The final of National Competition for College Students in Industrialized Building and Intelligent Construction was held in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province in September 2021.

Southweat Jiaotong University (SWJTU) sent two teams from the School of Civil Engineering (SCE) and the School of Architecture and Design (SAD). One team consisted of members from SCE led by Liu Yanhui, with group members of Guo Liyu, Xiao qizhang and Dai Hao, and members from SAD led by Wang Jun, with gorup members of Qiao Yawen, Xie Qianmeng and Xu Yufei. The other team consisted of members from SCE led by Long Danbing, with group members of Wang Shu, Wu Qingyang and Zhang Ruicong, and members from SAD led by Zhu Ying, with group members being Zhangli Xingyue, Du Mingxuan and Wu Beisi.

The two teams won two first prizes of the digital integration group with their work DARA FLOW (assembly-type amalgamated house design based on information interaction era) (finished by the team led by Liu Yanhui and Wang Jun), and assembly-type concrete house combined with vertical farms (finished by the team led by Long Danbing and Zhu Ying).

National Competition for College Students in Industrialized Building and Intelligent Construction was proposed under the background of “new engineering” combined with national major development strategy. The participants are full-time college students (including vocational college students, undergraduates and postgraduates). The competition aims at “informatization, industrialization, greening and intellectualization”, covering many disciplines such as architecture, structure, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HAVC), water and drainage, electricity, management, automation, internet of things, and artificial intelligence (AI). The competition aims to advocate the campus atmosphere of diligent study and enterprising spirit, stimulate the innovation potential of college students, and cultivate teamwork and engineering practice ability, with a view to further promote the reform of practical education and teaching in colleges, enhance the research and exchange of national industrialized architecture and intelligent building, promote the reform of talent cultivation mode in related fields, build a new platform for government-industry-university-research cooperation, and improve the quality of talent cultivation.

Bird’s Eye View of the Architecture

Human View of the Architecture

DATA FLOW (assembly-type amalgamated house design based on information interaction era) creates off-line residential complex for work from home in harmony with online life, with internet content creators (cyber celebrities) as its target service group. 250 internet content creators in different fields were selected according to the proportion of attention, and the social network analysis was carried out based on the mutual-following data extracted from Weibo. The generation of the concrete grouped spatial form was guided by its community structure.

Using metacellular automata, the generated grouped forms are compared and selected based on the overall fitting and accessibility and structural feasibility and the selected architectural forms are regularized by combining the propagation theory. Different suite patterns are designed based on the user profiles of web creators. Smart interactive systems are forged by using electrochromic glass. Dynamic sculptures for self-powered device are created by using piezoelectric ceramics.

Social Relationship Chart

Major Set Design: Co-dominance by Dwelling Pattern Demand and Creative Function Demand

For the main part of the architecture, a frame structure is adopted, and shear walls are arranged in the left, middle and right parts to meet the requirements of the large dislocation overhanging of the main body. For the architecture accessory corridor section, a single row of columns as well as a beam connection to the main part is adopted in the area of the setback to meet the form of the corridor. And the prefabricated components are set to complete the assembly-type splitting design. So the preliminary construction drawing design is completed.

One Layer Reinforcement Calculation Results

Assembly-type Splitting Design

The inspiration of the assembly-type concrete house combined with vertical farms comes from today’s agriculture in China. In recent years, national urbanization ratio has increased while the proportion of farm lands has decreased, resulting in shortage of green lands in cities and supply chain of farm crop in villages and towns. Through the development history of agricultural production in China, the previous farms mainly advance towards a horizontal direction, only on the ground for farming operations. In the industrial era, massive mining and ground hardening led to a sharp decline in green areas and urban land tension. In response to such a situation, a new type of farming operations, the vertical farms, have been proposed. Based on this, the team members provide a new type of urban residential model, combining the farm and the house in an attempt to bring out the economic benefits and advantages of the house-farm integration.

Effect Display

In designing the house, the team members adopted the modular design method. Firstly, the 3.9m*8.2m unit is a module with a height of 2.8m and its area is therefore 31.98m². A total of seven different main house types from two modules to four module types can be obtained by stacking the modules horizontally and vertically, and then made different house type plans in accordance with the division of the population.

Residential Modular Design

Details of Prefabricated Components

Such achievements are attributed to the high importance SWJTU attaches to the students' innovation education and the strong support of various discipline competitions. In recent years, SWJTU has continued to deepen the reform of innovation education, actively promoted the work of curriculum system construction, practical platform building and innovation services, and integrated the teaching process with academic research and the learning of theoretical knowledge with the cultivation of practical ability. All the efforts helped the two teams from SWJTU win the first prize out of 103 teams.

In the end, congratulations again to the students for their achievements through active participation and solid application of professional knowledge and innovative technology!

See you next time!