Student teams from home and abroad completed their construction of 58 buildings of polypropylene (PP) hollow sheets after eight-hour non-stop work on 9th June 2016. A hand-woven starry sky, a pair of fluttering wings, a showing off peacock ... these creative buildings formed a peculiar scene in front of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP).

Tongji International Construction Festival 2016 and “Ablues Design” Competition of Design and Construction of PP Sheets 2016 started on the morning of 9th June. Wu Jiang, executive vice president and Wu Zhiqiang, vice president of Tongji University attended the opening ceremony.

A total of 500 competitors from 58 teams participated in the competition, among which 34 teams were from CAUP, 1 from Colleges of Civil Engineering, Design and Art, Art and Media of Tongji University, 14 teams from Chinese universities including Southeast University, Tianjin University and Chongqing University, 7 teams from abroad including École Nationale Superieure d'Architecture de Versailles of France, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya of Spain, University of Graz of Austria. The competition started at 9 am and lasted for eight hours. All competing teams were to construct a building of 8 square meters with 40 pieces of PP sheets and bolts by using their imagination. The building got to be rain-proof, moisture-proof with good ventilation and natural lighting, the indoor space of which could accommodate 8 team members in addition to its being a venue for team work.

In the process of construction, students had to take into account such issues as harmonious neighborhood, functional space, proper construction methods and innovative structures. Innovation, construction and team spirit were the three major factors that could distinguish a team among the rest. This year’s competition was different from the previous years’ ones in that PP sheets were used instead of the corrugated cardboards so that the buildings on display in the open air could last longer. PP sheets performed better in resisting pressure and bending, which provided competitors with more possibilities of creating innovative structure and space.

Translated by May Language Studio based upon

http://news.tongji.edu.cn/classid-10-newsid-51695-t-show.html