Press Release
City on the Loop Mixed use by Ruxuan Zheng Receives the Silver A' Design Award in Urban Planning and Urban Design
Ruxuan Zheng recognized for urban planning and urban design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 18, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that City on the Loop Mixed use by Ruxuan Zheng has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Urban Planning and Urban Design category. The result belongs to the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Silver A' Design Award
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About City on the Loop Mixed use
City on the Loop reimagines a flood prone coastline in Brooklyn as a continuous urban edge that adapts to rising sea levels. Built over existing infrastructure, the design introduces elevated housing, light rail, and flood resilient public programs in three phases. A land sea gradient replaces hard boundaries, enabling architecture, ecology, and community life to interact. The loop acts as both a spatial structure and an adaptive system, evolving with environmental shifts and offering a framework for future intelligent, climate-responsive governance.
Award Record
With this recognition, Ruxuan Zheng is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' City Planning and Urban Design Award
The A' Urban Design Award is an international urban design competition recognizing good urban plans and designs by best urban planners and architects worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to urban planning designers, urban architects, city planners and urban designers from all countries. Entries typically include masterplans, zoning proposals, infrastructure designs, landscape blueprints, public space concepts and urban renewal projects. Awarded urban plan designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/urban-planning
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/176557
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/176557
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!176557
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/373640
- Further Information from the Laureate: http://www.ruxuanzheng.com
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- City on the Loop Mixed use
- Function
- Mixed use
- Category
- Urban Planning and Urban Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture and Social Impact
- Colors
- Light Steel Blue, Light Gray, Dark Olive Green, Dark Gray and Gray
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Ruxuan Zheng
- Country
- United States of America
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #176557
Credits
- Image Credits
- All images, renderings, and video content created by Architect / Designer Zheng Ruxuan. Copyright © 2025, all rights reserved. Background music: Ocean Song, created by Memê no Beat.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- City on the Loop reimagines Canarsie Pier as a dynamic coastal system that adapts to rising sea levels. Through a phased loop structure built along a land–sea gradient, the project integrates housing, infrastructure, and ecology into a resilient urban edge. It transforms the shoreline from a barrier into a platform for coexistence, with future potential for AI-assisted adaptation and growth.
- Inspiration
- Inspired by the contradictions of the Belt Parkway—both connective and divisive—this project explores how infrastructure can shift from separation to integration. It draws from tidal landscapes, looped mobility, and phased urbanism to envision a future where architecture mediates between ecological forces, human needs, and evolving coastlines.
- Research
- This is applied design research aimed at rethinking coastal urban edges. The objective was to create housing integrated with resilient infrastructure. Methodology combined GIS mapping, site surveys, 3D simulations, and projected sea-level rise and flood data. Results show a looped edge that strengthens housing, ecology, and access. Insights suggest design can influence real estate, community life, and climate adaptation.
- Challenge
- The hardest part was reconciling ecological resilience with urban density. Historically, the site has been cut off by the Belt Parkway; socially, the community faces limited waterfront access. Externally, sea-level projections and flood laws required strict compliance, while production constraints limited material choices. Information gaps on long-term climate data challenged our modeling. Overcoming these, we created a looped edge that balances housing, ecology, and public life.
- Realization and Technology
- This design was developed through iterative digital modeling, combining GIS mapping, ecological data, and layered analysis of coastal conditions. Renderings and animations were produced using 3D visualization tools to simulate the gradient between land and sea. The process emphasized feedback loops—testing urban form against resilience, housing demand, and public accessibility.
- Operation and Interaction
- The design works like a continuous walkway that rises above the highway and bends along the shoreline. As people move through it, the structure shifts from housing to public spaces to green wetlands. Key moments include crossing the elevated loop, stepping down to the water, and meeting open plazas. By blending living, nature, and access, it turns a barrier into a shared edge, making the coast safer, more open, and more resilient for everyday use.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in September 2019 in New York as an academic studio research in Syracuse University. It has been continuously refined and expanded through independent work until June 2025, when it was exhibited at the UTOPIA exhibition.
- Specifications
- The design was developed through phased urban modeling, sectional prototyping, and spatial iteration to explore adaptive growth along coastal gradients. Ecological, social, and infrastructural systems were layered using loop-based logic, allowing the project to evolve as both a physical structure and a future-responsive framework.
- Keywords
- Architecture; Urban Design; Coastal Resilience; Housing; Ecological Systems; New York City
