Sabrina Kleinenhammans Hailed as Urban Designer of the Future

Sabrina Kleinenhammans, a graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology was named the winner of the AECOM Design + Planning Urban SOS; Distressed Cities, Creative Responses student design competition at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, winning USD$20,000 in prize money.

Ms Kleinenhammans faced fierce competition from students at the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín (Peru), the University of Pennsylvania (USA), the Polytechnical University of Madrid (Spain) and Colombia University (USA), but wowed judges with her Pre-emptive Landholding Strategy in Mumbai.

All five semi-finalists gave strong and innovative presentations for transforming global cities to offer lasting improvements, to leading industry experts at the Festival.

The competition attracted over 1,000 submissions, from 239 universities and colleges in 65 countries around the globe, to transform global cities and offer lasting improvements.

Ms Kleinenhammans' proposal uses the spatial element of frequently intersecting transportation lines, such as railways, to create a cohesive network of open spaces and a recreational system for Mumbai's citizens.