2021 UIA-HYP CUP Student Competition

Countryside Dilemmas – New Rural Planning

Sponsors: UED magazine, UIA, Tianjin University
Type: Student, open, international
Languages: English, Chinese
Fee: none
Eligibility:
Open to all architecture and relevant major students around the globe. Full-time on-campus architecture students from accredited institutions (including masters 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.
Timetable:
20 September 2021 – Registration deadline
10 October 2021 – Submission deadline
Awards:
• 1st Prize (1 team)
Certificate and 100,000 RMB (approx.15,000 USD) (before tax);
• 2nd Prize (3 teams)
Certificate and 30,000 RMB (approx.4,500 USD) (before tax);
• 3rd Prize (8 teams)
Certificate and 10,000 RMB (approx. 1,500 USD) (before tax);
• Honorable Mentions (several teams)
Honor Certificate

Jury:
• Rem Koolhaas, Founder of OMA/AMO (Jury Chairman)
• CUI, Kai, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering
• ZHANG, Li , Dean of School of Architecture, Tsinghaa University
• Li, Zhenyu, Dean, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University
• ZHANG, Tong, Dean, School of Architecture, Southeast University
• KONG, Yuhang, Dean, School of Architecture, Tianjin University
• SUN, Yimin, Dean, School of Architecture, South China University of Technology
• LV, Pinjing, Director of the Architectural Art Committee, China Artists Association
• PENG, Lixiao, Chief Editor, Urban Environment Design
• GONG, Jun, Chairman of the Board and General Manager of HYP-ARCH

Design Challenge:
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 on. The 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 result in the components needed to facilitate progress.

Work in the countryside also challenges the notion of fixed construction plans. As many of the issues in the countryside are not exclusively solvable by construction alone, it must build more on an effective combination and spatial translation of new ideas, desires, methods and reference points rather than the orthodoxies of traditional planning. Within this context, the burning of Wongding, and all its cousins around the globe, should lead to a broader rejuvenation of the village in a new and striking 21st century way of rethinking planning, heritage, beauty, value, economy, development, and purpose.

You are asked to submit these ideas, 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.

Criteria:
– 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.
– The movie is not allowed to show personally identifiable information
– Plans, sections, elevations and renderings can be used when relevant.
– An English version of your entry must be included.