Jiaxing Ancient City Connecting South Lake International Concept Design Competition on Footbridge Crossing Huancheng River and Railway, 2022

Type: open international ideas competition.
Registration fee: free.
Registration deadline: 10 May 2022.
Submission deadline: 10 May 2022.
Winners announcement: 8 July 2022.
Awards: RMB 1,250,000 total.
Organizers: Jiaxing City Urban Investment Development Group Co., Ltd.; Young Bird Plan.
Location: the footbridge crossing Huangcheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway that aims to connect Jiaxing’s historic town with South Lake.
Official website/webpage: designverse.com.cn.
Contacts:
- WeChat account: designverse设计宇宙
- Weibo account: @YoungBirdPlan

Theme and background

The bridge swings over the stream “with ease and power.” It does not just connect banks that are already there.

—<Poetry, Language, Thought>, Martin Heidegger*

____________

«Мост „легко и мощно“ возносится над рекой. Мост не просто соединяет два берега. Собственно, берега и становятся берегами только, когда мост образует переход».

Эссе М. Хайдеггера «СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВО ЖИТЕЛЬСТВОВАНИЕ МЫШЛЕНИЕ» (1954). Перевод Д. А. Колесниковой.

2022 Jiaxing Ancient City Connecting South Lake International Concept Design Competition on Footbridge Crossing Huancheng River and Railway, open to all of the global design agencies and professional designers groups, is an international design competition with focus on concept design for the footbridge crossing Huangcheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway that aims to connect Jiaxing’s historic town with South Lake.

The Competition, initiated by Jiaxing City Urban Investment Development Group Co., Ltd. and Young Bird Plan, an international design competition platform, aims at collecting various design ideas through the global designers participating in the Competition whose fields include architecture, landscape, bridge, art, etc. Abundant possibilities will be created for the slow traffic system connecting Jiaxing’s historic town with South Lake. It will create influential urban events and hot academic topics as well.

The construction of the footbridge crossing Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway will improve the city quality of Jiaxing Downtown Area, enhance the image of the ancient city central cultural axis, and provide a landscape node for Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal with pedestrian, sightseeing, travel, view appreciation and connection functions. It will not only respond to the characteristics of the ancient city and its surroundings, but also integrate modernity and adapt to changes in the future.

Situated in the northeast of Zhejiang province, Jiaxing is in the central part of Yangtze River Delta. It is an important city of Yangtze River Delta, bordering Shanghai on the east, Suzhou on the north, Hangzhou on the west, and Hangzhou Bay on the south, with a total land area of 3,915 square kilometers, a plain land area of 3,477 square kilometers, a water region area of 328 square kilometers, a hilly and mountainous area of 40 square kilometers and a total maritime area of 4,650 square kilometers. It has a registered population of 5.411 million. Under its jurisdiction are two districts Xiuzhou and Nanhu, three county-level cities Pinghu, Haining and Tongxiang, and two counties Jiashan and Haiyan.

Jiaxing enjoys a flat terrain, balanced development and harmonious folk customs. The Grand Canal flows southwards through Jiaxing which is dotted with numerous rivers and lakes. Boasting a civilization history of more than 7,000 years, a written history of more than 2,500 years, and a city history of more than 1,700 years, it is the place where the Majiabang Culture originated, the Qiantangjiang tide surged, the "red boat" of Chinese revolution set sail, and the national nuclear power industry started.

Site – Yangtze River Delta

Site – Jiaxing Downtown Area

Site Description

The footbridge of the Competition is located on the banks along Huangchen River, Jiaxing, bordering South Huancheng Road on the northwest and South Lake Scenic Spot on the southeast. Huancheng River belongs to Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal, a world cultural heritage, and is classified as a preserve of ancient canal. Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway divide Jiaxing Downtown Area into two parts that are the historic town and South Lake area. Currently, there is only one vehicular bridge (the one-way Ziyang Bridge) and two footbridges (Yangjia Bridge and Haogu Bridge) which only cross the river, without a passage over the railway.

Jiaxing Ancient City Connecting South Lake International Concept Design Competition on Footbridge Crossing Huancheng River and Railway. Site

All illustrations provided by the competition organizer

Jiaxing Ancient City Connecting South Lake International Concept Design Competition on Footbridge Crossing Huancheng River and Railway. Site

Design Requirements

To reasonably select a location on the site and design a light footbridge, vivid and graceful, connect Jiaxing’s historic town with South Lake, form a slow traffic system above Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway. Meanwhile, to minimize the disturbance to the body of The Grand Canal and its landscape; reveal the characteristics of Jiaxing, “Red Boat Soul, International Style, Feeling of Canal, Atmosphere of South Regions of Yangtze River”. The architectural style reveals the characteristics of ancient city and the feature of the times. Design should comply with relative design rules in China. It should pay attention to the combination of architecture and structure functions, and consider the reasonability of construction budget as well as the landing result and the sustainability in the future.

