UIA-HYP CUP 2024 International Student Competition in Architectural Design

"UIA-HYP Cup International Student Competition in Architectural Design” was initiated in 2012. It is internationally sponsored by the Union International des Architects (UIA), organized by the School of Architecture, Tianjin University and Urban Environment Design (UED) Magazine. Shanghai HYP-ARCH Architectural Design Consultant Co. Ltd. is the ExclusiveNamingSponsor. It is an annual architectural competition which has been successfully held for 12 editions. Each year, the UIA-HYP Cup is chaired by an internationally renowned architectural master, and the jury panel is selected from among the world's most outstanding architects and deans from schools of architecture. To boost the architectural education which mainly focuses on basic skill training in its conventional and progressive system, UIA-HYP Cup International Student Competition takes the role as an external platform for student to embrace a brand-new thinking approach in order to improve their comprehensive problem-solving skill, meanwhile it is alsosome kind of headhunter for discovering emerging elite architects.

Competition Topic: Spatial Restructuring—Reestablishing Urban Density
China's urban development has entered an important period of comprehensive urban renewal, and urban construction has shifted from large-scale incremental construction to equal emphasis on improvement of existing buildings and structural adjustment of the newly built ones. This decision of the government clearly indicates the end of the urban development stage of large-scale demolition and construction, and is also a timely correction.

The development model of Chinese cities in the past thirty years is a typical suburban expansion model in Europe and America. On one hand, this rough model contains serious social problems that may erupt in the future, and on the other hand, it causes destructive damage to traditional urban texture, density, and culture accumulated over thousands of years in various parts of China. Therefore, it is necessary to make the decision-makers in cities across the country realize that urban and rural renewal is not a development strategy that cities and towns have to adopt due to limited lands for construction, but a necessary path to rebuild China's own urban culture and promote true urban cultural revival. The premise of this understanding is a sense of crisis towards the collapse of Chinese urban culture.

However, it is almost impossible to simply preserve the original state, whether considering the cost of updating or the protection of texture and density of the city. For example, is it possible to make a breakthrough in development intensity and to what extent? How to balance the conflict between protection and development in the context of severe financial burden on cities and towns? If the protection of urban and rural texture is an unbreakable bottom line, how can we solve the inconvenience of construction caused by the dense and fragmented plots/streets in historical urban areas and towns? The high density of buildings in historical urban areas and towns has formed a unique atmosphere and popularity. How to solve the conflict between the existing standards on urban planning, building & fire safety and this situation? How to define what needs protection? From the perspective of protecting cultural memory and lifestyle, the protection scope of urban and rural renewal will definitely break through the protection scope of historical buildings. How to define this scope specifically? Updating means construction, and in order to balance funds, it often means increasing the intensity of construction. Should this construction comply with regulations for historical buildings or for new buildings? How to achieve ecological block construction in high-density neighborhoods? If urban popularity and service industry require sufficient density, how can high-density neighborhoods achieve maximum openness with a large number of residential functions? These are the basic issues that architectural renewal design must consider from the beginning.

If the bottom line requirement for urban renewal is to adhere to the principle of "retaining, renovating, and demolishing," with a focus on preservation, reuse and improvement, encouraging small-scale and gradual organic renewal and micro renovation, paying attention to ecological restoration, and preventing large-scale demolition and construction, then, the next step in China's urban and rural planning and construction would be a total shift, a shift towards urban and rural renewal, which means that the existing design institutes' work models (short-term design, rapid project, large team, unified planning, one-time design, excessive commercialization and routine) will become completely ineffective.

Architects need to reimagine a design approach that combines the dual standards and depth of urban planning and architectural design. Choose a 500X500m block in a high-density old urban area in your city, and try to redesign it based on the premise that the texture and density of the urban road network cannot be changed. Communicate fully with local residents, carefully consider what shall be "retained, renovated, or demolished," and try to reconstruct an open, eco-friendly block that combines residential functions and service industries for a given population of 5,000 people. At the beginning of your design, consider what shall be appropriate implementation strategies and ways of construction.

It should be a state where urban memories are still preserved.