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The Land Art Generator Initiative and BUGA 23 are pleased to announce the launch of LAGI 2022 on March 14th, closing for submissions on September 4, 2022. The design competition is free to enter and has a top prize of $30,000 USD.
The LAGI 2022 Mannheim design competition—Beautiful Forms of Energy—is an opportunity to weave renewable energy into the city in ways that improve human thriving. As a part of the 2023 German Bundesgartenschau (BUGA 23), the design challenge includes a number of themes and ideas for inspiration aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Just as a garden is a productive landscape for nourishment that also brings us joy and pleasure, how can we re-imagine our energy landscapes so that they bring joy and pleasure to our communities? How can renewable energy be integrated in beautiful ways into everyday life so that it is not some cold and utilitarian technology, but is instead an artful accessory that we all desire to have?
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According to Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry, the founding co-directors of the Land Art Generator Initiative, “LAGI 2022 Mannheim offers the opportunity for creatives to tell a new and inspiring climate story—a narrative that moves beyond the doom and gloom of what will happen to our planet if we don’t act. Instead, we can paint a detailed picture of the wonderful, equitable, and thriving world we will create through our collective action. This story is about the incredible quality of life and the wonderful experiences of those who will live in a world beyond carbon. Desire is the motivation that will drive massive change and artists and designers hold the magic key to unlock that desire.”
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Michael Schnellbach, Managing Director of BUGA 23: "LAGI is an extraordinary initiative that we are happy to give space to within the framework of the Federal Horticultural Show Mannheim 2023. The competition fits in well with our guiding themes of climate, energy, environment, and food security, which are reflected in all areas of BUGA 23. In our experimental field we take a playful approach to these future topics. This approach is also what makes the LAGI competition so special."
Results of the open-call international design competition will be on display at BUGA 23 from April – October 2023. A beautiful hardcover book with 70 of the best submissions will be published by Hirmer Publishing.
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For more about the Land Art Generator Initiative and details for how to participate, visit the official website.
More about LAGI
The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) was founded in 2008 to engage the world in an exploration of how art and design can actively contribute to a sustainable future, and how renewable energy infrastructure can become a beautiful and relevant extension of human culture. Since the launch of the first LAGI open-call design competition in 2010, thousands of creative minds from over 80 countries have responded to the free and open challenge with designs for site-specific public art installations that have the added benefit of large scale clean energy and water generation. Open design competitions for Dubai/Abu Dhabi (LAGI 2010), New York City (LAGI 2012), Copenhagen (LAGI 2014), Santa Monica (LAGI 2016), Melbourne (LAGI 2018), Abu Dhabi (LAGI 2019) and Fly Ranch (LAGI 2020) have captured the imagination of the world.
As we move closer to a 100% renewable energy world over the coming decades, it is important that art and design have an influence on the aesthetics of sustainable infrastructures within our cherished urban places and our scenic landscapes. The great energy transition offers an opportunity for artists and designers to leave a lasting cultural legacy through which future generations can remember this important time in history. Thanks to their innovation and creativity, LAGI design competition participants are inspiring people everywhere about the beauty and promise of a net-zero carbon future, and providing new ways of thinking about how we can integrate sustainable infrastructure into the cultural fabric of our cities. For more information about past LAGI design challenges, see https://landartgenerator.org.
More about BUGA 23
The Federal Garden Show—BUGA for short—refers to the horticultural exhibition itself, which has been held every two years in various cities in Germany since 1951. At the same time, the BUGA is also a planning process for open spaces, green and urban development that lasts for several years. Since the 2000s, fallow land or former industrial landscapes have been transformed into new local recreation areas through conversion measures in relation to the conversion areas and renaturation. The resulting sports, games and leisure activities support regional structural change, urban and regional development and improve our quality of life in the long term.
The core area of BUGA 23 is the conversion area around the former Spinelli barracks. Once used by the German Wehrmacht as a pioneer barracks and after the Second World War by the US armed forces as a warehouse, Spinelli-Park stretches from the Aubuckel to the Käfertal district of Mannheim. BUGA 23 on the former military site is part of the northeast green corridor, which extends from Luisenpark across the Neckar to the Vogelstangseen. The aim is to dismantle the large barracks areas and to connect them to a continuous green corridor, which improves the microclimate and the fresh air supply in the surrounding districts in the long term.