TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA
Transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities in the EU and in China
News
May 2021
Towards Socially Integrative Cities
Perspectives on Urban Sustainability in Europe and China
The book Towards Socially Integrative Cities deals with the transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities in Europe and China. It shares the impactful original research results of an EU-funded R&I project involving eight European and six Chinese partners. Three each of the six editors come from European and Chinese universities and research institutions. The book was officially launched on May 7 during the Final Project Conference in presence of the editors, authors and a representative of the publisher.
April 2021
New Policy Brief has been published
The Policy Brief recommends four key strategies for a more sustainable and socially integrative expansion and renewal of cities in China during the years until 2025. It is based on abundant research results and scientific outcomes of the project “Transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities in the EU and in China” (TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA).
The objective of the Policy Brief (English version) is to provide policy makers, city planners and relevant urban practitioners a series of implementable recommendations in four strategic fields. They were identified in comparative European and Chinese cases studies regarding land management and urban planning related to urban expansion as well as urban renewal. They are apt to make cities more sustainable and socially integrative.
February 2021
"Regional Resilience – Opportunities for Sustainable Development in Times of Crisis" - A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050) - Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021. ...read more
Dezember 2020
Futures Literacy Summit
Futures Literacy, a universally accessible skill that builds on the innate human capacity to imagine the future, offers a clear, field tested solution to poverty-of-the-imagination. UNESCO, in its role as a global laboratory of ideas at the cutting edge of human knowledge, has demonstrated that people and communities everywhere are capable of becoming more futures literate. This means they are able to use their imaginations for different reasons, using different methods, in different contexts.
Democratizing the origins of people’s images of the future opens up new horizons in much the same way that establishing universal reading and writing changes human societies. This is an example of what can be called a ‘change in the conditions of change’. A potent transformation in what people are able to know, imagine and do.
Check out the contrubution form different partners of the TRANS-Urban-EU-China.
October 2020
Exhibition opening on October 16th at the MAO Museum of Oriental Art in Turin
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA is a partner of the exhibition opening on October 16th at the MAO Museum of Oriental Art in Turin: curated by the Politecnico di Torino and Prospekt Photographers with Tsinghua University, “China Goes Urban. The City to Come” is an opportunity to analyze and explore the challenges sparked by urban change underway not only in China, but across the globe. Beginning with some Chinese new towns (as Zhengdong and Tongzhou) and the contradictions spawned by the frenetic processes of their urban expansion, the exhibition is an invitation to explore the world by circumnavigating the concept of city: although we all think we are familiar with and understand this seemingly simple concept, it shatters in the multiplicity of the contemporary urban. Among the events of “China Goes Urban”, on November 11th an international seminar about Chinese Urbanization will host a speech by TRANS-URBAN team, while on December 17th a presentation on “Socially Integrative Cities” will be held.
More info: www.maotorino.it/it/eventi-e-mostre/mostra-china-goes-urban and www.chinagoesurban.com
Please watch the record of the workshop on https://player.vimeo.com/video/461363334?unmuted=1&autoplay=1&app_id=122963
September 2020
Nordic Edge Expo Workshop:
Urban Living Lab an effective tool for social inclusive city transformation in the Nordics and China
On 24th Sep 2020 TRANS-URBAN hosted a digital workshop on Urban Living Lab an effective tool for social inclusive city transformation in the Nordics and China. The workshop is a part of program for Nordic Edge Expo 2020 (digital) the largest smart city expo in Nordic region. The workshop displayed how urban living labs used as instruments of open innovation that is based on on-the-ground experiences presented by project partners who are involved within urban living labs in China in the cities of Wuhan and Wenjiang (Chengdu). The workshop also invited experts who have rich experience of building Urban Living Labs in Europe and had a discussion with TRANS-URBAN partners on the practices of Urban Living Labs in China and Europe and via the discussion the workshop identify the similarities and difference in term of the activities of Urban Living Lab in China and Europe.
May 2020
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA goes virtual in times of crisis
The EU funded TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project held its Fifth Consortium Meeting on May 19 and 20, 2020, as an online conference. All partners from China and Europe connected through an internet platform, and discussed the important issues of the project progress, i.e. the products of the project and ways to make the results accessible to all interested stakeholders.
