On January 3, 2017, the result of the Country Garden-Forest City Landmark Architecture International Design Competition was announced. Students from the School of Architecture at Tianjin University won both the first and the second prizes in the students’ group. The competition was organized by Country Garden Group, COUNTRY GARDEN PACIFICVIEW, undertaken by Architecture Technique Magazine, co-organized by All Moving Space and supported by Union International des Architectes.

Since opening for nominations on August 13, 2016, the competition attracted attention from home and abroad as 567 teams and individuals took part in the competition. On January 3, 2017, the results were announced. Three entries from the students teams were awarded prizes, including two excellent entries ranked first and second, and one candidate prize ranked third. The results were based on the site assessment by the experts, accounting for 80% of the final score, and voting on WeChat which accounted for 20% of the final score. The entry named Second Nature: Country Garden Eco-reconstruction of a Terraced Forest City was awarded the first prize. The designers were Yang Yuanchuan, Ding Xiaoying, Wu Haoran, Chen Gege and Hou Danlei from the School of Architecture, and the supervisors were Zhang Yukun and Gong Xiaolei. Green Mountain was awarded the second prize. The designers were Du Mengge, Chang Mingwei, Zhang Tianxiang and Yang Qing, and the supervisors were Yuan Dachang and Hu Yike. The team from Harbin Institute of Technology won the third prize.

Terraces green production

Full forest coverage

Organic integration of building and traffic

Profile control perspective of Terraces Forest City

The first prize winning project was Second Nature: Country Garden Eco-reconstruction of a Terraced Forest City. At present, global warming and ecological deficits are of considerable concern. These problems arise from the undue demands of postindustrial cities and the destruction of the natural environment. In the 21st century, the existing model of cities must be changed into a green productive one. By means of integrating transportation, buildings, terraces and forests organically, with the idea of the terraced forest city the Country Garden design seeks to create a second nature in a city covered by forest, with a three-dimensional integrated urban form and green productivity and ecological reconstruction. It also puts forward the best residential strategy for an equatorial environment, copes with the global warming actively and explores a new productive concept that caters for sustainable development in the future.

Green Mountain

The project Green Mountain won the second prize. This project was aimed at exploring a green and healthy lifestyle. It brought the concept of Green Mountain into the busy urban environment and integrated sea, sky, grass, trees and buildings in order to allow people who live there enjoy the gift of nature. As part of the ecosystem, the buildings were integrated into the landscape with the basic form of the hills. Through the application of ecological technology, the buildings were green and ecologically sensitive both inside and outside.

The natural landscape and architecture landscape were connected through a bike way and walking system. When playing sport, people could enjoy different views such as the seaside, the grass, the forest and so on. Moreover, there were a great deal of different functions available in the flexible and free-style buildings, so that people could enjoy the convenient city life in a comfortable natural environment.

Eight internationally renowned architects were invited as judges of the competition. The domestic judges were: Academicians He Jingtang, Jiang Huancheng, Cui Kai, and Meng Jianmin, as well as architect Yan Xunqi. The overseas judges included Adrian Smith from Adrain Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), Roberto Bannura, Director of Steven Holl Architects (SHA) Beijing Office,and Benjamin Warner, Managing Director of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners China.