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DiscoverDesign National Competition: Design A Community Market for Social Good

The Chicago Architecture Center is hosting the 2018 DiscoverDesign National Competition: Design A Community Market for Social Good. The competition is open to the students who are 13-18 years old and who live in the United States.

This year’s challenge has developed in partnership with Borderless Studio, an architecture and urban design office that focuses on the future of cities and the roles that architecture plays in supporting healthy, vibrant and meaningful communities.

The National DiscoverDesign Competition is an annual ideas competition challenging high school students to design solutions to a real-world problem using the design process.

Who May Eligible:

To eligible, the candidates must be following all the eligibility criteria:

  • 13-18 years old.
  • Not yet graduated from high school.
  • Live within the United States.

How to Apply & Competitions Rules:

To win the competition you need to do register and complete the information and answer a short essay question through the given link: https://architecture.slideroom.com/#/login/register

Rules:

  • The Challenge: Design a community market on a transit-oriented site in Chicago to improve access to resources and provide public gathering spaces for the Marshall Square or McKinley Park neighborhoods in Chicago.
  • Your design must be able to be built on one of the following transit-oriented development sites: Marshall Square and McKinley Park
  • Submit individually or as a team (up to 5 students).
  • Only one project submission is required per team.
  • Provide the name of one parent or guardian. If you win the competition guardian information is needed for the travel prize.
  • Designs must adhere to the following constraints:
    • Build on one of the proposed sites and within the specified lot dimensions
    • Include at least one permanent structure
    • Include solutions for providing access to healthy/locally sourced food as a resource
    • Include solutions for activating the space year-round
    • Include site elements (trees, people, etc.)
    • Include at least one scale figure
    • Show your overall, final design in context on the site
  • Your overall 3D view and the site plan should show the street and neighboring buildings, to help the jury understand how your building sits on the site.
  • Include trees and people to help the jury understand the scale of your building.
  • If you are creating a physical model, take a picture with a high-quality camera or use the HDR setting on a phone.
  • Take the photo against a blank wall or surface and get close! Do not include a lot of stuff or people in the background of your photo.
  • If you are working in digital design software like Sketch Up, do not submit a screenshot of your work.
  • These files may be too small and blurry for the jury to review.
  • Export your files as large jpegs and upload (5,400 pixels WIDE by 3,600 pixels TALL (5,400 x 3,600).

Submission Requirements:

  • A completed design challenge must include:
    • A unique cover image of your design
    • At least one description and three images per step of the design process
    • A written statement (250-500 words) addressing: Reflect on your initial success statement. How did you successfully address the challenge and serve the identified community? What are some unresolved aspects of your design?
  • Completed registration on the competition portal including:
    • All form questions answered
    • URL to your completed design challenge
    • One (1) overall image showcasing your final design (jpeg) (this needs to be the same as your header image for your DiscoverDesign project)
  • Projects must be submitted to the competition portal on November 30, 2018, to qualify for jury review.
  • You must submit your design project URL and one (1) overall image to the competition platform.

Benefits:

The jury will select ten finalists to compete for a first, second and third place.

  • First Prize: Economy-class round trip flight for two within the United States serviced by Southwest Airlines, $100 cash prize & framed certificate
  • Second Prize:$250 cash prize & certificate
  • Third Prize:$150 cash prize & certificate
  • Finalists:$50 cash prize & certificate
  • Educators: The primary sponsoring educator for the top three winners will receive a $50 gift card for classroom supplies.

Application Deadline:

Register online at by October 31, 2018, to compete.

Apply Now

Indu Singh

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