Thursday July 19, 7.30-9.30pm

venue
MAD - an architectural design studio
东城区北新桥板桥南巷7号西3楼,中国北京 100007
3rd floor west tower, no.7 Banqiao Nanxiang, Beixinqiao, Beijing, China 100007
电话/tel：+86 10 64026632, 64031080

Beijing's immense urban explosion in the past decade has raised several issues about the type of city being created. Within urbanism, discussions flip between the past and present, hutongs and highrises, ringroads and Olympic venues, real-estate speculation, the peripheral urban condition and gated communities. Taking the creative clusters as a point of cartographic departure and urban analysis, we are interested in developing a method that opens new lines of inquiry for urban research.

Focussing on urban and architectural perspectives and the problematic of transdisciplinary method, this meeting seeks to broaden the horizon of debate beyond discussions about 'playgrounds' for international design fantasies and capital accumulation.

This announcement is also a call for participation. Please do post your questions and remarks on this list and we will bring them into the discussion. We will also publish fragments of postings in the Orgnets/Urban China magazine collaboration.

speakers
Binke Lenhardt and Hao Dong, crossboundaries architects

crossboundaries architects is a young, Berlin and Beijing based team of German and Chinese architects aimed at linking the professional and design experience of western architects and consultants to the challenging possibilities of the prospering Chinese economy as well as to millennia of Chinese cultural heritage and the lively, multifaceted Chinese culture. Our goal is to develop high-quality solutions, derived from Chinese culture and architectural needs, based on western know-how and experience.

Matthew Hu, Friends of Old Beijing

Friends of Old Beijing is a nine-month volunteer program jointly launched by CHP and That's Beijing magazine. The primary purpose of this program is to understand and monitor the present conditions of the old city through participants' regular walks among the hutongs. Our findings will be published on the CHP website, reported in That’s Beijing, distributed to the Chinese media, and summarized in a final report to the Office of the Mayor of Beijing Municipality and relevant departments by next June. We will also help to develop heritage trails based on walking routes, with maps and information pamphlets describing the local history and special points of interest in each of our chosen heritage conservation districts.

Interview, 'City Scene: Five Questions for ... He Shuzhong and Matthew Hu', That's Beijing, November, 2006.

Erik Amir, MAD Project Architect
MAD – Beijing 2050

The Tiananmen Square we see today does not have a long history. All the changes it witnessed in the past few decades reflect the evolution of the nation’s spirit. By 2050, a mature and democratic China will emerge, and spaces for massive political gatherings and troop processions like the Red Square may no longer be necessary. The transportation could no longer rely on the ground traffic system; it may utilize an above-ground or underground system due to changes in transportation. What will Tiananmen Square be like when it is deprived of its political and transportation functions? The ground might turn into a garden or park, and cultural facilities could be placed underground to connect to a transportation network. A national theatre is hidden inside a 'landscape mountain', diffusing its forms in what is now Zhongnanhai, the nearby Communist Party compound. In 2050, Tiananmen Square is an urban space filled with life and the biggest green area in the centre of Beijing.

Jonathan Watts, 'Why Tiananmen Square could Go from Red to Green', Guardian, May 4, 2007.

Chair: Bert de Muynck