2024 STUDENT
DESIGN COMPETITION

PLACEMAKING

JANUS et Cie introduces our second annual student design competition with a call to create versatile furniture centered around PLACEMAKING. Collaborating with international design collective RIOS to develop the brief and foundational platform, the competition celebrates upcoming talents in the design industry and fosters creative innovation around the globe.

Design Brief: Welcome to the Challenge

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. - Aristotle

Design's connection to context and community gives it life, and thoughtful design can reinforce—and at its best, even create—a sense of place. Products, when clustered or aggregated, can form environments that bring people to commune with one another, establishing a framework for how we experience and view ourselves, our communities and cultures, and our surroundings, whether in nature, in the city, or anywhere in between.

Students are asked to design three manufacturable pieces that serve as placemaking devices (choose three from the following five options): a seating fixture, light fixture, planter, shade structure, and outdoor toy or game table, with particular emphasis on the dynamic relationship between pieces—how they cluster, group, and fit together to establish a PLACE for dialogue and community. To test the flexibility and adaptability of this series of products, show them in each one of the three sites in various combinations.


We ask students to consider three prompts in their design:

Play: Design pieces that incorporate a sense of playfulness to bring a joy and freedom to any community or setting. We believe contemporary play is interpretive, empowering, and that it can happen in any environment when constraints are reduced and the framework, space, and imagination for play to exist are amplified.

Inclusion: Design how the pieces aggregate—they should bring people together in unique ways for play, exchange, and community. They should be accessible for people of all ages and abilities and should be easy to reconfigure.

Environment/Contextualism: Design to encourage a deeper connection to our living systems, whether that be by addressing the product's sustainability and lifecycle, considering how weather will affect the product, or by incorporating biophilic principles, plant life, pollinator habitats, etc. into the design.

Site Plans

To test the flexibility and adaptability of the three products designed by the student, they should be shown in each one of the three sites in various combinations.
Click here for additional details and site plans for each of the three locations listed below.

Watts: Los Angeles, California
At 95,000 square feet, Watts community space is centered on community, learning, wellness and culture. A series of contemplative gardens, shaded spaces, and outdoor rooms connect to the interior via large openings, expanding usable space and making it flexible for a myriad of uses—from high capacity performance spaces to intimate, restorative spaces for healing.

Echo Street West: Atlanta, Georgia
This 18-acre mixed-use residential and commercial center in West Midtown, Atlanta, envisions a new Westside mixed-use district that is inspired by the industrial fabric along the former Kudzu Line that ran through the site, while employing a combination of building scale and programmatic mix to contextualize the existing urban nature of the different adjacent communities.

Urban Infill: Chicago, Illinois
The urban infill site on the West side of Chicago is in the Fulton Market District, once a booming industrial neighborhood that has transitioned to become a vibrant commercial center replete with the hottest retail, restaurants, coffee shops and bars that activate the region at pedestrian scale.

Meet the 2024 Jury

  • Sebastian Salvadó

    Sebastian Salvadó

    CREATIVE DIRECTOR
    RIOS

  • Adam Stover

    Adam Stover

    SENIOR PRINCIPAL
    POPULOUS

  • Carolina Zhang

    Carolina Zhang

    VP OF PRODUCT DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
    JANUS et Cie

  • Sebastian Herkner

    Sebastian Herkner

    DESIGNER
    STUDIO SEBASTIAN HERKNER

  • Jenny Myers

    Jenny Myers

    DESIGN DIRECTOR
    RIOS

  • Dan Rubinstein

    Dan Rubinstein

    FOUNDER & HOST
    THE GRAND TOURIST

Master Classes

JANUS et Cie’s Global Student Design Competition jury panel and this year’s event champion—who  represents the best of advocacy in the given discipline for this year's theme—presented a series of master classes created to enhance further design education and skills. The six online seminars are an excellent opportunity for students to gain valuable insights from top experts in the field on topics including presentation skills, sustainability in design, personal branding, placemaking, design in the digital age, and design activism.

CLICK HERE to view full master class descriptions and recordings.

Competition Guidelines

ELIGIBILITY

The competition is open to US and international junior- and senior-level design students, or those in their final two years of a design program who do not already have an undergraduate degree in design or a related field.

PRIZES

The judges will award one grand prize for overall outstanding achievement, and four finalist prizes which will be determined during the jury process. Each finalist prize will be distinguished by a specific area of excellence.

