Make It Heal Contest Starter Kit

Welcome to the Make It Heal Contest Starter Kit!

This guide will help student teams or individuals take their first steps in the Autodesk Design & Make It Real: Make It Heal challenge—a design competition inviting student innovators across the U.S. and Canada to reimagine how the built environment can support healing, recovery, and community resilience after disasters.

Whether your team is designing a school rebuilt after a flood, a community pavilion for neighbors displaced by wildfire, or a restorative outdoor space that helps people reconnect, this guide will help you:

1. Understand the contest prompt and how to interpret it
2. Explore real-world inspiration from the Make It Heal film series
3. Begin designing using Autodesk Tinkercad, Fusion, and Forma
4. Practice a workflow used by architects, engineers, and builders in the real world
5. Start creating with the Tinkercad digital kit of parts featured in the following tutorials

This guide will continue to grow with more inspiration—so check back often!

Autodesk offers students, educators, and educational institutions free educational access to Autodesk products and services. Once eligibility is confirmed, you’ll have access for one year, renewable as long as you remain eligible. Learn more here.

These are the most relevant tools for this contest:

1. Tinkercad (for concept modeling)
2. Tinkercad kit of parts for getting started: Imperial | Metric
3. Forma Site Design (for site-aware placement, wind/solar studies, context modeling)
4. Autodesk Fusion (for fabrication-ready prototypes)
5. Optional: Revit (for fine-tuning designs for construction and creating compelling visual stories)
6. Computer or Chromebook
7. Internet access
8. Your imagination + a team of up to 5 students

The core question behind "Make It Heal" is simple but powerful: What if the built environment could be part of the healing?

Your project should imagine a public space or structure that helps a community recover after a natural disaster or other destabilizing event. The “healing” can be:

1. Physical — protecting from weather, providing shelter or essential services
2. Emotional — supporting reflection, connection, or peace
3. Social — rebuilding community ties, providing common space
4. Environmental — restoring land, improving resilience, or strengthening ecosystems

Inspiration sources

You can respond to events like:

1. Wildfires
2. Floods or hurricanes
3. Severe storms
4. Earthquakes
5. Heat waves
6. Community displacement
7. Loss of shared spaces

Example interpretations

1. A modular pavilion that becomes a gathering point after a fire
2. A healing garden where residents can decompress after a traumatic event
3. A redesigned clinic, school, or community center that supports resilience
4. A mobile makerspace for rebuilding efforts
5. A shaded public shelter using passive cooling strategies
6. A community hub offering access to resources during recovery

You can think small and meaningful… or large and visionary. The important thing is purposeful design supported by digital tools and storytelling.

Before you begin designing, take a moment to explore the big idea behind this year’s challenge:

What if the built environment could be part of the healing?

The short teaser at the start of this step introduces the themes of loss, resilience, and rebuilding with purpose, led by New England pro quarterback and aerospace engineer Joshua Dobbs.

Trailer recap

In just thirty seconds, the film sets the tone for "Make It Heal." You’ll see Josh Dobbs walking along the Los Angeles shoreline, reflecting on how quickly life and landscape can change after disaster.

The trailer asks you to think about how design can restore dignity, safety, and belonging after crisis.

Discussion questions

Use these questions by yourself or with your team to start thinking like a designer responding to real community needs.

1. Change, Loss, and Possibility

1. What emotions did the opening scenes of the ocean and wildfire aftermath evoke for you?
2. How can nature shape—or reshape—the places you call home?

2. Rethinking “Home”

1. What does “home” mean to you—a place, a feeling, or something else?
2. How might someone’s idea of home change after a disaster?

3. Designing for Healing

1. What kinds of healing (emotional, physical, social) do you think communities may need after a crisis?
2. What does it mean to design a space that helps people heal?

4. Tools That Turn Ideas Into Impact

1. How might digital tools (3D modeling, BIM, VR) help communities rebuild more effectively?
2. Can technology support emotional and social recovery too?

5. Your Starting Point

1. If your community needed to recover, what would be the first space you would design?
2. Who would your design serve first and why?

Activity: “Spaces That Heal” Vision Board

Create a quick sketch or mood board showing what a healing space looks like to you.

