Fig : 1 - Revolutions are the catalyst of human society

+ ‘I protest, therefore I am.’
A protest is a public expression of objection, disapproval, or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can also be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate by attending and sharing the potential costs and risks of doing so. History is the witness to the achievements of protests against power by common people.
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+ ‘Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.’
The history of protest is as old as the history of human civilization. It is the protests against social, economic, political, religious, and cultural power structures that shaped the idea of freedom and human progress towards the 21st century. The idea of human freedom from bondages of slavery, feudalism, colonialism, capitalism are products of protests.

The ideals of democracy, liberty, equality, and fraternity are the products of different struggles in history. French revolution, October Revolution, anti-colonial struggles, women's movement, and environmental movements in Asia, Africa, The Americas, and Europe revealed that protest power is human progress. The organized and unorganized protest puts pressure and pursues people to accept, accommodate and advance change. In this sense, protest is a powerful instrument of change that shapes our present and assures a better future.
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+ ‘Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy. It is absolutely essential to it.’
All the ideals of human progress are at crossroads today. The uncertainties of today and questions of a better future confront everyone. The time has come again to celebrate the idea of protest and sketch its significance in the history of human progress. Protests are individual and group expressions of dissent, both in non-violent and violent forms. Some of the common forms of protest are:

• Conventional: Press conferences, lawsuits, lobbying, etc.
• Written Demonstration: Petitions, letters, signature campaigns on and offline.
• Symbolic: Building of temporary/permanent installations before, during, or after a protest.
• Culture Jamming: Creative displays using street theatre/dance, music/chanting, design/graphic art
• Solemn and Sacred: Vigils, prayer, candlelight rallies, coffin bearing, etc.
• Movement in Space: Processional activities such as marches, parades from one spatio-temporal location to another with beginning and ending places sometimes chosen for symbolic reasons.
• Civil Disobedience: Sit-ins/blockades, bannering, occupation/camping, boycott, etc.
• Collective Violence and Threats: Pushing, shoving, hitting, punching, verbal threats, looting, throwing objects, damaging property, self-immolation, etc.
• Internet and Social Networking:  Registering grievances through blogging, social networking, viral networking, etc.Out of the above list, this competition involves three chosen forms of protest (iii., vi., and vii), as outlined in the following section.

+ ‘Design for Protest’
The challenge invites designers of all age groups, nationalities, and interests, to unleash their endless imagination and creative abilities, merging it with evolving scientific, technological advances of the present times in order to project a utopia for ‘Design for Protest.’Within this theme, the competition offers its participants the opportunity to choose from three challenges. You can exercise the choice of working on any one, two, or all three levels of predetermined forms of protest, that correspond to different scales of design interventions:

+ ‘You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.’
‍Seize this opportunity to empathize, understand, resolve and express the lofty phenomenon of protest. The competition serves as a chance to engage with the notion through humane, socially relevant, innovative design ideas. You have the liberty to adopt an imaginary present, past, or future protest in the city you live in or any other existing city of your choice across the globe.

Fig: 1 - Hong Kong protest march

+ Movement in space
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

‍History is dotted with countless 'movements' that signify the milestones and nodes of change in our societies. 'Movement' is necessary for change, whether it be of thought or bodies. Moving about to make things happen is something that encapsulates protest, where the public move out on the streets; move to a certain location, and come together to shake things and bring issues to the surface. The urban environment that accommodates such movement, then, needs to be equipped to handle, support, and carry out these events safely and healthily - both, for the protestors and the city.

Which brings us questions - How can we prepare our public spaces to act differently during and after the protest? What do the urban places need to have or provide the citizens with, in terms of design and infrastructure? With the help of design thinking and current technological trends can we transform current places of protest into much accessible, safe, and strategic spots?

Fig: 2 - Protestors marching in Chile (Credit: Cesar Carlevarino Aragon on Unsplash.com)

The challenge is to design a route for a protest march that can be walked through with the necessary beginning, halts, and conclusion.

