Chinese will Humanise Cities

December 20 to 21, after a lapse of 37 years, the Central Urban Work Conference was held in Beijing. President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech.

Embracing a new round of top-level design, the meeting reflects the Chinese central government attention to work in the cities. It is a more humane attitude. Everyone has its own ideal city in mind. For the country, the ideal city lies in what kind of philosophical concept is dealt with. Although, as the meeting stressed, cities should work as one engineered system, they should “adhere to people-centred development, adhere to human cities for the people. This is what we should do in the urban Works departments from start to end point”. “The city of the future lies in our own hands”, as depicted in the meeting, “so that the people live in the city more convenient, more comfortable, more beautiful.”

12月20日至21日,时隔37年后,中央城市工作会议在北京举行。国家主席习近平发表重要讲话。

体现了中央政府高度重视城市工作,迎来了新一轮的顶层设计。是一种更加人性化的态度。每个人心中都有自己的理想之城。对一个国家而言,理想的城市,在于用什么样的理念去经营。正如会议强调,城市工作是一个系统工程。城市工作要“坚持以人民为中心的发展思想,坚持人民城市为人民。这是我们做好城市工作的出发点和落脚点。”城市的未来掌握在我们自己手中”,正如会议所描绘,“让人民群众在城市生活得更方便、更舒心、更美好”。

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Royal Visit to Expo

Besides meetings with the authorities and the official events of the state visit, King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands visits the ‘Next City Living Lab’, the Dutch pavilion at Beijing Design Week. The expo embodies innovation and creativity for a better urban future, it also aims to demonstrate the spirit and strengths of Dutch design: Delft University of Technology presents Reclaiming the Human Space to promote social sustainability and better standards of life. In this expo, the king is being informed on the future urban challenges in the People’s Republic, including humanisation of planning, integration of social groups, recreation of community places, and rehabilitation of daily-life environments. This agenda is exposed in the midst of other exhibitions from leading Dutch design firms including West8, OMA, MVRDV, NL Architects and UN Studio.

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UN: Public Spaces for All

Happy World Habitat Day!

The purpose of World Habitat Day, October 5th 2015, is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns. This year the United Nations chose the theme ‘Public Spaces for All designed to live Together’ as very relevant for the Habitat Agenda.

World Habitat Day 2015

The objectives of World Habitat Day 2015 aim to raise awareness about the need for well designed and managed public spaces and streets. Great to see that one of the key themes of my research group Design of Urban Fabrics takes centre stage also for UN Habitat.
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see:
Urban October: World Habitat Day
UN-Habitat – United Nations Human Settlements Programme
United Nations Office at Nairobi

Re-envisioning Community Space

Roll out a carpet, hang up a screen. The sloped Centre Street in Sai Ying Pun has transformed into an outdoor cinema for one night at the Mid-Autumn Festival. While enjoying movies about the neighbourhood under the ‘full moon’, community members and the general public are invited to re-imagine the public spaces of one of the oldest districts in Hong Kong.
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CSI Urban Space

Given the changing characteristics of public and private urban spaces, the lecture covers a wide range of city-related topics following a two-folded target. As urban space represents the interface of communication and urban investigations, it is crucial to bring participants nearer to the concept of it, including crossing boundaries. The second part of the lecture block will deal with the role of urban planning in shaping urban space following its redefinition. With this insight, participants would understand the role of urban space and the formal ways of planning it.

Spatial Metro

On Routing and Orientation in City Centres

The chair of Urban Design at the TU Delft is participating in the Spatial Metro project on routing and orientation in city centres. This project focuses on the improvement of city centres. Other partners are the cities of Norwich, Bristol, Rouen and Koblenz, the University of East Anglia, the School of Environmental Sciences and the School of Computing Sciences, the University of Koblenz and the Swiss Pedestrian Association.

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