2020

The current COVID-19 pandemic and its response have raised critical questions about how we live and work. It has also led to a lot of us asking, ‘How can we improve our own neighbourhood?’

The city district of Zibo, the third largest by population within the Shandong province, has been a key stone mining location till recent years. The excavation activities, particularly focused on the Zichuan subdistrict, marked the rural areas of the province with invasive interventions and disruptions of the local ecosystem. The mountainous area is today characterized by woodlands, villages, mine pits in quarries and terraces built with stone. The extraction activities have been terminated, generating the need for new purpose and value in a location with unique cultural, ecological and social conditions.

The Covid-19 pandemic is far from being controlled and has already claimed over 600,000 deaths around the world. This incredible loss is compounded for many families who were not able to say goodbye to their loved ones in person due to hospital safety measures or hold proper funerals because of the incredible scale of the situation. In the face of these tragedies, how may a local community memorial honor those who have passed and bring solace to families?

World Campus Masters Selective Graduation Design Program (short for "WCM Program”) is launched by an international design competition platform Young Bird Plan, and it is committed to recognizing the fresh blood of contemporary design through evaluating graduation designs from global young designers in different regions and cultures. It encourages original design and design thinking in campus to conduct a positive dialogue with global design industry and industrial development, bringing young designers and their graduation works to one of the world's most influential design platform and the cutting-edge design ecosystem.

India is home to one of the largest & complex education system in the world. There are over 1.5 million schools & more than 260 million school-goers in India. Schools providing primary education counts for 56.58% of the total number of schools in India. Students in the age group of 6 -14 years are entitled to free & compulsory education under the “Right of Children to Free & compulsory education” Act 2009 ( RTE ). There are about 10 lakh government schools in India offering primary education. But these schools are in extremely bad shape with some even lacking basic amenities such as electricity & water.