51st IFHP Students Congress
Emerging
Urbanisms, Emerging Practices
23 - 26 September 2007
Copenhagen
Denmark
CO-EVOLUTION
(Forum Two)
Speakers: Carsten Primdah, Liang Wei, Tue Foged and
Vanessa Carlow
Moderator: Henrik Valeur
Excerpt from the conference
program:
Co-evolution is the title for the prize-winning
work of young Danish architecture
offices in collaboration with Chinese universities
for the 2006 Venice
Biennale. The session will focus on a
discussion of the proposals by the four offices
dealing with the issue of sustainable development in rapidly urbanizing areas in China.
2006 Xi'an International Conference of Architecture and Technology
Architecture in Harmony
22-25 September 2006
Xi’an
P.R.China
Architecture:
Continuity and Harmony (Session One)
Speakers: Fudong Dai, Zhaoye Guan, Henrik
Valeur, Jianguo Wang and Jiaping Liu
Moderator: Thomas Campanella
Abstract:
The processes of rapid and extensive urbanization have
greatly improved the living conditions for a vast number of Chinese
people during the past decades. But it has also put tremendous pressure
on the environment, which can be experienced as increasing pollution
and lack of natural resources. The project “CO-EVOLUTION” confronts the
challenge of how to improve living conditions without exhausting the
very resources needed to sustain a better life. It does so through
international and interdisciplinary collaboration. For six months, four
offices of the most talented young Danish architects have been working
together with professors, PhD and postgraduate students from four of
the most prestigious Chinese universities. In teams consisting of one
Danish office and one Chinese university they have developed proposals
for sustainable urban development in the four Chinese cities of
Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and Xi’an. Proposals which at the same
time describe a cross section through “urban China” – from its historic
centre via the Central Business District and the post-industrial
periphery to the post-modern sub city. The collaboration has revealed
different cultural values, working methods and professional interest
among the participants. But the teams have acknowledged and learned
from these differences. In combination with the exchange of ideas,
experiences and knowledge, it has sparked creativity and imagination,
resulting in four highly visionary projects. The collaboration has not
only opened the participants’ minds to different cultures but as well
to the importance of sustainable thinking. In addition, it has created
the basis for long term relationships among the participants. Thus, it
is our hope that the four projects are not merely the end products of a
process but as well the starting point for more collaboration, which we
believe is essential to meet the challenges which really concerns us
all. Henrik Valeur, 2006
Thesis [84K] pdf