+ Site Selection
Select an area/precinct within the city of your residence or your choice anywhere in the world that according to you may lend itself well to holding a public protest in the form of a march/procession, starting from and concluding at prominent landmark urban nodes or culturally significant physical settings of the city.

+ Design pointers
‍The route should be delineated creatively, taking into account the following:

• Chalk out an intentionally designed route for a procession or an orchestrated ‘parade route’ that can be walked through with all the necessary beginning, ending and pauses within an 8-hour long typical day cycle.
• Assign carefully and meaningfully selected places for the purposes of gathering/launching and finale/dispersal.
• Buttress a sense of purpose and pride of place by designing the route to include prominent/symbolic monuments/buildings along with dramatic vistas, experiences of turning a corner and seeing anew, etc.
  
• Identify strategic outdoor plaza spaces enroute for resting.
  
• Leverage any underutilized spaces enroute that could become temporary refreshment/recreational spaces.
  
• Create possibilities of detour to enhance the experience for the marchers and those watching.
  
• Build in concern for crowd safety against some form of attack and provide for medical emergencies.
  
• Integrate new technology to help coordinate, connect and communicate on the parade route.
  
• Make provisions at micro detail level for the differently able-bodied, wheelchair-bound, or those with strollers.
  
• Provide for making the experience more three-dimensional and immersive with the help of temporary tree houses, elevated catwalks, bridges and tired seating elements, etc.
  
• Show greater consideration for human comfort against climatic trauma by throwing temporary visually porous/lightweight shading/protection devices across and over the streets.
  
• Introduce at regular intervals small pieces of infrastructure that may include well-conceived speech/address podiums, restrooms, information, drinking water spouts, etc.
  
• Anticipate some uncertainties and incorporate flexibility in design for unprecedented events.
  

Fig: 4 - Protests near Trafalgar Square, London, UK (Credits: Joe Goodman Natasa Leoni)

Fig: 1 -  The sit-ins at Taksim Gezi Park in Turkey. (Credits: Ian Usher: Flickr)

+ Movement in space
“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”
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When the citizens have wanted to be desperately heard, to put across their voices, opinions, and needs, means of civil disobedience and non-cooperation have often been adopted. Groups of people gather and occupy a public place for varying durations, anywhere from a few hours, to days and months. Our public spaces serve as sites for open expression.  

In that case, how can we reclaim our public spaces to act differently during and after a protest? What kind of measures can be useful to its inhabitants and how can they protect the city and its people? What facilities can citizens be provided with, in events like protests?

Fig: 2 - The Farmers' Protest occupation sites along Singhu Border near Delhi, India. (Credit: nationalheraldindia.com)

The challenge is to design/carve a neighborhood-level intervention that is conducive for holding a long-term protest for an imagined cause with provisions for occupying/camping and other attendant needs.

+ Site Selection
Select an area within your city of residence or choice anywhere in the world that according to you may be conducive for holding a long-term protest. Design useful and safe temporary shelters to protect and facilitate for the citizens, while minimizing disturbances to the functioning of the city and the non-participants. Protests can bring unpredictable situations and events, therefore the design may be equipped for flexibility accordingly.

Fig: 3 - 'Occupy Wall Street' protests camp at Zuccotti Park in New York. (Credit: David Shankbone, wikimedia.org)

+ Design pointers
‍The facility design is to be preferably modular, therefore scalable and flexible. Envision a system that can be conveniently multiplied to serve a minimum occupancy of 10,000 people.