Design Significance

A new footbridge crossing Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway will enhance the slow traffic system between Jiaxing’s historic town and South Lake by connecting both of them. It will promote the city development by urban construction and improve citizens’ life quality on the two banks of Huancheng River. As an important part of Zhejiang’s happy river system, it inherits and protects the history and culture as well as meets people’s demand on leading a spiritual and cultural life. Jiaxing aims at creating a central urban axis, the ancient city central cultural axis, with focus on the feature of pedestrian streets, which connects the ancient history and the modern times. The landing of this footbridge will enhance the central urban axis system.

Design Goals

1. Goal of connecting historic town with South Lake: The design goal of this Competition is to design a new footbridge above Huancheng River in Jiaxing Downtown Area, connecting the historic town with South Lake. It should cross Huancheng River and a railway to establish the pedestrian connection from north to south. The slow traffic system between Jiaxing’s historic town and South Lake blocked by Huancheng River and Shanghai-Kunming Railway will be enhanced.

2. Aim to create a slow traffic landscape node: The Competition aims to complement the slow traffic network of Jiaxing’s historic town by a new footbridge, enhance the traffic conditions and waterfront spaces, respond to the characteristics of the historic town and its surroundings, integrate modernity and adapt to changes in the future as well as to create a landscape node for Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal, with pedestrian, sightseeing, travel, view appreciation and connection functions.

3. Reasonably select a bridge location: Within the scope of the restricted site conditions, fully consider and reasonably select a spot for footbridge construction. The impacts should be considered that include the impact of railway clearance, the environmental impact of tram (under planning), the protection requirement of Huangcheng River (Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal), the relationship with Yuanhu Road and the impact of avoiding South Lake Hotel Area. (For detailed materials, please see “Site environmental impacts on bridgeconstruction” in the Competition Documents.)

4. Maintain the sense of historical view: Within the city scope, try to realize and maximize the connection result among South Huangcheng Road in Jiaxing’s historic town, the riverside railway park, South Lake Scenic Spot. The sense of historical view toward spaces along The Grand Canal should be maintained.

5. Technical and landing requirements: After meeting all requirements stated above, reasonably use advanced technologies and materials. The design should consider pedestrian, sightseeing, travel and connection functions. It should respond to the surrounding landscape. The landing result should be ensured.

Awards

The prize money will be paid directly by Jiaxing City Urban Investment Development Group Co., Ltd. to the award-winning design agency. The design agency shall issue the invoice accordingly.

Champion

1 winner; A prize of RMB 600,000 (pre-tax)+ Certificate of Honor

Top 2

1 winner; A prize of RMB 400,000 (pre-tax)+ Certificate of Honor

Top 3

1 winner; A prize of RMB 250,000 (pre-tax)+ Certificate of Honor

Top 30

27 winners; Certificate of Top30 Honor

Shortlists

Certificate of Shortlist Honor

Criteria

According to the Competition concept and design goals, the following principles are set for the basic appraisal:

1. Principle of reasonable selection of bridge location: to fully consider the restricted site conditions and select the most suitable location for the bridge. It should adapt to changes in the future.

2. Principle of fitting theme and characteristics protection: to present the characteristics of the city. It should reveal an overall feature of “Red Boat Soul, International Style, Feeling of Canal, Atmosphere of South Regions of Yangtze River”, and presents the landscape characteristics of spaces along The Grand Canal including Huancheng River, making the Jiaxing Canal Culture obvious. It should present the unique charm of water town in South Regions of Yangtze River as well as the high quality urban construction and an internationalized atmosphere. For the design analysis, the logic of characteristics protection should be fully described in the design result.

3. Principle of connecting ancient city with South Lake as well as complying with related planning: to enhance the urban central axis system, establish the connection of Jiaxing’s historic town and South Lake by complementing the slow traffic system, promote the pedestrian axis of Jiaxing with focus on its history of development, and extend the Walkable Street Blocks image of a livable city.

4. Principle of feasibility and cost control: to set a service life and make it adequate for the pedestrian use. It should meet the requirements of flood discharge and navigation for future tours under the bridge. Two ends of the bridge should be accessible for pedestrians to pass through, avoiding any jams of this slow traffic path. Meanwhile, it should be good for future inspection and maintenance. On the basis of the principal stated above, the cost control is adopted as one of the evaluation criteria.

5. Principle of innovation: to combine the structure innovation with the design idea, and balance the relationship of structure, function and shape. The bridge design proposed should be in advanced level and infuse aesthetics. It should actively use the advanced research results domestically and worldwide such as new structure, new materials, new process, new equipment and new technology, etc. and empower solving problems and meeting challenges in the bridge design in reality.

