Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft

On 19 April 2012, the fifth Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award, worth R750 000, will be presented to a project – or projects – based in the Cape Town metropolitan area. The open call for entries starts on 23 November 2011 and ends on 24 February 2012.

The Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award recognizes and celebrates creative solutions to the problems and opportunities that face more than half the world’s population now living in cities. Accordingly, the award focuses on projects that benefit communities and local residents by improving their urban environments. It seeks to encourage citizens, policy-makers, private business and non-governmental organisations to take a proactive role in creating shared responsibilities for the cities of the 21st century – mankind’s first truly ‘urban’ age. In 2007, the award was presented jointly to two projects in Mumbai, and in 2008 to a project in São Paulo. It travelled to Istanbul in 2009 and most recently Mexico City in 2010. The award is associated with the Urban Age project, a worldwide investigation into the future of cities jointly initiated by Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society, and LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science [see www.urban-age.net]

The award will be judged by an independent jury of international and local members from a mix of disciplines. The three international jury members are Prof. Ricky Burdett, Director of LSE Cities, the former Mayor of Washington D.C. Tony Williams, and architect Enrique Norten (TEN Arquitetos, Mexico/NY). The jury is chaired by Edgar Pieterse, Director of the African Centre for Cities at UCT, and the local jury members are Nomfundo Walaza, CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, poet, playwright and performer Malika Ndlovu, and CEO of the Cape Town Partnership, Andrew Boraine.

For more information on the award, visit www.DBUAaward.net