‍Following are some pointers to bear in mind for the temporary settlement:

• Design a makeshift temporary collapsible facility for a limited-term stay/residence for a maximum period of 1 year by protesters at the borders of the city along the road edges stretching (½ km maximum on both sides) without occupying public plazas, parks, or private open spaces in the center or the periphery.
• Make static or mobile single, double, four-seater stable/collapsible resting/sleeping enclosures/capsules/sacks/hammocks with basic privacy, comfort, safety, weather protection, etc. built out of lightweight membrane and rigid structural materials.
• Employ construction systems of transport-friendly prefab variety, easy to assemble, erect, dismantle, and repack. The system should be expandable or incremental in nature. Assure minimum interference with the on-ground activities of movement etc., the proposed facility should be mostly off-ground with minimum possible footprint.
  
• You may use anti-gravity, floating/levitating or any other AI-driven high-technology driven solutions.
  
• You may use anti-gravity, floating/levitating or any other AI-driven high-technology driven solutions.
  
• Use dependable, portable, renewable sources of energy to power the facility without dependence on municipal or official sources (off-grid).
  

Fig: 4 - Camps outside St. Paul's Cathedral, as a part of the 'Occupy London' movement. (Credits- mirror.co.uk)

Fig: 1 - Protest memorial in Hong Kong (Credits: theatlantic.com)

+ Marking a point in time  
"History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity so that we can better face the future."
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Our cities and the physical environments bear witness to every milestone of human civilization. Countless events in our history of existence are recorded and celebrated, or mourned, around the world. The public spaces in a city often become sites for placing these reminders, pleasant or painful, to continue to be a part of the memory of following generations.

Social uprisings, rebellions, and public expression of their rights to a way of life, their fights for their beliefs have again and again impacted the status quo of things. No matter the result, some events are as successful as lighting a spark, some eventually fade out like a dying flame, and some forever alter the course of history. Nevertheless, there is almost always an extent of damage and loss involved. These events are eventually significant in the timeline of society, and we mark them as reminders within us, of the journeys of reaching the present.

‍As designers, how can we enable our history to blend with our current condition? How can physical markers in our urban environments be designed to symbolize and memorialize an event like a protest?

Fig: 2 - Black Lives Matter Plaza, Washington DC, USA. (Credit: Carlos Barria/Reuters)

The challenge is to create a befitting memorial/symbolic installation to commemorate the success, failure, or continuity of a protest for an imagined cause.

+ Site Selection
Select a location and site of relevance and significance for your chosen cause and form of protest. The choice of location will be critical and dependent on the nature of the symbolic intervention and the message(s) it shall communicate. The design may use present or anticipated technology to determine the mode and method of communication.

Fig: 3 - Hypotopia, a protest installation (model city) in Vienna, Austria.  (Credit: Cesar Carlevarino Aragon on Unsplash)

+ Design pointers The design intervention should aim for the following:

• To encapsulate/capture the essence of the proposed/imagined cause for which the protest was held in the past with success or without, is being held presently or is a part of an ongoing extended protest being undertaken for an unresolved long-term/distant cause.
  
• The facility may be physical, virtual, static, mobile, dynamic, interactive, changeable, etc.
• With no dimensional limitation, the design idea should be executable with the presently available or foreseeable technology.
  
• To possess a landmark-quality and create a visual impact on the surrounding by maintaining a balance of purpose and expression.
  
• The design must be accessible and inclusive of all audiences of all communities that resonate with the protest.
  
• It could be a beacon, strike conversations, convey protest messages across places by engaging with people.
  

Fig: 4 - Protest mural in Delhi, India. (Credit: DTM, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

This competition contains additional resources that contain a set of files useful to complete the competition submission. This folder is made available on your profile dashboard automatically as soon as you register.

This additional resource folder of this competition contains:

‍Submission Format files in PSD | AI | InDD,
Guide to Journal Section (with a suggestive list of questions to answer)

• Recommended number of sheets/presentation images/boards:
  3 (Three) of size [2800px x 3500px] in portrait digital format (JPEG only).
  
