The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 interlinked goals - including 169 targets - that aim to put sustainable urbanization at the center of the global agenda by 2030. The SDGs were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 when 193 countries ratified a global plan for action to make cities safer, more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. Since then, countries have committed to prioritizing efforts to meet the needs of the most vulnerable groups in our society and several projects worldwide have focused on oriented actions towards a more sustainable, equitable, and accessible future.
In light of this, the Local Project Challenge - a collaborative platform led by the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSDU) at Columbia University in partnership with the Graduate Program in Architecture of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (PROARQ / FAU-UFRJ) - was created to increase public awareness of SDGs, bringing together projects from all over the world which are committed to tackling some of the most urgent social, economic and environmental issues that we have been facing. This initiative challenged the participants to consider and localize the SGDs in their projects, sharing their stories and achievements through texts, photos, drawings, and videos. As a result, 111 projects from 39 countries representing the works of professionals, universities, NGOs, and local communities were displayed on the web gallery www.localprojectchallenge.org.
LPC website. Some of the displayed projects on the online gallery. Source: www.localprojectchallenge.org. Accessed on July 12th, 2021.
By engaging all stakeholders, and allowing everyone to be part of this knowledge-sharing experience, the LPC gallery can be considered a valuable network-building resource to demonstrate how cities can harness transformational change and ensure a better life for all those facing the challenges of an urbanizing world.