REVIVING MINES: SHANDONG PARK

A DESIGN CHALLENGE TO REVITALIZE FORMER EXCAVATION AREAS

The local government and enterprises aim to develop a strategic vision to reinforce local communities and bring new life to the site.

PROJECT: Crowd-sourced Research
YEAR: 2020
DURATION: 3 months
COMPETITION SPONSORS: Beijing Tourist Scenic Investment Management Co., Ltd., Shouqing Aolv Investment Management Co., Ltd., Shandong Li Guizu Cultural Development Co. Ltd.
SUPPORTED BY: People’s Government of Zichuan District, Zibo City, Shandong Province.
PROJECT PARTNER: ARQ, ARQPEDIA

This competition is meant to be exploring the potential of the Shandong Mines Park through creative design solutions. The outcome will inform local stakeholders and decisionmakers on new and smart ways to generate value. This value can be ecological, cultural, social, artistic, or economic.

Following this logic, projects do not have any constraint.

In terms of SCALE, they can range from furniture design to master planning. Proposals can address human scale, designing objects and small-scale pavilions, or they can bring a more large-scale strategic approach, developing a district plan for the whole areas. They can be single or multiple buildings in a network. They can be landscape design projects, cultural initiatives, or systemic plans.

PROGRAMMATICALLY, they can accommodate multiple functions or be afunctional. Proposals can be pieces of art or elements to bring new use to the mining sites. They can also be fully functional buildings, with public, residential, or work use. They can be ecological plans, or they can be related to accessibility, becoming bridges or pedestrian/ cycling networks.

Concerning LOCATION, the area selected for this competition has been framed in the maps contained in this brief. Nevertheless, there is no clear boundary or target site to be addressed. Keeping that in mind, it is up to the participants to define the geographical and topographical conditions for their proposals.

We do not require projects to have a high level of technical precision and we do not need them to be located in a real context. They can relate to the site in an imaginative way, defining general principles or using a made-up context that would portray one of the typical conditions of the area. Projects can address mine regeneration sites, natural zones, rural villages or any other zone that might seem relevant. Further site research from the teams is appreciated but not required.

Given these parameters, projects will be compared and evaluated basing on how creative, feasible and wellpresented they are. Therefore, we encourage you to focus only on a very limited range of programmatic features, scale of intervention and site conditions. Projects do not need to
solve everything, but they have to SHARPLY ADDRESS ONE OR TWO KEY ISSUES.