Even before it was formally established earlier this year, the nearby Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company had commissioned Mr Fuksas in Rome to draw up a regeneration framework, due to be presented later this month.

ECONOMIST: Urban regeneration

"Our objective is to provide the basic infrastructure, planning and necessary management framework in creating satellite cities that reverses the current trend of unplanned development and urban congestion in most of Africa's growing cities, " says Tim Beighton, of Rendeavour, which is developing several new cities in Africa.

CNN: Africa's 'new cities': Urban future or utopian fantasies?

The Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge dares students, technologists, designers, policy experts and urban planners, to come up with new solutions to take advantage of the existing pay phone framework and shape the future of public communications infrastructure.

CNN: Is the pay phone making a comeback?