DIRRT COMPETITON UPDATE

Great news. The DIRRT competition isn't due until the 30th of April. More time to actually complete the project, instead of handing in next to nothing tomorrow...that said, I have to re-evaluate whether or not I'm solving a problem--the criteria said "solves an existing industry
problem or meets an unsolved customer need".
-I'm providing more residence options for students (but is there a shortage? do they need variety? is there a market for these kinds of rooms? would people even be willing to stay in them?)
-Is the shortage to the point where people would be 'desperate'/willing to jab pods into the side of the school building?
-Is there a point really to giving students sustainable places to live? Or does it make life harder for them?
-Does it improve or disprove the existing building that the pods are attached to?

What I need to do is make this project totally full-proof so that no matter what the 'oddities' or the possible 'issues' that are raised, nothing can stand in the way of this being undeniably useful and innovative.

Adobe Illustrator

Today Blair, my instructor, showed a few of us how to use Adobe Illustrator... this changes everything now! I love it, but out of the 10 kids in class who wanted to learn it, by the end of the lesson only 3 were still keeping up...and then there was me, just utterly stunned. Why didn't I know about this sooner? All those designs, all that art, all those contests and competitions that could've been infinitely better... its easy to see why I there were so many that I had lost now. Regardless, I think every single T-shirt, rendering or design that I have, I will try to refurbish it in CS4. Then just resubmit some designs again, just to see how the tables turn...

DIRRT COMPETITON PHASE 2

Today is March 16th. There are 15 days left in the contest. Just over two weeks is plenty of time to get a good a idea, conceptualize and design.

My school is undergoing a renovation. The one building they are not renovating ironically happens to be the ugliest too--and this is where my design for this competition comes into play. Taking inspiration from fungus and moss, I think the best thing to do with the building is to cover it in dorms for students, dorms that are cantilevered out from the building and jut out to meet this really really fantastic view of downtown Calgary. Why make a building so large, at such a peak that you see the valley down into the mid-city? I'm sure there are loads of students that would really appreciate such a view.

So the rooms will stick out of the building just a little (perhaps 7 or 8 feet). They, along with corridors and maybe greenhouses (which we will have to consider a little later) will cover the walls much like moss covering the trunk of a tree.

I'm going to use a few of the interior principles the I found very interesting from the Tumbleweed; Tiny House Company:

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses/

This dorm is to be small, efficient, have very effective storage space, but it is meant to feel very comfortable and safe above all things.

I have a rather fixated notion that the BEST people to do experimental designs for are teens and young adults particularly because they are intelligent and impressionable--students who are set out to start living on their own and take care of themselves and suddenly met with the desperation that they need to find the easiest way to take care of themselves. IF we can make sustainable living just as easy, comfortable, and intelligent like any other living, then students will adapt and start to appreciate the benefits of living in such conditions--which hopefully they will want to experience and demand later in life. So now the time comes for me to make a few designs, probably tomorrow or the day after. I will also research methods of grey-water system, and other eco-friendly methods for sustainability so that these dorms will not need to consume more energy that really necessary.

DIRRT COMPETITON

So, in celebration of launching this all off, there is a competition that I'm already interested in: the DIRRT Student Competition that's being run through my school.

DIRTT STUDENT INNOVATION
Value: $1,500 per Team Number: 2

Criteria:
• Demonstrated capacity for innovative
thinking in a project, preferably with a project
course, that solves an existing industry
problem or meets an unsolved customer need.

Deadline: April 30th

These are the kinds of competitions I really like--full freedom to do whatever comes to mind.
So if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

Let the brain-storming begin!