Announcement on the International Conceptual Design Competition of Yuhang Culture and Art Center

Project Background

Hangzhou is the cradle of the Chinese civilization and one of China’s seven ancient capitals. Yuhang District, located at the southern end of the Grand Canal, is steeped in history as the site of the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, the “Holy Land of Chinese Civilization”, and the birthplace of the Liangzhu Culture. It houses numerous ancient relics and ruins.

Benchmarking itself against internationally advanced cities in recent years, Hangzhou has moved faster to drive the high-quality development of public cultural services. Yuhang’s cultural industry has also flourished, forming a diversified cultural industry system integrating cultural tourism, cultural creativity, and digital culture, etc., and showcasing its unique cultural charm and vitality.

To advance the construction of a comprehensive national science center, actively shape the spatial framework of a new type of megacity, and build itself into a Socialist modern international metropolis, Hangzhou has initiated the timely construction of an important new urban center after the establishment of the Wulin Hubin Center and the Qiantang Riverfront Center, marking the beginning of an era with three major urban public centers in Hangzhou. Located in Yuhang, Hangzhou’s important new urban center is not only Hangzhou’s hub for sci-tech innovation but also a global source of sci-tech innovation, and focuses on undertaking the functions such as sci-tech innovation, headquarters R&D, conference and exhibition, financial office, transportation hub, cultural leisure, etc., forming an innovation center that radiates the region and leads innovative development.

Yuhang Culture and Art Center, as a cultural icon of Hangzhou’s important new urban center, is focused on contributing to the city’s new key center development, with an aim of becoming a high-quality cultural landmark and a premier riverside art living room at the southern end of the new center’s core area. It embodies the citizens’ aspirations for a high-standard cultural venue and a refined cultural life.

 

Overall Positioning

Yuhang Culture and Art Center is a composite, scenic cultural facility landmark situated along the central axis of Hangzhou’s important new urban center. It combines “a cultural hall, an intangible cultural heritage exhibition hall, and comprehensive cultural space”. While ensuring cultural hall mass art activities and cultural exhibitions & displays, it integrates with functions such as urban fashion launches and cultural facility space.

• The cultural hall positions itself as a “national pioneer in modernizing public cultural services”, and features cultural facilities that match provincial-level cultural resources.
• The intangible cultural heritage hall will dynamically showcase Yuhang’s intangible cultural resources in a “1+N” format, where “1” represents Yuhang’s core intangible cultural heritage exhibition hall, and “N” refers to a number of live experiences and exhibitions scattered throughout the Project’s public spaces, commercial spaces, and outdoor spaces.

 

Project Profile

The Project is located at Plot YH090706-06, within the Future Sci-Tech City unit in Yuhang District, Hangzhou. Positioned at the southern end of the world-class central axis, which is 2.5 kilometers from Hangzhou’s important new urban center (central axis) and within the International Waterfront Cultural Zone, which is the intersection of the Millennium Cultural Development Axis and Wetland Lake Chain in Yuhang District, it is bordered by the Cloud Lake and Mengxi Water Town to the south, approximately 7 km from the West Lake Scenic Area, approximately 4 km from Xixi National Wetland Park, and approximately 4.5 km from Hangzhou West Railway Station. The central axis area has already attracted key public facilities such as the International Sports Center, Hangzhou Concert Hall, and Yuhang Grand Theater.

 

The Project covers a land area of approximately 13.74 hectares (actual area to be measured). The capacity building area is approximately 48,000 square meters, while the underground operational building area does not exceed 15,000 square meters (excluding facility buildings such as underground garages, civil defense facilities, and equipment). And the functions include a cultural hall, an intangible cultural heritage hall, comprehensive cultural space, etc.

Yuhang Culture and Art Center is constructed in two projects: A cultural hall (including an intangible cultural heritage hall) and comprehensive cultural space.

 

Essential Requirements

• The application firm should be a legal entity which registered domestically or internationally. Applications by individuals or design teams composed of individuals are not accepted.
• The application firm should have been responsible for the chief design work of at least one large-scale public cultural building.
• This competition does not accept applications from consortiums.

 

Application Methods

Online application (recommended)

• Designated email address for applications: 3937073892@qq.com.
• Submission time for application materials: from the release date of the announcement to 17:30 on September 9th, 2024 (Beijing Time; The time of receiving the application email shall prevail, and no overdue applications shall be accepted).

On-site application

• Location for submitting application materials: Unit 2, Building 3, Huiyin Center, No. 77 Lianchuang Street, Yuhang District, Hangzhou City.
• Recipient: Wu Xiaojun, tel: 13357108800
• Submission time for application materials: from the release date of the announcement to 9:00 to 12:00 am, 2:00 to 5:30 pm on September 9th, 2024 (excluding weekends and statutory holidays) (Beijing time; no overdue applications shall be accepted).

Application by mail

• Mailing address: Unit 2, Building 3, Huiyin Center, No. 77 Lianchuang Street, Yuhang District, Hangzhou City.
• Recipient: Wu Xiaojun, tel: 13357108800
• Submission time for application materials: from the release date of the announcement to 17:30 on September 9th, 2024 (Beijing Time; The time when the mail is delivered shall prevail, and no overdue applications shall be accepted).

 

Compulsory Application Materials

Online application

• The “Application Form” (see Attachment 1 for details, which needs to be filled in as required) and its relevant attachments shall be provided and duly stamped as required. All documents shall be scanned into PDF file with page numbers. The PDF file together with the Application Information Summary List ((see Attachment 2) in editable EXCEL format shall be sent to the designated email address (3937073892@qq.com）.
• If any of the documents is in a foreign language, the corresponding Chinese version shall be scanned and provided.

