UIA-HYP Cup 2019 International Student Competition

The competition aims at searching and constructing human space with a Spirit of Place in the increasingly fragmented cities and unordered villages, exploring environment-friendly and sustainable ideas in the information age, and integrating creative concepts with solid basic skills in architectural design.

Description
Theme: Architecture in Transformation
Topic: Happy Spaces – Integrating Architecture and Landscape
Architects can change people’s environment and influence their future in a positive way. They can create “happy spaces” that contribute to people’s well-being. Inserting a building in a nice environment makes this goal easier. When the building is linked to its surroundings, when the limits are blurred with the construction, all of the positive elements of the site can contribute to create this good feeling inside. But the real defy is how to do the opposite, how to influence in a positive way the surroundings throughout the architecture?
Big cities often contain places that lack identity and whose existences are hardly linked with culture, history or tradition. These places are so-called “periphery” or “degraded” areas that remained isolated and un-integrated, such as neighborhoods with social conflict or poverty. They are often damaged and in need of reconstruction due to lousy planning or no planning at all. The architects’ mission is, therefore, to recognize the character of the site and create its ‘sense of place’. This creation looks into the transforming of negative spaces into positive ones by bringing out its inspiring and attractive qualities – this is defined as “happy spaces”, by designing and building a “happy building” in an “unhappy environment”.
To that end, the building should be built in harmony with the urban context and its natural landscape, and should be in connection with people and history. Architecture cannot be detached from the pre-existent context and significant past events. A building in relation to its context will form an organic system, and it is not possible to imagine such system without taking into consideration the people in it. This is significant as humanity is the heart of all systems.
In addition, human activities should also be considered as a key part of the system. Therefore architects are expected to propose not only the form of the building in relation to its surroundings, but also the activities and the programs associated in the space. It is important that architects should have a comprehensive vision for the built environment in every dimension.
These considerations need to be conducted with a real ecological approach. A sustainable intervention should always come first when creating an artificial ecosystem. In this way, the beneficial forces made by the new intervention can also affect the surrounding neighborhood positively. A responsible intervention in all aspects should take into consideration an improvement of one area and not solely the comfort and wellness inside one building.
For these reasons we would like to ask students to think about a building in its wider context. From the perspective of sustainability, sociality and history, students are encouraged to place their architectural projects as consequence of the past and as a contribution to the future, thinking the inhabited areas as interrelated artificial ecosystems in harmony with the rest of the city, the landscape, the climate, the physical and social context. Architects can create a sustainable environment that could improve the health and well-being of the people.

Jury
Benedetta Tagliabue, Pritzker Jury Member (since 2015), Co-founder and Principal of Miralles Tagliabue EMBT
CUI Kai, UIA Representative, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Honorary President and Chief Architect of China Architecture Design & Research Group
KONG Yuhang, Executive Deputy Dean, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the School of Architecture, Tianjin University

Prize
1st Prize (1 team): Certificate and 100,000 RMB (approx.15, 000 USD) (before tax)
2nd Prize (3 teams): Certificate and 30,000 RMB (approx.4, 500 USD) (before tax)
3rd Prize (8 teams): Certificate and 10,000 RMB (approx. 1, 500 USD) (before tax)
Honorable Mentions (several teams)
Certificate and 6-month free subscription of UED magazine
Advisors of prize-winning projects will also be awarded with certificates

Entry Fee
None

Timetable
Jury Review: October 2019

Links
Past winners

Organizer
Union International des Architectes (UIA), School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Urban Environment Design (UED) Magazine, School of Architecture, Southeast University

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