany. The architecture ideas competition is supported by the Goethe Institut, the French Ministry of Culture and the Institut français Paris.