On June 6th, 2015 Tongji International Construction Festival and “Ablues Design” Corrugated Cardboard Design and Construction Competition was held in Tongji University, Shanghai.
Led by Prof. Zhong Guanqiu from SCUT School of Architecture, The SCUT student team comprising eight members won the first prize in the competition, along with the teams from Tongji University and Tsinghua University winning the same honor.
The competition attracted over 500 students from 23 domestic and overseas universities. Within a prescribed time, the teams built 60 cardboard houses in all, each of which measures about eight square meters.
After comprehensive evaluation by the judges, three teams won the first prize, six teams won the second prize and another twelve teams got the third prize.
The SCUT team chose “field snail” as the topic of their design, which is a response to the theme of “micro-community”. The students built a “snail shell” with its skeleton and surface integrated as a whole. The design stood out among other competitors, winning the first prize.
Tongji International Construction Festival started in 2007. Since 2012, it became a national invitational competition instructed by National Specialty Guidance Committee of Architectural Discipline in Institutions of Higher Learning.
The activity aims to improve students’ knowledge in material performance and constructing methods and procedures, helping them to better understand the physical characteristics of architecture.
With the experience in the architectural space built by the student themselves, they can learn about the basic requirements for building a house, such as its architectural functions, human body measurements, architectural physics and techniques.

First prize work, “Snail House”, designed by the SCUT student team		The students are building "Snail House" tensely