International Competition for Implementation-Oriented Urban Design of the Core Area of Hangzhou Linping Digital & Smart City

What is Hangzhou East New Center?

The urban growth of Hangzhou Metropolitan Area has been moving from the "West Lake Era" (West Lake centered development) to the "Qiantang River Era" (River-supporting development), the era of technology and innovation corridor, and now towards the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. The city is opening up a new development pattern facing the world and the future. On the basis of the Hangzhou Eastern Intelligent Manufacturing Corridor, the Hangzhou Municipal Government further proposed the strategic concept of "One Core and Two Wings" to integrate spatial resources in the eastern part of the city. According to the concept, the Linping Digital & Smart City will be included in the key development sectors of Hangzhou city as a municipal strategy. Linping will gather efforts to build the Hangzhou East New Center, with Linping Digital & Smart City as the core area, and undertake the important task of integrating the development of Hangzhou with Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta. With this opportunity, we shall explore an urban spatial model for the future.

What is Linping Digital & Smart City?

Industry 4.0, which comes along with the digital economy, has stimulated the new quality productive forces with the help of advanced technologies such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, promoting the transformation and upgrading of the global economy, while comprehensively driving the revolution of cities. The city of the future is bound to develop in a more intelligent, efficient and sustainable way, with adaptive, flexible and open urban spaces that are capable of supporting the latest trend of industries, lifestyles, consumption and entertainment. Relying on the new quality productive forces, Linping Digital & Smart City will take the lead in the development of the future industries, create a cutting-edge urban structure where industries, people and city are highly integrated, and fulfill the new mission of "realizing city-wide digitalization".

In order to execute the important instruction of "crafting urban design with meticulous care", to demonstrate Linping's responsibility in the new era and with the ambition of creating a true "Digital and Smart City",  is now officially launched. The objective of this competition is to gather ideas from international perspectives and draw from urban development experiences both in China and abroad. We are looking for innovative urban design proposals to improve the urban capacity of Linping Digital & Smart City, with the ultimate goal of creating the first fully digitalized and smart city in China.

This competition is hosted by Hangzhou Linping New City Development and Construction Management Committee, advised by Hangzhou Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources Linping Branch, organized by Hangzhou Linping Urban Construction Group Co., Ltd., and co-organized by Position Architecture Co., Ltd, Shenzhen.

 Design Principles

To support building the Hangzhou East New Center, the core area of Linping Digital & Smart City is committed to reveal the charm of a future city by achieving 3 goals: building digital industry clusters, gathering headquarters of new business forms and attracting younger generations. The urban design scheme should explore urban spaces that can accommodate new industries, new consumption, new work mode and new lifestyles. Design teams are encouraged to experiment with new models that integrate physical and virtual scenes, to create the most optimal urban spatial organization within required conditions. Five design principles should be followed:

1) Realizing City-Wide Digitalization and Shaping Urban Spaces for New Quality Productive Forces

The design should aim to achieve “city-wide digitalization” by creating urban spaces that stimulate new quality productive forces, and shape work and living environments that align with the development of new quality productive forces. The design should reflect the future cityscape and attract investments, intellectual capital, innovative talents and other elements to Linping Digital & Smart City within the future context of regional competition.

2) Building a Vitality-Based and Quality-First City

The design should focus on shaping new social spaces through digitalization and intelligence, while considering the spatial experience and space design from the human perspective. The appeal of Linping Digital & Smart City will not be in landmark skyscrapers, but in the complex multi-dimensional urban patterns that cater to the diverse needs of people and integrate multiple business models. The design should rationally organize the height and density of the city, showing a magnificent and lively image. The major high-density areas should act as a "magnetic field" for resource agglomeration, while avoiding an oppressive feeling from building mass. The entire area shall generate continuous neighborhood attraction and street vitality, as well as providing ubiquitous humanistic care and a high-quality experience.

3) Building a Three-Dimensional and Complex City with Industry-City Integration

The design should rely on the advantageous industrial resources such as E-Fashion Town and China Town of Computing Power in the Linping Digital & Smart City to create an urban space that meets the working and living needs of specific industrial groups. At the same time, the value of the land reclamation, after the whole area improvement of Qiaosi, should be fully explored. Integrate the land with the future city and realize the linkage of primary, secondary and tertiary industries. Taking the high-speed railway station and the subway stations as the "transportation hubs", comprehensive solution for transportation optimization and the complex development of above-ground and underground spaces around the area should be proposed.

 4) Building a City with a Unique Cultural Heritage and Identity

The urban design should fully extract and inherit the cultural heritage of Hangzhou and Linping, in order to attract innovation and development resources through these cultural values. A new urban artistic and cultural environment which is suitable for innovative talents should be built to showcase Linping's boldness in innovation, and transform the cultural imagery into language of architecture, to express the unique identity of Linping Digital & Smart City.

5) Ensuring Possibility of Further Development and Implementability

When proposing creative and cutting-edge concepts, strategies and spatial layouts for urban design, it is important to consider both their potential for further development and their practicality. The design should account for subsequent development modes to avoid leaving it as a mere concept. It should be able to guide subsequent planning management, development and construction.

