Saturday, September 19, 2009

Guggenheim's Design It Shelter Competition

Happy Weekend you guys. I have been away from the blogosphere for a while now & I am sure I must have missed out on all the upcoming trends in the design world. How do you guys keep up with your work, family, activities, school and blogging?? Kudos to you all for being so focussed and efficient.

Today's post is about my submission to the Guggenheim's Design It Shelter Competition.

Most of you must have known about the competition, and for the readers who don't , sometime back in June, Guggenheim and Google kicked off the "Design It Shelter" competition.
"a global competition that will challenge users to design a simple shelter in 3D with Google SketchUp, give it a geographic location using Google Earth, and share it by uploading to the Google 3D Warehouse." --google press

Although my submission was disqualified due to the image size, I felt it was a great experience. I also learnt a lesson: stop being a last minuter :) I submitted my entry at 5.00PM (the closing time on the last day of the submission) in a hurry without realizing that the image size was way too big. Also I pretty much didn't know how to use sketch-up and completed my model in less than 3 days time. I knew I wasn't going to win this competition due to my lack of knowledge & experience, but still wanted to take part and be a part of the design community.

Sketch-up is a great tool. You can do so many things three dimensionally, and it is completely free. If you have never tried using sketch-up, give it a shot.

I designed a shelter (interior space: 10' X 10') for a female highest ranking karateka who is undergoing a vigorous training to be the next grand master. The location I chose was near Bali, Indonesia.

Here are my images:

Back View of the Shelter

Side View


Front View


Interior

I used natural materials such as bamboos & wooden flooring in a natural setting. Inspired by Japanese designs, I used shoji screens and low-lying furniture.

What do you guys think? Do you like/dislike my concept and implementation?

Public voting is now open and please cast your vote for the best shelter It model HERE