Architecture Competition: Jiaxing Ancient City Connecting South Lake International Concept Design Competition on Footbridge Crossing Huancheng River and Railway
2022 Jiaxing Ancient City Connecting South Lake International Concept Design Competition on Footbridge Crossing Huancheng River and Railway, open to all of the global design agencies and professional designers groups, is an international design competition with focus on concept design for the footbridge crossing Huangcheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway that aims to connect Jiaxing’s historic town with South Lake.
The Competition, initiated by Jiaxing City Urban Investment Development Group Co., Ltd. and Young Bird Plan, an international design competition platform, aims at collecting various design ideas through the global designers participating in the Competition whose fields include architecture, landscape, bridge, art, etc. Abundant possibilities will be created for the slow traffic system connecting Jiaxing’s historic town with South Lake. It will create influential urban events and hot academic topics as well.
The construction of the footbridge crossing Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway will improve the city quality of Jiaxing Downtown Area, enhance the image of the ancient city central cultural axis, and provide a landscape node for Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal with pedestrian, sightseeing, travel, view appreciation and connection functions. It will not only respond to the characteristics of the ancient city and its surroundings, but also integrate modernity and adapt to changes in the future.
All contents are subject to designverse official website
Introduction
Situated in the northeast of Zhejiang province, Jiaxing is in the central part of Yangtze River Delta. It is an important city of Yangtze River Delta, bordering Shanghai on the east, Suzhou on the north, Hangzhou on the west, and Hangzhou Bay on the south, with a total land area of 3,915 square kilometers, a plain land area of 3,477 square kilometers, a water region area of 328 square kilometers, a hilly and mountainous area of 40 square kilometers and a total maritime area of 4,650 square kilometers. It has a registered population of 5.411 million. Under its jurisdiction are two districts Xiuzhou and Nanhu, three county-level cities Pinghu, Haining and Tongxiang, and two counties Jiashan and Haiyan.
Jiaxing enjoys a flat terrain, balanced development and harmonious folk customs. The Grand Canal flows southwards through Jiaxing which is dotted with numerous rivers and lakes. Boasting a civilization history of more than 7,000 years, a written history of more than 2,500 years, and a city history of more than 1,700 years, it is the place where the Majiabang Culture originated, the Qiantangjiang tide surged, the “red boat” of Chinese revolution set sail, and the national nuclear power industry started.
Site Description
The footbridge of the Competition is located on the banks along Huangchen River, Jiaxing, bordering South Huancheng Road on the northwest and South Lake Scenic Spot on the southeast. Huancheng River belongs to Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal, a world cultural heritage, and is classified as a preserve of ancient canal. Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway divide Jiaxing Downtown Area into two parts that are the historic town and South Lake area. Currently, there is only one vehicular bridge (the one-way Ziyang Bridge) and two footbridges (Yangjia Bridge and Haogu Bridge) which only cross the river, without a passage over the railway.
Jury Panel
Hung Chih Liu：AECOM Senior Vice President, Person-in-Charge of Strategic and Development in China Region, Person-in-Charge of Urban Strategy Consultancy in China Region
YuYang Liu：Founding Principal, Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, Hangzhou Grand Canal (Heritage Section) Cultural Tourism Integration Chief Design Consultant
Yao Zhiqin：Chief Architect of GMAID, Researcher Level Senior Engineer, Nation 1st Class Registered Architect, Review Expert of Jiaxing Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning
Chen Jianjiang：Vice Director of Jiaxing Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism (Jiaxing Muncipal Cultural Heritage Bureau)
Sun Huixiang：Deputy General Manager of Jiaxing City Urban Investment Development Group Co.,Ltd
Isa Ye：Founder of YoungBird, Founder of designverse
Design Requirements
To reasonably select a location on the site and design a light footbridge, vivid and graceful, connect Jiaxing’s historic town with South Lake, form a slow traffic system above Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway. Meanwhile, to minimize the disturbance to the body of The Grand Canal and its landscape; reveal the characteristics of Jiaxing, “Red Boat Soul, International Style, Feeling of Canal, Atmosphere of South Regions of Yangtze River”. The architectural style reveals the characteristics of ancient city and the feature of the times. Design should comply with relative design rules in China. It should pay attention to the combination of architecture and structure functions, and consider the reasonability of construction budget as well as the landing result and the sustainability in the future.
Design Significance
A new footbridge crossing Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway will enhance the slow traffic system between Jiaxing’s historic town and South Lake by connecting both of them. It will promote the city development by urban construction and improve citizens’ life quality on the two banks of Huancheng River. As an important part of Zhejiang’s happy river system, it inherits and protects the history and culture as well as meets people’s demand on leading a spiritual and cultural life. Jiaxing aims at creating a central urban axis, the ancient city central cultural axis, with focus on the feature of pedestrian streets, which connects the ancient history and the modern times. The landing of this footbridge will enhance the central urban axis system.
