Winners Announced!
Architect Mason Kirby Inc. is pleased to announce the results of the First Annual Kids’ Digital Design Contest. With the help of parents, our goal was to provide a venue for kids to demonstrate, develop and reveal their capacity for creative three dimensional thinking using the digital modeling tool SketchUp (free to download, simple to learn, and amazingly difficult to put down). The projects were reviewed on the following criteria: creativity, story and modeling skill. All participants will receive a free youth admission to the California Academy of Sciences.
Within each age groups (0-5, 6-9, 10-12, 13-15), we have recognized uniquely outstanding projects with first, second and third place awards.
Age Category 0-5
Age Category 6-9
Age Category 10-12
Age Category 13-15
Congratulations to all participants and thank you to all of our contributors!
Design Brief
The First Annual Kids’ Digital Design Contest is a digital design competition for ages 0-15. With the help of parents, our goal is to provide a venue for kids to demonstrate, develop and reveal their capacity for creative three dimensional thinking using the digital modeling tool SketchUp (free to download, simple to learn, and amazingly difficult to put down). Our inaugural theme is: “under/over/within” and features an intertidal aquatic site. Age based judging ensures fair competition and lots of cool prizes.
This site and program were chosen for the latitude they offer participants to interpret and develop both site based and program based opportunities. We know that the idea of a “design brief” will probably be lost on younger participants but it is our hope that parents and our older entrants will use the brief to enhance learning opportunities and develop meaning in the context of their designs.
Program:
Your charge is to develop a “structure for living” within the area shown in the base model. We ask that you challenge the idea of structure and permanence with your design by thoughtfully engaging our aquatic/intertidal site which is at once constantly changing due to factors that are both man made and of a natural consequence.
Labeled as a Marine Reserve, our site is caught within an apparent paradox of preservation: it sits at the intersection and periphery of a nearby residential neighborhood, a sewage treatment plant, a lock system, a retired army fort and finally a civic park.
By “structure” we mean that which has a physical permanence associated with an element that is here today, here tomorrow and most probably here in a few years or so—most literally, it is the thing you make. In a broader sense, structure can include those temporal constructs we find within society and our culture diverse cultures as well as those physical constructs that float, rest or otherwise reside on the site.
By “living” we mean broadly the processes which distinguish organisms and inorganic objects from dead organisms. This can also be taken to mean and include any plants, animals or any mixture thereof either naturally found in and around the site or imported/foreign. This is not expressly a contest to design a place for humans to live.
Site:
Our site reference boundary is located on the Puget Sound shoreline within the city limits of Seattle, Washington within Discovery Park. Our site is located smack dab in the middle of an intertidal zone that is exposed to air at low tide and left underwater at high tides. The water level contained in the base model is to be considered “high tide.”
References:
- A link to the exact site location: here.
- General information about intertidal areas here.
- Local Seattle tide charts here.
- Marine Reserve Area Rules in information here.
- Discovery Park information (maps too) here.
- West Point Sewage Treatment Facility information here.
- Historic Fort Lawton information here.
- Hiram M. Chittenden Locks information here.
Contest Directions
- Go to our contest page on the Open Architecture Network. Click the “Enter Now” button. (Follow the directions to create an OAN profile if you do not already have one.)
- You’ll need a copy of SketchUp. Download your free version here.
- Next, you’ll need a copy of the digital site model here.
- Once you have the site model open, locate the site area boundary (a yellow box) in the model and start modeling! Your work needs to fit within this box.
- Your competition entry will consist of a minimum of 3 jpg image files, your SketchUp model file and a 100 word design statement. Remember, you will need to create a user profile on the Open Architecture Network, enter our competition and submit them as a project before Tuesday, September 15, 2009. The image files should be a minimum of 800 pixels x 600 pixels and 300 dpi.
- Stay tuned for information updates by email. Check in below for updated FAQ’s
Note: This is a kid’s contest but parents and guardians are required to register on their child’s behalf. Like any kid’s contest (think coloring contest at a diner) parents and guardians should feel free to assist in the preparation and delivery of their kid’s entry–they are going to need your help–just know that the jury is interested in acknowledging the child’s effort, and not the parents! Have fun!
Selection Criteria
The projects will be judged on the following criteria:
1. Creativity – The originality of ideas will be praised. This criteria focuses on the idea of the model rather than the construction of it.
2. Story – What does your structure do? How does it accommodate “living” (and by whom or what?) How does is relate to the site? Why did you design your structure the way you did? What it is made of and what parts do you find are the most interesting?
3. Modeling Skill – Great models will speak for themselves in a lot of ways. A well presented, aesthetically pleasing model takes time and is necessary to place in the top three.
Jury
Mike Bradford, Owner, Bradford Construction
Lara Hedberg Deam, Founder, Dwell Magazine
Ian Dunn, AIA, LEED ap, Associate, David Baker + Partners
Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager, Google
William Menking, Executive Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper
Cameron Sinclair, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Architecture for Humanity
Seth Wachtel, Program Director at the University of San Francisco
Rob Whitehead AIA, LEED ap, Principal, Whitehead Design Workshop
Prizes
Each of the four age groups (0-5, 6-9, 10-12, 13-15) will have a first, second and third place awarded. The contestant awarded first prize will receive a Google SketchUp Pro Educational License! The second and third place recipients in each age group will be awarded with Google merchandise.
In the spirit of a contest for kids, the first 100 entrants to complete/upload their entry on the Open Architecture Network to receive a free youth admission to the California Academy of Sciences!
Google is generously providing the prizes. Tickets for the first 100 contestants to enter are provided by the California Academy of Sciences. Also a special thank you to our media sponsor The Architects Newspaper.
The winners will be posted on the Official SketchUp Blog!
FAQs/Resources
1. I’ve never used SketchUp before. Can you teach it to me?
Use the built in tutorials or check out these SketchUp Tutorials on Youtube– you’ll be up and running in no time…
- SketchUp Concepts - link
- Drawing Shapes - link
- Push/Pull Tool - link
- Creating a simple object - link
- More Tutorials … - link
2. What are the age groups again?
There are four age groups: 0-5, 6-9, 10-12 and 13-15. Please make certain that you enter the correct contest depending on your child’s age.
3. Is there really an age group for 0-5 year olds?
We aren’t entirely sure what the winner is going to do with a SketchUp Pro license but, yep you read it right, there is an age group from newborn to 5 years old. We’re darn serious about letting kids show off how they can manipulate stuff in 3d well before they can gain full control of a pencil and paper. So watch out for animal crackers and grape juice in your keyboard, but be prepared to be patiently amazed at what your little three year old might do with a little guidance and support.
Updated 7/23/09