Recently, the Double-Water Low-Carbon Community Center has earned three Professional Project Awards (PPA) at the 2026 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI). The project is led by Professor Xiao Yan’s team at Zhejiang University–University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Institute (ZJUI), and delivered in close collaboration with the Zhejiang University (Ninghai) Joint Research Center for Bio-based Materials and Carbon Neutral Development, as well as the Architectural Design Institute of Ninghai Urban Construction Investment Group. It took home the Special Award for Most Innovative Project (less than $100 million), the Award of Excellence for Structural Systems Design, and the Award of Merit for Sustainability.

▲

This marks another major milestone of international recognition for engineered bamboo construction, following the widely acclaimed success of the Ninghai Bamboo Tower. It also reinforces the growing global acceptance of engineered bamboo as a viable, sustainable structural material for large-scale public buildings.

Located in Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province, the Double-Water Low-Carbon Community Center is a two-story, multifunctional public building with a total floor area of over 2,000 square meters and a total height of 15 meters. As China’s first large-scale engineered bamboo public building to complete full statutory construction approval and formal delivery, the project represents an innovative integration of renewable biomaterials and high-performance structural design.

▲

Rooted in the biophilic design philosophy of Breath and Light, the building adopts a hybrid structural system consisting of an engineered bamboo beam-column frame with supplementary steel bracing. A standout feature of the project is its 16.2m × 16.2m column-free open entrance hall, made possible by long-span engineered bamboo beams and innovative bamboo-steel composite members. The project also marks the first large-scale engineering application of cross-laminated bamboo-timber (CLBT) and torsion-laminated bamboo-timber (TLBT) panels, both developed in-house by Professor Xiao’s research group, which form the building’s signature undulating curved roof. Through the use of carbon-sequestering engineered bamboo, prefabricated dry construction methods, and a planned rooftop solar PV system paired with a high-performance bamboo envelope, the building is designed to achieve near-zero embodied carbon and net-zero operational energy across its full lifecycle.

▲

▲

This international recognition underscores the global potential of engineered bamboo construction, while highlighting ZJUI’s expanding influence in interdisciplinary engineering innovation, sustainable environment research, and the translation of cutting-edge academic research into high-impact practical projects.