The competition, organised by the global architectural firm Aedas and the South China Morning Post's Homes for Hope project, encouraged budding architects from across China to design creative, sustainable, affordable and quake-resistant hous-ing for Sichuan, which was hit by a magnitude 8 earthquake on May 12 last year.

A total of 185 entries were received from the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas.

"The quality of the entries is fantastic, some real clever minds," said Aedas chairman Keith Griffiths, one of the judges.

The final shortlisted 10 entries were unveiled at the MIPIM Asia real estate trade exhibition this week, with the top honour going to Xing Xiong, a mainland student studying at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Students Guo Ninjo, of Beijing's Tsinghua University, and Huang Di, of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, won the second and third prizes.

Xiong's work "Shaking House" features pre-constructed units connected to an outer steel structure with elastic braces to counter the stress and movement caused by a quake.

The housing units hang above ground, which suits the humid weather in the area.

His work impressed all the judges, including Professor Ralph Lerner, dean of architecture at the University of Hong Kong.

"The design is an excellent exam-ple of applying innovative techno-logy in a housing solution," Lerner said. "The designer also presented his idea in a very clear way and ad-dressed all the issues we have re-quested seriously."

Guo's design features rows of low-density houses with triangular sup-porting structures, with each house having a private yard and sharing a public corridor.

The idea presented by third-placed Huang is to lift the houses above the ground by using frames, with each room separate from the others.

One thing that impressed the organisers was that, although they approached only universities in China, many architectural students studying overseas also took part. Of the top 10 entries, five are from the mainland, three are studying in the United States, one is from Hong Kong and the other from Switzerland.

"I feel deeply touched since it shows these students never lost their connection to their motherland and they are very concerned about their country," Griffiths said.

The ten shortlisted entries can be viewed online at greenville.hk.aedas.com/Awards, and they will be exhibited in the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale 2009 from December 4 onwards.

The three winners, who will at-tend the presentation at the Biennale, will receive prizes of between 20,000 yuan (HK$22,700) and 120,000 yuan, sponsored by HSBC.

Aedas has been a major supporter of the Post's Homes for Hope project, which raised funds to help rebuild houses and infrastructure in two quake-hit villages in Sichuan.