Students to redesign Nanjing Road landmark
The square is surrounded by the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall, Fujian Road M., Jiujiang Road and Hubei Road.
It's a popular place for public events.
A competition among university students was launched on Thursday to look for the best ideas to redesign Century Square, a landmark at the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall.
Students from over 80 universities in the Yangtze River Delta region have been called on to enter the competition run by the Youth League committees of Shanghai and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.
The square, covering 8,000 square meters, is in the middle of the pedestrian mall, which is one of the most popular tourist spots and shopping streets in Shanghai.
Their designs are supposed to address a facelift of the square and its surrounding buildings to weave a spatial unity of historic charm, community spirit and international appeal.
“Unlike the more solemn People’s Square, this square should be a city 'living room' where people and cultures share and interact,” said Sun Tongyu, a professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University who is one of the jury members for the competition.
Xu Hao, head of the Shanghai Youth League's school work department, said the best ideas from the competition, after being refined by experts, will be presented to the government authorities in charge of the planning of the pedestrian mall for consideration.
Winners will be announced at the end of September, and in October an exhibition of the design ideas from the competition will be held.
This is the first landmark design competition of a series for students of the Yangtze River Delta region, which will later be extended to other areas.
The organizers said the competition aims to encourage students to contribute to the development of the region.