Design Goals
1. Goal of connecting historic town with South Lake: The design goal of this Competition is to design a new footbridge above Huancheng River in Jiaxing Downtown Area, connecting the historic town with South Lake. It should cross Huancheng River and a railway to establish the pedestrian connection from north to south. The slow traffic system between Jiaxing’s historic town and South Lake blocked by Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway will be enhanced.
2. Aim to create a slow traffic landscape node: The Competition aims to complement the slow traffic network of Jiaxing’s historic town by a new footbridge, enhance the traffic conditions and waterfront spaces, respond to the characteristics of the historic town and its surroundings, integrate modernity and adapt to changes in the future as well as to create a landscape node for Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal, with pedestrian, sightseeing, travel, view appreciation and connection functions.
3. Reasonably select a bridge location: Within the scope of the restricted site conditions, fully consider and reasonably select a spot for footbridge construction. The impacts should be considered that include the impact of railway clearance, the environmental impact of tram (under planning), the protection requirement of Huangcheng River (Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal), the relationship with Yuanhu Road and the impact of avoiding South Lake Hotel Area. (For detailed materials, please see “Site environmental impacts on bridgeconstruction” in the Competition Documents.)
4. Maintain the sense of historical view: Within the city scope, try to realize and maximize the connection result among South Huangcheng Road in Jiaxing’s historic town, the riverside railway park, South Lake Scenic Spot. The sense of historical view toward spaces along The Grand Canal should be maintained.
5.Technical and landing requirements: After meeting all requirements stated above, reasonably use advanced technologies and materials. The design should consider pedestrian, sightseeing, travel and connection functions. It should respond to the surrounding landscape. The landing result should be ensured.
Evaluation Criteria
According to the Competition concept and design goals, the following principles are set for the basic appraisal:
1.Principle of reasonable selection of bridge location: to fully consider the restricted site conditions and select the most suitable location for the bridge. It should adapt to changes in the future.
2.Principle of fitting theme and characteristics protection: to present the characteristics of the city. It should reveal an overall feature of “Red Boat Soul, International Style, Feeling of Canal, Atmosphere of South Regions of Yangtze River”, and presents the landscape characteristics of spaces along The Grand Canal including Huancheng River, making the Jiaxing Canal Culture obvious. It should present the unique charm of water town in South Regions of Yangtze River as well as the high quality urban construction and an internationalized atmosphere. For the design analysis, the logic of characteristics protection should be fully described in the design result.
3. Principle of connecting ancient city with South Lake as well as complying with related planning: to enhance the urban central axis system, establish the connection of Jiaxing’s historic town and South Lake by complementing the slow traffic system, promote the pedestrian axis of Jiaxing with focus on its history of development, and extend the Walkable Street Blocks image of a livable city.
4. Principle of feasibility and cost control: to set a service life and make it adequate for the pedestrian use. It should meet the requirements of flood discharge and navigation for future tours under the bridge. Two ends of the bridge should be accessible for pedestrians to pass through, avoiding any jams of this slow traffic path. Meanwhile, it should be good for future inspection and maintenance. On the basis of the principal stated above, the cost control is adopted as one of the evaluation criteria.
5. Principle of innovation: to combine the structure innovation with the design idea, and balance the relationship of structure, function and shape. The bridge design proposed should be in advanced level and infuse aesthetics. It should actively use the advanced research results domestically and worldwide such as new structure, new materials, new process, new equipment and new technology, etc. and empower solving problems and meeting challenges in the bridge design in reality.
6. Principle of environmental protection: After the consideration of all the principles stated above, the principle of environmental protection will be deemed as one of the evaluation criteria.
Except for the principles stated above, the design should realize the connection result among South Huangcheng Road in Jiaxing’s historic town, the riverside railway park, South Lake Scenic Spot. The sense of historical view toward spaces along The Grand Canal should be maintained. It should balance the relationship of structure, function and shape. The energy saving and sustainable development should be considered as well. The bridge should not be too high, and its volume and piers should not be too large. Piers and pile foundation should be set far away from the revetment and avoid put in the protection scope of The Grand Canal as far as possible. The architectural style should reveal the local characteristics and the feature of the times. Design should comply with relative design rules in China. The expression should be simple and primitive, integrate with its surrounding natural landscape, and respect the fabric of the historic town and South Lake history. It should decrease decorations in design, and minimize the disturbance to the body of The Grand Canal and its landscape.
