A rendering of Tyler’s winning project, entitled "Recycle Generate Build," which utilizes shipping containers to create a pop-up makerspace that promotes sustainability.

A team of Architecture students from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture have won the Museum of Outdoor Arts’ (MOA) inaugural collegiate design competition, as part of their Design and Build arts education program. 

MOA sought conceptual proposals from art, architecture, design and other creatively-focused undergraduate and graduate students from across the United States, asking them to address the challenge of designing a pop-up makerspace through a blend of architecture and sculpture/installation or other solutions, while utilizing sustainable materials. The goal of the competition is to cultivate potential from emerging artists, architecture and design students, as well as other creatives and to allow students the space to conceptualize inventive ideas within a set of boundaries.

And Tyler's students delivered. Architecture students Emma Frecon, Thomas Lantz, Avery Mathews, Sharrod Parker Jr. and David Pintor developed a proposal, entitled "Recycle Generate Build," in which repurposed shipping containers are used to engage communities in making sculptures from their own recyclables. The first container (red) is equipped to safely recycle plastic into fine shreds. The second container (green) safely melts these shredded materials and molds them into sculptural components. In the third and final container (blue), participants can creatively apply finishes to their reclaimed sculptures.

“We are elated to see the level of creativity and inventive thinking that our first national level Design and Build Competition produced,” said Cynthia Madden Leitner, MOA president, in the museum's official announcement. “The mission of Design and Build is to 'motivate invention through collaborative creativity' and we certainly accomplished that in the competition's first year.”