King County Seeks Big Ideas with a Little Footprint

King County Parks and the GreenTools Program have announced the ‘Little Footprint’ competition to design an overnight structure using a surplus cargo container that can be staged at appropriate sites in King County Parks’ open space areas.

The challenge of the Little Footprint competition is to encourage a design that creates a comfortable and durable sleeping area from a 20-foot-long steel cargo container, and that takes into account the rugged forested parts of King County where it will be placed.

There are more than 200 parks and 26,000 acres of parks and natural lands, 175 miles of regional trails and a world-class aquatic center located in King County. The King County Parks Department aims to provide visitors with a unique way to enjoy overnight visits to the park system by installing comfortable and environmentally responsible sleeping structures. 

“We are looking for designs that integrate the principles of conservation, sustainability, public recreation, aesthetics and forest stewardship,” said King County Parks Director Kevin Brown. “This is intended to be a fun and creative contest that will provide us with a practical design that overnight parks users will enjoy.”

All architects, designers, hobbyists, students, builders and generally creative people are encouraged to apply. There is no fee to apply and the competition closes Aug. 22.

A panel of judges will be convened by King County to rate the submitted proposals, with the winner announced at the Built Green Conference on Sept. 14. The winning design will receive an award of $4,500.

King County Parks has identified multiple sites for potential installation of the winning design and will finalize the site once the winning design has been chosen. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2012, and site installation is expected to occur in summer 2012. Contest details and rules can be found at http://www.kingcounty.gov/recreation/parks/partners/littlefootprint.aspx