Metamorphosis for designers
Published: Monday, April 23, 2012
Updated: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 19:04
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The CSM architecture club participated in a competition hosted at the California Polytechnic State University College of Architecture from April 12 to 15, showcasing student designs.
The competition, known as De- sign Village, where three student teams from different schools each designed their own structures and built them on-site.
“I don’t really put much emphasis on winning,” said George Sun, adviser of the architecture club. “It really is more about the students seeing their designs realized, and having fun in the process.”
The theme of the competition was metamorphosis, meaning each structure had to have different stages of use that they would change into throughout the day. Vertical chairs built by the team would lay down and cover a sleeping team member at night.
Thursday and Friday saw intense winds and showers, while Saturday and Sunday were drier and more mild. The more extreme weather, which happened to land on the days in which most major construction is done, impeded the progress of the contestants, and several schools did not show up at all.
The effects of such weather were apparent before the team’s arrival at the university, as a load of construction material flew out of one of the trucks along the way.
The gates were scheduled to open at 9 a.m. but did not open until 10 a.m., also due to weather problems. “A lot of the time we were knee deep in mud, trying to put everything together and protect the materials from being soaked,” said Clarissa Dusciuc, 27, architecture club member. “We would try to kick the mud off our shoes, and end up losing our shoes instead”.
Another challenge came in the form of transportation. Teams were required to walk a mile to the build site with all their materials, without the aid of automobiles.
A crucial part of the metamorphosis theme was the requirement of the teams to actually use their structures as shelter, and the urgency of having a reliable shelter was intensified by the weather.
“You had to build your structure so you could actually sleep in it,” said Dusciuc. “If you were still building at 2 a.m., you aren’t sleeping.” The Design Village committee has yet to post the winners online. Attendees of the event claim that the names of the winners were never called out, rather, a numbering system was used, so competition winners are still unknown at press time.
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