As an exploration to improving quality of urban public space, “Planning and Design for Beautiful Hebei---The Third Q-City International Young Designer Competition” is an exploration of innovative and or artistic approaches. With the theme of “Quality City:Development Guided by New Technology”, the competition places an emphasis on new science, technology and social perspective equally, which is based on urban renewal/repair functions, the integration of smart health or sports facilities, intelligent urban furniture, interactive art installations, intelligent lighting and way-finding systems that can inspire urban vitality. Competitors are encouraged to start off with a future lifestyle, providing a new sample for the creative development of future city through new technologies such as 3D-printing, 5G technology, and artificial intelligence and smart design, to provide residents with a better quality of life, and ultimately to achieve the goals of livability and natural harmony in the city.

Quality City

The spatial quality of public spaces has become an important representation of a city’s identity. And the “smart revolution” driven by technology and innovation is imperceptibly infiltrating the development of cities and our way of living. As an important part of “The Third Hebei International Urban Planning and Design Competition”, the theme of this year’s competition, “Planning and Design for Beautiful Hebei - The 3rd Q-City International Young Designer Competition (China· Handan),” continues the discussion of “Quality City” with an emphasis on the integration of new technology. The site shall be the People’s Road in Handan City, embodying both the city’s history and an important nodal point for future development, this will be an optimal playing field for micro research and micro interventions. With the continuation of the core discussion revolving around “Quality City”, we hope to start a global discussion regarding the core values of public space.

 The competition is open to young designers and artists, teams of teachers and students in the fields of planning, architecture, landscape, art and intelligent design worldwide. Meanwhile, interdisciplinary professionals, practitioners, representatives of new technology and new energy research institutions are encouraged to participate too. The public, individual and team competitors are all accepted. The competition proposal calls for either of the following, smart city furniture, smart convenient service facilities, public art installations, or other structures that may stimulate the vitality of the city, and improve the quality of our streetscape. Finalists will have an opportunity to have their work presented to the Handan government, for potential future implementation.

Competition Requirement

Design Principles

  1. Creativity: Create diverse and interesting places for Handan citizens and tourists. Design should be original;
  2. Science & Technology: Design should consider the most cutting-edge technology, such as 5G, AI, 3D printing, etc., reflecting the power of science and technology;
  3. Locality: Project should be designed with a comprehensive consideration of local history, culture, and natural environment of Handan with its regional features highlighted;
  4. Sustainability: The sustainability of materials and operation should be considered;
  5. Feasibility: The selection of material, and the form of construction should all be feasible;
  6. People-orientation: Designs should fully consider diverse needs of different groups of people and provide citizens and tourists urban spaces for activities.

Design Category: Based on the daily activities of citizens, through field investigation and digital data collection, the competitors are asked to comprehensively analyze the need of the users along Renmin Road (between Handan East Station and Garden Expo Station), and to explore methods of improving the quality of urban space. Focus should be placed on improving the quality of urban space, convenient urban services and facilities, smart urban furniture, smart street and other issues, one or more of the previously mentioned topics could be included in the competitor’s design. (1) Smart Urban Furniture (Digital Information Kiosk, Mail and Newspaper Kiosk, “Cloud” Cabinet, Courier Kiosk, Smart Bus Station, Smart Charging Station, Smart Trash Bin, etc.) (2) Convenient Service Facilities (Community Post Office, Public Toilet, Parking Lot, Snack Stand, Vehicular Charging Station, Recreational and Fitness Facilities, Children's Facilities, etc.) (3) Public Art or Installations (Landscape Sculpture, Cultural Representation, Pavilions, Verandas, Public Seating, etc.) Participants can submit an independent work or a series of entries. Multiple entries are not accepted. The series works refer to the series of creations under the same theme, while production-oriented repetitive patchwork is discouraged.