A Grand Idea Initiative- Inhabit

What is this competition about?
This competition is focused on design solutions that can change our immediate urban environment into places that we can truly inhabit. The first series of ‘The Grand Idea Initiative’ is called ‘INHABIT‘. The ultimate challenge of which is to create solutions that introduce fun, sustainable, and innovative ways people use public space. The intervention can be components that are spatial, graphical, digital or purely strategic. These ideas have to be US $1000 in budget and need to maximize the return in the shape of a built design solution.

Who should apply?
Anyone – You could be an architect, designer, a mad scientist, a housewife, a student or anyone else interested in making cool stuff for public spaces.

What kind of projects can be submitted?
Projects could be aimed at designing street furniture, environmental graphics, services, online communities, anything that changes peoples behavior to how a public space gets utilized.

Submission requirements
A photograph of the Site – The place of your intervention, preferably in your neighborhood
The Proposal – A 100 word design brief describing your project.
The Design – Your proposal in a visual format, e.g. sketches, drawings, photo collages, anything that clearly outlines what you propose to do.
The Budget & Timeline – Breakdown of the usage of the US $1000. A tentative installation/implementation timeline.

Please send all these requirements in a letter size PDF format. The number of pages in the PDF document should not exceed more that 4 pages.

What is the budget?
US $1000

Selection process
The selection of the final project will be based on creativity, innovative thinking, maximum impact and practical plan for implementation.

Our judges are -

Raul Correa Smith
Co-founder, FAISCAS
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture, Columbia University GSAPP

Raul Corrêa-Smith earned his BA from the Taubman School of Architecture at the University of Michigan in 1998 and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University’s GSAPP in 2002 with Honors for Excellence in Design. Born in New York City and raised in Rio de Janeiro he now resides in NYC, works at Studio Daniel Libeskind and is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture at Columbia University’s GSAPP.

Soo-in Yang
Co-Founder of The Living

Soo-in Yang created The Living with David Benjamin in 2004. Using an open-source, collaborative approach, the architecture firm designs both handheld interfaces and urban-sized buildings. Work by The Living has received multiple international awards and has been exhibited and published widely. Their current projects include a 50,000 square meter mixed-use development in New Jersey, and a floating network of pods in New York’s rivers that sense water quality and presence of fish, then display a cloud of light that changes colors according to environmental conditions. Yang graduated from Yonsei University with a BE in Architectural Engineering and received Master of Architecture degrees from Columbia University. Yang teaches at Pratt Institute and at Columbia University, where he is the co-director of the Living Architecture Lab.

Where should the entries be sent?
Send your PDF attachments to [email protected]. Please include your name and contact information in the body of the email as well as on the PDF document. The subject line should be “Inhabit Competition Submission”.

Important Dates
Inhabit Competition kicks off – May 17th 2010
Deadline for Submissions – June 17th 2010
Winners Announced – July 17th 2010

For more information
Contact us at [email protected]

This competition would not have been possible without the generous contributions from these amazing people and friends :
Ramakrishnan Subramanian
Rahul Pande
Kiran Kannacheri
Saravanakumar Velayudham
Sameer Kumar
Keerthik Sasidharan
Saad Tabani
Ritwik Dey
Giana Gonzalez
Jairam Ranganathan
Amit Desai
Priyanka Gupta
Shweta Mudgal

Other things to keep in mind
* This competition is open to people from all countries
* Since public intervention laws are different in different countries, please choose sites that have the potential to grow without   upsetting any stringent legality.
* The project money is NOT prize money but money to build something small and useful

About the Grand Idea Initiative
A Grand Idea Initiative is a 5 part series competition – INHABIT, LEARN, ORGANIZE, HEAL & SUSTAIN. The rest of the competitions will take place as soon as we raise the prize money for them.

Watch the Grand Idea trailer here - http://www.designwala.org/2010/04/coming-soon-a-grand-idea-competition/

Go the site - http://www.designwala.org/2010/05/a-grand-idea-inhabit-competition-brief