• A brand-new initiative has been launched to help make lives and landscapes greener, healthier, more beautiful and wilder.
• Prize to Transform the Future (www.prizetotransformthefuture.org) is calling for optimists to help visualise a hopeful and possible future for the London City Region.

The Coronavirus pandemic is changing the way our country looks and feels. Our communities and neighbourhoods look different now, resurgent community spirit offers hope for a different way forward.  Symbols of shared support for our NHS have presented in rainbows in windows, more people are accessing their local green spaces and ideas are bubbling across the country to use this crisis as an opportunity to make life better.

That’s why the Chilterns Conservation Board has come together with National Parks, other Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), the London National Park City, Culture Declares Emergency and Ordnance Survey to launch the Prize to Transform the Future.

The Prize is a bold and exciting opportunity for optimists to help visualise a hopeful and possible future for the London City Region by sharing ideas to make our lives and landscapes greener, healthier, more beautiful and wilder.

What might the London City Region look like 20 years from now? Now imagine what it could and should look like. What if it was radically greener, healthier, wilder and more beautiful? What would it look like? What would it be like?

The Prize to Transform the Future is a call to artists, architects, cartographers, imagineers, optimists, realists, landscape architects, master planners, conservationists, graphic designers, farmers, film-makers, ecologists, illustrators, geographers, students, politicians, professionals, writers, modellers, pensioners, weavers, idealists and bankers. In fact, it’s for anyone and everyone.

Dan Raven-Ellison, founder of the London National Park City, said “I hope lots of people will be inspired to rise to this challenge. This may not be a financial prize, but the potential reward is something much greater, deeper and longer lasting than that. We are currently facing a number of urgent wake–up calls. Our health, our ecology and our climate are all entwined in states of emergency that threaten our lives and livelihoods. We need bold and positive visions that we can get behind to restore our futures and make life better for ourselves and future generations.”

Dr Elaine King, Chief Executive Officer at the Chilterns Conservation Board said: “We’re living through unprecedented times and the need for access to greener and wilder spaces for our health and well-being has never been greater.  The Prize couldn’t have come at a more pivotal moment and we hope that people will be encouraged to think about how a greener, healthier London City region might look.”

Discover more about the Prize to Transform the Future, including how to enter by visiting www.prizetotransformthefuture.org  and join the conversation at #PrizeToTransformTheFuture