CITYNEXT / QING LAN CIVIC CHAMPIONSHIP
CityNext is a 48-hour interdisciplinary civic worldbuilding championship where teams design a living district inside Qing Lan, a future city opening its systems, spaces, and institutions for public reinvention. Teams do not simply build apps. They found districts, establish institutions, shape architecture, deploy AI systems, negotiate with neighboring districts, respond to citywide crises, and defend their legitimacy in public.
Program statement
CityNext exists because too many hackathons reduce the future of cities to software demos or smart-city branding. Qing Lan is not broken. It is unfinished. For one weekend, teams enter as founding coalitions and answer one question: what kind of urban life should exist here, and how can you prove it works? The goal is not to ship a loose concept. The goal is to make a piece of city.
Competition layers
Every team builds one district and one civic doctrine, but the work is judged through three visible layers. Strong proposals make all three legible at once instead of treating one as decoration for the others.
District identity and space
Teams define a district identity, a spatial plan, climate logic, circulation, and one signature civic building or complex. Architecture is not surface styling here. The district must feel coherent, memorable, and publicly convincing in day and night conditions.
Institution and operations
Every team must found at least one institution and show how the district actually operates. That means governance rules, funding logic, rights and limits, AI use, human override, crisis response, maintenance, and the tradeoffs the district is willing to accept.
Public exhibition and mandate
The district must become understandable to normal people through an exhibition artifact and then survive public review. A visual manifesto, resident diary, film, installation, campaign identity, or interactive scene can all work, but the final question is the same: should Qing Lan authorize this district to operate as proposed?
What teams actually do
Each team builds one district and one civic doctrine. By the end of the championship, the work should read as a believable piece of city rather than a pile of disconnected prototypes. The standard is whether the district is spatially convincing, operationally intelligent, institutionally credible, publicly legible, and resilient under stress.
Define the kind of life the district optimizes for, the tradeoff it accepts, and the rights or experiences it treats as non-negotiable.
Found one institution with a mission, rules, funding logic, accountability, and a visible headquarters in the district.
Submit a district plan, corridor logic, public-space section, climate strategy, movement logic, and one signature building or civic complex.
Show AI loops, data permissions, fallback logic, crisis operations, staffing, maintenance, and human override conditions.
Produce an exhibition object that lets a resident understand the district without specialist context.
Dates and Format
CityNext is built as a sequence of acts rather than a generic kickoff and demo day. Teams move through a founding charrette, construction, a live civic market, interdependence agreements, a midnight city crisis, a limited oracle window, a museum walk, and a final resident mandate.
Judging
Beauty must be able to win, but beauty alone is not enough. CityNext rewards districts that hold together spatially, operationally, institutionally, and publicly under the conditions of a shared city.
Is the district coherent, climate-aware, beautiful, and architecturally persuasive rather than diagrammatic only?
Do the systems behave credibly under stress, and are the AI and civic loops meaningful rather than decorative?
Are governance, funding, authority, accountability, and rights believable enough that the district could plausibly operate?
Can a resident or visitor understand what the district is for, how it feels, and why it matters?
Does the district survive crisis conditions and the final resident mandate honestly and convincingly?
Rules and eligibility
CityNext is open to interdisciplinary teams prepared to design a district seriously and defend it in public. The event is not restricted to coders. Engineers, architects, designers, artists, storytellers, operators, policy thinkers, and strong generalists are all part of the intended field. Clarity and honesty matter more than inflated polish.
Sponsors and partners
CityNext depends on partners who believe future urban life should be designed in public. Support is not decorative branding. It funds the simulator, exhibition environment, material support, review logic, and the civic conditions required for concentrated making.
Final apply band
Applications are reviewed for seriousness, interdisciplinary fit, and the strength of the district premise. The goal is not maximum attendance. It is one coherent city assembled in public.
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