Four students from the London Business School have been announced as winners of the second ULI Hines Student Competition–Europe.
The pan-European virtual real estate competition challenged teams to present their vision of a future workplace, based on the redevelopment of an office site in Amsterdam. The winning students will each receive a one-year ULI membership, a fast-track to Hines’s internship program, a guided tour of a live Hines project, and participation in project meetings in Hines’s European offices.
Emanuel Dos Santos Rebelo, Dermot Mahony, Beatriz Vala, and Yoko Yamada from the London Business School triumphed over seven other teams from an array of academic institutions—Copenhagen Business School, Denmark; EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht, Germany; IESE Business School, Spain; INSEAD, France; Politecnico di Milano, Italy; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain; and University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
“I’m over the moon, but the whole team is key to this win,” said London Business School team captain Yoko Yamada. “It’s an absolute honor to come out on top of the competition. We have been working towards this behind the scenes for the last month in terms of preparation with group study sessions, so we’re all equally very pleased that our efforts have paid off.”
The final consisted of a whole day of virtual sessions during which the finalist teams addressed the challenge—the future of the workplace—offering their understanding of how offices will evolve and remain connected to the communities in which they operate well into the future. The teams were challenged to develop their vision for the office site, setting out the mix of uses they thought were most appropriate, along with an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy and their financial arrangements for the scheme. They worked in multidisciplinary teams, with the support of Hines mentors.
Innovative ideas for the future of the office during the final included organic indoor and outdoor gardens, canopies with vegetation and wildlife, outdoor office pods embedded in nature, serviced lofts in the upper echelons of the office space, solar chimneys, a rooftop lighthouse, and an amphitheater to connect with the local community.
The finalists presented their plans to a jury composed of senior real estate industry professionals, including Mary Louise Gray, regional director, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Microsoft; Karim Habra, executive vice president/head of Europe and Asia Pacific, Ivanhoe Cambridge; Lars Huber, chief executive officer, Europe, Hines; Sir Stuart Lipton, partner, Lipton Rogers Developments; Brian Moran, head of Ireland, Hines; Ellen Nieuweboer, project director, city of Amsterdam; Audun Opdal, senior partner, head of design, 3xn; and Lisette van Doorn, chief executive officer, ULI Europe.
“We are very proud to partner with the ULI to offer this incredible competition for the second year running,” said Huber. “It has again showcased some remarkable emerging talent across Europe. The winning team deserves the plaudits as the competition was exceptionally tough, but all the finalists should be incredibly proud of their performance and efforts.
“We saw some novel ideas, fantastic concepts, and innovative thought processes about how the future of work will look and how the real estate sector will need to adapt to multigenerational needs. We remain committed to this competition for the long term as we look to continue to support young professionals break[ing] into our fantastic industry while broadening out the talent pool to attract creative and diverse talent.”
“ULI’s mission is to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide, and with our global, multidisciplinary, and multigenerational focus, this competition is a perfect example of what ULI stands for,” said van Doorn. “Seeing the enthusiasm and motivation from the competing students has been fantastic, and, thanks to the generous support of Hines, we are thrilled to be able to provide them with a springboard to start their career in the industry.
“We’ve been very impressed with the creativity and solutions provided, that we urgently need to adapt to in the post-COVID-19 reality, trying to tackle some of the major challenges that were accelerated by the pandemic such as decarbonization, social inequality, and advanced innovation. We hope everyone involved today will join the industry and continue their journey with ULI when developing their careers by leveraging our content and our global network.”