Application Requirements

1. There is no qualification requirement.

2. Consortium applicants are not accepted.

3. The domestic applicant should be an independent legal entity (except for a design studio legally established according to The Partnership Enterprise Law of the People's Republic of China) with a valid business license. The overseas (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions of China) applicant should be a legal company or institution with a valid business registration certificate. Application from an individual or a group of individuals is not accepted.

4. Two or more legal entities with the same legal representative (business partner), a parent company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and companies that has a holding or management relationship are not allowed to apply as different applicants at the same time.

5. The company or institution and the design team should have experience in urban design of core areas (not less than 1 square kilometer) in first-tier cities in China or internationally renowned metropolises and in the design of important buildings in urban core areas. The design companies with one or more of the following project experiences are preferred:

1) Experience in urban design of complex transportation hubs and world-class CBD;

2) Experience in design and implementation of TOD areas and integrated design of underground spaces;

3) Experience in architectural design of public cultural buildings and landmark buildings that are under construction or built;

4) Experience in the implementation of detailed urban design for core areas;

5) Experience in public landscape and environment design.

6. The applicant must designate 1-2 chief designers, and appoint one of them as the principal designer. The chief designers must take full responsibility for the project, and participate in the entire competition process and the follow-up design work. The principal designer is required to attend the site visit & technical briefing session, mid-term presentation, design evaluation meeting and other important meetings. The principal designer should deliver the presentation speech. The chief designers should have overseen multiple similar design projects and possess relevant work experience of at least 5 years.

7. The applicants are encouraged to build up teams of professionals in architectural design, urban design, landscape design, smart city, sustainable design, industrial planning, transportation planning, etc.

Note: The chief designers proposed for the competition must be registered personnel of the design company. To ensure an accurate understanding of the competition requirements, at least one of the main design team members should be a native Chinese speaker. The host/organizer reserves the right to disqualify any applicant if it is found that the actual chief designer does not match the person in the document submitted.

Material Download & Application Procedures

1. Material Download

Please visit the project homepage to obtain competition documents, including the Pre-Qualification Document and related attachments. The addendum and Q&A will be updated on the project homepage. It is recommended to bookmark the website and check it regularly.

Project Homepage: hzeastcenter.archiposition.com

Special Notes：For all information related to this competition announcement, the Pre-qualification Document, related addendum and Q&A shall prevail.

 

2. Application Procedures

Applicants must complete the official registration (email registration) and application document submission before the corresponding deadline. Any failure in official registration (email registration) or application document submission will be regarded as an invalid application. Please refer to the Pre-qualification Document for submission details.

Step 1: Official Registration (Email Registration)

The applicant must send a scanned copy of the Application Letter (PDF) with the company stamp and signature, as well as the Applicant Information Form (Excel) to [email protected] before 17:00 (UTC+8) on May 22 (Wednesday), 2024. Please refer to the Pre-qualification Document for details.

Step 2: Application Document Submission

The complete application document should be submitted to the designated address before the corresponding deadline. The application document can be submitted on-site or by mail.

Application Document Submission Time: 9:00-17:00 (UTC+8), May 27-28, 2024

Application Document Submission Deadline: 17:00 (UTC+8), May 28, 2024

Submission Address: Linping District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The detailed address will be noticed later by email.

Addressee (Contact): Ms. Liu, +86-19926695686

Application for this competition is subject to the complete application document received on-site or by mail before the deadline. Late arrivals or non-conforming materials will not be accepted.

The competition comprises three work scopes: planning research scope, implementation-oriented urban design scope and conceptual architectural and landscape design scope for key plots.

1) Planning Research Scope

The planning research scope is bounded by Wangmei Road and Xinghe South Road on the north, Hangqiao Road on the east, Qiaonong Road on the south, and Hangzhou-Pudong Expressway on the west, covering an area of approximately 10.1 square kilometers.

2) Implementation-Oriented Urban Design Scope

The key nodes include the area around Linpingnan Railway Station, the west side of Yingbin Road, the two sides along Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway and the Fangqiao Tributary, and the plots surrounding Yongxuan Road Station (planned) of Metro Line 18. The urban design scope covers a total area of approximately 352 hectares.

3) Conceptual Architectural and Landscape Design Scope for Key Plots

The scope, which is subject to the Design Brief, is yet to be determined.

Main Design Contents

The design scheme submission for this competition will include the following main design contents. The specific contents shall be subject to the Design Brief released at the next stage.

1) Planning Research Scope

From the perspectives of forward-looking thinking and spatial shaping of the implementation-oriented urban design scope, the planning research should further explore the advantages and potential of the larger area in terms of the regional roles, location advantages, industrial development, transportation conditions etc. The design should put forward higher goals and more detailed objectives for its target positioning, industrial direction, business forms, etc., while finding the core entry point as an important support for the urban design.

By utilizing the current resources, the public spaces, landscape, architectural forms and other elements within the planning research scope should be coordinated with the implementation-oriented urban design scope as a whole. The goal is to jointly improve the urban capacity and quality of the area and create a top-tier urban destination in Hangzhou in the future.

