Working with two dimensions is not too hard. Working with a cityscape introduces a third dimension, but within very tight constraints. Your orientation is still towards a two-dimensional ground-plane, so your thinking is anchored in that grid as well. But what about building a habitation for outer space? What about building a residential neighborhood for a space station?
Each group has three (3) hours to design and build a proposed standard
neighborhood module for a spaceport in permanent high-earth orbit. Each standard neighborhood
module should have an inside usable width of forty (40) meters, an inside usable height of forty (40)
meters, and an inside usable length of one hundred twenty (120) meters. Each standard neighborhood
module should have the appropriate infrastucture built in to the module (lighting, sidewalks/streets,
tunnels for services, etc.). Each standard neighborhood module should have a connector on one
end, thus allowing a series of standard neighborhood modules to be joined together to form a ring.
The winning team's design and initial implementation will be used by all the other teams, and the resulting set of neighborhoods will be joined together at the end of the term to form the beginnings of a space habitat. The winning team will get to work on a series of objects to populate the orbital area surrounding the Permanent Orbiting Port rather than just populating one of the ring-segments for their final group project.
The instructor will serve as Judge on this contest. All decisions of the Judge will be final. Appeals and whimpering will result in a plague of frogs visiting your home.