Submission Materials
1. A scheme shall be presented in at least five A2 sheets (limit to 10 sheets), vertical way and in readable format (with a 8mm page margin) and include following parts:
-Descriptive text on concept within 1200 words, economic and technical indicators;
-Registration No. shall be put in the upper right corner of the sheets, in Arial 20pt font;
-The drawings should be with caption in English and Chinese, and include site plan, master plan with function analysis, circulation organization relation drawing, function details and evolution diagram, other diagrams, plan, elevation, section, perspective drawing, scene details, details, etc. Through diagrams and text, the scheme shall be narrated in details and be sure of its clarity and readability.
2. Sheets in JPG format (no larger than 10MB for each) can be submitted;
3. The scheme title shall be named as simple as possible; the scheme shall be saved in the “registration No. – scheme title – sheet No.1/No.2/No.3/No.4/No.5” format;
4. A scheme shall be submitted in bilingual (English and Chinese) or English;
5. When submitting all drawings and text online, work shall be placed within the frame provided by the host;
6. It is best to submit four drawings according to the order of general plan – diagrams – partial – structure details. It can be adjusted under certain circumstance；
7. The cover must be submitted online which is the key visual of your design work; it must be uploaded in the size of 1045×654 pixels, 72 dpi, less than 2MB.
8. All drawings and descriptive text shall not disclose the Entrant’s identity information (such as name, company name, etc.). Any violation herein means disqualification of the Entrant.
Eligibility
1. This Competition is open to all design agencies with related design practice domestically and worldwide (qualification of independent legal person or organizations with the ability of bearing civilliability independently). Registration by a consortium is accepted due to the win-win result and the mutual strengths complementing. The member quantity of the consortium shall not exceed 2. Each party of the consortium shall not participate in this Competition in its own name, nor does it form another consortium with other design agency.
2. Registration from individuals or groups of individuals is not accepted by this Competition.
3. Designers can participate in this Competition by individuals or groups, but they shall be the regular staff of design agencies. If it is involved that the design is adopted for landing, the possible cooperation shall be based on the contract signed by the individual’s company, thus, the individual entrant shall coordinate with its company on the corresponding issues.
4. There is no limitation on quantity of members for each group, but the group leader shall be a professional architect whose company information must be filled out.
5. Each participant has to register on our website, and is invited by the group leader to complete its group-joining action; for any questions, please visit our website.
Timeline
2022.3.07 Call for entries
2022.5.10 Submission deadline
2022.5.24 Release of shortlisted winners
2022.5.31 Release of Top 30 & Public Voting
2022.6.10 Public Voting Deadline
2022.6.22 Release of Top 3
2022.7.08 Release of the Champion
The timeline is just for reference only, the specific time is subject to designverse official website. Deadline for submission: May 10th, 2022 23:59 (GMT + 8)
Awards
The prize money will be paid directly by Jiaxing City Urban Investment Development Group Co., Ltd. to the award-winning design agency. The design agency shall issue the invoice accordingly.
■ Champion
1 winner; A prize of RMB 600,000 (pre-tax)+ Certificate of Honor
■ Top 2
1 winner; A prize of RMB 400,000 (pre-tax)+ Certificate of Honor
■ Top 3
1 winner; A prize of RMB 250,000 (pre-tax)+ Certificate of Honor
■ Top 30
27 winners; Certificate of Top30 Honor
■ Shortlists
Certificate of Shortlist Honor
Registration
1.Please register by logging into our official website: www.designverse.com.cn.
2.For the latest information about this Competition, please follow our official WeChat account: designverse设计宇宙 or our official Weibo account: @YoungBirdPlan;
3. You can directly contact the Competition team by adding YoungBirdPlan as one of your Wechat friends, or you can enter our official website to submit questions. We remain at your service here for any further questions you may have.
Documents
For downloading the Competition Documents, please visit www.designverse.com.cn
1, Site aerial shooting;
2, Existing condition of the site;
3, Site topography CAD;
4, Site environmental impacts on bridge construction;
5, Protection rules and related background of Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal;
6, The Grand Canal protection materials;
7, Jiaxing Ancient City Central Cultural Axis materials;
8, Jiaxing’s historic town planning materials;
9, Work submission reference
Organizers
Jiaxing City Urban Investment Development Group Co., Ltd.
