The graduate in design Jesús Musitu and the 2nd year Architecture students Javier Fernández, Joan Rigo and Eduardo García demonstrated their ingenuity in the III National Competition of Structures, in which they were awarded prizes. The competition, in which the participants had to build, with spaghetti, small-scale towers capable of resisting an earthquake, was held last Saturday, for the first time, at the Public University of Navarra. Previous editions were held at the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra.

Jesús Musitu, the only solo participant, won the first prize of 1,000 euros in the senior category, award , for the best structural capacity. His "DA-VI" structure held 10 kg of weight for 25 seconds. "The real award has been to obtain a functional physical model that has gone through a very fun process. The core topic for the structure to hold firm starts from the basis of space optimization through geometry. After that, different concepts in relation to wave travel and material behavior have to be taken into account. I spent 90% of my time analyzing space," says Musitu. Although he does not reveal which brand of spaghetti he used to make the structure, the designer assures that this choice is also important, since "each business has its own recipe, ergo different quality of the material".

Also the students of Architecture Javier Fernandez, Joan Rigo and Eduardo Garcia were awarded with the second prize for the best design -endowed with 200 euros-. 

The competition judged the best models based on the skill of their Structures with respect to a gravitational load, with the addition of an oscillatory motion, as in a real seismic event. The projects were built with a kilogram of spaghetti and glue.

Using a special table with a machine built for this purpose by one of the organizing companies -which allows replicating the seismic movement for two Structures at the same time-, the students varied the seismic forces in the tests according to the resistance shown by the Structures.

Photo of group of the winners and members of the jury of the third edition of the contest. PHOTO: Courtesy

More awards

In the junior category, the first award was for the high school Jesuitas team formed by Aimar Peragón, Miguel Zamora, Natalia Bañón, Miguel Achaerandio and Diego López.

In addition to the prizes awarded to the former student and students of the University of Navarra, 4 other prizes of 200 euros each were awarded: best design senior category, for Javier Martínez and Ion Sesma from UPNA; best design junior category, for Guillermo Astes, Javier Elustondo, Miguel Labiano, Iván Ilzarbe and Mikel de la Iglesia, from high school Jesuitas; award from social networks, for Mª Fernanda and Martín Burdaspar (senior category); and second prize for the best design of UPNA students, for Javier Martínez and Ion Sesma.

45 teams and 146 participants

In this edition, the issue number of participants has doubled compared to previous years. One of the most important novelties has been the inclusion of a new category, the junior, which has also allowed students from schools to participate. The participating schools were Liceo Monjardín, Jesuitas, Teresianas and Vedruna. In the junior category, 16 teams and 69 people participated, and in the senior category, 29 teams and 77 people.

The jury, made up of representatives of the organizing entities, highlighted the "high level of the Structures presented, highlighting innovative designs that are truly resistant to seismic movement". The competition was organized by Chair Industria 4.0 (formed by high school of Graduates and Industrial Technical Engineers of Navarra and the Public University of Navarra), Desait Tech, Forjados Viarpre, FS GROUP Engineering, Nabrawind, Tetrace, University of Navarra and Viguetas Navarras.

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