In 2015, the Mayor of the Gold Coast, Tom Tate, in partnership with the city of Chengdu, launched the Gold Coast and Chengdu Public Art Design Competition. Students at any local university were to work in teams to develop a concept design for a potential public artwork that could be installed in the city of Chengdu.

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The criteria for this public artwork was as follows:

• Representative of the landscape and culture of Chengdu;

• Symbolic of the relationship between the Gold Coast and Chengdu;

• Embodies appropriate and imaginative concepts that are well executed and intelligently sited; and

• Improves the attractiveness and interactivity of the space.

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My team - consisting of two visual arts students, an engineering student, another planning student and myself - designed a sculptural artwork influenced by the aesthetics of lotus pods and seashells, which are emblematic of Chinese and Australian nature, respectively. Furthermore, our sculptural artwork - which we called "Pod" - encourages both fast and slow-paced interactivity, as children can play on the pod sculptures while their parents can comfortably supervise from the seashell seating.

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We progressed to the final stage of the competition alongside a team from Bond University, and our respective concept designs were sent to Chengdu for judging. Both teams were invited to a tour of the UAP (Urban Art Projects) studio in Brisbane, where the winning team would be announced. Our Pod design won first place, and my teammate Lowana Davies and I were elected to represent our team at an awards ceremony held at Sichuan Normal University in Chengdu.