2) Implementation-Oriented Urban Design Scope

In the context of accelerating formation of new quality productive forces, the in-depth integration of digital technology and the real economy, and city-wide digitalization, innovative design concepts should be combined to create spaces that align with the development of new quality productive forces, for urban production, living and experience. Within the implementation-oriented urban design scope, the main design contents include proposing creative and practical design strategies for land use, spatial form, functional organization, slow traffic system, public space and diverse urban experience, so as to highlight the unique temperament of Hangzhou East New Center.

3) Conceptual Architectural and Landscape Design Scope for Key Plots

The design team should develop conceptual architectural and landscape designs for the key plots. The architectural style should be compatible with the urban development and cultural characteristics of Hangzhou. The designs should present a detailed future urban image and be able to guide the subsequent architectural design work. Following the principles of ecology and low carbon, important buildings should have the functional layouts and space designs to clarify the architectural form and spatial relationships. The design should also enhance the detailed imagery of the internal space and exteriors, creating a distinctive cityscape that harmonizes with the landscape of the site, and reflects the cultural characteristics of Hangzhou East New Center.

This competition adopts the form of “open procedure”, which is conducted in 3 phases: pre-qualification, design competition, and final evaluation.

Phase I: Pre-qualification Phase

Applicants must submit application documents as required, including basic information, relevant design experience, profile of chief designers and project understanding. To demonstrate their project understanding, applicants are required to provide a preliminary interpretation, in the format of a project proposal, of how the Linping Digital & Smart City will support building the Hangzhou East New Center, focusing on describing the possible design strategies (not a design scheme). The project understanding should be no more than three sides of A4 paper. For details, please refer to the Pre-qualification Document.

The host/organizer will establish the Pre-qualification Panel by law. The Pre-qualification Panel will evaluate the valid application documents in terms of comprehensive competency, relevant design experience, chief designer's capability and project understanding. 5 shortlisted applicants (without ranking) and 2 alternative applicants (with ranking) will be selected. The shortlisted applicants should submit the stamped Confirmation Letter as required to enter the design competition phase. If any of the shortlisted applicants withdraws, the alternative applicants will replace in ranking order.

Phase II: Design Competition Phase

Design Brief and relevant materials will be sent to the shortlisted applicants. The 5 shortlisted applicants should participate in a site visit and technical briefing session, then conduct a mid-term presentation as required and submit design scheme submissions within the specified time.

The host/organizer will establish the Design Evaluation Panel by law. Shortlisted applicants will conduct a presentation and Q&A during the design evaluation meeting. The panel will thoroughly review all valid design scheme submissions, engage in full discussions, and provide written comments. Two finalists (without ranking) will be selected for the Final Evaluation Phase, and other shortlisted applicants whose design scheme submissions meet the competition requirements will receive the Shortlisted Prize (without ranking).

Phase III: Final Evaluation Phase

The host/organizer will determine 1 First Prize and 1 Second Prize from the finalists in accordance with relevant procedures. In principle, the First Prize winner will be responsible for the follow-up development of urban design scheme and the integration of design scheme submissions.

1. Prizes

The shortlisted applicants, whose design scheme submissions meet the competition requirements determined by the Design Evaluation Panel, will receive corresponding prize money. The total prize money and follow-up design fee is RMB 16.7 million (tax inclusive). The prize and prize money (tax inclusive) are set as shown.

2. Follow-Up Design Work

The First Prize winner, as the technical consultant, will be responsible for the follow-up development and integration of urban design. The follow-up design work includes, but is not limited to:

1) Integrate and adjust the overall scheme according to opinions from the review experts and the host/organizer, absorb the advantages of other schemes, optimize the urban spatial system, etc.;Extract key elements of the urban design scheme and incorporate them into the regulatory plan by collaborating with the regulatory plan preparation institution;

2) Complete design guidelines of the key plots, mainly including guidelines for plot planning indicators, functional organization, interface control, architectural color, landscape design, public service facilities, etc.;

3) Produce a video to introduce and promote the integrated design work. The video should include key concepts, design techniques, featured landmarks, etc.;

4) The details will be confirmed in accordance with the subsequent work arrangement.

5) In principle, the First Prize winner shall be responsible for the follow-up development and integration work of the urban design scheme. The follow-up design fee is RMB 3 million (tax inclusive). If the First Prize winner declines the follow-up design work, the host/organizer will entrust the Second Prize winner or another design company to take charge of the follow-up design work. The organizer will pay the design team that actually takes charge of the follow-up design work a fee of RMB 3 million (tax inclusive).

The schedule is based on Beijing time (UTC+8). Changes (if any) will be announced.

Project Homepage: hzeastcenter.archiposition.com

* The project homepage will provide information such as material download, addendum and Q&A, project update, etc. It is recommended to bookmark the website and check it regularly.

Inquiry Email: [email protected]

Inquiry Phone / WeChat: Ms. Liu, +86-19926695686; Ms. Chen, +86-19129915597

* Inquiry Hours: 9:00-12:00, 13:30-18:30 on Workdays (UTC+8)