Design Build Challenge Comes to Seattle

Design Build Challenge, a competition in which designers, architects and builders create functional public structures for marginalized communities, today announced that its annual competition will be held from March 27-30 in Seattle, WA. DBC provides participants with the opportunity to create practical, yet attractive, structures which will be deployed in
targeted areas, including the Tent Cities, the Homeless Place of Remembrance and local area shelters.

The Design Build Challenge kickoff, which is open to participants and members of the press, will be hosted by PB Elemental Architecture, LLC, at 8:00 p.m. PT on Thursday, March 27. Coordinators will provide attendees with an overview of DBC’s mission as well as an introduction to competing teams. PB Elemental Architecture is located at 1916 23rd Ave. S. in Seattle.

All phases of the competition, from initial planning through final construction, will be completed during the four-day contest. Challenge teams will partner with community organizations around Seattle that have pre-existing design needs, and organizers will monitor the work Friday and Saturday through site visits. Final judging will take place on March 30, and winners will have their projects published in The UW Journal of Architecture and Urban Planning.

DBC is sponsored in part by SHARE/WHEEL, the organization which manages Tent City. “We at WHEEL welcome the opportunity to bring public attention to the public problem of homelessness,” said Janice Connelly, a spokesperson for WHEEL and DBC competition judge. “The Design Build Challenge’s theme and purpose, ‘displaced persons’ and ‘making a difference,’ are right up our alley.”

This year, DBC comes to Seattle in response to the city’s rapid urban redevelopment practices; many low-income communities have been uprooted and, according to a recent survey conducted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle has seen a 15 percent increase in people living on the street within the past year. Last year’s Design Build Challenge took place in New Orleans in response to the large number of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

To register for the DBC kickoff, please contact Forrest Carman at 206-322-1167, x118. Additional information is available online at the following URL: www.designbuildchallenge.org/.

About Design Build Challenge

Originally created in 2007 in New Orleans by Project Locus, the Design Build Challenge is an annual design and construction competition open to participants of all disciplines and levels of experience. The DBC ‘08 focuses on various marginalized communities within Seattle—particularly the homeless—that are currently facing issues of displacement due to rapid urban redevelopment. The DBC aims to emphasize craft, creative reuse, environmental awareness, and innovation in response to the needs of the displaced communities identified in this challenge.

DBC ‘08 is co-hosted by TiLT and Project Locus. TiLT is a local coalition of designers, architects, and builders based in Seattle, and its members seek to improve the lives of the less fortunate through public art and architecture. Project Locus is a grassroots organization committed to educating architects and builders through the sensitive design and construction of public structures in areas of need.