From October 29 to November 1, 2021, the series of activities for the 19th Asian Congress of Architects (ACA19) were held one after another after long-term preparation. Among them, ARCASIA Student Jamboree 2021 was the first to be held online on October 29. It attracted more than 100 students and mentors from the 15 member association of architects of ARCASIA.
As a traditional fixed part of the ACA, the Student Jamboree tried the new form of online organization and interaction this year. It included two parts, namely thematic workshops and lectures by architects. It was convened by Li Yanbo, the convener of the Student Jamboree for the ACA19, a member of the Architectural Society of China (ASC) and associate professor from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University. He set the theme “Reconnecting Our Community” for the workshop according to the modern characteristics of cities and villages and the global situation under the impacts of the pandemic in recent years. The assignment was sent to the participating delegations one week in advance for preliminary preparation. As for the session of lectures by architects, leading architects and scholars in architecture were invited to give speeches and answer questions from the audiences. The activities for this year’s student jamboree lasted three days.
Day One
At 12:45 on October 29 Beijing time, the event officially kicked off. At first, Mrs. Rita Soh, President of the ARCASIA, Wu Jiang, Convener of the ACA19, Vice President of the ARCASIA (Zone C) and Professor of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Li Zhenyu, Secretary-General of Architectural Education Branch of the ASC, Professor of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, delivered opening speeches. Associate Professor Li Yanbo, Convener of the event, was the host of activities on the first day.
After the opening ceremony was the session of lectures by architects. Mr. Chris Hardie, Head of the Danish architectural design firm SHL in China, gave a lecture titled “Reconnecting Our Community”, echoing the theme of the event. He took a series of SHL’s design works across the world as examples, including Shanghai Library East Building which was going to be completed, to discuss how to bring people together via architecture and re-build common space for people.
After the first lecture, association delegations entered the parallel conference rooms online to participate in the 2-hour intense brainstorming session and discuss solutions to assigned tasks.
At 16:00 Beijing time, association delegations that had returned to the main conference room and listened to the second keynote speech. Mr. Vinayak Bharne, Head of the architecture and urban planning firm Moule & Polyzoides, Adjunct Professor at University of Southern California and Head of My Liveable City, gave a lecture titled Architecture: From High Art to High Activism. He discussed the shift in architecture in the new era, as well as architects’ responsibilities, work focus and the way they work.
The activities on the first day came to a successful end amidst students’ questions and the host’s interaction with speakers.
Day Two
At 1:00 pm Beijing time on October 30, 2021, the activities on second day kicked off online on time. Associate Professor Zhou Minghao from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University was the host.
At first, Mr. James Wei Ke, Co-founder and Chief Architect of CHIASMUS, gave a lecture titled “Time: Reshaping Space”. Taking his works in China, South Korea, the United States, etc. as examples, he shared the architectural concept that focuses on shaping public spaces and promotes the interaction and connection between human activities and architectural space via architecture. He also shared his view on the theme of the Student Jamboree “Reconnecting Our Community”.
After the first lecture, association delegations entered their respective conference rooms on Zoom to participate in the brainstorming session and discuss solutions to assigned tasks.
At 3:20 pm Beijing time, the host and students returned to the main conference room on time and listened to the lecture titled “To-gather: the Architecture of Relationships” by the second speaker of the day – Professor Puay-peng Ho, Director of the School of Architecture of National University of Singapore. He discussed the re-examination of architecture as a result of the pandemic and its social value, the necessity to think about various relationships such as the relationships between architecture and city, between architecture and human behavior, internal space and external space, virtuality and reality, plane and three-dimensional space, human and nature in space design, and the importance of applying traditional craftsmanship into contemporary architectural design to create a good space for the future.
The activities on the second day came to a successful end amidst students’ active exchanges and questions.
Day Three
On October 31, the last day of the Student Jamboree of the ACA19, the main content was delegations reporting final design results of the tasks. The activities began at 1:00 pm Beijing time. Dr. Wang Yiming, Assistant Professor of the Department of Architecture of College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, was the host of the activities on the last day.
Dr. Wang Yiming first reviewed the main activities of the first two days, thanked students from the member associations for their hard work during the event, and expressed expectations for the final design results they would present. Then, he introduced the process and basic requirements of final presentation, which included three parts. In each part, five students from the member associations made a 5-minnute presentation. After each presentation, there was a 2- to 3-minute Q&A session.
Students from five member associations of Macau, Thailand, Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Bangladesh were the first to present their results. The China Macau delegation focused on the topic of “Virtual Car Racing”, explored the possibility of competitors competing on digital Macau streets through virtual reality at home under the background of the pandemic and the possibility of establishing a connection between community residents in this way. The design of the Thai delegation provided an activity place for community residents in the post-pandemic era by utilizing the space under the bridge and building a connection between the space under and on the bridge. The delegation from Chinese Mainland made an in-depth observation and research on how various “doors” had separated and connected community residents during the pandemic. The design of delegation from China Hong Kong comprehensively explored the impacts of the pandemic on us in the aspects of clothing, food, housing and transportation, and proposed a solution from the perspective of architectural design. The proposal of the Bangladesh delegation focused on community reconstruction strategies at a smaller scale in daily life.
After a short break, student representatives from Pakistan, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia showed the results in the second phase. The proposal of the Pakistan delegation focused on how to use large infrastructure such as highways for other purposes during the pandemic when the utilization rate declined and stimulate the social vitality of the surrounding areas. The proposal of the Japanese delegation explored the community reconstruction strategy by adding plants in the high-density urban environment and establishing relations between community members through the daily maintenance of plants. The South Korean delegation focused on campus space and discussed the community reconstruction strategy of building bonds between community members in the space. The Malaysian delegation explored the possibility of carrying out activities via prefabricated buildings and using the opportunity of jointly building prefabricated structures to enhance communication between people in the community.
Finally, in the third part, students from the delegations of Singapore, Nepal, the Philippines, Mongolia and Vietnam presented their designs. The proposal of the Singaporean delegation connected residents in different neighborhoods separated by roads and isolation policies via a three-dimensional, multi-directional, multi-layered pedestrian bridge. The student from the Nepalese delegation introduced how they created social places such as tea rooms to attract residents and build a new living space in the post-pandemic era via building spaces such as local traditional courtyards and corridors. The proposal of the Philippine delegation attempted to provide a common solution to problems brought by the pandemic and the rising sea level caused by global warming via independent floating building space. The Mongolian delegation designed multi-functional human-size structure units. The multiple functions of a single unit can meet the needs of people living alone, while the flexible combination and changes of several units can play complex functions that meet the common needs of community residents. The Vietnamese delegation focused on the demands of the special group doctors for space during the pandemic, and put forward the bold idea of building a hospital via bubble space.
After the presentation, the host Dr. Wang Yiming invited Gyanendra Singh Shekhawat, Chairman of Committee of Architecture Education of the ARCASIA, and Li Yanbo, Convener of the Student Jamboree, Associate Professor of the Department of Architecture of Tongji University, to deliver a closing speech. In their speeches, Chairman Gyanendra and Associate Professor Li Yanbo applauded students’ heated discussion on the theme “Reconnecting Our Community” and the depth and quality of the final design results, and thanked them for sharing their ideas and designs. After the speech, the activities for Student Jamboree of the CAC19 came to a successful conclusion.
The replays of lectures by the architects and the presentations of final results in the student jamboree activities have gone online. You can watch the replays on the student jamboree page of the ACA19 official website: www.aca19shanghai.com/#/student/Jamboree.
Authors: Li Yanbo, Wang Yiming, Li Yuxin, Zheng Xin
