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Seeking Shelter/Slot Shelters

A Design Challenge

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Public Art Installation

By Corinne O. Takara

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Seeking Shelter/Slot Shelters �The Art Installation Component

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Seeing Shelter/Slot Shelters �The Art Installation Component

An art structure installed outdoors for 3 days at Zero1 Biennial. It is a question mark and exclamation mark in the landscape inviting the public to envision innovative bus shelter designs. How can innovatively designed bus shelters encourage community interaction or serve environmental or community needs? The installation is not designed as an answer to these questions, but rather, it is designed as an invitation to envision possibilities. How can we design bus shelters which replenish, engage or enrich the community? These are the main questions of the project which leverages a variety of online tools.

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Seeing Shelter/Slot Shelters �The Art Installation Component

Translucent vinyl decals are available for public to add to structure. Additional large slot cards are available for public to construct additional structures near this core design. Slot Shelters Project site projected onto surface and navigable via a wii interactive surface system at night.

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Seeing Shelter/Slot Shelters �The Art Installation Component

  • The vinyl decals slowly transform the white structure into a colorful collaboratively decorated surface as people add them to the installation. The vinyl shapes are adapted from students’ pattern explorations in Slot Shelters. After all decals are attached, visitors will still be able to pull off and re stick decals. This activity is inspired by the Obliteration Room by Yayoi Kusama.
  • 8 digital tablets available for exploring the project site.
  • From the Slot Shelters website, visitors to festival download and print out Slot Card templates and build mini structures at tables set up with scissors, printers and digital cameras. Creations constructed at the festival are photographed and added to the Slot Shelters site on a special Seeking Shelter Zero1 Festival page. This page will be used as an inspiration page for classes participating in the Seeking Shelter Challenge.

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Seeing Shelter/Slot Shelters �The Design Challenge Component

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Seeking Shelter Design Challenge

  • The Challenge invites youth to envision bus shelters as more than waiting spaces. How can a bus shelter function in replenishing, engaging and enriching the community? Youth from Bay Area and beyond share ideas at http://www.slotshelters.com/
  • Phase 1: students view what was created at Zero1 Festival and begin their own design explorations. Students submit photos of conceptual models (created from slot cards downloaded from ISSUU kit). Online voting.
  • Phase 2: students create Google SketchUp models using student created textures. Design professionals and VTA representatives judge.
  • Design challenge launches with Zero1 Biennial in September 2012 and ends December 2012 with awards in Elementary, Middle School and High School categories.

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Seeking Shelter Design Challenge

Student submit images of conceptual cardboard designs of bus shelters to the Slot Shelters website. These will be submitted via a Google Form. A SurveyMonkey form will be created for online contest voting and will be embedded into the contest page of the website. These student models will be created with found cardboard as well as with building units download from the Slot Shelter Building Cards Kit included in an ISSUU Magazine. It will look similar to the MIO Culture Flipbook for their Nomad Collection: http://issuu.com/mio_culture/docs/mio_nomad_flipbook_ideas

Step 1: Need Finding Prototypes

Student design of a shelter with solar panel roof. Serves as a free medical clinic and bus stop.

Student design of a playful bus stop with a swing and benches.

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Seeking Shelter Design Challenge

Step 1: Need Finding Prototypes

Students view what was created at the Zero 1 festival from slot cards. Students cut Slot Cards from either the downloaded Slot Cards ISSUU kit or pdf files from project site . Students begin Explore lessons on the Slot Shelter website.

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Seeking Shelter Design Challenge

Students create patterns to submit to the project site library of downloadable cards. (this functionality needs to be programmed)

Step 2: Patterns

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Seeking Shelter Design Challenge

In December 2012, students submit bus shelters created in Google SketchUp which address local environmental or community needs. Students annotate structures explaining functionality and needs addressed in the design. Models are shared to a Google SketchUp Warehouse Collection. A Google Doc form is created for contest submission. Students fill out form and include link to their design in the Google SketchUp Slot Shelters Warehouse Collection. Design professionals and VTA representatives judge and select winners.

Step 3: Building Design Ideas in SketchUp

A Fifth Grader’s rendering of a bus stop using patterns created from photos he took of community