Students imagining the future

BACK ON TOP  The ‘Awesome League’ from Rice College took the secondary school prize for the second year running, from left: Dave O’Connor, Google, Cian Tracy, Timothy Horgan,  Cllr Martin Keane, Cathaoirleach, Westport Town Council; Danny Geraghty, Joe Phillips and Michael Duffy, Editor, The Mayo News.

Students imagining the future


Áine Ryan

PIONEERING architectural competition, ‘Town of Tomorrow’ is set to be open next year to secondary schools from all over County Mayo, as well as third level institutions throughout the country. Google Earth executives will also travel to Westport to award next year’s recipients. It has emerged that ‘Town of Tomorrow’  is the only competition in the world judged by global giant Google.
The announcement was made at this year’s awards ceremony, held at Screen One of the Westport Cineplex on Wednesday night last, where the winning images of the innovative and futuristic architectural images were shown.
This is the second year of the competition, which stipulates that ‘creations can be as realistic, futuristic or idealistic as the students’ imagination dictate’.
Introduced by Ms Anne Moore, Town Clerk, the Cathaoirleach of Westport Town Council welcomed all the participants. Cllr Martin Keane said: “I have been informed that this year’s standard is incredible and each project presents a great challenge and will have a creative impact.”
Mr Michael Duffy, the recently appointed Editor of The Mayo News, welcomed the high level of entries (25).
“The designs which you will see tonight are not something that are thrown together overnight, they take time, effort and I suppose what will ultimately decide the overall winners is that little bit of innovation or ingenuity that make their design stand out,” said Mr Duffy.  
Students, teachers and parents of Carrowbeg College, the Sacred Heart School, Rice College and the GMIT, Castlebar were also told by Dr Brendan Hafferty, co-ordinator of the event, that ‘it was uplifting’ that such a global brand name – Google – was so enthusiastic about the project.
Overall winner of the second level entries was Rice College for ‘Awesome League’, which the judges, in their citation, praised for its ‘very clever design’.
“I like the Art Gallery buildings, the thought that went into features for different age groups. and the innovative upper walk way,” wrote Ms Daniela Brica, Senior Associate with Google.
Of the GMIT winning entry, ‘Team Cubists’ she observed: “We love this one. Beautiful integration into the town’s community needs. High level of design quality for each element. Designs that truly relate to the area, i.e. Atlantic viewing tower.”
Other best entries included: Carrowbeg College’s, ‘The Keg’; the Sacred Heart School’s, ‘Gasp’; and Rice College’s, ‘Sotum and Co’.
Town Manager, Mr Peter Hynes said: “The standard of ideas you see in the various designs is absolutely incredible. Although, one or two of the images may prove controversial if they came into the planning system.”
The competition is hosted by Westport Town Council in association with Dr Hafferty and The Mayo News. It’s genesis was in the development by Dr Hafferrty of a detailed interactive 3-D map of Westport which has been included on the Google digital globe.
The winning teams were presented with net books ands iPods.