2025 Climathon Student Competition - Project Pitches and Announcement of the Winning Team
The 2025 Climathon student competition has come to an end. On May 19th, twelve teams of talented students gathered for the final event of the competition, presenting their ideas for redesigning the Climate Action House to foster sustainability, climate awareness, and community engagement.
Plant-covered facades, smart waste stations, a climate dashboard, a biodiversity garden, colourful murals, a living action library, dynamic spatial systems, community lunchbox sharing, a makers’ space, a green credits digital platform, and an interactive climate exhibition... These were some of the many ideas that were presented as the twelve competing teams gathered on the 19th of May for the finishing event of the 2025 Climathon student competition, organised by the KTH Climate Action Centre in collaboration with Akademiska Hus and the Live-In Lab.
Taking up the challenge to propose how the Climate Action House could be redesigned to improve the use of the space and its surroundings, while promoting climate action and the achievement of the sustainability goals, thirty-five students had spent the past three weeks developing their ideas, before presenting them to a jury consisting of experts in innovation, urban planning and development, social sustainability and climate questions broadly. On top of dedication and commitment, they all demonstrated commendable skills in creativity, collaboration and innovation, contributing valuable insights toward the development of sustainable and user-friendly campus environments for the future.
While many teams made strong contributions, the contribution of the winning team – made up of Mohamed Ali, Niclas Maierhofer and Parisa Aayani – stood out with its proposal to turn the building into a space of transformation, aiming to achieve climate awareness and behavioral change in users through design, technology-related and organisational interventions. These interventions, they claimed, would turn outsiders into insiders, individuals into collaborators, and silence into dialogue. We look forward to seeing the results of their further development of these ideas during three weeks of paid work and mentoring with the property owners, Akademiska Hus, over the summer.