One of the results was that the urban living lab activities of the project, which were planned to be organised in-situ in different Chinese cities this year, will all be held online during the coming months. The project will build upon the experience made by EUROCITIES and others with online courses with participants from large numbers of cities.
The project coordinator, Professor Bernhard Müller from TU Dresden, is convinced that this will give the project an even stronger outreach than specific activities in individual cities as more stakeholders from different cities in China and Europe and a wide range of societal groups can participate.
Nevertheless, it is hoped that the next Consortium Meeting and the Final Conference of the project can be held in-situ in Beijing in November 2020. Despite the successful results of this Consortium Meeting, the direct contact among partners and the stakeholders in charge of making cities more sustainable is an extremely valuable source of inspiration and lasting cooperation.
April 2020
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA in the final event of the 2019-2020 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (UABB)
Sometimes, challenges turn into opportunities. This is happening at the moment during the COVID-19 crisis, as once more, urban development experts, practitioners and policy makers are re-directing their attention to options for making cities more resilient. Thus, it was not surprising that the 2019-2020 Shenzen-Hong-Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (UABB) chose the topic of “Pandemics & the City” for its final online event on April 18, 2020.
The conference with about 6.000 online participants was organised by the two UABB “Eyes of the City” academic curators, Professor Michele Bonino from the China Room of the Politecnico di Torino, and Professor Sun Yimin from the South China University of Technology. TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA was given the opportunity to share its experience from Europe and China with the audience, and to demonstrate how important social integration in cities and neighbourhoods and local action are for coping with crisis, such as the actual pandemic.
First, Professor Bernhard Müller from Technische Universität Dresden introduced the rather comprehensive concept adopted by TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA, of what means a “socially integrative city”. He shortly elaborated on five major features, such as collaborative urban planning and urban design, urban environment and living conditions, local economy and labour market, socio-cultural development and social capital, and institutional and urban finance.
Professor Annemie Wyckmans from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology shared how the long-standing cooperation with Wuhan as urban living lab, Chinese partners in general, and UN Habitat in particular, have given rise to manifold spin-off activities by project partners in Europe and China regarding the Corona virus crisis and ways to cope with it. She presented concrete development projects in Wuhan, Israel and Norway, as well as global online learning initiatives by city leaders and research experts, with particular focus on digital responses to make cities and communities more resilient.
Finally, Professor Liu Jian from Tsinghua University reminded the audience that in history, urban planning and development was always closely linked with and driven by the improvement of public health and hygienic conditions cities and neighbourhoods. In the second part of her speech, she presented a number of practical experiences from China, and linked these with issues like urban form, social organisation and the characteristics of the socially integrative city.
The lively discussion at the end of the session demonstrated the strong interest which the topic currently receives from the broader audience. Thus, what has been a challenge for the project, i.e. severe restrictions concerning person-to-person cooperation and practical work in urban living labs in China, among which one is Wuhan, has become an opportunity, for example in terms of public interest and the multi-facetted possibilities to make productive use of online options, such as video conferences, online courses, as well as sessions and discussions via internet.
For further information about the UABB: https://www.biennialfoundation.org/biennials/shenzhen-hong-kong-bi-city-biennale-of-urbanism-architecture/, www.eyesofthecity.net, and https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/VKpPxlipbih0WSj5veCTPw
February 2020
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA at the AAAS 2020 Annual Meeting in Seattle
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest multi-disciplinary science society (https://meetings.aaas.org). Its mission is to advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people through a broad array of initiatives focused on communication, public engagement, education, scientific responsibility, public policy, and science diplomacy.
This year, the Association has organised its annual meeting in Seattle (USA). In a highly competitive process, a session proposal submitted by the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project about “Socially Integrative Cities – Paving the Way to Urban Sustainability” was accepted by the organisers. The session was held on February 15 in the Conference Center of the fast growing city in the Northwest of the United States. The well attended session was moderated by Bernhard Müller together with Corinna Amting from the European Commission.
Paulina Schiappacasse gave a presentation on “Socially Integrative Cities: From Concept to Policy Implementation”. She presented a comprehensive understanding of what social integration and inclusion means in urban development, and she presented related examples. The presentation was based on conceptual and empirical work within the framework of the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project.
Liu Jian from the Tsinghua University in Beijing talked about “Social Integration and Community Planning: Concepts and Practices in Contemporary China”. As she could not attend the conference personally due to the Corona Virus outbreak, she presented her experience via video conference. It was interesting to hear how important social integration in cities and neighbourhoods has become in China for coping with the current crisis.