On-site/mail application

• The “Application Form ” (see Attachment 1 for details, which needs to be filled in as required) and its relevant attachments shall be provided and duly stamped as required and be bound into one book with page numbers, as well as a USB flash drive filled with a PDF file of the above materials and the Application Information Summary List (see Attachment 2) in editable EXCEL.
• If any of the documents is in a foreign language, the corresponding Chinese version shall be provided.

Note:

1. Firms who are interested in applying for the competition can request for the Design Brief of the Shortlist Selection Stage and attachments by email. Please send a stamped and scanned copy of the “Application Form for the Design Brief of the Shortlist Selection Stage” to competition@ehow.net.cn, and the agency will email the documents to the application firms within 1-2 working days.
2. Download link for Application Form, Application Information Summary List and Application Form for the Design Brief of the Shortlist Selection Stage: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1ae17J6JPlZpjF9c-TzTRUQ?pwd=yhwh

 

Shortlisting and Selecting

Shortlist selection

• 1st stage selection：After the deadline for submission of application materials, the agency will conduct a preliminary review, and then the organizer for this competition activity will set up a shortlist selection review committee to review the certificates and qualifications of the applicants and their proposed designer personnel, their design performance in similar projects, awards, honors, etc. After evaluation and comparison, fifteen firms will be shortlisted to enter the 2nd stage selection by the open ballot method.
• 2nd stage selection：The fifteen firms shortlisted in the 1st stage will submit concept proposals based on the Design Brief of the Shortlist Selection Stage outlined in the appendix of this announcement without any compensation. The organizer will then form a review jury for the 2nd stage to evaluate and compare these fifteen concept proposals. Using an open ballot method, the jury will select the top six firms to be officially shortlisted. Additionally, two more firms will be chosen as alternates (in ranked order) to replace any qualified firm who chooses to withdraw from the application, according to the order they are ranked in.
• The organizer will issue a“Notification Letter of Shortlisting” to notify the shortlisted firms. If the application firm that receives the Notification Letter fails to respond in time as required, it will be deemed to have automatically given up the qualification, and the organizer will fill the vacancy with one of the two alternate firms in their ranked order.

Scheme review

After the shortlisted firms submit their proposal documents, the organizer will set up an expert review committee. Upon carefully studying and scrutinizing each proposal, the committee will adopt the open ballot method to select three outstanding firms. Ultimately, the organizer will comprehensively consider and decide on one final selected firm from the recommended ones. Before finalizing the selected firm, the organizer has the right to request that the three outstanding firms further optimize their proposals based on opinions and recommendations from the review jury and the organizer. This optimization period will not exceed 3 weeks.

 

Main Timeline for Competition Activities

 

Compensation Fees

It is planned to arrange the payment of compensation fees to the shortlisted applicants who submit valid application documents in this competition activity (the fees include tax, and the currency is RMB) as follows:

• The final selected firm will receive a compensation fee of 1.8 million yuan and another 1.8 million yuan for deepening the scheme.
• Unselected outstanding firms will receive a compensation fee of 1 million yuan per firm.
• The rest of shortlisted firms that submit valid proposal documents will receive a compensation fee of 0.8 million yuan per firm.

 

Others

• If a shortlisted firm withdraws midway or ultimately abandons the application for reasons except for force majeure, the organizer has the right to reject the firm’s participation in any future project solicitations organized by it or relevant entities.
• All expenses including travel, transportation, labor, text, taxes and etc. incurred to the participating design firms during the competition period will be covered by themselves.
• The copyright of all basic materials (including text, drawings, electronic data, etc.) provided by the organizer is protected by law and shall not be used for any other purpose except for this competition activity. Without the consent of the organizer, copy, modification, dissemination, public release and other activities will be prohibited; otherwise, the corresponding party will be investigated for legal liability.
• The copyrights of the concept proposals submitted by the 15 shortlisted into the 2nd stage selection belongs to the corresponding design firm. The right of signature of the design results submitted by the shortlisted firms belongs to the corresponding firms, while the copyright belongs to both firms and organizer. The organizer or its authorized institutions has the right to publicly display the design results and introduce, publish and evaluate them through communication, media, professional magazines, books, periodicals and other forms. All application documents will not be returned after review.
• For other specific contents and requirements, please refer to the competition documents for details. If there is any inconsistency between this competition announcement and the competition documents, the competition documents shall prevail. In the event of any dispute arising in the relevant documents and the contract performance of the competition event, the two parties should resolve the dispute through amicable negotiation; if the negotiation fails, a lawsuit should be filed to the people’s court at the place where the Organizer is located.
• Based on the actual application situation, the organizer has the right to adjust the competition announcement content and may extend the submission time for application materials as appropriate.
• Shortlisted firms should ensure that their project leader and chief designer remain consistently involved in this design work, and bring their own translator when attending relevant meetings such as site visits, Q&A sessions, mid-term communications, and proposal presentations.
• The final right to construe this competition activity resides in the organizer, while the interpretation in Chinese shall be final.

 

Organizations and Contacts

Organizer:

Hangzhou Yuhang District Bureau of Culture, Radio& Television, Tourism and Sports

Hangzhou Yuhang City Development and Investment Group Co., Ltd.

Contact Person: Wu Bin, Xu Wenhao

Tel: 0571-89516317 、15267186880 (Monday to Friday 9:00-12:00, 14:00-18:00 Beijing time)

Agency:

Yaohua Construction Management Co., Ltd.

（Shenzhen Ehow R&D Center）

Contact Person: Wu Xiaojun

Tel: 13357108800 (Monday to Friday 9:00-12:00, 14:00-18:00 Beijing time)

E-mail: 3937073892@qq.com

 

The announcement is published on AIMIR’s website now. If you want to know more following details regarding to this competition, please feel free to contact AIMIR. What’s more, you’re more than welcome to touch base with us if you need architectural visualization.