6. Principle of environmental protection: After the consideration of all the principles stated above, the principle of environmental protection will be deemed as one of the evaluation criteria.

Except for the principles stated above, the design should realize the connection result among South Huangcheng Road in Jiaxing’s historic town, the riverside railway park, South Lake Scenic Spot. The sense of historical view toward spaces along The Grand Canal should be maintained. It should balance the relationship of structure, function and shape. The energy saving and sustainable development should be considered as well. The bridge should not be too high, and its volume and piers should not be too large. Piers and pile foundation should be set far away from the revetment and avoid put in the protection scope of The Grand Canal as far as possible. The architectural style should reveal the local characteristics and the feature of the times. Design should comply with relative design rules in China. The expression should be simple and primitive, integrate with its surrounding natural landscape, and respect the fabric of the historic town and South Lake history. It should decrease decorations in design, and minimize the disturbance to the body of The Grand Canal and its landscape.

Jury Panel

Hung Chih Liu：AECOM Senior Vice President, Person-in-Charge of Strategic and Development in China Region, Person-in-Charge of Urban Strategy Consultancy in China Region
YuYang Liu：Founding Principal, Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, Hangzhou Grand Canal (Heritage Section) Cultural Tourism Integration Chief Design Consultant
Yao Zhiqin：Chief Architect of GMAID, Researcher Level Senior Engineer, Nation 1st Class Registered Architect, Review Expert of Jiaxing Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning
Chen Jianjiang：Vice Director of Jiaxing Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism (Jiaxing Muncipal Cultural Heritage Bureau)
Sun Huixiang：Deputy General Manager of Jiaxing City Urban Investment Development Group Co.,Ltd
Isa Ye：Founder of YoungBird, Founder of designverse

Eligibility

This Competition is open to all design agencies with related design practice domestically and worldwide (qualification of independent legal person or organizations with the ability of bearing civil liability independently). Registration by a consortium is accepted due to the win-win result and the mutual strengths complementing. The member quantity of the consortium shall not exceed 2. Each party of the consortium shall not participate in this Competition in its own name， nor does it form another consortium with other design agency.
Registration from individuals or groups of individuals is not accepted by this Competition.
Designers can participate in this Competition by individuals or groups, but they shall be the regular staff of design agencies. If it is involved that the design is adopted for landing, the possible cooperation shall be based on the contract signed by the individual’s company, thus, the individual entrant shall coordinate with its company on the corresponding issues.
There is no limitation on quantity of members for each group, but the group leader shall be a professional architect whose company information must be filled out.
Each participant has to register on our website, and is invited by the group leader to complete its group-joining action; for any questions, please visit our website.

Schedule

2022/03/07 Call for entries

2022/05/10 Submission deadline

2022/05/10 Registration deadline

2022/05/24 Release of shortlisted winners

2022/05/31 Release of Top 30

2022/06/22 Release of Top 3

2022/07/08 Release of Champion

Registration

Please register by logging into official competition website: www.designverse.com.cn.
For the latest information about this Competition, please follow official WeChat account: designverse设计宇宙 or official Weibo account: @YoungBirdPlan.
You can directly contact the Competition team by adding YoungBirdPlan as one of your Wechat friends, or you can enter our official website to submit questions.

Downloads

Documents:

Site aerial shooting;
Existing condition of the site;
Site topography CAD;
Site environmental impacts on bridge construction;
Protection rules and related background of Jiaxing Section of The Grand Canal;
The Grand Canal protection materials;
Jiaxing Ancient City Central Cultural Axis materials;
Jiaxing’s historic town planning materials;
Work submission reference

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.

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.

Statement of Consent

By submitting an entry, each Entrant agrees to authorize the organizer to publicly display the work in the form of credited or hidden names to everyone for the purpose of holding the competition, and accepts the online 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.

According to the principles of fairness, impartiality and openness, the Competition Commission will invite professionals of each field to form the Jury and work on the appraisal of entry. If there is any dispute on entry, please contact and report to the Competition Commission with corresponding proof (such as related files of the plagiarized work). If the plagiarism is verified and confirmed after investigation, it means automatic disqualification either on participating in the Competition or on winning an award.

*In any circumstance, the Entrant shall not contact or try to contact any member of the Jury. Any form of violation against this rule means automatic disqualification.

The submission of work by the Entrant refers to the Entrant agree the organizer of the Competition to have the sole right of priority on obtaining the intellectual property of the entry work based on purchasing.

Before the final release of the Competition’s result, the confidentiality of the entry work shall be protected by the Entrant till the Champion of Jiaxing Ancient City Connecting South Lake International Concept Design Competition on Footbridge Crossing Huancheng River and Railway is formally announced. Any form of violation against this rule means automatic disqualification.

The detailed Official Rules of this Competition will be published on the designverse website. Please read them carefully.