Street Conversion Design Competition

The value of human-scaled carfree areas is increasingly appreciated, both among urbanists and the general public. Yet how can we transform existing areas to create lively people-oriented spaces free of traffic? Through this Street Conversion Design Competition, Carbusters magazine will collect the best designs from architects and others from around the world. We'll also encourage people to implement the designs on the ground on World Carfree Day, September 22.

The principle is that street space used to be for both transport and human interaction. But with the arrival of the automobile, street space has become monopolised by cars and other vehicles, resulting in a loss of community and livability. This competition aims to reintroduce a level of humanity to the streetscape, albeit on paper (for now).

We are asking participants to design carfree spaces from formerly car-oriented spaces, in three categories:

  1. an on-street parking space (2.4 x 6 m)
  2. a street segment of 100 m in length, with a width of 20 m from building to building
  3. an intersection, including the street space that extends out 20 m in each of the four directions (street widths building to building: 20 m)

Submissions will be assessed by a panel of judges at the Towards Carfree Cities VI conference in Bogota, Colombia, on World Carfree Day (Friday, September 22, 2006). The scoring will be based on a maximum of 100 points per submission, distributed among the five criteria below. Winning submissions will emphasise a shift in the role of street space from traffic and parking to interaction and exchange, by:

  • concentrating destinations to reduce travel distances
  • designing features that contribute to a sense of place and community
  • choosing innovative, creative uses for space that increase quality of life
  • minimising the amount of space devoted solely to transport purposes
  • using space efficiently and eliminating wasted or ‘dead’ space

Designs may be based on either pure imagination or specific real-life places with similar dimensions, but the designs should be realisable. The positive effects of the transformation could be improved through changes to the buildings that border the design area. These changes may be included in the submitted designs but will not be a focus for the judges, as the competition focuses on the street space.

Submissions are to be in the form of a bird’s eye drawing, any necessary supporting drawings or sketches, and an explanatory text of up to 600 words. Submissions may be submitted for multiple categories.

Submission deadline: Tuesday, September 12, 2006
(or Thursday, September 21 for those bringing their submissions in person to Towards Carfree Cities VI)

Send your submission to Carbusters, c/o World Carfree Network, Kratka 26, 100 00 Prague 10, Czech Republic, or via e-mail to editorscarbusters.org. Postal submissions must reach our Prague office by the deadline (postmark does not matter). Questions can be sent to the above e-mail address.

The winning submissions will be presented at the network's Towards Carfree Cities VI conference and featured in Carbusters magazine, issue 29. Prizes to be announced.

For more on carfree street conversions, see Lloyd Wright's Car-Free Development guide for municipalites, pp. 107-109 (PDF file requires Adobe Acrobat). Also see the REBAR website for information on transforming parking spaces into parks. REBAR is joining us in our call for street conversions to be implemented on Sept. 22.

Carbusters magazine is a project of World Carfree Network.