Design Your Dream House Contest Winners

[Russell L. Thomas]

‘Design Your Dream House’ Contest Winners:
We are posting the winners before the official web page goes up give the contestants some closure to all their hard work! I will be e-mailing some of you with comments based on the judge’s discussions that were made while I was present. Everyone is a winner here and did great work and a fantastic job in positive participation, which has been commented on quite frequently. The judge’s selections are as follows:

Grand Prize Winner:
Taylor Osborn - Casa de Adrenalina

Runner Up Winner:
Pao Yang - A House for an Artist

Honorable Mention Winner:
Roberto Sacco – CamHouse

Please don’t forget to submit if you qualify for the special prize for those who used a sponsor’s product. It could be a chance to gain exposure on top of winning the prize. Details and submissions can be found here:
Special Prize for Users of Sponsor's Products

In the forums we joked about having judging done by people off the street to see what their selection would be. Currently the entries are posted in our office and the staff is picking their favorites and having dialogue about the entries. With that in mind I am creating an award in name only for the image our office manager liked the best, and the judge’s thought should win if the contest was based on rendering alone. The artist that receives this merit of mention is:

The Anita Award Winner:
Przemyslaw Piprek - spark from the past

The judges seemed to really focus on unique and personalized entries that were bold and took risk. The emphasis was on design first and graphics second in the most basic of explanations, these categories where broken down into sub categories and the discussions and selections were based on a more complicated system of criteria. One area was noted that the judges would have liked to have seen developed more, was the site and setting the projects took place in, they felt that a lot of the sites were flat and the project set on it, they would have liked to have seen unique and challenging sites chosen and the entries respond to them. The entries that did do this to some extent got some recognition in some of the judge’s opinion, and they were more likely to overlook rendering issues of the site on these projects due to the complexity of site. One judge commented that they wished that more contestants had used the example sketch and narrative assignment in the contest outline to guide them in their selection of subject matter, and be even bolder, and create even more personality in the entries. Multi-imaged layouts were appreciated, it allowed them to view the design as a whole and they recognized that the artist was taking some risk showing more than the just the ‘money shot’. The judges also realize that this is a difficult exercise that takes both artistic and technical skill sets that are rare in combination. They recognized that everyone has their own concept of a dream house.

They also wanted to point out that their job was to select a winner by reducing the number of entries to the one that best meets in their opinion the assignment and is a unique and personalized design of a dream house, their comments don’t reflect all the good qualities of the projects and were meant as dialogue in narrowing the field, much could be said of the positives. There were some lengthy discussions on entries that didn’t win and I will be following up with some of you to share some of the comments.

Taylor Osborn - Casa de Adrenalina
This entry was chosen in part by the clarity of vision and consistency of approach. The concept is reinforced through an active environment with forms, context and layout consistently supporting it. Certain design elements could have been scrutinized but it all worked as a whole and the judges were sold on the design intent and how it was presented. At least one of the judges thought it would have been stronger if all of the terrain would have been shaped like a skate park. They also thought that the lesser amount of realism saved this entry from some of the pit falls they saw in other entries. They knew that some might question the selection based on the abstract presentation, but thought that it worked and was appropriate to the subject matter and the Xtreme concept and thought it actually strengthened it and showcased the design consistently.

Pao Yang - A House for an Artist
Great forms and a somewhat dream like quality caught the judge’s eye. They loved the roofline and glass enclosure with the mass intersecting the ground. This project got some points in some of the judge’s eyes due to the form of the landscaping; it creates a nice setting for the project. They were a little uncomfortable with some of the massing breaking up the glazing and that was an area they thought could be refined. They also thought this project may have been even stronger with a cleaner abstract rendering due to some of the difficulties in the texturing of the site, but overlooked some of them due to the fact that it was a challenging setting. It was also mentioned that the wrong money shot may have been chosen, a couple of the smaller complimentary images were stronger and helped this entry out in the end. The dynamic forms, boldness of design and complex setting gave this entry the nudge over the next entry in their opinion. In the end the bold and whimsical qualities of the design really attracted the judges.

Roberto Sacco – CamHouse
Refinement and attention to detail of this project got the judge’s favor. Little items really added up, transitions, tracks to stabilize freestanding walls and reflections of the surroundings in the polished sphere got their praise. Some other items like the entourage standing in the shade and taking back seat to the architecture was appreciated. The judge’s did not really think the urban setting as laid out was the best solution, the project was by itself on a concrete island and the buildings in the background detracted from the focus of the image, but they did note it was one of the few entries in the urban context. In the end they thought the small size of the project allowed for more attention to detail and that the entry wasn’t as bold and the setting as challenging as the Runner Up. Sincere and straight forward design and a beautiful rendering is one way to sum up the entry.

This is my recollection of a brief narrative of the long dialogues that took place, comments chosen were meant to provide the winners with useful input on the basic’s of the judges discussion and not to sugar coat everything, we could have covered only the positives, but that would not be useful feedback in my opinion. This hopefully allows all the contestants an insight into the selection process for this contest.

I thought I would mention that ‘Brian Cassil - Desert Edge’ received a huge amount of attention and was really well favored, I will be contacting Brian and giving him feed back on what the judges had to say, but wanted to give that entry the mention it well deserves, as with many others which I will try to follow up on.

All my thanks to the judges for taking time from their families and schedules and to the great sponsors who made the contest possible. I must also thank the wonderful community here who made the contest and the site so enjoyable.

[CKelsey]

Congratulations to all the winners! And a big thanks to the Allusionist for putting on this contest

[Russell L. Thomas]

Thank you for participating it is great having you as a member here, we hope you stick around

[continuumx]

Congratulations to the winners, job well done!

[ME]

Congratulation to the winners.

[tbarnesarc]

It was an honor to be in this competition with soo many talented people. I cannot belive that i won though. Thanks for all the help I got from people here. Russell you have done an amazing job and thanks for talking me into doing this competition. I am definitley here to stay. Have a great weekend everybody!

PS
Brian Cassil & Przemyslaw Piprek you're work is amazing! Great job!

[speedline]

I have no words....sorry!
Congratulations to tbarnesarc and pyang!!

[proctavian]

Heheee, finally the waiting is over.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS FOR THEIR GREAT WORK!!!!


Also congratulation to all the participants, too!!!

[Przemyslaw Piprek]

WHOOOOOAAA!!!! waiting is over!!!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS
It was a great contest full of magnificient works, and great people. I'm very, very happy that I may participate in all of this.
once more congrats to all of the winners and everyone in this contest - GREAT WORK.
maybe we all will meet again in the next one.

[1eo]

congratulations!!!



Regards,
Leonardo