Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award closes soon

Entries for the R750 000 Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award (DBUAA), which is open to Cape Town-based projects that benefit communities and local residents by improving their surrounding urban environments, close at 4pm on Friday 24 February 2012.

The award seeks to encourage citizens and urban stakeholders to take a hands-on role in creating shared responsibility for the cities of the 21st Century, humanity's first truly 'urban age'. It celebrates creative solutions to the problems that face more than half the world's population now living in cities.

Entries are not limited by size and will be assessed on a per-project basis, which means that organisations may enter (or sign as formal partners on) more than one initiative. The award could go to one exemplary project, or be split between a number of deserving projects, depending on the jury. "Enquiries received to date have been varied and exciting and truly showcase the breadth of creativity, passion and dedication Capetonians have for their local community," comments Lindsay Bush, Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award manager.

The DBUAA welcomes any project that benefits the community, be it a small peace garden on a vacant plot of land in a residential neighbourhood or a public library in a marginalised area. In one case, a residents' organisation in a crime-ridden neighbourhood decided to take action and has based themselves at what is known locally as the Waterfront, a strip of land adjacent to a protected wetland where offices, shelters and toilets have been constructed incrementally, veggie gardens planted and the public space upgraded by planting indigenous trees. These initiatives are all testaments to human spirit, resilience and co-operation, and deserve to be recognised.

Jury members

Edgar Pieterse (chair) directs the African Centre for Cities and is Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, both at the University of Cape Town
Andrew Boraine is CEO of the Cape Town Partnership, a public-private partnership that manages the work of the pioneering Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) and Cape Town's World Design Capital 2014 programme.
Anthony (Tony) Williams, former Mayor of Washington, DC (1999 - 2007), is the executive director of the Global Government Practice at the Corporate Executive Board in Arlington, Virginia
Malika Ndlovu is an internationally published South African poet, playwright, performer who, for four years was project manager and online radio presenter for BadilishaPoetry.com, a unique African poetry podcasting platform.
Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age programme. He was chief adviser on architecture and urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics and now advises the Olympic Legacy Park Company.
Enrique Norten founded TEN Arquitectos [Taller de Enrique Norten Arquitectos] in 1986, where he currently serves as principal. In 2005, he was awarded the "Leonardo da Vinci" World Award of Arts by the World Cultural Council, followed by the "Legacy Award" by the Smithsonian Institution in 2007.
Nomfundo Walaza is the CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town.

For more information, go to www.DBUAaward.net or collect entry forms from the enquiries desk at the Central Library in Darling Street.