Hey babes, it's time for another cross-disciplinary team-up competition!

2020 FALL SEMESTER WKU MICHAEL GRAVES COLLEGE and COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DESIGN CONTEST： JOINTLY ORGANIZE A CROSS-DISCIPLINARY COMPETITION ON "ARCHITECTURE, CULTURE, AND AGRICULTURE: CHALLENGES OF URBANIZATION"

ARCHITECTURE,

CULTURE and AGRICULTURE: 

The Challenges of Urbanization

Introduction：

From the urban centers of the Neolithic era, through the Agricultural Revolution, to the Green Revolution and the modern wave of urbanization, the post-war Europe and America have witnessed the lengthy transition from agricultural origins to the Industrial Revolution. While many theoretical models attribute the integration of urban and agricultural development to the 19th and 20th centuries, the current environmental crisis and the lack of agricultural land should guide us to pioneer a new, sustainable model: one that combines the need for housing and urbanization with the preservation of agricultural landscapes.

Wenzhou Kean University is situated in the fertile plains of the Wenruitang valley in Wenzhou, boasting rich cultivation and landscapes. However, with rapid urbanization, rural populations have massively migrated outwards, posing a threat to agricultural land use and the inherent human-made ecosystems of millennia. This competition aims to address agricultural issues in the context of urbanization.   

Urbanization and agriculture are closely intertwined, from the Neolithic urban and agricultural revolution to the green revolution and the modernist urbanization wave in postwar Europe and America, passing by the agricultural origins of the industrial revolution. But if dozens of theoretical models to combine the city with agriculture have been developed during the 19th and the 20th century, the current environmental crisis and the lack of agricultural area should lead us to invent new, sustainable models, to combine the need for housing and the urbanization process on one hand and the preservation of agricultural productive landscape on the other. 

The urbanization of the Wenruitang valley answers the largest rural exodus that faced humankind. However, urbanization is jeopardizing Wenzhou’s food security by encroaching on agricultural land, besides national land planning regulations that are supposed to protect agricultural land: in fact, the rubles of historical settlements replace the fertile land on which relocation housing has been built. 

This competition aims to address the question of agriculture in an urbanization context. The competitors can work at different scales: urban design, landscape design, architecture design and find a broad range of solutions to accommodate the increasing demand for housing on one hand and the preservation of agriculture landscape on the other hand. 

Guideline

The competitors can work at different scales: urban design, landscape design, architecture design and find a broad range of solutions to accommodate the increasing demand for housing on one hand and the preservation of agriculture landscape on the other hand. The output can be a building, an urban plan, a landscape proposal, a regulation, an object design. 

Site

The chosen site for your project should be the area around the campus of Wenzhou-Kean University, known at Kean Town, and in particular the village of Wangzhai, east of the campus. 

Deliverables

Contest Entry Code

Registration: Please scan the QR code to register 

Limit date: October 15th, 2020

Each group of students should prepare one A1 panel describing the design proposal. Each entry should include a descriptive text in addition to graphics. The text should be in both English and Chinese. The A1 panel needs to be printed and delivered to Wang Qingshuo, A313 office, Wenzhou-Kean University, 88 Daxue Road, Ouhai District, Wenzhou.

For the oral presentation, each team can prepare a PowerPoint using any additional medium they think could help to explain the project. The presentation will last for 10 min. We also have an online meeting to ensure all the team can demonstrate the entire idea even if can't arrive at the scene.

● One a1 panel per group, print before Oct.11th and deliver to WKU GEH A313

● The panel should contain descriptive text (both English and Chinese)

● 10min oral presentation with PPT or other media

Eligibility

The competition is open to all the students of Wenzhou Kean University, Wenzhou University, and Xi'an Jiaotong University. Students are encouraged to work cross-disciplinary and in groups. Each team should contain 3 to 5 students and include at least two different majors.

Jury   

Toby Michelena, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, College of Science and Technology, WKU

Evan Saarinen, Architect, Michael Graves College, WKU

Xingu Zhang, MLA, Lecturer, Oujiang College, Wenzhou University

Yaoyao Huang, MFA, Chair of Design School, Michael Graves College, WKU

Aloysius Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, College of Science and Technology, WKU

Michael Erickson, Landscape Architect, Managing Principal at EADG, Beijing

Zirui Wang, AIAS, Student Architect, Michael Graves College, WKU

Miao Zhang, AIAS, Student Architect, Michael Graves College, WKU

Kejun Shao, M.Arch, Lecturer, Wenzhou University

Awards

First Prize:    5000 RMB      

Second Prize: 3000 RMB   

Third Prize:  2000 RMB       

Each kind of reward would be earned by one team, taxs included.

Schedule

September 10th, 2020:Release of the Competition Brief and start of the competition

September 12th, 2020: Presentation of the Competition details by Toby Michelena and Vincent Peu Duvallon.

Meeting Location: WKU GEH B101

ZOOM Meeting: https://kean-edu.zoom.us/j/99764199823 

ZOOM ID: 997 6419 9823

Registration: Please scan the QR code to register. September 12th, 2020: contest registration begins.

Limited date: October 15th, 2020.

October 30th, 2020:  Deadline for the submissions of entries. 

October 31st, 2020:  Presentation of the design to the jury and results of the competition. 

Spring 2020:  Exhibition of the entries as part of an exhibition on Wenruitang Valley

Organizers

Michael Graves College, Wenzhou Kean University & Kean University

College of Science and Technology, Wenzhou Kean University

American Institute of Architecture Students, China Chapter

Wenzhou-Kean University Public Architecture and Design Research Institute