Architecture Competition for Q-Village Gangtou News, Chinese Design Contest Images

Q-Village · Gangtou International Young Designer Competition 2020

10 Sep 2020

Architecture Competition for Q-Village, Gangtou Village, Huadu District, Guangzhou, China

“Q-Village · Gangtou” Call for Young Voices on the Design of Chinese Villages

Official opening of “Q-Village · Gangtou” International Young Designer Competition is coming！Join-in the revival of the village with the power of design, discover lost cultural memories in the continuation of rural life and aesthetics, and rebuild the confidence of rural culture.

Gangtou Village, Huadu District, Guangzhou © Guangdong Hengguang Investment Co., Ltd.

Q-Village · Gangtou Architecture Competition News

Standing at a turning point in history, we must play our part in the continuation of cultural legacies and the revival of cultural intelligence if we are to witness the magnificent transformation of this centennial village, discovering traditions that are uniquely Chinese rooted deep within, sparking innovation and vitality embedded within the village.

Under this premises, “Q-Village · Gangtou” International Young Designer Competition is ready to activate rural spaces with the power design and innovation efforts, thus educating and enhancing the fun features of rural built spaces.

Gangtou Village

Is a 600-year old traditional village in Huadong Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, Gangtou Village covers a total land area of 2.83 km². In the south, the village features a typical Cantonese dwelling layout that resembles a comb, which is known as “comb-style layout”.

With water on east, south and west, the village has four streams meeting in the south to form a beautiful harbor, hence the old saying “three streams run northward and four streams return to their origin”. With such a favorable geographical location, the village was once built with a freight port in ancient times, serving as a vital hub for land and water transportation in Huadu. Enjoying great prosperity and fame, it was also widely praised in the common saying “Gangtou Village in the east and Langtou Village in the west”.

The general layout and building form of ancient Gangtou Village, together with its unique harbor-style idyllic view, are still very well preserved. There are seven ancient alleys in the village, each about 3m wide and 85m long. About 40,000m² of ancient buildings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties as well as the Republican Period are well preserved in the village, including private houses, ancestral temples and ancient bridges, making it an “open-air museum of Lingnan architecture”.

Gangtou Village, Huadu District, Guangzhou © Guangdong Hengguang Investment Co., Ltd. & CBC

“Q-VILLAGE · GANGTOU” INTERNATIONAL YOUNG DESIGNER COMPETITION

Overview of “Q-Village · Gangtou” International Young Designer Competition

In response to the rural revitalization strategy, Gangtou Village, with its inherent Lingnan cultural legacy, aims to build a Lingnan-sytle demonstration village under the Beautiful Countryside Initiative by rediscovering and recreating the spatial values of the historical village. In this context, “Q-Village · Gangtou” International Young Designer Competition is launched to solicit innovative design proposals on space renovation and trade mix planning.

The design proposal should focus on enhancing the interest of rural spaces and avoid mass demolition or reconstruction. Meanwhile it should provide solutions for renovation of traditional buildings and trade mix planning of cultural and creative industries. The specific functions are subject to the designers and some descriptions on future operation and business model are required.

Competition Name

“Q-Village · Gangtou” International Young Designer Competition

Registration Deadline

24:00 ( GMT +8), November 15th, 2020

Submission Deadline

18:00 (GMT +8), December 1st, 2020

AWARDS

First Prize – (1 Team)

Bonus 100,000 RMB (before tax, around 14,000 USD) + Honor Certificate

Second Prize – (3 Teams)

Bonus 30,000 RMB (before tax, around 4,000 USD ) + Honor Certificate Each

Third Prize – (8 Teams)

Bonus 10,000 RMB (before tax, around 1,400 USD) + Honor Certificate Each

Honorable Mentions (Several Teams)

Honor Certificate

The prize-winning projects might be implemented on site and the local government has the final say. The bonus does not include scheme deepening and construction costs

HIGHLIGHTS

Provide better solution for rural construction as practice in the context of rural revitalization;
Free and flexible site selection to give full play to designers’ expertise and creativity;

Practice in a real world to avoid groundless design, and take existing houses for renovation or reconstruction;
Consider both building form and trade mix, showing the real power of design instead of mere attractive appearance;

ORGANIZATION

Sponsors

Guangzhou Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau

Guangzhou Huadu District People’s Government

Guangdong Hengjian Investment Holding Co., Ltd.

Organizers

Guangdong Hengguang Investment Co., Ltd.

