The winning idea came from Bob Hendrikx, a Dutch architecture student, at the TU Delft. Bob is the founder of The Motown Movement, an urban initiative to fight climate change by making sustainable technology accessible to everyone. He was also named one of the top 100 young sustainable entrepreneurs in the Netherlands.

His entry proposes the creation of self-sufficient homes by means of the ‘world’s first growing architecture’, a modular system of construction based around living trees that absorbs CO2 rather than emitting it, and generates renewable energy. Click here to see the full submission.

Bob wins £500 worth of BSRIA membership, training or publications, and along with the runners-up, will be featured in BSRIA's Delta T magazine.

Rami El Geneidy, a Master of Research student at the London-Loughborough Centre of Doctoral Training in Energy Demand. He proposed the use of smart energy efficiency contracts in the domestic market, providing heating and energy as a service, rather than buying gas or electricity per unit. This places the onus for performance on the supplier, incentivising them to invest in energy efficient properties.

According to Rami: ‘The thing that drives me is finding how to ensure sustainability of our energy use in the long-term. In my multi-disciplinary and rigorous empirical research I wish to achieve this by being mindful of the interplay of technology, economics and people.’

Tomasz Sikorski, a UK-based project manager and recent MSc graduate in Building Services Engineering. His solution addressed increasing transportation problems and the emergence of drone technology, suggesting that buildings should be designed to allow airborne delivery and re-charging of vehicles.

Tomasz says he is interested in intelligent buildings, BIM, sustainability, public security and modern architecture. He is currently writing a book about intelligent systems in facilities management.

Aurora Barrett is studying real estate and planning at the University of Reading. She proposed that buildings should have an energy self-sufficiency capability for emergency situations such as power cuts or electromagnetic pulses (EMPs). She was inspired by documentaries focusing on people in the US making their own sustainable residential properties with EMPs in mind.

According to Aurora: ‘I don't think it would be unfeasible for this to be manifested in commercial space as well, at the same time making buildings more eco-friendly by managing their own resources and controlling their energy output.’

Richard Tanner is a UK-based engineer for BAE Systems. He identified power management as his future challenge and suggested the entire network from appliances to buildings to car manufacturers and infrastructure providers should be integrated and responsive, and designed to be easily upgradable as new technologies become available or affordable.

Richard is currently reading for a MSc in Systems Engineering Management at UCL.