On June 8th, a lively construction scene was staged on the Siping campus, Tongji University. Nearly 300 Chinese and international students were busy constructing their specially designed structures in the square in front of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP). The International Construction Festival attracted 13 international student teams from architecture institutions in the Americas, Europe, Oceania as well as Asia, 19 first-year student teams from domestic architecture colleges, and 16 first-year student teams from Tongji University, including CAUP, College of Design and Innovation, College of Arts and Communication, College of Civil Engineering and Tongji Zhejiang College. They designed and built a total of 48 buildings made of plastic hollow panels.
The theme of the festival was based on Butterflies in Love with Flowers, a poem written by the classical poet Ouyang Xiu in Song Dynasty. Students drew inspirations from this source and used their imagination while focusing on human experience in the space according to the requirements of the role of courtyard in the spatial sequence. A panel of judges selected 27 winning teams, including 3 first prizes, 6 second prizes, 9 third prizes and 9 teams of excellence. The three teams that won the first prizes were from Architecture Institute of Venice, Italy, Hunan University, China and Graz University of Technology, Austria. Teams from Tongji won 3 second prizes and 2 third prizes.