Consider including:

1. natural elements (light, water, plants)
2. spaces for gathering or connecting
3. quiet areas for reflection
4. colors and textures that feel supportive

Then ask yourself: How might this space help someone move forward after a crisis?

Extend your learning

Read this article on biomimicry in architecture to discover how nature-inspired systems guide resilient design—how might these ideas inspire your "Make It Heal" project?

Before you begin your own design, take a moment to analyze how previous Design & Make It Real finalists turned ideas into impact.

Read:

Building Belonging: 8 Student Designers Reimagining Affordable Housing

What to look for:

1. How did each student or team define a problem and choose a site?
2. How did their visuals + narrative create an emotional connection?
3. What made their designs realistic as well as creative?
4. What tools did they use—and why did those tools matter?

Quick exercise

Choose one student project and discuss:

1. What problem did they address?
2. What design choice stood out to you?
3. How might you adapt parts of their approach to your own project?

This tutorial with Christian Pramuk, Tinkercad Product Manager, shows how to:

1. Sketch early design ideas directly in Tinkercad
2. Use Bezier curves for smooth, organic forms
3. Apply the Revolve tool to turn profiles into 3D shapes
4. Create symmetry and curvature quickly
5. Modify profiles on the fly for rapid iteration
6. Build complex forms using simple shape combinations
7. Naturally “ladder up” toward the parametric thinking used later in Autodesk Fusion

Why it matters:

Sketching in 3D helps designers rapidly explore concepts before committing to a final form. Revolve unlocks domes, canopies, columns, and sculptural elements perfect for healing spaces.

This tutorial with Guillermo Melantoni, Tinkercad Lead, walks through how early concepts can become site-aware, data-informed designs using Forma Site Design.

You’ll learn how to:

1. Begin in Tinkercad Codeblocks with modular, parametric “building pieces”
2. Adjust wall segments and structural elements with variables
3. Move into the 3D Editor to assemble modules into a pavilion
4. Export your model to Forma Site Design
5. Place the design onto a real geographic site
6. Pull in context like terrain, nearby buildings, road networks, and vegetation
7. Run AI-assisted solar and wind studies
8. Test how variations in orientation or height change comfort and performance
9. Make data-driven design decisions—just like professionals

Why it matters:

Forma helps teams learn how the real world impacts design. Even simple adjustments can transform how healing spaces feel and function.

To help you move from ideas to action quickly, as you saw in the last step, we’ve created a Tinkercad digital kit of parts inspired by real-world recovery and rebuilding efforts.

This kit gives you a flexible set of starter building elements—such as walls, roofs, structural forms, and landscape components—that you can remix, modify, and combine to explore early design concepts. Think of it as a creative launchpad, not a finished solution.

You can use the kit to:

1. Block out the overall form of a space that supports healing
2. Experiment with scale, layout, and proportions
3. Explore how people might move, gather, and feel within the space
4. Quickly test multiple ideas without starting from scratch

The kit is intentionally open-ended and optional. You’re encouraged to stretch it, break it apart, add your own elements, or use it as inspiration to build something entirely new.

How to use the kit

1. Visit the Tinkercad design linked here: Imperial | Metric
2. Copy and Tinker the design so you can make it your own.
3. Rearrange, resize, or redesign components to match your vision for community recovery.
4. Focus on big ideas first—form, function, and feeling—before worrying about details.

This early exploration stage is about thinking spatially and creatively, not perfection. As your idea takes shape, you can continue refining it in Tinkercad or move your design into tools like Forma Site Design or Fusion to analyze site conditions, test performance, or prepare for prototyping.

Your goal isn’t just to design a structure—it’s to begin shaping a place that helps people heal.

Photo credits: Ajith Varikuti (left); Marcos Leon Gonzalez (right)

Why use Fusion for "Make It Heal"

Fusion helps you build detailed prototypes and components, especially if your team wants to explore fabrication, structure, or modular construction. It’s ideal for:

1. precise modeling
2. joinery + connections
3. digital fabrication (laser cutting, 3D printing, CNC)
4. exploring how construction and manufacturing converge

Explore Fusion learning resources.