• Minimum 3 (Three) & No maximum sheet limit. Each image should be less than 15MB. (Do not submit PNG format)
  
• Minimum requisite submissions are sheets/boards + Cover image containing:
  1. Site plan
  2. 1 x Key concept section
  3. 3D views x 4
  4. Additional cover image of 2000px x 1000px
  5. Write an article/story in the Journal section# of the project (of about 1000-2000 words) answering the questions given in the guide pdf you receive in the additional resources.
  
  Learn more about the Journal here.
  

Participants are free to communicate their designs by making use of as many drawings, images, views, etc. as necessary.

• Under additional resources, which you will receive after registration, you will be provided with a submission sheets template.
• Submit JPEG images only.
• Ensure that the final sheets submitted do not include your name or any other mark of identification.
  
• Mention sheet number on the corner of every sheet.
  
• All the sheets or images will be viewed on a digital device. e.g. Laptop screen or projector. Uploaded sheets or images will not be physically printed for evaluation. The submission hence should be prepared for digital viewing only.
  
• Tip: Remember that your sheets will have to convey your ideas. Try using comprehensive presentation techniques; use images, illustrations, sketches, views, diagrams, text, etc. to express the design fully. For example, use exploded views to discuss multi-levelled conceptual models better.  
  

Read all the competition rules and details from the sidebar, and hit register. You can pay the entry fee and book your registration right away. The additional resources are directly unlocked as soon as you register on your dashboard.  Once you are ready with your project - begin uploading from the dashboard and follow this tutorial to submit. You can add your team members to your project while submitting it.

The submission of the entry has to happen to UNI's portal , through the project uploader, by following the process mentioned below.
No other mode of submissions will be accepted.

You are advised to preferably work on your journal simultaneously while developing your design project. Once you are ready with your entry - begin uploading your project from the dashboard and follow the below tutorial to submit. In order to avoid a last-minute rush, plan and try uploading your entry prior to the submission deadline.
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You can add your team members to your project while submitting it. Please make sure you watch every step of the tutorial so you do not miss out on anything.

Check the full tutorial here on how to make the submission.

The competition is protected by our disqualification policy to support fair play in a competitive environment like UNI. Participants are requested to stick to the details in the brief and connect with the curatorial committee on contact@uni.xyz in case of doubts or revisions.

Please check the link above for details. Failure to adherence may lead to soft or hard disqualification based on the violation.

The entries will be broadly judged by an international jury of the competition on the following criteria:

The judging panel can also add other criteria based on their internal discussions - which will be in line with the problem statement. Participants are advised to fulfill above given criteria first in their design. Names of the jury panel will be announced soon.

The decision of the Judges Panel is final, no appeals will be entertained and no further correspondence shall be entered into.

Please note that the jury scores are NOT affected by the number of likes on a project. Every submission is evaluated based on the judging criteria. However, ‘Likes’ play a role in determining the People’s Choice Awards.

The fee to participate grows based on the number of registrations received. Similarly, the prize money proportionally grows with rising participating entries. A total of 500 entries will be accepted in the competition till the last deadline. If the competition reaches a total registered entry of 500, then the participation process will be closed at a total prize pool of 24,000 USD. This implies, the sooner you register, the less you will pay as fees. More number of teams you will compete with, the higher the amount of prize you will be entitled to receive.

As for the awards that competition will result in, there are the following types of awards.

These are chosen by the organizing committee and the curatorial/editorial committee of UNI, respectively, to recognize the value brought to the competition by some projects that may not have won in any other categories.

To learn more about the above, and other, types of awards, visit here.

+ Prize pool of worth 22000$
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‍The prize pool is dependent on the total number of registrations received. Please check the awards and fees section to learn more about it. There will be a total of 100 (20%) entries that will be shortlisted for the final awards. All the shortlisted entries will be entitled to e-certificates.

You can now join UNI membership and participate in the ongoing challenges without paying any additional fee. With UNI Membership you can register in any competition on UNI throughout the year for free. Learn More about UNI Membership