Sichuan David Design Wins Global Human Settlements Award for Planning and Design

At 8:30 PM on October 29th, the annual "Global Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Award (SCAHSA)" ceremony was held in Shenzhen. Dr. Taj Hamad, Vice Chairman of the Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS) and Vice Chairman of the International Union of Peace, announced online that the "Revitalization Project of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (Ma Chair) Workshop in Western Sichuan Linpan, China," designed by Chinese architect Liu Weibing, had won the 2021 Global Human Settlements Award for Planning and Design.
 

The "Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Award" (SCAHSA), guided by organizations including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has been successfully held for fifteen sessions and is one of the world's most important human settlements awards. The award aims to promote the UN sustainable development concepts and the GFHS mission, advance the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 11, recognize the awardees, and summarize and disseminate their outstanding progress and valuable experience in moving towards greener and more sustainable development.

▲ Mr. Alex Camprubi, a member of the jury, presenting the award to designer Liu Weibing.

This award ceremony was a key component of the "World Cities Day" commemorative event—the 16th Annual Session of the Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS 2021). The forum, themed "Accelerating Green Transformation and Innovation: Building Healthy, Resilient, and Carbon-Neutral Cities," was dedicated to "uniting global cities to address climate change and move towards sustainable development." It was co-organized by 27 authoritative institutions, including 10 UN agencies, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and several renowned international organizations.

World Cities Day is the first UN international day with a city theme and the first international day successfully established upon the initiative of the Chinese government. The theme of World Cities Day is "Better City, Better Life," aiming to promote sustainable urban development globally.

The judging committee highly commended the project for its design highlights, including respect for local nature and culture, dynamic innovation, and support for rural revitalization and intangible cultural heritage protection. The project fully responded to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, achieving multiple values such as poverty alleviation and income increase for rural populations, and the protection of regional culture and the ecological environment.

As the designer of the only small-scale rural construction project from China to win the award this year, Liu Weibing shared with the global audience an approach that combines traditional human settlement wisdom with green building innovation concepts.

The Revitalization Project of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (Ma Chair) Workshop in Western Sichuan Linpan is located in Group 15, Mangcheng Village, Qingchengshan Town, Dujiangyan City, Chengdu. The Ma Chair Workshop originates from the handmade bamboo chair craftsmanship passed down through the Ma family since the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. It has now become a local intangible cultural heritage workshop integrating R&D, production, and tourism.

Chief architect Liu Weibing introduced that the revitalization project consists of three parts: the Bamboo Craft Workshop, the Bamboo Material Workshop, and the Tea House, totaling 349 square meters. Construction started in November 2020 and was completed in June 2021. The design fully respects the profound historical culture and favorable natural environment, drawing on the millennia-old traditional passive energy-saving design strategies of Western Sichuan Linpan. It creates a comfortable microclimate and diverse spaces, serving as an excellent demonstration for energy conservation and emission reduction in rural construction.

Overview

Name: Qingcheng Ma Chair Workshop
Location: Group 15, Mangcheng Village, Qingchengshan Town, Dujiangyan City, Sichuan Province
Client: Ma Zehong and Family
Lead Architect: Liu Weibing
Design Team: Lu Xiaochuan, Huang Xiangchun, Cheng Hai, An Boqing, Li Ming, Lu Dan, Liu Ziyi
Design Institute: Sichuan David Architectural Design Co., Ltd.
Text excerpted from People's Daily Online, China.org.cn, and Chuan Guan News.