Site Overview

A 600-year old traditional village in Huadong Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, Gangtou Village covers a total land area of 2.83 km2. Facing the south, the village features a typical Cantonese dwelling layout that resembles a comb, which is known as “comb-style layout”. With water on east, south and west, the village has four streams meeting in the south to form a beautiful harbor, hence the old saying “three streams run northward and four streams return to their origin”. With such a favorable geographical location, the village was once built with a freight port in ancient times, serving as a vital hub for land and water transportation in Huadu. Enjoying great prosperity and high reputation, it was also widely praised in the common saying known as “Gangtou Village in the east and Langtou Village in the west”.
The general layout and building form of the ancient Gangtou Village, together with its unique harbor-style idyllic view, are well preserved till today. There are seven ancient alleys in the village, each about 2.4m wide and 85m long. About 20,000m2 of ancient buildings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republican Period are well preserved in the village, including private houses, ancestral temples and ancient bridges, making it an “open-air museum of Lingnan architecture”.

Interpretations on Topic

Nowadays, economic revitalization serves as a key criteria to measure the success of rural development. Indeed, economic development should never be ignored, but more attention should be directed to the local residents to evoke their aspiration for new life. “Culture” makes another reason for them to stay in the villages. Today when we stand at a crossroad in history, it is our due responsibility to continue cultural creation, regain the wisdom in our genes, stimulate the inner creativity and vitality of the villages, and pursue the inborn Chinese culture running in our blood.
Just like many other traditional villages, Gangtou Village is also faced with challenges such as underdeveloped industries, resources in urgent need of development and serious population drain. To address these challenges, this Competition will take “Q-Village • Gangtou” as the theme, center around enhancing the fun features of rural built spaces on the principle of minimal demolition and re-construction, and renovate traditional buildings to accommodate compatible functions and trades. Participants are required to take local Lingnan culture as the starting point, and implant their design into the original village in the most humble way, so as to revive the village with the power of design, find the lost cultural memories in the continuation of rural life and aesthetics, and rebuild the self-confidence of rural culture.

Design Scope

Participants may choose, without limitation, one traditional building within the scope of the ancient Gangtou Village for renovation and plan corresponding trade mix compatible with its space, such as cultural and creative education, art exhibition, catering and entertainment. Besides, a brief explanation is required on future operation plan, such as IP building, business model, public activities, etc.
The Organizing Committee will provide relevant information of 10 traditional buildings as indicated below, including plans, elevation drawings and site photos, which participants can download from the official website. If any participant intends to renovate other ancient buildings in the village, please contact the Organizing Committee and the relevant information will be sent separately with the latter’s approval.

Competition Requirements

1.Design Principles
（1）Respect for history and priority to preservation
Carrying both cultural heritage and historical influence, Gangtou Village is an important site for preservation of high cultural value. Participants must give due respect for site conditions and proceed with the renovation design on the basis of maximum preservation efforts and in view of the surrounding environment, so as to fully showcase the historical and cultural connotation and the social and humanistic characteristics of Lingnan architecture.
（2）Continuation of unique culture
Participants should fully capitalize on the historical and cultural resources of Gangtou Village, continue and carry forward its unique cultural spirit, and comprehensively and systematically study the relation between architecture and culture, architecture and environment, architecture and technology as well as function and form in design. The design proposal should provide proper spatial quality, amenities, and visual effect, well adapt to the current rural economic and social development, and demonstrate the participants’ expertise in spatial design, construction and innovation.
（3）Creative and innovative trade mix
Participants should clearly define functional positioning of the renovated buildings, extract the design theme and highlight its exclusive image concept (in terms of design, social function, event organization and brand recognition). A “four-in-one” working approach integrating culture, trade, form and ecology will be implemented. In other words, participants should start with functional planning to propose the overall design objective and leading design concept, put forward specific functional layout and spatial design intents, and briefly describe operation strategies for public events, business models etc.
The trade mix should be defined following in-depth cultural study and summary for the site. Innovative event planning with due consideration to realization and implementation is encouraged to realize the ultimate goal of injecting vitality, leading way of life and driving the regional development.

2.Design Contents & Requirements
(1)The design must be originally created by participants. The design proposal shall incorporate the local history, culture and natural environment of Gangtou Village while providing creative, fun and practical ideas.
(2)The design proposal shall specify materials, construction form and techniques, and provide suggestions on future use or operation;
(3)The design proposal shall accommodate the needs of diverse user groups and provide spaces suitable for villagers of Gangtou Village and tourists.
(4)The design proposal shall provide reasonable layout, while the specific functions are subject to architects, which may include but are not limited to cultural and creative education, art exhibition, catering and entertainment.
(5)The outdoor spaces shall be provided in a rational manner to dialogue with the surrounding environment and present the design as a whole. Site furnishings, waters, pavements, structure, lighting, sound and other design elements can be provided to meet the leisure and display needs.
(6)The design shall comply with barrier-free requirements.
(7)For open-air garage (if any), it is required to specify the number of parking spaces, accesses, circulations and etc.
(8)On the premise of preserving the characteristics of traditional architecture, such additional structures as cantilevered platform and watchtower may be added.

Competition Procedures

1.Registration
(1) The Competition is open to young architects engaged in and teachers/students majoring in architecture at home and abroad, and encourages the participation of cross-disciplinary practitioners. The Competition is open to registration by individuals or teams of individuals, and each member of the team (if any) shall be aged under 40 (inclusive). Each design team may have no more than 5 members, including one team leader. For teams comprising architecture students, no more than two tutors are allowed.
(2)Please click “Register/Sign up” in http://qvillagegangtou.chinabuildingcentre.com to fill in the registration information.
(3) After submitting the Registration Form online, each applicant will be given an exclusive registration serial number (i.e. the mobile phone number used for registration).

2.Site Chosen
The Organizing Committee will provide relevant information of 10 traditional buildings as indicated below, including plans, elevation drawings and site photos, which participants can download from the official website. If any participant intends to renovate other ancient buildings in the village, please contact the Organizing Committee and the relevant information will be sent separately with the latter’s approval.

3.Submission of Design Works
All participants are required to submit their works in soft copies (including drawings and relevant files) to qvillagegangtou@chinabuildingcentre.com, with the subject line indicating “Submissions of 【International Group】/【Domestic Group】 + name of the design work”. No hard copies will be accepted by the Organizing Committee. All design works will be printed and displayed together.

4.Evaluation
The Jury will evaluate the design proposals and determine the winning ones.

5.Q&A
(1) All questions regarding the Competition should be directed to qvillagegangtou@chinabuildingcentre.com.
(2) For team participants, the liaison, if needed, will be made via team leader without involving any team member.