The entry by Daniels grads Drew Adams (MArch '11) and Fadi Masoud (MLA '10), along with Harvard grad student Daniel Ibañez, was announced as the First Prize Winner of The Arizona Challenge. The Arizona Challenge is an ideas competition for arid-climate communities that are highly efficient, sustainable, livable and healthy. It seaks forms that lead first to prototyping, with the overarching goal of helping to shape our future cities and urban environments well beyond the limitations of what currently exist.

The team’s entry envisioned compact, self-sufficient enclaves embedded in the landscape, as new territories beyond current urban reaches. "The jury gave high praise and appreciation for the thoughtful and artful qualities of your Autonomous City proposal. Replacing the out-modeled downtown core with a great central infrastructural park, celebrates not only the use and pleasure of its citizens but also the metabolic processes and relationships between man and nature. This is an unmistakably clear and radical idea for the future" - Vernon D. Swaback, Chairman of the Jury.

The top three teams will travel to Phoenix, Arizona for a joint celebration and will participate in the first of seven forums for the Foundation later this summer.

See the contest website for more details.