Winners unveiled for LAGI 2022 Mannheim competition for clean energy landscapes

The winners have been announced for the LAGI 2022 Mannheim design challenge. The competition called for clean energy solutions to be based in the German city of Mannheim.

“Too often these energy infrastructures are seen as utilitarian and unaesthetic, which leads to pushback from communities near where they are planned,” the organizers said about their motivation for the competition. “What if we could flip this paradigm and present solutions for renewable energy landscapes that are designed as beautiful places for people, providing a range of social co-benefits beyond clean energy?”

First prize and a cash award of $30,000 USD were presented to Malaysian architect Chai Yi Yang for his proposal Energy Circus. The scheme manifests as a shared ecosystem between people, wildlife, and landscapes, anchored by a pedestrian corridor through the city’s Spinelli Park. If implemented, the scheme would generate 1,200,000 kWh every year for the City of Mannheim, while inspiring and educating the public with a “creative living encyclopedia” of regenerative technologies and circular economies.

“Energy Circus asks us to consider what is the ideal relationship between people, landscape, wildlife, energy, and material resources?” Yang explains. “How can cycles of interconnectedness be demonstrated to the community in a tactile and theatrical experience?”