How can design and innovation bring life back to an ailing community? It’s a global challenge. Join us as XU Tiantian, one of China’s most innovative architects, presents inspiring projects in Zhejiang’s countryside and shares notes with Joel Mills of the American Institute of Architects about how great design can make a difference.
In the U.S., urban neighborhoods have suffered as the middle class has moved to the suburbs. But in China, ancient rural villages are crumbling as farmers flock to the new, glistening cities. A rural revitalization movement is beginning to tackle these problems, and architecture is playing a key role.
This event is co-presented with the American Institute of Architects
Learning objectives:
- Participants will explore the comparative dynamics impacting urban development in China and the United States and responses to those impacts
- Participants will analyze how preservation and placemaking can be used as a tool by leveraging the historic urban fabric of a place for urban regeneration and revitalization efforts that accommodate growth and change
- Participants will be able to apply the visioning processes and design efforts, and how they can serve as vehicles for incremental urban change over time that is transformative and serves city goals and values
- Participants will be able to apply the comparative application of various design techniques in diverse urban settings, and their value to successful urbanism.
Speakers:Xu Tiantian is founding principal of DnA_Design and Architecture Beijing Office. She received her master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and her baccalaureate in architecture from Tsinghua University in Beijing. Prior to establishing DnA Beijing, She worked at a number of design firms in the United States and the Netherlands. She has received 2006 WA China Architecture Award and 2008 Young Architects Award from The Architectural League New York.
Joel Mills is Senior Director of the Center for Communities by Design at the American Institute of Architects. His 26-year career has been focused on strengthening civic capacity, public processes and civic institutions. This work has helped millions of people participate in democratic processes, visioning efforts, and community planning initiatives. In the United States, Joel has provided consultative services to hundreds of communities, leading participatory processes in over 100 communities across 35 states. He was a founding Board Member of the International Association for Public Participation’s United States Chapter. He has spoken at numerous international conferences concerning democratic urbanism and the role of democracy in urban success, including serving as the Co-Convener of the Remaking Cities Congress in 2013. Mills is an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism in London, UK.