The town centre of Westport, Co Mayo is in line for a makeover by both secondary school and fourth-year architectural technology students from Galway-Mayo Institute of Technolgoy (GMIT) Castlebar, with a new competition using Google’s mapping and design technology.
The competition will use the pre-existing 3D virtual model of Westport (pictured) that was one of the first European cities to be rendered using state-of-the-art, long-distance laser scanning technology, giving Google Earth users a chance to walk the streets and get a close-up look at the buildings.
This is the second ‘Town of Tomorrow’ urban design competition for Mayo students, and was launched last year by Daniela Brica, the European 3D Captain for Google Earth.
It will give the teams a chance to look at a particular section of the town and come up with some new, exciting ideas in urban planning using Google’s professional SketchUp http://sketchup.google.com/download/ software.
Westport town manager Peter Hynes said: “If last year’s entries are anything to go by, we are expecting some fabulous new ideas on how our Heritage Town could be developed in the years to come.”
Daniela Brica, who is also one of the judges, said: “I’m particularly looking forward to seeing what the budding urban designers and architects from GMIT Castlebar will think should be contained in the Westport of Tomorrow.”
