XJTLU and CAA collaborating in sustainable urban design workshop

Students from Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University and China Academy of Art collaborated in a virtual workshop, “Land|scape|City”, to better utilize urban public space according to the local environment. The workshop lasted for one month from October 26th to November 28th.

The student workshop, organized by Department of Architecture and Design at XJTLU and School of Architecture at CAA, was hosted online and attended by 28 students from both institutions with the aim to tackle urban design defect and improve inclusiveness of the investigated region.

During the workshop, the students launched a project named “The Sound of Water” which focuses on the waterway junction between Qiantang River and the Grand Canal. This is a residential area where new blocks and buildings are being built on standard modes, resulting in them being functionally zoned and looking similar.

Using multiple scale approach, the workshop proposed several ideas from five different points of view, including re-use, ecological system, infrastructural attempts, and radical landscape modifications.

All the projects share the same intention: the consciousness that the urban environment is a complicated matter where inclusiveness and integration are the main keyword for investigation.

City and landscape are complex entities interacting and interfering each other, and are different aspects of the same topic - the living space, says Professor Sandro Rolla of XJTLU’s Department of Architecture and Design.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the urgency to develop new theories of inclusiveness in urban planning and understand the reciprocal relationships and the impact they have on the use of the space and the design process,” Professor Rolla says.

The workshop teaching team include Professor Sandro Rolla of XJTLU’s Department of Architecture and Design, Professor Ying Zeng of Chinese Academy of Art and Litian Cheng, master student from Polytechnic University of Milan. Professor Gisela Loehlein, Head of Department of Architecture and Design at XJTLU, and Professor Jian Shao, Deputy Dean of School of Architecture at CAA, helped make the workshop possible.

By Ke Tang

Edited by Yi Qian

Photos by Yanyin Ni