In Student ‘Shark Tank’ Competition, Creativity Is in the Water

With its tree-lined sidewalks, carpet-like quads and manicured flowerbeds, the archetypical college campus isn’t thirsty for scenery. But its scenery is thirsty all the time, gulping millions of gallons of water a year to keep up appearances. 

A pitch for a modular vegetation wall that could keep universities (and other properties) lush through rain- and gray water harvesting, filtering and storage was one of two concepts to take the top prize this year at ArchiNova, the annual “Shark Tank”-style ideas competition for University of Maryland architecture students. 

“You can imagine what this could do for a huge facade like the back of McKeldin Library,” said architecture and urban planning graduate student Ignace Batsuli, who created the Harvest Wall concept. 

Batsuli split the $600 first-place prize with architecture graduate student Conell Brandner for his pitch of HomeStacks—modular housing that can adjust as life changes. Buyers start with an affordable “core home” and add modules as their needs and budgets grow. 

“People don’t need their one dream home on day one—incomes grow, families expand and needs shift,” said Brandner. “Instead of forcing people to move when their lives change, what if the home could grow with them?” 

Now in its third year, ArchiNova was developed by Architecture Program Director and Professor Mohammad Gharipour, Associate Clinical Professor Ken Filler and Suzanna Kelley, chief experience officer at McKinley Advisors in Washington, D.C., to encourage design students to flex their creative and entrepreneurial muscles to solve a societal, environmental or business challenge. 

It’s part do-good, part entrepreneurship and full adrenaline: Each student must formulate a pithy pitch that includes market comparisons, cost, scalability and design in just two weeks. The best four, chosen this year out of a dozen entries, presented to faculty, peers and a cadre of industry “sharks” on Monday evening. 

In addition to addressing water use and the U.S. housing crisis, concepts this year also looked to bring people together, particularly on UMD’s campus. A concept for shaded, WiFi- and charging-enabled seating called PowerTree created by architecture and business management student Shayla Gonzalez delivers pop-up gathering spots in the grassy areas of campus that students are drawn to, but that draw down their phone batteries. 

CubeLamps, a modular "atmospheric" system that fuses texture, shadow, color, light and movement through box-like “shells,” can be an architectural element large enough for humans to move through or small enough for a desk. Creator and architecture student Sasha Duwan said the competition inspired some of the best digital work she’s ever created at UMD. 

“It really offered me absolute freedom,” she said. 

At its heart, ArchiNova is a creative exercise, but Filler also sees it as a starting point. He envisions his students teaming up with engineering or computer science students to take a concept to the next level, with funding opportunities—like UMD’s Do Good Challenge—offering the potential support to turn ideas into impact.

“This is about defining a problem and proposing an innovative solution,” he said. “I think that’s what our students tapped into.”