CBC(China Building Centre)

Co-organizers

Leading Group Office of Rural Revitalization Strategy Implementation of Guangzhou Huadu District Party Committee

Guangzhou Huadu District Huadong Town People’s Government

Academic support

International Urban and Rural Innovation & Development Research Center

COMPETITION THEME INTERPRETATION

Just like many other traditional villages, Gangtou Village also face challenges such as underdeveloped industries, urgent need of resource development and the continual lost of the working population. To address these challenges, this Competition “Q-Village • Gangtou” centers around enhancing the fun features of rural built spaces on the principle of minimal demolition and re-construction, and renovate traditional buildings to accommodate compatible functions and trades.

Participants are required to take local Lingnan culture as the starting point, and implement their design into the original village in the most humble way, so as to revive the village with the power of design, uncovering lost cultural memories in the continuation of rural life and aesthetics, and rebuild the self-confidence of rural culture.

Gangtou Village, Huadu District, Guangzhou © Guangdong Hengguang Investment Co., Ltd. & CBC

COMPETITION REQUIREMENT

1. Design Principles

（1）Respect for history and giving priority to preservation

Carrying both cultural heritage and historical influence, Gangtou Village is an important site for preservation with high cultural value. Participants must give due respect for site conditions and proceed with the renovation design on the basis of maximum preservation efforts and with great consideration to surrounding environment, so as to fully showcase the historical and cultural connotation and the social and humanistic characteristics of Lingnan architecture.

（2）Continuation of unique culture

Participants should fully capitalize on the historical and cultural resources of Gangtou Village, continue and carry forward its unique cultural spirit, and comprehensively and systematically study the relation between architecture and culture, architecture and environment, architecture and technology as well as function and form in design. The design proposal should provide proper spatial quality, amenities, and visual effect, well adapt to the current rural economic and social development, and demonstrate the participants’ expertise in spatial design, construction and innovation.

（3）Creative and innovative trade mix

Participants should clearly define functional positioning of the renovated buildings, extract the design theme and highlight its exclusive image concept (in terms of design, social function, event organization and brand recognition). A “four-in-one” working approach integrating culture, trade, form and ecology will be implemented. In other words, participants should start with functional planning to propose the overall design objective and leading design concept, put forward specific functional layout and spatial design intents, and briefly describe operation strategies for public events, business models etc.

Design Contents & Requirements

The design must be original works created by participants. The design proposal shall incorporate the local history, culture and natural environment of Gangtou Village while providing creative, fun and practical ideas.
The design proposal shall specify materials, construction form and techniques, and provide suggestions on future use or operation;
The design proposal shall accommodate the needs of diverse user groups and provide spaces suitable for villagers of Gangtou Village and tourists.

The design proposal shall provide reasonable layout, while the specific functions are subject to architects, which may include but are not limited to cultural and creative education, art exhibition, catering and entertainment.
The outdoor spaces shall be provided in a rational manner to dialogue with the surrounding environment and present the design as a whole. Site furnishings, waters, pavements, structure, lighting, sound and other design elements can be provided to meet the leisure and display needs.
The design shall comply with accessibility requirements.

For open-air garage (if any), it is required to specify the number of parking spaces, accesses, circulations and etc.
On the premise of preserving the characteristics of traditional architecture, such additional structures as cantilevered platform and watchtower may be added.

REGISTRATION AND SUBMISSION

Registration

(1) The Competition is open to young architects engaged in and teachers/students majoring in architecture at home and abroad, and encourages the participation of cross-disciplinary practitioners. The Competition is open to registration by individuals or teams of individuals, and each member of the team (if any) shall be aged under 40 (inclusive). Each design team may have no more than 5 members, including one team leader. For teams comprising architecture students, no more than two tutors are allowed.

Register/Sign up in the official website and fill in the registration information: http://qvillagegangtou.chinabuildingcentre.com/en_sign.html

(3) After submitting the Registration Form online, each applicant will be given an exclusive registration serial number (i.e. the mobile phone number used for registration).

Submission

All participants are required to submit their works in soft copies (including drawings and relevant files) to [email protected], with the subject line indicating “Submissions of 【International Group】/【Domestic Group】 + name of the design work”. No hard copies will be accepted by the Organizing Committee. All design works will be printed and displayed together.

CONTACT

For participants from the Chinese Mainland:

+86 (0)10 56077246

ZHANG Jingxuan +86 18600687329; [email protected]

For participants from other countries or Hong Kong, Macao SARs and Taiwan:

+86 18511537506

Amy DONG +86 15389869269; [email protected]

Joy WANG +86 13189714339; [email protected]

Official email

[email protected]

Official website

http://qvillagegangtou.chinabuildingcentre.com