Why use Revit for "Make It Heal"

Revit helps you refine details and communicate how your design works for real construction. Use it for:

1. interiors and layout
2. structure + materials
3. annotation and visual storytelling
4. making your project feel buildable

Explore Revit learning resources.

Continue to sketch, assemble, prototype, or place your model in Forma Site Design.

Use the prompts above and think about:

1. Human-centered design
2. Climate resilience
3. Sustainability
4. Community needs
5. Cost and constructability
6. How your space supports healing

Document your work with screenshots, sketches, and notes—showing your process will strengthen your final submission.

As you design, test, and present your Make It Heal project, use this Make It Heal Design Rubric as a guide—not just for scoring, but for making stronger design decisions throughout your process.

The best entries don’t just look good. They show clear thinking, iteration, and real-world relevance. Revisit the rubric often to check whether your work is headed in the right direction.

How to use the rubric

Use the rubric at multiple points:

1. When you sketch your first ideas
2. When you share your design for feedback
3. After you test or revise your design
4. Before you document and submit your final project

Let the questions in each category help you decide what to improve next.

1. 3D Digital Literacy & Design (25%)

What this category focuses on:

How effectively you use Autodesk tools and real-world data to solve problems through 3D design.

As you work, aim to:

1. Model your idea clearly using Autodesk tools
2. Keep shapes intentional and organized
3. Design with scale, proportion, and clear relationships between parts

To strengthen your work:

1. Use 3D tools to test ideas and make purposeful changes
2. Break your design into reusable parts or modules
3. Adjust variables or configurations as you iterate

To go further:

1. Use real-world data (such as orientation, site context, or modular connections) to inform decisions
2. Ladder your design into tools like Autodesk Forma, Fusion, or Revit to test, analyze, or refine your solution

Ask yourself:

Am I using 3D tools and data to make better design decisions—not just to make something look good?

2. Engineering Mindset (25%)

What this category focuses on:

How you think like an engineer or designer.

Show your mindset by:

1. Clearly explaining what problem you’re solving
2. Showing iteration (before-and-after changes)
3. Explaining why you improved or adapted your design

Strong projects demonstrate habits such as:

1. Visualizing ideas
2. Improving through feedback or testing
3. Systems thinking (how parts work together)
4. Adapting to constraints
5. Problem finding and creative problem solving

Ask yourself:

Did I test ideas, learn something, and make changes based on what I discovered?

3. Real-World Relevance (25%)

What this category focuses on:

How well your design connects to real architecture, engineering, construction, or trades work.

As you develop your project:

1. Define the purpose of your design and who it serves
2. Reference real needs such as safety, shelter, access, or resilience
3. Consider how the space would actually be built or used

To strengthen this category:

1. Test your design using tools like Forma
2. Explore materials, construction methods, or site conditions
3. Show how your idea could realistically support community recovery

Ask yourself:

Could this design realistically help a community recover?

4. Presentation & Storytelling (25%)

What this category focuses on:

How clearly and compellingly you communicate your design and process.

At a minimum, include:

1. Images and written explanations

To create a stronger presentation, consider:

1. Materials and color choices
2. Exploded or modular views
3. Section views (inside vs. outside)
4. Short videos or walkthroughs
5. Annotated drawings with notes or dimensions

Your goal is to help others understand how your design works, why it matters, and how it evolved.

Ask yourself:

Does my presentation clearly communicate my thinking and design process?

Pointers for Collaboration (Not Part of the Judging Rubric)

If you’re working as a team:

1. Make sure all members contribute
2. Highlight different roles or strengths (design, research, modeling, writing)
3. Explain how collaboration improved the final outcome

Ask yourselves:

Did we build something better together than we could have alone?

Use the rubric as a design companion throughout your project. It will help you stay focused, make intentional choices, and create a Make It Heal submission that reflects both strong ideas and thoughtful execution.

Building is a team sport. Share your ideas with:

1. Teachers
2. Community members
3. Local AECO (architecture, engineering, construction, and operations) industry mentors
4. Other students or student teams

Revise based on new insights. The best designs evolve.

What’s next?

This starter kit will expand with more contest details, learning content, and inspiration.

Check back as the contest progresses!