Submission: May 30, 2018
Registration: May 15, 2018
Language: English, Chinese
Location: China
Prizes: Please see details below
Type: Open
One of the main criteria to assess the degree of a city or a village’s civilization is the condition of local toilets. Since 2015, Chinese “Toilet revolution” has spread from tourist attractions to the whole nation, from the cities to the rural area, setting a shining example of positive contributions to developing a beautiful and healthy country. But more efforts still need to be put into this massive undertaking due to our vast territory.
Hence, in response to the appeal of “Toilet revolution”, People’s Government of Suichang County government, Young Bird Plan and LeLiving to launch 2018 Suichang “Neo-Toilet” International Design Competition, with the aim of making contributions to livelihood projects. This competition is committed to boosting the development of tourism and revitalizing villages in this new age by focusing on the small facet of our life. The schemes of Top 5 finalists will be modified and constructed under the charge of the co-organizer, LeLiving and organizer, Suichang government.
Site Information
Known as “a retreat away from the modern world”, Zhejiang Suichang is a beautiful county with 1,800-year history surrounded by mountains. In the late Tang Dynasty, Monk Guan Xiu had dwelled in Suichang Tangshan in seclusion and peace for over 14 years, painting pictures of 16 arhats. During 1593-1598, this poetic place saw Tang Xianzu, a master in literature and drama, penned the most memorable jewel, The Peony Pavilion. It boasts charming landscape, rich resources and various attractions, such as Nanjian Rock, Shenlong Valley, Baima Mountain, Jiulong Mountain, Qianfo Rock, Hongxingping Hot Spring, and Suichang Gold Mine National Mine Park.
A diversity of culture merge in Suichang, including Haochuan Culture, Tang Xianzu Culture, Red Culture and Folk Culture. Backed by the advantaged nature resources and cultural background, Suichang adheres to the principle of green development, the strategy of building county of tourism and leisure in Yangtze River Delta. It has already invented a tourism-centered path and integrated various industries, establishing its eco-friendly brand image and reputation.
This village had been descended into a backward area with only some ten households of the elderly because young people out-migrated for work. In June 2017, Suichang government initiated this project in collaboration with LeLiving. By renovating disused houses and local industries, this attempt is conducive to increase local job opportunities and motivate villagers to take part in the rural development. At length, as an illuminating example of poverty alleviation, cultural and environmental protection, it will help people rediscover the unspoiled beauty in the rural area whilst improving the quality of local life.
This design competition launched by Suichang County is an attempt to ignite the transformation of regional cultural tourism. Toilet is the cornerstone of urban and rural civilization. As a landscape decorated in the picturesque setting and a nice surprise for visitors, a new toilet will improve local tourist environment and subtly elevate the quality of villagers’ life. What’s more, it will be a mirror of LeLiving Villa’s poetic scenery, rural-living concepts and knightly spirits.
The Jury and Mentor
This competition features two procedures for picking winners, namely, jurors’ selection and mentor’s guidance, in order to comprehensively evaluate the entries in this competition. To ensure the equality, the interdisciplinary jury panel consists of Wenhua Zhang, Director of Administrative Committee of Suichang Provincial-level Tourist Resort, Member of Suichang Party Working Committee and Senior engineer; Qigen Luo, Village representative; Changjiang Yu, Associate professor at Peking University; Ning Ou, Director & Publisher; Jiujiu Hu, Writer & Cultural elite; Lei Luo, Founder of Shenzhen LeLiving Development Co., Ltd.; Isa Ye, Founder & CEO of Young Bird Plan.
James Wei Ke received his B. Arch. and M. Arch. Degree from University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University with the help of his tutor Kenneth Frampton. He established Chiasmus in New York and relocated it to Beijing in 2010. With over ten-year experience in famous architectural firms and different renowned universities and colleges, including Columbia University, New York Institute of Technology, and Tongji University, he has worked in multi-disciplinary sectors, such as publication, education, research and practice. At the age of 29, he took charge of the conceptual design of Washington Newseum. When he was 36, he directed the design of Incheon Arts Center. His remarkable projects and theses issued on a variety of leading academic publications prove that he is a successful architect of cultural projects around the world.
Mentor’s responsibilities: Each of Top 5 winners will have a chance to communicate with the mentor, and their works will be optimized and fabricated under the guidance of him.
Design Requirements
Entrants are required to think out of the box and design a 15 ㎡ public toilet with the height of 3 meters in the tea plantation in Suichang County, based on hygienic, convenient, safe and energy-saving principles. Besides, management room for cleaning and management should be included. This user-centered toilet should speak for local culture, serving as a building icon that harmonizes with surrounding landscape.
Evaluation Criteria
>>>>Culture-respecting
Careful consideration and flexible use of the physical geography, location, resources, convention of the site; deep understanding of LeLiving culture; innovative reflection of local uniqueness (culture and custom).
>>>>Characteristic
The toilet should be hygienic and convenient. The surrounding facilities, local features, techniques, and materials should be considered when designing, to improve the image of village and boost tourism. The scheme should be rural in character whilst satisfying the healthy and hygienic needs of modern life, with the aim of building a new countryside.
>>>>Eco-friendly
Taking “energy-efficient, land-saving, green” as goals, it should give priority to ecological features and people’s livelihood. The position of toilet and the approach to feces disposal should be considered based on labor-saving principle. The construction of toilet and eco-village should be integrated with the development of industry, and driven by policy and the public’s support. The object is to build a public toilet where is applied with suitable energy-saving technology and green materials, and to meet the habits of villagers and visitors.
