Acera and the Future City Competition

Ms. Renee, Upper School Core Teacher at Acera, is leading a group of students as they participate in the Future City Competition. “Future City starts with a question – how can we make the world a better place? To answer it, students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue.”

Ms. Renee’s “Future City” afterschool class officially entered the planning phase of their project. Last week, they focused on how recycling initiatives could support their solutions for combating food waste, using early prototypes and collaborative brainstorming to bring their ideas to life.

This week, they shifted to sketch-based pitches, where they explored their city’s geological features and developed a zoning plan that supports both sustainability and innovation. Their city is taking shape with exciting features like seaweed processing facilities, communal composting systems, maglev transportation, and tree-integrated office complexes.

Through this phase, they have strengthened key design skills—iteration, feedback cycles, and design revision—to ensure their city reflects both creativity and feasibility.

Looking ahead, next week they will determine their city’s population size and begin working on their next major milestone: the Future City Essay.