Introduction

As an undergraduate architecture student, Maya Lin submitted a design proposal for the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 1981, her submission (seen above) competed with 1,422 other submissions and won. Her design concept featured a black granite wall with the names of 57,939 fallen soldiers carved into its face. This example illustrates the power of sketching for communicating design ideas.  

Instructions

Review your list of ideas for a site-specific monument in your local community. Which one are you most interested in pursuing? Pick your favourite brainstormed idea and draw a detailed sketch of your very own community monument idea. Use detail, colour, and add descriptions to the drawing to help a viewer easily understand your concept. You may also use collage elements if you prefer. 

To learn more about various types of sketching, and useful techniques, watch the short video in the Resources tab above, produced by our collaborators at NuVu Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Tip: It's helpful to include human-like figures in your drawing to represent scale and possible kinds of interaction. 

Record Your Work

Take a picture of your detailed sketch. You'll be sharing that image when you submit your project!

>> Proceed to Step 5 (Submit!)

<<To return to the Challenge Steps page, click here.