DENVER (October 29, 2021) – In June 2021, Colorado based arts organization,
MOA (Museum of Outdoor Arts), announced its third annual national collegiate
design competition as part of its award winning
Design and Build program. In October, individual and student teams from across the US submitted their conceptual design proposals for a future monument on Mars. Four winning teams have been selected, representing the best entries received in the competition.
MOA sought out conceptual proposals for the competition from art, architecture, design, and other creatively focused USA based undergraduate and graduate students. Submissions addressed this year’s challenge of designing a monument for Mars through a blend of architecture and sculpture/ installation or other creative solutions, while utilizing sustainable materials. Students flexed their creative muscles to design their conceptual projects for the red planet.
Winning Entries
First Place- $5,000 Award
Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana)
R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning
Malequi Picazo, 2021 Bachelor of Architecture Graduate
Tanner Prewitt, 2021 Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Graduate
Second Place- $2,500 Award
University of Colorado Denver (Denver, Colorado)
College of Architecture and Planning
Katie Tardif, 2nd year Master of Architecture student
University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Greensboro, North Carolina)
Interior Architecture Department
Isaac Backhaus, 5th year Bachelor of Fine Arts Interior Architecture student
Third Place- $1,000 Award
Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Graduate School of Design
Forrest Rosenblum, 2nd year Master of Landscape Architecture student
Xiaolin Li, 2nd year Master of Landscape Architecture student
Senmiao Yang, 1st year Master of Landscape Architecture student
Honorable Mention- $500 Award
Pennsylvania State University
Department of Arts and Architecture
Shwetanc Bothra, 5th year Bachelor of Architecture & Bachelor of Art History student
Hunter Kenne, 5th year Bachelor of Architecture student
Full proposals and images may be viewed in our
media kit.
“While the competition is primarily architectural in nature, it provides an opportunity for students to think about integrating art and landscape into architecture,” said Cynthia Madden Leitner, MOA president. “This aligns with the Museum of Outdoor Arts' history of creating environments that are a synthesis of art, architecture, and landscape.”
Since 1991, MOA’s
Design and Build program has provided an opportunity for emerging artists, students, and creative minds to express their creativity in collaborative art, architecture, and design projects. Since the inception of the program thousands of students throughout Colorado have collaborated on site-specific installations. Assisted by professional faculty and artists in residence,
Design and Build participants have produced exciting and original site-specific art works for MOA’s gallery and public spaces throughout the Denver metro area.
2021 marks the third year of the national competition arm to the program. The goal of the competition is to cultivate potential from emerging artists, architecture, and design students, and other creatives and to allow students the space to conceptualize inventive ideas within a set of boundaries.
The competition garners an
online repository of art, architecture, and design concepts. It is the goal to take the competition to an international audience and collaborate with creatives across the globe in the future. It is also the hope to be able to realize and build student design prototypes in the future. The competition is currently only open to students attending college in the US, and will begin accepting international entries in the coming years, once the program is further established nationally.
A call for the next competition challenge will go out this winter. The next competition will be open to individuals, teams, and university faculty who wish to take the competition on as a class project. More information may be found on the
Design and Build Competition website.
