The second ENHANCE Social Media Challenge ran from May 9 until June 9 under the title “For a sustainable and smart city”. Students from the ENHANCE Alliance had the opportunity to participate by posting a photo on social media to analyse and visualise how the cities, they live in, face sustainability challenges and promote climate action.
In this sense, the contest aimed to showcase images that reflect progress or good practices concerning the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the ENHANCE Priority Topics: Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities and Climate Action aiming to bring the ENHANCE Alliance universities’ research, science, and technology contribution to its society and needs.
Two students have been declared winners by the jury among the videos with the most likes. The prices are trips to another ENHANCE member university.
The two winners are from TU Berlin and UPV. The Instagram user @ruletiksmakom is from TU Berlin and has taken a photo of the Tempelhofer Feld Park (Berlin), an old airport converted into a green leisure area for the city. As the airport became obsolete, pressure from the citizens facilitated the conversion of this space into a large green area, including a picnic and barbecue area.
The photograph shows in its foreground a group of young people reclining in a relaxed position on a bale of hay. There is a bicycle on the grass, indicating how they got there. One of them is looking at the camera, which adds to the power of the image. Further, you can see a kite flying and other groups of people in the background. On the horizon, you can make out a bit of the city skyline, which indicates that it is an area on the city’s outskirts.
On the other hand, the Instagram user @m.edo.g is a student at the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia. He posted a residential building, “Espai Verd”, in Valencia, designed with a concept of sustainability and ecology. The Espai Verd uses vegetation as the transverse axis of its construction and has one hundred and eight houses in the form of terraced houses in the air.
The Espai Verd is framed within brutalist architecture in which geometric forms and concrete are two substantial elements. The omnipresence of vegetation is a challenge, not only in the concept of vertical housing, with individualised gardens, but also in the structural design.
More than just a challenge with a price to win, this second ENHANCE Social Media Challenge gave students of the ENHANCE Alliance an excellent opportunity to show their creativity. It was also the occasion to spread two ENHANCE topics: Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence and smart and sustainable cities and communities.
Even if two winners had to be chosen, the ENHANCE Alliance wanted to congratulate all the 11 participants of this challenge.
