The Design Competition for Powell Street Festival challenges art students to take into account civic engagement, cultural relevance, environmental sustainability and practical design limitations in the design of an interactive artwork.

The design proposal is to create a visually engaging, experiential installation or experimental spatial setting that creates opportunities for interaction at the festival site.

Interaction should be conceptualized in a multitude of ways: between the park and the neighborhood; between the designers and the various constituencies that could engage the pavilion in its development, installation, and afterlife; between the human and animal occupants of the park; between the history of the Japanese Canadian community in the Powell Street neighborhood and the community that resides in the neighborhood today.