UIA-HYP CUP 2021 International Student Competition in Architectural Design

Theme: Architecture in Transformation

Topic: Countryside Dilemmas-New Rural Planning

Jury Chairman: Rem Koolhaas

Registration Deadline: 24:00(GMT+8) September 20^th, 2021

Submission Deadline: 24:00(GMT+8) October 10^th, 2021

Jury Review: October 2021

Content

The advent of the year of the Ox brought destruction to the ancient village of Wengding in Yunnan, which has been recognized as important cultural countryside heritage since 2006. The fire that raged through Wengding however exposed more fundamental dilemmas that go beyond replacing the village’s thatched roof tops and intricate wood constructions, which my team and I have been observing in many places in the world for some time now. It coincides with an important crossroads in thinking about the future of the countryside in China and beyond.

China’s rural development has been largely based on top-down industrial planning. Like in many places in the world this brought modernity to the countryside and offered dramatic improvements in the quality of life for many. It however also meant that historical, natural, and cultural quality concentrated in age old ways of living suffered. In 2020 the unprecedented anti-poverty campaigns in China that reshaped countrysides since the 1970s across the nation and specifically areas not unlike those we find in and around Wengding came to a first completion. This important milestone marks an important moment for reflection on this initial way of working not only for China: it demands new considerations on the future of planning the countryside.

China is not alone in this struggle. In the exhibition and book Countryside. The Future I showed with the AMO team and a large group of experts how far architecture has drifted from the countryside across the globe. From looming environmental disaster in Russia, the firm corporate grip of ruthless forms of Cartesianism in the West, to the larger global consequences of preservation and growing migration crises, we show that thinking and planning the countryside has never been more important for a shared future.

The old way of planning large swaths of countryside around the world was largely based on an industrial and material-based planning method or the narrow interests of markets. Both are up for reinvention. We also witness how conventional ways of defining heritage are buckling under pressure of packaged tourism, generating a hollowing of what we consider authentic. Combined with the new ambitious sustainability and rural revitalization goals, these are new milestones of a different nature, which need a new approach in it recognizing the quality of village life. Both the environment and the need for more sustainable ways of living urge us to rethink our relationships with nature and culture. It is also clear that a new generation wants a different form of interaction with the countryside. Informal tools and platforms like Chinese Rural Taobao, rural social media platform like Kwaisho, and small scaled technological and financial add-ons used in the Sub-Sahara, offer the start of a new toolkit for planning, framing, and experiencing the countryside: offering hybrid active lifestyles where countryside and urban activity generate a new blended life. Besides convenience and comfort, the authenticity of a ‘real’experience and focus is paramount.

The countryside fundamentally challenges the paradigm of the architectural profession by requiring a more deeply ingrained role compared to being a city’s ‘service provider’. There might be no such thing as architecture related-information to fall back to. Rural context requires a skills-set where economy, infrastructure, new and old technology, and culture have to work in unison, in order to generate new experiences. Solely mastering old arts and crafts will not bring the future that is needed.

We ask you to submit these ideas and or the best case studies examples that challenge existing planning tradition to collectively build a library of the most relevant and interesting possibilities to give a new fundamentally revised view of the future of the countryside.

Design Requirements

-       Projects should propose new experimental planning formats and proposals in the countryside. These proposals are not limited to China and invite all countrysides across the globe.

-       The plans should show engagement with and involvement of local communities with a social, economic, and new cultural component. Ideally you work directly with locals.

-       Projects should make use of new (digital) infrastructures in a novel way, not as a gimmick and have a relationship with popular (contemporary countryside) culture.

-       Projects should strongly consider their own economic and ecological sustainability and address this.

-       Format for presentation is a movie no longer than 2:00 minutes and three A1 boards. The movie and boards have a free format. Make your projects stick out, striking, fresh, exciting and engaging.

-       Plans, sections, elevations and renderings can be used when relevant.

-       The movie is not allowed to show personally identifiable information, and your submission has to be subtitled in English.

Organizations

International Supporter：Union International des Architectes（UIA）

Hosting Organizations：School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Urban Environment Design (UED) Magazine

Co-hosting Organization：School of Architecture, The Central Academy of Fine Arts

Advising Institutions：Chinese National Evaluation Committee of Higher Architecture Education, Architecture Art Committee of China Artists Association

Exclusive Naming Sponsor：Shanghai HYP-ARCH Architectural Design Consultant Inc. 

