Meet the Winners of C40 Youth Reinventing Cities

Ten cities, 160 teams, ten winning projects

Earlier this year, we announced our partnership with C40 Cities, a new chapter for the Foundation focused on translating design excellence into built impact in cities. Youth Reinventing Cities, C40's global design challenge for students and young professionals, is the youth strand of that work, funded by the Holcim Foundation.

Last updated: September 30, 2026 Zug, Switzerland

Today C40 announced the winners of the fifth Youth Reinventing Cities competition, formerly Students Reinventing Cities. This year, 160 multidisciplinary teams from 80 universities took on real sites in ten cities: Amman, Barcelona, Bogotá, Bucharest, Chicago, Jakarta, Lagos, Lisbon, Nairobi and Rome. Their proposals range from bioengineered flood barriers and circular waste networks to school-centered cooling corridors and community care hubs, each one grounded in the needs of the neighborhood it was designed for.

What is Youth Reinventing Cities?

Participating cities select an urban area in need of redevelopment. Student teams visit the site, work with city officials, and propose a design that answers the city's climate and social challenges, then present it to city leaders.

The Winning Projects

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Amman — Team Shared Terrain, The Median

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Barcelona — Team Earth, In-N-Out

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Bogotá — Team Colectivo Sin Norte, Paisajes del Cuidado Tunjuelo

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Bucharest — Team URBAN ROOTS, Identity Nodes

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Chicago — Team 41°Commons, TPH on the Move!

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Jakarta — Team Warteg 2.0, #SatuSetu

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Lagos — Team Mustapha Adeniyi Giwa Foundation, The Circular Sponge School

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Lisbon — Team LUZify, Living The Landscape

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Nairobi — Team Confluence, Maarifa Community Centre

  • C40 Youth Reinventing Cities Winners 2026

    Rome — Team ScriptScape, Connecting Urban Fragments and Community

Why this Matters

"The Holcim Foundation is proud to support a program that puts real sites and real responsibility in the hands of young people," says Laura Viscovich, Executive Director, Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. "Congratulations to the winners across all 10 cities - amongst which we are proud to see Holcim Foundation Fellows - for delivering fine examples of responsible urban design rooted in local needs."

City leaders see it the same way. "For a city, working directly with young people on a real site is very different from simply asking them what they think about the future," says Rareș Hopincă, Mayor of Bucharest's 2nd District. "Here, they were given a real challenge and the opportunity to develop real solutions. At the same time, city officials had the chance to see the neighborhood through a different lens."

"We join Youth Reinventing Cities because we believe young people are the solution to Jakarta's urban challenges," says Pramono Anung, Governor of Jakarta. "I am impressed by the winning team's creativity to connect sustainability with the people's needs in Jakarta. Collaborating with young people means getting fresh ideas and working together to create a better city for the future."

What Happens Next

The next edition of Youth Reinventing Cities launches this November, with new site challenges around the world.

Youth Reinventing Cities is a C40 initiative funded by the Holcim Foundation and supported by Community Jameel and the Grundfos Foundation, with in-kind contribution from Gensler.