Today we had a 60 minute design charette in the

Today we had a 60 minute design charette in the office during lunch. The project was a treehouse for an artist. Since time was of the essence, we were given the project brief and started designing right away. We were given photos of a particular tree but were given a lot of freedom as well. Cost was not an issue nor was accessibility. Basically we had to go with our instincts and design from our gut. It was awesome.

The overall sense I took away from it was a feeling of exhilaration. I had some serious adrenaline flowing the entire time. It was definitely like an episode of Project Runway.

At pencils-down time, we had to run upstairs, pin up our sketches, and present to the four jurors. They then selected two projects of which the entire participating group then voted for the winning design. Congrats to Ruth for taking the prize!

There were 14 entrants in the competition as well as many other onlookers. I walked away with a great sense of accomplishment and it was a nice injection of design into the normal busyness of the office. I hope lots of people ask questions about the projects. They’ll be pinned up all week.