A new way of living that is built to withstand pandemics and provides everything you need in one place.

Cities are the culmination of our spatial, social, and environmental needs as humans. The natural instinct to densify in cities gave us exponential growth in strengthening financial, social, and environmental relationships. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has fundamentally changed the human relationship to density and thereby our views of cities.

These times have seen massive shifts from a lockdown environment that isolated us from the outdoors to workplace/classroom level shifts of working entirely in the remote. The new models of work highlight the new frontier of travel that no longer operates on highways connecting suburbs to cities, but on video calls linking together continents. At the same time, the new constrained living and working spaces reveal how ill-equipped our current indoor spaces and neighborhoods are for different modes of living.

How can we rethink the city fundamentally not by a complete overhaul, but by smaller functional models? How can we create a jigsaw of such functional architectural modules that make life go on despite such threats around? How can indoor environments be extended to a neighborhood that does not suffer in isolation due to self-sufficiency? How can densities be reinterpreted in cities where healthy living (physical, mental, and social) becomes a top priority?

In a future where remote working/living is established as a reality, where the commute itself is completely abolished from our daily lives, what will our neighborhoods be like?

Design brief: Develop a zero-commute, mixed-use residential neighborhood concept that is resilient to pandemic impacts and is built for a population that lives, works, and plays in the same place.

The jury for the competition consisted of esteemed designers, professionals, and academicians from around the world. The Lead Jurors for the competitions were as follows: 

Naomi Hébert, Partner, Tekuma Frenchman, Netherlands

Sayjel Patel, CTO, Digital Blue Foam, Singapore

Mirko Daneluzzo, Co-Founder & Head of Design, Nyxo Visionary Design Fz-llc, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Jie Zhang, General Manager, Shanghai Office, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, Inc., Shanghai, China

The winning entries are:

Winning Project: The Catcher in the Sky

By: Tan Feng, Haoyan Wei, Jingling Zhou & MY BB

 ^{3d image of The Catcher in the Sky}

Description: In the post-pandemic era, architecture/urban design has a clear historical mission: to shape a future urban form that is as close to the human body as possible, so that the body can move easily and freely, and the body-guarding architecture can get comfortable ventilation, sunlight, and landscape. Our design is committed to this mission.

Runner Up: Rebirth of Compound —Post pandemic township design

By: Ning Sun

^{Source of ideas of project Rebirth of Compound - Post pandemic township design}

People’s Choice: Jenga Towers

By: Özkan Sargın, Deniz Özdemir & Simge Aydın

^{Cover image of Jebga Towers}

Description: Zero Commuting Residential Neighbourhood The main intention was to create a sustainable, zero-commuting residential neighborhood with mixed-used functions that provide quality living in addition to numerous green spaces and social & physical activities in order to sustain one's well-being.

Editor’s Choice: Hudson Forest

By: Bob Borson

^{3d building of project Hudson Forest}

Description: The Hudson Forest is a mixed-use development that focuses on creating new typologies that bridge the gap between nature and the built environment. The concept was designed to emulate the natural layering of a forest.

Editor’s Choice: New Density: Design based on Community Self-support

By: Jinyu Liu, 德辉 孔 & Te Zheng

^{Building interior layout design and life scene display diagram}

Description: Design based on the concept of community self-support. With urban farms as the characteristics, the high-line ecological park as the destination, the vertical neighborhood as the model, and the goal of zero commuting, we will build a healthy ecological community in a high-density city in the epidemic era.

Editor’s Choice: The Nerve

By: Tan Danny

^{Plans and Section of project The Nerve} 

Description: Meticulously made to adapt, housing for the 22nd Century. A proposal that intends to tackle existing conditions and future pandemics to come. To create a mix-used self-sustaining utopian within Hudson yards. A city within a city. All programs strategically designated to allow flexibility for block isolation when necessary.

Editor’s Choice: New urban unit

By: Tanya Prevezentseva & Anastasia Dudko

^{3d Plan of New Urban Unit}

Description: Every crisis is a shake-up of society. Architecture is also a social philosophy: Campanella's "City of the Sun", Howard's "Garden City", "Arcosanti" Soleri's. This project is an architectural fantasy on this topic. The basis is the idea of human needs, from creativity in normal mode to survival in a crisis mode.

Editor’s Choice: Unity with nature

By: Tanya Prevezentseva

^{Cover image of Unity with nature}

Description: The idea of the concept is "Unity with nature" by maximizing green areas. The creation of different types of connections and the ability to use parts of the territory autonomously make it possible to respond to a pandemic situation. All together with the principles of sustainable development make it possible to create a comfortable and safe living environment.

Editor’s Choice: Urban Wilderness

By: Mateo Mantilla, Erin Legan & Ellen Filiatreau

^{Cover image of project Urban Wilderness}

Description: Our team reinvented the modern neighborhood to serve the lifestyles of today while addressing the issue of the pandemic. Our project highlights the benefits of nature as a model for cities and proposes a design that will create self-sustaining communities that better the lives of those that use it.

Editor’s Choice: The Community of Multiple Dimensional Street

By: Baiyang Jiang

^{General layout of The community of multiple dimensional street}

Description: Our final design concept is to use traditional courtyards, streets, and lane elements, combined with specific plots to establish an open community with a certain degree of anti-epidemic resilience with multi-level activity interaction space.

Editor’s Choice: REBIRTH OF THE CHINESE QUADRANGLE DWELLINGS

By: Junda Ma

^{Site plan and Planning system diagram}

Description: The concept behind the project is to respond to the impact of the epidemic on life by constructing new community organization logic. Combining the theme, we believe that the future of the new community is zero commuting, healthy ecology, harmonious sharing, safe and free, and replicable.

Editor’s Choice: TERRA EMERGENCE

By: Cesarina Candelier & Tiffany Taylor

^{Cover image of project Terra Emergence}

Description: Ai Solutions and Environmentally Based Decisions Joining to Reinvent Societal Norms.

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