Today, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Google are kicking-off the Design It: Shelter Competition, a global competition that will challenge users to design a simple shelter in 3D with Google SketchUp, give it a geographic location using Google Earth, and share it by uploading to the Google 3D Warehouse.

The summer-long competition, which begins on Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday and will conclude on the Guggenheim Museum’s 50th anniversary, is inspired by the work of architecture students at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and a recent exhibition of that work at the Guggenheim called ‘Learning by Doing’. A signature project in the school’s curriculum for over seventy years, students are tasked with choosing a location near one of the school’s Taliesin campuses in Arizona and Wisconsin and designing a small, 100 square foot shelter. Students are encouraged to consider human needs for safety and comfort, and more broadly, to recognize the connections between a structure and its geographic location. The Design It: Shelter Competition offers a twist on this assignment, empowering anyone – not just students – to use Google tools to think about design and ultimately share their ideas with the world.

After choosing a location in Google Earth, competition participants use SketchUp to design their shelters in 3D and upload them to the Google 3D Warehouse. They submit an official entry on the Guggenheim website and, within a couple of days, will be able to see their work, as well as other participants’ submissions, with the Google Earth Plug-in on the Guggenheim Museum’s website.

Competition judging will occur according to the following schedule:

* June 8
Contest begins
* Aug 23
Model submission deadline
* Aug 23 - Sept 7
Current Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture students will select 10 finalists
* Sept 7 - Oct 10
Public vote to select winner of the “People’s Prize”
* Oct 10 - Oct 21
Panel of architecture and design experts will select “Juried Prize” winner. Panel includes
Martin Cox, Principal, Bade Stageberg Cox
Neil M. Denari, Principal, Neil M. Denari Architects
Cathleen McGuigan, Architecture Critic, Newsweek
Victor Sidy, Dean of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture
Lisa Strausfeld, Partner, Pentagram
Aidan Chopra, Google SketchUp Product Evangelist
David van der Leer, Assistant Curator, Architecture and Design, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

On October 21, 2009, the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum, winners will be announced and prizes will be awarded. Both winners will receive airfare and two nights’ accommodation for two in New York City, behind-the-scenes tours of both the Guggenheim Museum and the Google Office in NYC, complimentary admission to selected NYC museums, and a Google SketchUp Pro 7 license.