On December 18th, 2017, a snow sculpture named "Minimal World", which was made by the School of Architecture of Tianjin University, won the first prize at the first HIT（Harbin Institute of Technology）Ice and Snow Construction Competition.

To build the sculptures, the participating teams were required to use an artificial snow block (size 3.0m * 3.0 m * 2.5 m) provided by the Organizing Committee, with no electric tools or material for reinforcing or painting. The construction had to be finished within 14 hours.

The Tianjin University team constructed a spatial structure generated by minimal surface which formed an abstract snowflake pattern in a particular perspective, promoting the perfect combination of mathematics and art.

Feng Tianxin, one of the team members said: “Snow is a novel material for me as the snow block used for construction is very hard with many different holes inside and it is a challenge for the construction. We should pay more attention to structure and form control throughout the construction. However, this competition helps me develop a deeper understanding of ‘construction’ and improve my ability to deal with unexpected problems in my work.”

It is reported that 10 teams attended the competition, including 8 domestic teams such as Tsinghua University, Tongji University, Tianjin University, Southeast University, Harbin Institute of Technology, South China University of Technology, Chongqing University and Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, and 2 international teams from KU Leuven, Ghent University, Eindhoven University of Technology and Kent State University.

By Rong Na

Editors: Yin Wei & Doris Harrington