The Royal Town Planning Institute has announced the winners of the annual World Town Planning Day schools competition. The competition, which was open to all pupils aged 12-15 across the UK, was designed to inspire a new generation to start considering a career in town planning.
This year’s competition asked pupils to imagine that they are the keynote speaker at a UN Climate Change (COP) conference being held in the UK in 2031. As town planners in this theoretical conference, they would have come up with an idea for a new sustainable community near to where they lived. They would then have to share this idea with the conference delegates.
The pupils were asked to create a visual presentation of their plan for a sustainable community, which included everything they felt a community needed to thrive.
The RTPI received hundreds of entries from 41 secondary schools, which our competition partner, The Education Company, shortlisted down to a final 21 of highly commended planning ideas. A volunteer judging panel of four RTPI members collectively chose the following winners:
The Winning entry was from Lexie Byatt at Broughton Hall Catholic High School, with an outstanding submission of “My Perfect Eco-friendly Community (Eco-Amo)”
Second Place and Joint Best Community name: Fernhill School, “Atten-Borough”
Third Place: Goffs-Churchgate Academy, “The Endeavor Community”
Fourth Place: Wymondham High Academy, “Ecoville”
Joint Best Community Name: Court Moor School, “Port Viridi”
Timothy David Crawshaw, President of RTPI in 2022 said, “Education is a cornerstone of the RTPI, which is why we’re always looking to nurture and celebrate new talent and the planners of the future. We want all young people to understand how they can shape what the environment looks like, and how it could function in the future through planning, and to understand that being a Chartered Town Planner can be a viable and fulfilling career.”
Andrew Close, Director of Education and Profession at RTPI said, “Last year we found inspiration in COP26 and again put climate action at the centre of our competition. It was heartening to see the awards offered a fantastic variety of inspiring entries and planning proposals directly addressing this issue – we can’t wait to see what World Town Planning Day this year will bring.”