Co-organizers：School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, School of Architecture, Southeast University, School of Architecture, South China University of Technology, School of Architecture, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University

Prize and Award

1^st Prize (1 team)

Certificate and 100,000 RMB (approx.15,000 USD) (before tax);

2^nd Prize (3 team)

Certificate and 30,000 RMB (approx.4,500 USD) (before tax);

3^rd Prize (8 team)

Certificate and 10,000 RMB (approx.1,500 USD) (before tax);

Honorable Mentions (several teams)

Certificate

Advisors of prize-winning projects will also be awarded with certificates.

Competition Procedure

1. This is a fair competition open to all architecture and relevant major students around the globe. Full-time on-campus architecture students from accredited institutions (including master and PhD candidates and graduate students of 2021) can participate alone or as a team with team members of no more than four people and advisors of no more than two.

2. Only the team leader will be contacted when necessary if students participate as a team.

3. Log on http://hypcup.uedmagazine.net/?r=site&en=1, click “Online Registration”to fill out the registration form and submit online.

4. After filled in the registration form, participants will get a serial number (please take care to preserve it as each participant/participating team has only one serial number).

5.Please submit the digital version of drawings and related documents to [email protected]，

before the submission deadline, 24:00(GMT+8) October 10th, 2021. The organizing committee accepts no printed version. Entries will be printed and exhibited together in due time.

6. With the assistance of the committee, juries will meet and decide the winners.

7.Inquiries related to the competition will be responded to via e-mail: [email protected]

 Submissions

1. Please submit the digital version of drawings and related documents to [email protected]. Please include “Competition+ Registration Serial Number” in the e-mail subject line. If the entry is too large to attached, please upload to online file sharing website such as “We transfer” or “Google drive” and provide download link in the submission email. Entries will be printed and laid out by the committee.

2. Language: English

3. Scale and dimensions must be in metric units.

4. Documents: Recognizable scanned copy of passport and student card should be attached in the e-mail. Students themselves are responsible for the authenticity of the documents.

5. Entry Requirements

a. Specification: The layout of the 841mm x 594mm drawing should be horizontal. Each work should be composed of 3 drawings as follows:

b. Content: Site-plan that can fully express the design intention; plans, elevations and sections; perspective drawing, illustration and a design description of about 500 words (to be integrated in the pictures and drawings). There is no limitation on proportion. 

c. A TXT document must be attached in the e-mails of the submission, which include participants’ name, registration number, e-mail address, mobile phone number, name and contact information of the advisor (if any), the full name of the school and department, title and brief introduction of the submitted work.

Drawing layout requirements

1) Please submit the drawing layout (300 dpi in resolution at least) in the version of jpg, and name the picture according to the content (such as XXX plan 1) 2) Please submit the text information in the version of TXT in the folder named by the participant(s)’ name 3) Submission Requirement:  Please submit one file in the format of zip or rar and the file size should be between 50mb-100mb. This file should contain three folders, they are: 

(1) Drawing: Three drawings  (2) Identity Certificate: Scanned ID photo (or Student Card and Passport) (3) Text (TXT)

Competition Regulation

1. Individual participants and groups must agree with and follow the competition requirements and regulations. The organizing committee reserves its right of final interpretation. 

2. Entries with words or pictures relating to the name or department of participants in the digital drawings will be disqualified from the competition. 

3. Participants have the copyright, while the organization committee can exercise all other rights except authorship.

4. Entries that have been submitted to other competitions, published on other public occasions or found to be similar to other works in terms of design ideas will be disqualified from the competition.

5. Juries cannot act as advisers to participants; otherwise participants will be disqualified from the competition.

6. Each participant can only register in one team.

7. Each group is only allowed to submit one piece of work. Repeated submission is prohibited. Once discovered, the organizing committee owns the right to choose any one of them.

8. The information of the team is based on the final submission of the TXT file.

Dates and Deadlines

Registration Deadline: 24:00(GMT+8) September 20th,2021

Submission Deadline: 24:00(GMT+8) October 10th,2021

Jury Review: October 2021

Contacts

Competition Website: http://hypcup.uedmagazine.net/?r=site&en=1

Competition Email: [email protected]

China Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and abroad：Star

Tel: +86 18201019047; Email: [email protected]

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