The Design Institute of Australia (DIA) will be hosting its annual Sandcastle Challenge, a competition open to all ages and professions.

Teams of two and up to a maximum of four are welcome to take part, with kids more than welcome to help out. Each team has 75 minutes to build their masterpiece, before relaxing and waiting for the demolition derby to begin as the tide comes in.

The last sandcastle standing wins.

Competitors can take cues from artist Calvin Seibert, whose design work is ultimately temporal and lasts as long as it is low tide.

Gizmodo reports that Seibert has been making sandcastles since he was a child, but only recently started photographing his creations.

“When I was a kid I made structures that looked like buildings in the early stages of construction. I wasn’t interested in finished looking scale models. We lived in a neighbourhood where houses were always just being built and I was attracted to that,” Seibert told Gizmodo.

“For many years I never bothered to photograph what I made. Then as I started doing so I also started taking them more seriously. Thinking about how they might evolve. How I push the shapes and ideas.”

Some of Seibert's models seem to reference a particular perod of architecture, such as the jagged edges of Soviet Constructivism, and the sinuous curves of Le Corbusier in his later works.

The DIA’s Sandcastle Challenge will take place on Saturday, 22 March in Fairhaven, Great Ocean Road, which is about 90 minutes drive from Melbourne.

It is $20 per team to enter, and there are a limited number of tickets are available. For more event information or to register a team, please visit www.design.org.au

Sandcastle Challenge 2013 from Chijoff + Co on Vimeo.

All images by Calvin Seibert, who goes by Box Builder on Flickr. Source: gizmodo.com.au

Geraldine Chua

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