To Date, Student Teams From 68 Universities Have Entered the Competition as 30 June Deadline for Student Registration and Project Submissions Nears
BEIJING – 11 June 2010 – The Center for International Business Ethics (CIBE) in Beijing China, the Dynamic City Foundation, and Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for the infrastructure that sustains our world, today announced that, to date, 180 architectural and engineering student teams from 68 universities in China and other parts of the world have submitted projects for the inaugural Future Cities China student design competition. Among the schools represented are: Peking University, Tsinghua University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Tongji University, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing Forestry University, Harbin Institute of Technology, and Sichuan University in China; Harvard University and the University of Florida in the United States; and RMIT University and the University of Melbourne in Australia. The student teams must develop a master plan for the sustainable university campus of tomorrow. This campus will be the cornerstone of the modern “green” Chinese city and help address the many challenges associated with inner-city environments. The deadline for student registration and project submissions is 30 June.
Dr. Jean-Baptiste Monnier, senior vice president, Bentley Asia-Pacific, said, “What makes this design competition so interesting and challenging is the contrast between the site’s surrounding complex fabric of infrastructure and the requirement for an open, pedestrian, and vital university campus dedicated to advanced, sustainable architecture and modern urban planning. The suggestions developed by the student participants will represent models for Chinese cities at large, as they all need to cope with the infrastructure that has been accumulating over the years while creating new, vibrant environments for human and economic development. The winners of the Future Cities China student design competition will most certainly have the skills to become world-class architects and engineers.”
By entering the competition, students gain hands-on experience in the use of world-class design and simulation applications and best practices to enhance their technical skills and knowledge and better prepare them for careers in the infrastructure professions. The winning team will receive an all-expense-paid, one-month internship at the U.S. headquarters of Bentley Systems in Exton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The second- and third-place teams will each receive a one-month internship at a Bentley office in China.
Practicing architects and engineers can also participate in the program as team mentors. The mentor of the winning team receives an HP desktop workstation.
“Urbanization is needed for economic development around the world, including China,” said Xu Jian, dean of the School of Human Settlement and Civil Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University. “The future planners, designers, and architects who have entered the Future Cities China competition will help determine the direction of urban development.”
Said Xu Hao, a student at Xi’an Jiatong University who is participating in the competition, “Many of my fellow students and I registered enthusiastically in the competition because it is an excellent opportunity for us to master the tie between architecture and the city, and to perfect our architectural design skills.”
The multidiscipline teams will consist of up to three students, plus a professor or infrastructure professional who serves as mentor. Each team is required to submit a proposed conceptual master plan for the sustainable university campus with the following elements:
- a logistic concept for the public space of the Future Cities campus, including its connections to the surroundings and a basic understanding of the landscape;
- a general massing study for the school’s architectural program;
- an essay of up to 380 words written in Chinese that describes the proposal’s core concept, how the campus relates to the surrounding area and infrastructure, and how the proposal is sustainable.
The students’ designs will be judged by an independent panel of distinguished jurors, who initially will select up to 10 teams to join a three-day design forum, 24-26 August 2010. At this forum, the students will further develop and present to the jury their proposals with the support of specialists in the field. The winning team will be announced on 26 August.
For more information about Future Cities China, visit www.futurecitieschina.com.
About Bentley Systems, Incorporated
Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Founded in 1984, Bentley has nearly 3,000 colleagues in more than 45 countries, $500 million in annual revenues, and, since 1999, has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions.
For additional information about Bentley, visit www.bentley.com. To view Bentley’s May 2010 Annual Report, visit www.bentley.com/annualreport. To subscribe to an RSS feed of Bentley press releases and news alerts, visit www.bentley.com/rss/news. To view a searchable collection of innovative infrastructure projects from the annual Be Inspired Awards, visit www.bentley.com/yearininfrastructure. For information about Be Communities, a professional networking site that enables members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other, visit http://communities.bentley.com.
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