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Sustainability Around Us
Competition Brief
Sustainable Ideas Competition for High School Student
The 2009 Upward Gravity Foundation competition is an architectural ideas competition for improving the sustainability of the environments that surround us. The challenge to High School Students across Southern California is to pick one of the three following environments and design a set of improvements that incorporate sustainability and elements from your school curriculum as the central forces for transformation. The three environments are:
Educational Space: How can access to schools or collaborative learning environment become more sustainable
Transportation Facility or System: A bus stop, transit station, or means of moving people sustainably from place to place
Sports or Concert Venue: Improve the sustainability of the access to a sports venue and or the way in which resources are consumed by these events.
Each individual can pick an existing space or building to improve, or design their own ideal space (from one of the three categories above) that features ways to make it sustainable. The design schemes should address the sustainable concepts that contribute to the larger world of sustainability. The winner will be judged on the creativity, the degree of perceived sustainability, and the feasibility of the ideas that are presented. There are no specific program requirements for the individual projects, but they do need to graphically illustrate the spaces that are created, the features that make them sustainable and elements that differentiate them from existing methods or technologies.
Your entry will be judged on the degree of organization achieved by your presentation and the clarity of your ideas.
We encourage you to seek sponsorship from a faculty member at your school. Their assistance may be helpful in attaining extra credit or achieving community service credit at your school.
Purpose of the Competition
The world will not evolve beyond its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation – Albert Einstein
For a long time, scientists and environmentalists have known that an unchanged pace in the expansion of world population, industrialization, pollution, food production will reach the limits of our planet’s resources in the next 60 years. With new ideas and your help we can alter this pace and establish a condition of economic and environmental equilibrium. The goal is to develop a global system that meets the basic material needs of every human and to allow everyone the opportunity to realize their maximum potential.
The purpose of this competition is to raise the active consciousness of High School students regarding the issues of sustainability and the built environment through thinking about improvements that can be made to places we encounter in daily life.
About Upward Gravity
Upward Gravity uses design competitions to enable high school involvement in the creation of solutions to environmental and sustainability challenges. These projects are intended to use abstract thinking in conjunction with common subjects like math, science and writing, to solve the problems related to sustainability in our world today.
A design competition promises to create a tangible way to interweave a real world exercise with existing high school curriculum. Envision the next generation of leaders with the will to collectively champion a healthy coexistence with the natural environment and a complete view of global financial sustainability.
Submission Requirements:
A written synopsis of the project is due 2 weeks prior to the competition that describes the significant features of the project. The synopsis should be no more than 250 words.
Drawings or models that communicate your ideas. You will be given a table top space of approximately 2’x3’ for your presentation. If boards are provided, you should provide no more than 2 boards that are no larger than 24”x 36” apiece.
Submission suggestions: In order to best describe your ideas we suggest a graphic representation; computer illustrations, physical 3-D model, or hand drawn elevations. Participants are required to bring their submissions to the jury site the day of the review and be available for questions during the judging process. Be prepared to present a brief statement about your project. One hour will be given for set-up of your submission.
Registration:
Along with your registration application, please provide a one sentence description that describes your design intent. There is a $20.00 registration fee to cover the administrative costs of the competition. Please send a check or money order with your application to:
Upward Gravity Foundation
3469 Barry Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
Eligibility:
The Sustainability Around Us competition is open to High School Students in Southern California. Individual submissions only; teams are not allowed. Only one submission per person will be allowed.
Questions:
Questions about the competition will be accepted until October 31, 2009. Questions should be sent via email to: upwardgravity001@gmail.com
Upward Gravity will respond to questions by November 6, 2009. Responses to questions will be sent to everyone who is registered for the competition.
Jury
The jury will be composed of professionals representing the Los Angeles design community. The final jury will be announced by October 5, 2009.
Prizes:
First place: A $500 scholarship.
Second Place (2): $300 scholarships
Sponsor:
Upward Gravity
Tangram
Studley
Event Location and Host:
The Green Hive located at 811 Wilshire has generously agreed to host our event.
The Green Hive provides all of the necessary touch points to the process of accessing and embracing sustainable alternatives. In this way, The Green Hive promotes new lifestyle habits and business practices by providing an integrated market forum, for the professional, consumers, and public.
Timetable:
Registration Closes: October 31, 2009
Questions due by: October 31, 2009
Responses to Questions Sent out by: November 6, 2009
Synopsis Submittal: November 16, 2009
Submissions Due: Saturday December 5, 2009. Submissions shall be brought to the judging site by the participants by 10:00 AM. One hour will be given for setting up the submissions before the judging starts.
Jury Evaluations: Saturday Starting at 11:00 AM. Everyone is invited to attend the Jury Evaluations of the project.
Winners Announced: Saturday December 5, at 4:00 PM