Demonstration plan illustrating the future urbanization area. Image credit: NCCProposals are being accepted for the 2025 Urban Design Challenge; a competition that invites students from across the country to come up with design concepts for sites in the National Capital Region (NCR).For this challenge, students are encouraged to unleash their creativity and share their visionary ideas for the Bronson Channel Lands, located 1.2 km from Parliament Hill in the western downtown core of Ottawa.This is your chance to propose innovative planning and design ideas for the Bronson Channel Lands and inspire the landscape of the emerging LeBreton neighbourhood, reads the National Capital Commisions (NCC) website. Your ideas to connect the national institutions, monuments, parks and waterfronts within the study area will inspire the future of this downtown core area district.The competition is open to students enrolled in an accredited post-secondary educational institution in Canada, who are studying planning, architecture, environmental design, urban design or landscape architecture. The NCC also encourages students to form interdisciplinary teams to consider all aspects of urban planning and urban design.The Bronson Channel Lands are located on the western edge of the downtown core, in the heart of the National Capital Region. The site is at the convergence of many planned and ongoing projects that are bringing energy to the Capital and livening up the waterfront. These include the LeBreton Flats redevelopment, the City of Ottawas Pimisi LRT station, the redevelopment of Chaudires and Albert islands, the Indigenous peoples gathering place on Victoria Island (Kabenishinn Minitig), and the construction of a new central library (diske).Context. Image credit: NCCThe National Capital Commission (NCC) is seeking ideas to enhance and animate the four public space edges in the study area. These include the Holocaust Monument, the Ottawa River waterfront and its small stormwater subsidiary arm along the Capital Pathway, the War Museum, and the forthcoming National Monument to Canadas Mission in Afghanistan.Area under study for the Urban Design Challenge. Image credit: NCCThe currently vacant site presents an opportunity to transform the space into a place that connects the islands and the mainland and increases the publics access to the waterways. The NCC is interested in exploring opportunities to activate the frontages along the streets and public pathways surrounding the site, and providing new mixed-use housing opportunities.As a result, proposals should re-knit the urban fabric with courtyard-form buildings between Wellington Street and Booth Street, and provide strategies for ground-floor animation along the Bronson Channel, Booth Street, Wellington Street and the Holocaust Monument, while respecting the symbolic setting of the site and propose an appropriate range of uses that can animate the area while being sensitive to adjacent uses.Additionally, they should determine a location for underground parking access, at the most unobtrusive location in relation to desired/anticipated pedestrian flow, retain the design intent of the National Holocaust Monument and consider the site context of the National Monument to Canadas Mission in Afghanistan while providing a fully urban interface between the monuments and the rest of the Bronson Channel Lands, position the built form volumes to create and frame street and path edges first, and views second and define the appropriate architectural expression for the built form in terms of building height and architectural style.They should also enhance public access to, and enjoyment of, the waterfront through landscaping, programming and animation, and consider opportunities for engagement in relation to diversity, equity and inclusion practices.The winning project team will receive the first-place award of$750and a trip to Ottawa. The second-place team will receive$500. The winning team will also receive a free student membership to the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (SSAC) and free registration to the 2025 SSAC conference.While the jury may determine honourable mention awards, there are no monetary prizes associated with these awards.The winning team will be invited to present their ideas at a special session of the NCCs Urbanism Lab on May 29, 2025.There isno registration feeto participate in the Urban Design Challenge. However, participants are required to register to receive a team number that ensures anonymity of the submissions throughout the evaluation process. One registration is required per project submitted.Registration is open until Thursday, January 23, 2025, and submissions are due March 27, 2025.For more information, click here.The post Last chance to register for 2025 Urban Design Challenge appeared first on Canadian Architect.