>>>>Practicable
Toilet is the most basic facility of infrastructure. Local common materials, techniques and their cost need to be considered when designing. The scheme should be practicable, functional and aesthetic.
Entry Requirements
1. A scheme shall be presented in two A2 sheets in a clear, vertical way and in readable format (with a 10mm page margin) and include following parts:
-Descriptive text no longer than 300 English words (except notes);
-Registration No. shall be put in the upper right corner of the sheets, in Arial 20pt font;
-A scheme shall contain plans, elevations, bird view, concept evolution, concept analysis diagrams, and renderings for different spaces; other details;
2. A maximum of two A2 sheets in JPG format (no larger than 20MB for each) can be submitted.
3. A scheme title shall contain no more than 4 English words in the “registration No. – scheme title – sheet No.1/No.2” format.
4. A scheme shall be in bilingual (for Chinese-speaking entrants) or English (for English-speaking entrants).
5. The two A2 sheets and the explanatory text shall be submitted separately in the correct places on the website.
6. Please do not compress your files.
Eligibility
-This competition is open to designers, students and design enthusiasts of all ages with design-and art-related background across the world;
-Each group (two members at most) shall submit no more than two entries.
Timeline
✌2018.04.09 Call for Entries
✌2018.05.15 Registration Deadline
✌2018.05.30 Submission Deadline
✌2018.06.15 Release of Top 100
✌2018.06.22 Release of Top 30
✌2018.06.29 Selection and Release of Top 10
✌2018.06.30 Release of Top 5
✌2018. (to be confirmed) Top 5 attending Opening Ceremony of tea plantation
Applications
Please register by logging into our website: www.youngbirdplan.com.cn.
For the latest information about this competition, please follow our official WeChat account youngbirdplan-cn or our official Weibo account @YoungBirdPlan; or you can directly contact the competition team by add YoungBirdPlan as one of your Wechat friends. We remain at your service here for any further questions you may have.
Information Kit
Please download the information kitour on our website: www.youngbirdplan.com.cn; or by this link: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1K22VHtdaEadJ-iqTsSlhMA
Content: Site plan (CAD); images, renderings and explanatory texts of the site; location map (CAD); images and explanatory texts of surroundings; images, renderings and explanatory of sample houses in village.
About Organiser
Suichang County:
Suichang County, in the south west of Zhejiang Province, upstream of Qiantang River and Ou River, is a picturesque mountain city gathering talents with an overall area of 2,539 square kilometers and a population of 230 thousand. As a Nationally Designated Eco-Demonstration Region, Zhejiang Important Ecological Shelter Zone and Key Forest County, Suichang boasts 703 hills with over 1,000 meters in height, and 600 rivers. Its forest coverage rate reaches 83.4%, ranking among the best in environmental quality throughout the nation. As a result, negative ions are abundant in this place, about 9,100 Neg icons/cm³, six times higher than the counterpart in WHO’ standards for Clean Air.
Young Bird Plan
Young Bird Plan, founded in 2013, is an international platform for high-quality design competitions. With three key elements: construction, mentor’s guidance and interdisciplinary jury, the platform makes every effort to create opportunities for young designers in China. On the one hand, it is committed to providing young designers with more practical opportunities with the concept of “Competition makes a different world” . On the other hand, it constantly connects and meets various demands from political, business, and academic circles and actively fills supply and demand gaps among designers, manufacturers, developers, urban operators and users. As a result, design competition projects and related products focusing on urban space and daily life will be further promoted and perfectly made, which contributes to the urbanization in China. It is one of the most influential design competition platforms in the world.
Co-organizer
LELIVING
Leliving was founded in 2016, aiming at providing global services for its members, including temporary residence, and rich life experience. It is about to spend ten years in building 100 to 200 boutique manors which contain a variety of life scenes, in developing and designing characteristic services to provide particular life experience, and in involving 50,000 to 100,000 members who emphasize the quality and value of life into its club. It is committed to offering its members with “best scenery, best life, best partner”, and becoming a value innovator and a standard setter in the field of lifestyle. LeLiving is born to flavor your life!
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.
1. 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, notarial fees, and so on) suffered by the organizer shall be compensated by the Entrant.
2. Statement of Consent
By submitting an entry, each Entrant agrees to publicly display the works, and accepts the on-line 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.
For the latest info about this competition, please follow our official WeChat account youngbirdplan-cn. We remain at your service here for any further questions you may have. Search for “YoungBirdPlan” on platforms like Sina Weibo, Douban,zhihu, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest where we’re calling for entries and we offer our readership the latest design news and trends on a daily basis.
Awards Setting
Top 2 projects will be constructed by the co-organizer, LeLiving in the village; Top 5 projects will be built by Suichang government in Suichang county.
✰ First Prize
1 winner; 30,000 RMB (pre-tax) and Certificate of Award.
✰ Top 5 (Except first prize)
4 winners; 10,000 RMB (pre-tax) and Certificate of Award.
✰ 5 entrants who receive the most votes during the public voting process on YoungBirdPlan website will win the Certificate of People’s Choice Award.
✰ School-level champions will be awarded certificate of Award and recommended to work in famous design institutes.
✰ Each of Top 100 will be awarded Certificate of Award, a publication by YoungBirdPlan, and the opportunity to be published on YoungBirdPlan website and publication..
✰ All participants who successfully submit their works will be awarded certificates.
