Your Street Gauteng Challenge

We know that creativity can enhance the world around us but now Design Indaba is asking Gauteng designers and residents alike to really walk the talk by enhancing what is right in front of you: Your Street. There’s a total of R250 000 up for grabs for the designers with the best idea on how to improve their street, as well as the plan to implement the transformative idea.

Design Indaba announced the launch of the Your Street Gauteng Challenge, in association with the Gauteng Tourism Authority, on 6 September 2011. The launch took place during a live broadcast on the SABC 2 programme Morning Live, at the Cradle of Humankind outside Johannesburg.

“We see the Your Street Gauteng Challenge as a unique platform for encouraging the use of design and creativity to further enhance the urban experience. It’s great to be partnering with the Gauteng Tourism Authority and we’re looking forward to inspired ideas, says Design Indaba founder Ravi Naidoo.

The Gauteng Tourism Authority is equally excited to be partnering with Design Indaba on the Your Street Gauteng Challenge, says CEO Dawn Robertson. “We see this as an ideal opportunity for Gauteng designers to use their creativity to aid social upliftment in the province.”

Taking design beyond the aesthetic, the Your Street Gauteng Challenge is about showing how design can be used as a solution to transform and improve lives.

The following cash prizes are up for grabs:

• The first prize of R100 000 will be awarded to the designer that comes up with the best idea AND a sound business model that illustrates how their idea can feasibly be implemented.
• Three second-place winners will each receive R50 000 for innovative design solutions that can be immediately implemented using the prize money.

The monetary awards for the Your Street Gauteng Challenge must be used to implement the creative intervention on a Gauteng street.

The Your Street Gauteng Challenge is not only about being Proudly South African and proud to be living in Gauteng, but about owning your street, loving your street and improving your street and the lives of the people living and working on that street.

Proposals will be judged on the following six cornerstones of design for social change:

1. Generosity: How many people other than you does your design solution effect positively?
2. International excellence and innovation: Does your design solution stand up to and trump similar world-class ideas? Is it new, original and forward-thinking?
3. Feasibility: How do you propose to allocate the R50 000?
4. Fun: How much pleasure, enjoyment, beauty and smiles do your design solution inspire
5. Do: Can and will the design solution actually be executed?
6. A better world through creativity: How does your design solution make the world better and further inspire other people to make the world even better?

For more information and to enter the Your Street Challenge visit www.designindaba.com/yourstreet.

Design Indaba will appoint its own independent judging panel for the Your Street Challenge to ensure the integrity of the process.

Update: The deadline for the the Your Street Gauteng Challenge has been extended to the end of January 2012.