The Arizona Challenge

http://thearizonachallenge.org

The Arizona Challenge is a regional design competition that seeks to inspire and ignite multidisciplinary teams of students to envision self-sustaining communities that lead first to prototyping and eventually, a whole new reality. The goal is nothing less than to shape our future cities and urban environments, well beyond the limitations of what currently exists. Given the freedoms provided by the structure of the competition, the pursuit is for ideas that push the extremes of design for a more sustainable and healthy way of life. Key variables include: changes to our land use patterns, transportation practices, water and energy usage and generation, including related policies, and the miniaturizing and decentralizing force of technology, all related to our own beliefs and behaviors. The educational and applied purpose of such concepts is to inspire “We, the people” to awaken and embark on a more integrated path to success.

The Arizona Challenge participants, through their design concepts, will offer an approach for engaging the community at large to participate and contribute to the development of a more rewarding way of life, inspired and supported by how we design those settlements. The competition provides a much needed opportunity to imagine and reach for the magnificent possibilities that exist beyond the reach of our current piecemeal codes, ordinances, development practices and behaviors that stand as barriers against the greater success that can be ours for the asking – by design. The intended outreach is for ideas to be applied in the fresh and welcoming atmosphere of the Arizona desert as models for the rest of the world.