Photo Contest 2021, Changing Times – Changing Spaces
Enjoy the pictures of the ARL International Photo Contest 2021.
For their entries the parcicpants could chose between the following categories:
- category 1: Environment, energy and climate change
- category 2: Demographic and socio-economic change
- category 3: Changing spaces during Covid-19
The winning pictures were selected by an international jury.

1st place, category 1, The vertical forest "Bosco Verticale" in Milan is the concept of a residential high-rise building that incorporates trees and plants in urban architecture. Vertical forests help improve air quality and support climate change adaptation.

1st place, category 2. Contrary to all appearances, abandoned places never die. Layers of meaning waiting to be awakened by the early dawn of a regenerative world. View of Allianello- one of the many abandoned villages- so called ghost towns- in Southern Italy

1st place, category 3, Open Space in Times of Crisis

2nd place, category 1, Años destruidos en segundos

2nd place, category 2, Findlingspark Nochten - new perspectives on the recultivated area of Nochten lignite mine

2nd place, category 3. Not alone in the winter lockdown

3rd place, category 1, Unsustainable waste management

3rd place, category 2, Occupied Dwellings by Esteban Torres

3rd place, category 3, Redesigning open spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic

Special Prize for Aesthetics, Kraftwerke - Motoren der Veränderung; Kraftwerk Jänschwalde in der Lausitz

The socio-spatial bubble of the Covid-19 pandemic

A New Urban Landscape by Esteban Torres



Tourist nostalgia at the expense of the environment

Dry soil - I can't drink!

Remember me - past times - changed memories

Shining life in the city - Life is possible in impossible places!

Konnektivität im Stadtraum - Hamburg Zentrum 2020

Warten auf Veränderung - Links Kraftwerk Jänschwalde - rechts Cottbuser Ostsee im Entstehen

Bebilderte Stadt - Profit mit Freiflächen - sonst wär’s sehr trist.
Brodeohochhaus, Hannover

Büro- und Versorgungsflächenbedarf - Öffentlicher Nahverkehr-, Recyclingflächen und Bürohäuserprägen das Stadtbild

Renaturierung - Vom kanalisierten Bachbett zum freien Lauf, Marienwerder




What's missing? Lockdown playground: The picture was taken in the first lockdown in spring 2020 in Hamm (Germany). At that time, all playgrounds in NRW were locked down. An absurd and grotesque picture.A place that actually invites you to play and relax was closed off. The place was there and yet not there. The playground was robbed of its function.

"There was no place for them in the Inn" (photo taken in Sao Paulo, Brazil, during Christmas time of 2020)

Taken in Haifa, Israel (definitely metaphoric...)

Liquid Modernity (taken in Utrecht, NL, just before the pandemic hit Europe)

Informal adaptation strategies in the public space in times of COVID-19. Neighborhood gardening interventions in Peru.

From dirty peat extraction to a wonderful nature reserve


Survival of the fittest: (online) retail in COVID-city



Nuestra Tierra-nuestros alimentos-nuestro emprendimiento
Tradition and modernity in coexistence

Peaceful Using - Change of use without concealing the historical legacy.

Modal Split: Electromobility - opportunity or obstacle for sustainable mobility?

Closing Time - Local supply in small villages is becoming more and more difficult.