Creating dream cities

LAST WEEK there was an opportunity for Chennai kids to be Le Corbusier or Job Charnock. Build your model city, they were told and given three sets of building bricks.

So they built their cities on one foot long thermocole sheets. They made them as eco-friendly as they could get with safe plastic, ensured the buildings were quake-friendly, provided excellent road-rail networks and had the Chennaiites sighing, ``Oh for a city like this.''

Sixteen schools from Chennai participated in the Fabmart Lego `Model City' contest: Gill Adarsh Matriculation HSS, Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Padma Sheshadri Bala Bhavan SSS (two branches), SBOA Matric HSS, St.John's English School, Sri Sankara SSS, Cresent High School, St.Michael's Academy, St.John's International Residential School, Chettinad Vidyashram, Good Shepherd Matriculation HSS, Kendriya Vidyalaya-IIT campus, Bala Vidya Mandir, St.Patrick's AIHSS and Anna Adarsh Matriculation HSS.

The cities were as different as they could get. Riotous imagination produced towns with sound negators, quake resistant houses fitted with shock absorbers and fed by energy trapped in solar panels and even pollutant absorbents!

All their models were on display at the St.Michael's Academy last week, before they were packed up neatly as they were to be transported to Bangalore for the finals of the All-India event. Fabmart's vice-president (marketing), Mr. K. Vaitheeswaran, said the competition was designed to inculcate in children a concern for the environment. The competition was also a curtain-raiser to the company's launch of an online toy store.

Around 60 schools in seven cities in the country responded to the call from Fabmart to participate in the contest and 33 are making it to the finals. Nearly half the finalists are from Chennai.

The finals will announce three winners, the prizes for schools being LEGO Dacta labs worth Rs. 90,000, Rs. 60,000 and Rs. 35,000 as first, second and third prizes. Plus Fabmart gift certificates worth Rs. 200 each for all participants, redeemable at the online store.

By Ramya Kannan

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