Jiaxing City Urban Investment Development Group Co., Ltd., affiliated to Jiaxing Municipal People’s Government, is a state-owned enterprise group for urban construction and investment. Its business scope covers various fields, such as organic urban regeneration, urbaninfrastructure construction, city tourism, operation of natural gas and urban industries, etc. The development is focus on the downtown area of Jiaxing, covering the area of 25km2 within the 2rd Ring Road and the international business district area of 5km2. It is the main platform, the main battlefield and the leading player in urban construction. It is also the foremost developer and operator for the downtown area tourism, taking the responsibilities of developing tourism as well as hotels operation work regarding tourism resources such as South Lake Scenic Spot and historic streets, etc. The registered capital of the group is RMB 2.25 billion Yuan. As of June 2021, the total capital is RMB 40.067 billion Yuan, and the net capital is RMB 15.104 billion Yuan.
Young Bird Plan
Founded in 2013 by Isa Ye, Young Bird Plan, is an international competition platform for global design talents. With three key elements, viz. fabrication, mentor’s guidance and interdisciplinary jury, it is fast becoming a leading voice in global design fields like urban design, architecture design, landscape design, interior design, product design, logo design and fashion design. In past five years, it attracted participants from 1045 top design institutions and 4257 top design agencies domestically and worldwide, covering 310 cities of 75 countries.
On the one hand, the platform constantly connects and meets various demands from political, business, and academic circles and actively fill supply and demand gaps among designers, manufacturers, developers, urban operators and users. We are committed to design and innovation, and offering opportunities for creative minds around the world to participate in creation process, so as to propel the implementation of design projects and products focusing on urban spaces and life aesthetics. Besides, Young Bird Plan is devoted to pushing the urban development and offering high-quality solutions to product updates. On the other hand, as one of the most influential design competition platforms around the world, on the basis of approximately 30 competitions held for the past 9 years, we make every effort to create opportunities for young designers.
By now, we have cooperated with several governments, development agencies and international brands, e.g., Suichang County of Zhejiang Province, Yongchuan District of Chongqing City, Suzhou New District, China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone, Hexi District of Tianjin, Jiaxing Municipal People’s Government, Jiacheng Group, Vanke Group, China Fortune Properties, Westbund, URS China, Leliving, HAY, Sunbrella, DeCastelli, MATSU Group, Xiao Guan Tea, Dongpeng Group, etc.
In 2019, the website of Young Bird Plan, a subsidiary of Young Bird Brand Management, was upgraded and transformed and formally merged into designverse website platform (www.designverse.com.cn). The platform aims to encourage young people to design with originality and in design thinking, and to have positive dialogue with the global design industry and industrial development. In a word, it strives for connecting young bird works and design talents to the most influential design platform and cutting-edge design ecosystem all over the world.
Copyright
In accordance with applicable laws and regulations, by participating in this competition, each Entrant irrevocably agrees to abide by the below statements about the copyrights for all submissions.
■ Statement of Originality
All submissions must be original, and each Entrant shall ensure that his/her entry does not infringe any third party’s rights, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and so on. Otherwise, the Entrant will be disqualified from the competition, and the organizer will withdraw all the sponsorship money and materials and reserve the right to investigate and affix legal liability of infringement. All damages and losses arising therefrom shall be borne by the Entrant; and all the direct and indirect damages (including but not limited to attorney fees, legal fees, costs of preservation, appraisal costs, notarialfees, and so on) suffered by the organizer shall be compensated by the Entrant.
■ Statement of Consent
By submitting an entry, each Entrant agrees to authorize the organizer to publicly display the work in the form of credited or hidden names to everyone for the purpose of holding the competition, and accepts the online selection process. And before uploading a submission, each Entrant must confirm that he/she has read and fully understands all of the clauses, and accepts them. The judging panel reserves the right to make a final decision on entry assessment and award list.
According to the principles of fairness, impartiality and openness, the Competition Commission will invite professionals of each field to form the Jury and work on the appraisal of entry. If there is any dispute on entry, please contact and report to the Competition Commission with corresponding proof (such as related files of the plagiarized work). If the plagiarism is verified and confirmed after investigation, it means automatic disqualification either on participating in the Competition or on winning an award.
*In any circumstance, the Entrant shall not contact or try to contact any member of the Jury. Any form of violation against this rule means automatic disqualification.
The submission of work by the Entrant refers to the Entrant agree the organizer of the Competition to have the sole right of priority on obtaining the intellectual property of the entry work based on purchasing.
Before the final release of the Competition’s result, the confidentiality of the entry work shall be protected by the Entrant till the Champion of Jiaxing Ancient City Connecting South Lake International Concept Design Competition on Footbridge Crossing Huancheng River and Railway is formally announced. Any form of violation against this rule means automatic disqualification.
The detailed Official Rules of this Competition will be published on the designverse website. Please read them carefully.
