Gumei innovates with street furniture design competition
The champion design of the contest features a corner in Gumei Park that functions as a community activity center with green space, connecting arches, benches and fitness facilities.
A street furniture innovative design competition drew its curtains in Gumei Subdistrict of Minhang District recently.
Street furniture is defined by Michel Carmona, a professor from Université Paris-Sorbonne, as all public facilities that appear on the streets and pavements as well as on the edges of streets, including road lamps, mailboxes, telephone booths, fire hydrants and lounge seats, among others.
The design competition, launched in October 2022, selected works on designs of lounge seats, urban illumination engineering, parking lots, dustbins, road signs, flower boxes and guard bars, in the urban scenarios of Gumei, including the circle formed by Pingnan, Hechuan, Gudai and Lianhua roads, the central axis of the Wanyuan Road circle, and Gumei Park and its adjacent four corners.
Nine finalists completed the defense of their works and a champion, a runner-up and a third-place finisher were selected by a group of panelists and the organization committee.
The finalists talked about their inspiration, their understanding about subdistrict's urban spaces, their thoughts on nature and art, and how to make street furniture both practical and ornamental.
"Among the more than 200 subdistricts and towns in Shanghai, Gumei is the only one that has a mei (美, beautiful) in its name," said Sun Dawang, champion of the contest. "I was inspired by this and therefore applied the calligraphy character mei and butterfly patterns into the design of the bridge rails in Gumei Park."
The runner-up design features magnolia elements: Curves are used to design bus stops, road lamps and lounge seats to mimic the style and aesthetic beauty of magnolia, the city flower of Shanghai, its creator noted.
The runner-up design of the contest features Shanghai's city flower, magnolia.
"Though street furniture is about details of urban construction, it helps a city revamp its humanity, as well as cultural and art aspects. Some ornaments at a street corner or a minor but useful design may help residents of Minhang increase their sense of belonging and happiness in the district," said Chen Yujian, Party secretary of the district.
"The purpose of design is to innovatively provide a solution," Liu Guanzhong, a senior art professor of Tsinghua University and a competition judge, summed up in a keynote speech during the event.
"The aim of carbon neutrality and carbon emissions peak of mankind is both a challenge and an opportunity. The industrial transition of China toward more digitalized, greener and smarter visions is pressing," Liu added.
"We resort to design and the imagination it triggers to solve problems in life and work, and apply planned and logistical actions to achieve the goal."
It is not about entertainment and pursuing one's hobby only, but a long-term and energy-saving plan for the general public, the professor noted.
The designs of the winning works will be applied into real-life scenarios in the future, and hopefully become new landmarks for Gumei and Minhang.
A community renovation design league, or think tank on boosting urban space quality, has been formed.
In the future, a designer salon will be set up to gather a group of designers and culture and innovation talent, or be an incubator for master designers studios, as an extension of this street furniture innovative design competition.
One of the nine finalists of the competition, themed on windows, has proposed a design for Gumei Park and its surrounding areas that will enable locals to enjoy exhibitions, weekend markets, communication and relaxation.
