Tongji University

On the evening of June 6, after 8 hours of work, 60 small-sized houses made of sepia corrugated boards were built by student teams from home and abroad. They were displayed in the square of Tongji University’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Using students’ creative ideas, the houses were made into various forms, such as the forms of a silkworm cocoon, a petal, or a large round toy box.

The International Building Festival of Tongji University 2015 and “Feng Yu Zhu” Paper House Design and Building Competition began at 9:00 AM on June 6th. Thirty-four teams composed of 285 freshmen from 12 classes whose majors include architecture, urban and rural planning, landscape and architecture, and historical buildings preservation of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning took part in the competition. Freshmen from the Schools of Civil Engineering, of Design and Innovation, and of Arts and Media also participated. The students from eight universities in North America, Europe and Asia, which included Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Hawaii from the USA, McGill University from Canada, University of Westminster from the U.K., University College of Dublin from Ireland, National School of Architecture of Versailles France, Bauhaus University from Weimar, Germany, and Pusan National University from the Republic of Korea, were invited to the competition for the first time. The freshmen from the Schools of Architecture of 15 universities in China, including Tsinghua University, Tianjin University and Harbin Institute of Technology, also participated into the competition. In total, there more than 450 participants.

Using corrugated boards, bolts, hemp ropes and adhesive tape, 60 teams made their eight-square-meter-wide paper houses in the square of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. After their projects were completed, the participants stayed in their paper houses for one full night. Concerts, communication activities and dinner parties were also held during their stay. Records describing all of their experiences were also made.

Since the Building Festival of Tongji University was approved as a national experimental invitational competition by the National Architecture Steering Committee for Institutes of Higher Education, it has been developed into an experimental building activity for college students and has national influence.