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Quality of Life Issues in Contemporary Chinese Cities
Quality of Life Issues in Contemporary Chinese
Cities: The Impacts of Rapid Growth and Change in the Form of Neighborhoods and
Housing
This round table discussion
will focus on urban design issues in contemporary Chinese cities, with a
particular focus on building sustainable, high quality urban neighborhoods and
housing. In addition to being professors, the participants are also architects,
landscape architects, and urban designers, half from the U.S.; half from China.,
each
with experience and expertise in sustainable urban development, and a
particular interest in the fate of Chinese cities. In the morning of the first
day of the round table session, a keynote address will be given by Dr. Simon
Atkinson, Mike Hogg Centennial Professor at The University of Texas at Austin,
followed by participants delivering brief papers describing their particular
research and/or practice interests.
The balance of the round table
session will be given over to a design charette, an active brainstorming
session, addressing a pre-arranged urban design problem in the city of Beijing,
most likely associated with the 2008 Olympic-related urban redevelopment.
Examples of charette projects might include the redevelopment of an historic
housing district; protecting an older neighborhood from traffic intrusion;
design of an urban open space; inserting high density housing into existing
urban fabric. We are currently
in discussions to select the project
site.
The charette will begin with a visit to the site during the first
afternoon of the round table discussions, where designers will document existing
conditions and discuss challenges facing the area in situ. They will then divide
into three interdisciplinary teams of five to develop a range of options to
resolve the problem. The teams will meet briefly after dinner that evening, to
set a work plan for the following day.
On the second day, the teams will
work intensively through the morning on developing alternative designs. These
alternatives will be presented at mid-day in the form of three dimensional
models and drawings. The alternative solutions will then be critiqued by the
entire round table. The final afternoon will be spent developing a refined
composite solution or solutions, and developing together illustrative drawings
and models.
Design charettes are used by architects and urban designers
to gain an in-depth nderstanding of a design problem, and to quickly develop a
range of solutions. It is a format used by architects around the world, and,
like drawing, is part of our common language. The intent of this round table is
to provide the American and Chinese architects with an opportunity to
collaborate on the resolution of a challenging urban problem, as the best means
of fostering a sharing of knowledge and experience, and building future working
relationships.