Grand Prize - 1
$3,000 awarded to the student
$3,000 awarded to the school’s design program

Finalist Prizes - 4
$1,500 awarded for each student
$1,500 awarded to each school’s design program

REGISTRATION

Registration is required for participation. Each registered student will receive email updates, including invitations to master classes given by the jury. REGISTER HERE

KEY DATES

• December 15, 2023: Student registration forms due by 6PM Eastern Time
• January 26, 2024: All student submissions are due by 6PM Eastern Time
• February 2024: Judges review submissions
• March/April 2024: Finalists are announced
• June 2024: Grand prize winner is announced at NeoCon in Chicago, Illinois

SUBMISSION OVERVIEW

Each submission should be comprised of sketches, renderings, scenario and storyboard, and a video narration, with optional images of scale models and prototypes. Submissions should include two separate files: 1 PDF of sketches, renderings, storyboard, photos, etc. and 1 video file in MP4 format (file size not to exceed 100 MB).

OFFICIAL RULES

Click here to view the JANUS et Cie Student Design Competition Official Rules.

COMPETITION CONTACT

Questions can be sent to Aubrey Williams at awilliams@janusetcie.com.

2024 Champion: Christopher Locke


Each year, JANUS et Cie designates a “champion” of the student design competition—someone who represents the best of advocacy in the given discipline for that year’s theme.

We are pleased to announce 2024’s champion: Christopher Locke

Co-founder of the award-winning Designing in Color, Christopher challenges the established practices of architecture as a Black designer, spatial advocate, and social innovator to create new spaces for equitable change. Working throughout the country, DCo facilitates educational programming, creates workshops, designs socially responsible projects, and distributes digital initiatives, each meant to dismantle the systemic racism built into the practice of architecture.

Submission Details

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Sketches
• Informal sketches that explore form and function in the infancy of a concept. Crude sketches are encouraged to show the thought process. Quickly communicate thoughts through the simple line-work in Thumbnail, Rapid Visualization, or Napkin Sketch. Mind maps, notes, and annotations are strongly encouraged. Include annotations that effectively communicate features and supporting images.

Renderings
• Clearly defined proposal produced by controlled sketching with use of color and tone to convey form. Include Layout renderings, defining the product and proposals as a third angle orthographic projection with precise line and color. Can be done by hand or 3D software.

Scenario and Storyboard
• Describe interaction between product and end user in the appropriate environment. Communicate the interaction and user experience in a human-centered way. Description of a possible, imagined and projected sequence of events.

Video Narration
• Submit a recorded video explaining the thought process behind and concept of your product. This can be done using a phone or computer, and should not exceed two (2) minutes. The video should be submitted in MP4 file format, and the file size should not exceed 100 MB.

Optional: Scale Models and Prototypes
• From cardboard, clay, balsa wood, to 3D printing, scale prototypes in any medium are accepted. Please submit photographs of your scale model or prototype. Finalists may be asked to make their physical model available for judging.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Please send your submissions to Aubrey Williams at awilliams@janusetcie.com via Box, Dropbox, WeTransfer, or other file sharing service.

Submissions should include two separate files: 1 PDF of sketches, renderings, storyboard, photos, etc. and 1 video file in MP4 format (file size not to exceed 100 MB). Please name your entries as follows: “SCHOOL NAME – STUDENT LAST NAME, STUDENT FIRST NAME”.pdf/video. The student’s name or name of school should NOT be listed within the presentation itself - only in the name of the file.

FAQs

Who can submit to JANUS et Cie’s student design competition?
The competition is open to US and international junior- and senior-level design students, or those in their final two years of a design program who do not already have an undergraduate degree in design or a related field.

Can I submit a project with a team or group?
Only individual submissions will be accepted—no group or team projects.

What is the cost to submit my project?
There is no fee to participate in the competition.

When is the registration form due?
All registration forms are due by 6pm Eastern Time on December 15, 2023.

When are submissions due?
All submissions are due by 6pm Eastern Time on January 26, 2024. No late submissions will be accepted.

Where can I find the Official Rules?
Please click here to view the JANUS et Cie Student Design Competition Official Rules.

What if I have more questions?
Please email Aubrey Williams at awilliams@janusetcie.com with any additional questions.

2021 Student Design Competition

Click here for highlights.