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May 12, 2016

The Construction Industry Round Table 10th Annual National Design Competition

The students of DDC's 2016 ACE Team 8.
The students of DDC's 2016 ACE Team 8.

DDC’s ACE Team 8 participated in the C.I.R.T (Construction Industry Round Table) 10th Annual National Design Competition. After the submission of their entry students were invited by the ACE Mentor Program of Greater New York to present their C.I.R.T. submission along with other ACE Teams from the greater NYC area. ACE students fielded interesting and engaging questions from a panel of industry professionals. Panel members were impressed with the project topic and with Team 8’s focus on exploring solutions that were attainable by the local community and its economy, and cognizant of the need to offer suggestions that utilized local, readily available and affordable resources. The topic of the project captivated the audience. Students spoke about meaningful issues and posed practical solutions. The mentor judges delivered helpful feedback to the students.

Following the presentation, the ACE Mentor Program of Greater New York presented cash awards to high achieving high school seniors to support and enable them to pursue careers in architecture, construction and engineering. DDC’s ACE Team 8 was delighted to have two scholarship recipients!

  • Peter Maisano received a $4,000 award
  • Jonathan Tejeda received a $1,000 award

The following narrative describes the substance of the presentation DDC’s ACE Team 8 made before the ACE Mentor Program of Greater New York:

For the C.I.R.T (Construction Industry Round Table) 10th Annual National Design Competition, DDC’s ACE (Architecture/Construction/ Engineering) Team 8 chose to re-design and re-invigorate the shoreline of Islambag, a city within the province of Dhaka in Bangladesh. They selected this location because every year during the monsoon season (from July to September), Islambag is completely destroyed, resulting in a desperate need to repair and rehabilitate in the aftermath of the heavy floods. Families are forced to rebuild their homes and disease and injury are rampant and medical facilities are out of commission. As a result, thousands die each year. The economy, dependent on agriculture, becomes stagnant as over half the crops are destroyed and all available resources are consumed in rebuilding the city. With funding from companies that have a stake in Islambag's development, ACE Team 8 set out to explore remedies to these problems.

The students and mentors of DDC's 2016 ACE Team 8.
The students and mentors of DDC's 2016 ACE Team 8.

Dhaka has a population of 15 million people. For years Dhaka poured resources into mitigating the effects of destructive flood damage. However, their preventive efforts were not sufficient to prevent flooding damage to this burgeoning society. Team 8 had as its goal to protect Islambag from flooding while incorporating multiple new technologies to advance a city that is deeply rooted in the past. The re-design of the shoreline was intended to foster unprecedented growth, which would in turn allow the area to grow socioeconomically. Team 8’s intention was to rebuild the shoreline, not to replace the existing community, but also to allow the community to positively use the resources available locally, without the worry of having to move away after flooding and to allow Islambag to return to full functionality as soon as the flood water receded.

Humans have been adapting to their environment throughout history by developing practices, and cultures suited to local conditions, such as building homes on stilts to protect against the monsoon rains. However, climate change raises the possibility that existing societies will experience climatic shifts (in temperature, storm frequency, flooding and other factors) that previous experience has not prepared them for. Team 8 explored ideas from existing flood mitigation and preventive measures in areas such as Holland and England.

Students explored the following ideas:

  • Flood adaptable construction of structures
  • Elevated walkways
  • Transportation by boat
  • Systems of bridges
  • Water contamination issues

Congratulations to Team 8 and its amazing mentors!