The teams, consisting of final-year students, were asked to innovate. In previous years, the competition consisted in replying to a call for tenders inspired by such flagship projects as the Nîmes-Montpellier rail bypass and the Beaugrenelle shopping centre. This year, though, the candidates had to devise a global offer for a neighbourhood, ensuring that innovation and ICT (information and communications technologies) were central to their thinking. The students imagined eco-connected, community-minded neighbourhoods that will meet the needs of a local authority wanting to make itself more attractive to citizens, businesses and traders.

71 of the 440 original participants were selected following a demanding process to compete in the 48-hour Challenge itself. After several further stages of elimination, four teams of finalists were judged by an audience of industry professionals, who voted by smartphone.

Once again, the teams were multicultural, with five countries represented (France, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Czech Republic and India). A team half of whose members were students from Bangladesh won the Jury Prize. In addition, this year the Challenge was open to in-house teams for the first time, and competitors included eleven students currently on work/study programmes and internships at Bouygues Construction.

Created in 1997 to bring students into closer contact with the professional world, the Bouygues Construction Challenge helps students to find out more about the diversity of professions in the construction sector and related service industries. It also serves as a recruitment tool: when the competition is over, the most outstanding participants can be offered internships, places on the French International Volunteer Programme and permanent contracts. Since it was created, 850 students have taken part, more than 40% of whom have joined Bouygues Construction for an internship, an international volunteering experience or a job, whether in support roles or at the heart of production.