Big Picture
The Long Haul to Design Village
![Four students carry wooden structures on a dirt road surrounded by greenery](https://magazine.calpoly.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ss24_big-picture_hero.jpg)
At the annual Design Village architecture challenge, first-year students design and create unique temporary dwellings on campus, then transport them in pieces by hand up the half-mile-long route through Poly Canyon, where they reassemble and spend the weekend in them.
Check out a few more photos from Design Village weekend, learn how this year’s teams navigated the competition’s “modular” theme, and watch as structures come together in the canyon.
![Students assemble a structure made of colorful fabric and a metal frame on a hillside near Poly Canyon structures](https://magazine.calpoly.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ss24_big-picture_inset-tend.jpg)
![A student pushes a colorful structure wall mounted on wheels through Poly Canyon's hillside](https://magazine.calpoly.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ss24_big-picture_inset-colors.jpg)
![A student uses hand tools to build a structure in Poly Canyon](https://magazine.calpoly.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ss24_big-picture_inset-tools.jpg)
![Three students assemble a wooden structure in Poly Canyon](https://magazine.calpoly.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ss24_big-picture_inset-lumber.jpg)
![Students sit in hammocks held by triangular wooden structures during Design Village](https://magazine.calpoly.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ss24_big-picture_inset-triangle.jpg)