Starting from today (June 8, 2009, Frank Lloyd Wright’s 142nd birthday), Google is holding the Design It: Shelter Competition, challenges participants to create a simple shelter for a specific geographic location anywhere in the world. From now until August 23, you can submit a 3-D shelter for locations around the world using Google SketchUp and Google Earth.
This competition is extension of Learning By Doing, an exhibition in the Guggenheim Museum Sackler Center for Arts Education that features plans, photographs, and models of student-built shelters from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. In working on these shelters, students consider human needs for safety and comfort, as well as the relationship between architecture and places.
Project Specs
LocationYou can build your shelter anywhere on Earth: from city to desert, hill to valley. You cannot remove any existing buildings, but you can add on to existing structures.
Size
Keep your shelter small—it can be no larger than 100 square feet (9.3 square meters), and no taller than 12 feet (3.6 meters).
Amenitites
Your shelter must offer protection from the elements and provide a space for one person to study and sleep. Keep it simple—no water, gas or electricity allowed.
Key Dates and Deadlines
You can submit your design from now until August 23. After the submission period, current Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture students will select a group of finalists. Public voting on these finalists opens on September 7 and runs until October 10. On October 21, 2009, the People’s Prize will be announced along with a special Juried Prize chosen by a jury of experts.
How to Enter
To participate in the contest, follow these steps:
- Download Google SketchUp and Google Earth for free. Both are available for both Windows and Macintosh computers.
- Use Google SketchUp to design a shelter for a particular location on the planet. Give your model a precise geographic location with Google Earth. (View the SketchUp tutorial page for instructions.)
- Upload your geographically-located SketchUp shelter to the Google 3D Warehouse.
- Export at least one (and as many as four) views of your model as JPEG images and upload them when you're submitting your entry. (JPEGs should be at least 235 pixels wide but no larger than 720 pixels wide.)
- Export an animation of your shelter as a video and upload it to YouTube. (The animation is optional. Keep in mind, though, that in Google Earth, viewers will only be able to see the outside of the shelter—an animation is a great way to present a more detailed view of your design.)
- Write a description (in English) of your shelter and how it integrates into the location where you placed it (limited to 70 words).
- Fill out the submission form on the Guggenheim Web site.
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