Alternative Futures for Beijing’s Periphery: Landscape and Urban Planning Studios at the GSD

Kongjian Yu

Graduate School of Design

Landscape Architecture

Urban Planning & Design

 

Wednesday, March 9 4-5:30pm

CGIS South Room S030 1730 Cambridge St.

 

Yu Kongjian (Harvard GSD, DDes, 1995) is an award-winning landscape architect leading the largest private firm in China, “Turenscape”, and Dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University. Working mostly in China, he and his firm are leading a revolution in integrating new environmental and technological approaches to ancient problems, with respect for cultural traditions and landscape values. In the past two years, he has co-taught two planning/design studios with GSD faculty from the Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and Design faculties.

 

In 2010, GSD and PKU students looked at the township of Sujiatuo, in the foothills of the mountains to the northwest of Beijing; in 2011, Spring semester, the study area is Taihuzhen, in the low-lying agricultural lands to the southeast, along the Beijing-TianJin axis. In both cases, traditional patterns of settlement and agriculture are being displaced by rapid urbanization and modern infrastructure (the Sixth Ring Road, e.g.) ; in both cases, the study areas contain fragile social and environmental resources of value to the future of the metropolis.

 

How can the inevitable development of these areas be envisioned in modern, green, sustainable, equitable terms? How can the visions and values of Harvard planning and design students and Chinese planners, farmers, developers be reconciled?

 

Dr Yu will address these questions in his illustrated talk, with reference both to his professional work, and the work of the studios.