Shanghai- Lectures & Workshops: Passages in Chinese Cities

3-5 May 2013, Shanghai – Tongji University

The workshop

During the first half of 2013, a dozen students in Master Planning has worked on the two sites of Xuhui River and Xujiahui Center on the theme of passages. The first site is a former industrial site in development located between the banks restructured during the expo 2010 along the river and the city (separated by an elevated expressway). The second is a nerve junction in central Shanghai  with a landscaped park, an ancient church of the 1860s and a concentration of shopping centers. On May 3, 2013, students returned their work and received feedback from international experts.

The conferences

“Urban Planning and Transport in Xuhui District”, Guang Yetong, Director of Urban Planning and Transportation for the Xuhui district in Shanghai

“The sense of the passage in the intermodal city”, Marcel Smets, Chairman of IVM’s Scientific and Steering Committee; architect and urban planner, professor emeritus at Louvain University

“Shanghai Urban Space Design”, Wu Jiang, architect, Vice-President of Tongji University, Vice-President of the Shanghai Society of Architects

 “Urban passage and Social Space”, P. Yu Hai, Professor at Fudan University

“ Streets, passages and infrastructures – toolbox for the future”, Carles Llop, architect and urban planner, Director of the Urban and Regional Planning department at the Technical University of Catalonia

“Transport in Dense Urban Center”, Lu Ximing, former Director of the Shanghai Transport Institute

“International panorama of the passages: a link, a place”, Marteen Van Acker, teacher and researcher at the Anvers School of Architecture

“Urban passage: preliminary findings in two sites of Xuhui”, Pan Haixiao, Professor at the University of Tongji and Director of the IVM-China Chair

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5-7 September 2013: Workshop on The Xujiachui Center Site

Objectives of the workshop: Analysis of the site of  Xujiachui and proposal of a problematic in terms of passages for its development in the next years ;

Method: preparation by a group of students of detailed survey of the existing situation with plans, photos, background information on the site; intensive working sessions to prepare adraft for a competition brief; conferences and debate

The awaited project for the Xujiachui crossing should clarify:

– How the public space for the pedestrian of the ground level can be increased: in what way is it suggested to undertake a refurbishing of the existing ground surface.

– How the crossing/accessibility for cars can be preserved but reduced (to a level mentioned at the outset of the competition to all competitors): detail the traffic organization that is proposed

– How the pedestrian junction between the four segments of the crossing can be realized by pedestrian passages over the car traffic.

-Where the vertical junctions between the different levels of underground, actual pedestrian level, entrance to the department stores, elevated passage, etc are situated and how they function

-How the form and construction of these passages will allow enough daylight to pierce through to the public pedestrian spaces on  ground level

-Which activities would be taking place on the passage level, in open air or in/under constructions integrated in the project

-What would be the perception of the new construction from the main roads coming into the square: visualize the new urban space organization from a distance and draw how it will be perceived by pedestrians on ground and passage level

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