Wannabe Wrens, have-a-go Hawksmoors or fouton-based Fosters can have a crack at sculpting London's skyline with nary a shred of architectural nous (something that, to judge from certain new builds, they share with a few members of the profession). The competition, organised by TfL in conjunction with this summer's London Festival of Architecture, allows entrants to craft their design using any kind of media and technology they fancy. The brief is to "create a modern take on London's silhouette, and illustrate the city's architectural heritage"; attempts to cram the capital beneath a Buckminster Fuller-style geodesic dome may not find favour with the judges, particularly as the Festival's clunky tagline is "the welcoming city".
There's a £1,000 prize for the best design, which will be judged by a panel including Design Week editor Lynda Relph-Knight, Time Out's Rachel Halliburton, and luminaries from the London Transport Museum and the Festival itself. The winning design will also be featured on advertising literature; it's worth noting that copyright of the work will belong to TfL.
Need some inspiration? Well, this rather neat skyline designer offers the perfect palette to knock some ideas about before the hard graft begins in AutoCAD or Photoshop (or an Etch-a-Sketch, our preferred drafting instrument). To submit your Haussmann-worthy masterpiece, it'll need to be a 300dpi jpeg, no more than 1MB in size. Oh, and it's for over-18s only. Read the full list of competition rules here, and send your entry to skylinecompetition AT tfl.gov.uk by 9am, Monday May 24th.
London Festival of Architecture runs from 19th June - 4th July.