Finally, Gerardo Ardila, a professor from the National University of Colombia in Bogota and former planning secretary of the City of Bogota, presented his view on “Land Policy and the Socially Integrative City: Experience from Latin America”. Based on his academic work and his experience in municipal practice he described how closely interlinked land policy, social integration, climate change adaptation and the provision of infrastructure and services are, and how important a comprehensive approach concerning urban sustainability is.
Lively discussions were held concerning the concept of the socially integrative city and its implementation. Many questions and answers were related to consequences for the cities in the Northwest of the US and the Southwest of Canada, i.e., Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, which see themselves as forerunners in America on the way to urban sustainability. On this occasion the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project also had the chance to launch its recently published “Policy Brief” in North America. Interesting was the experience to work together with an illustrator, Fiammetta Ghedini, the founder of RIVA Illustrations (the illustrations can be found here).
January 2020
New publication in English and Chinese on how to improve community build-ing for socially integrative cities
A toolkit on community building for socially integrative cities is now available on the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA website. It has been prepared and published by TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project partners. The publication was elaborated by a team of researchers from Politecnico di Torino, Tsinghua University, Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, and Università di Macerata. It was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme: Transition towards Urban Sustainability through Socially Integrative Cities in the EU and in China, the Urban-Rural Community Development and Governance Committee of Chengdu Municipal CPC Committee, as well as the Urban-Rural Community Development and Governance Committee of Chengdu Wenjiang District CPC Committee.
The aim of the guidebook is to provide a toolkit on community building for a socially integrative city, based on good practices in Europe and China. It provides examples regarding a number of tools, such as public engagement, formal and informal education, tangible and intangible heritage preservation, as well as place-making and design of public spaces. European case descriptions and illustrations are related to the Svartlamon ecological area in Svartlamon and Røros in Norway, the Italian cases of the Scarabò festival in Macerata, and Macrolotto 0 in Prato, as well as Monte Carasso in Switzerland. Good practice examples from China come from the Xi’an Bei Yuan Men Historic District, i.e. the Muslim District of Xi’an, and Da-Shi-Lar, Zhongguancun Inno Way makerspace, Shougang Park (Shijingshan District), Ju’er Hutong (Dongcheng District), Xiaopu Village (Tongzhou District), and Qianmen Sanlihe Park (Dongcheng District) in Beijing. All cases are illustrated and further information about more detailed reading material is provided: http://transurbaneuchina.eu/results/
January 2020
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA has published its first European Policy Brief
The creation of socially integrative and inclusive cities should become a cornerstone of EU-China co-operation on sustainability. Sustainable urban development and the elaboration of comprehensive strategies for socially integrative and inclusive cities should be placed as a permanent topic on the agenda of EU-China policy dialogues. This is a key recommendation of the first Policy Brief of the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project published in January 2020.
The Policy Brief was elaborated by the project consortium consisting of 14 partners from Europe and China under the coordination of the German Technische Universität Dresden. It includes material about urbanisation in China between unprecedented growth and challenges for sustainability, and China’s recently formulated global view on urban development and global cities in the vision of the Belt and Road Initiative. Moreover, it provides information about the "Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda for EU-China Cooperation on Sustainable Urbanisation", which was recently published by the Horizon 2020 URBAN-EU-CHINA Innovation Platform for Sustainable Urbanisation. Based on a comprehensive concept of socially integrative and inclusive cities, all in all, ten recommendations are presented.
"The European Policy Brief is an important document summarising major first recommendations of the project" says Professor Bernhard Müller from TU Dresden and former director of the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, the coordinator and one of the initiators of the project. "It is a joint effort of all project partners, among them several prominent think tanks from Europe and China. We hope that the Policy Brief will receive the attention of decision makers on supra-national, national and local levels in both parts of the world, and foster sustainable urban development."
China and Europe have compatible strengths and are leading in complementary sectors of urban development. Despite many differences, e.g. regarding the general setting, the policy and planning instruments, as well as the speed and scale of urban development, both are strongly committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the ambitions of the New Urban Agenda. Social integration and inclusiveness are regarded as essential urban policy components on both sides. This provides ample opportunities for successful cooperation on an equal partnership basis and with mutual benefits.
The Policy Brief can be found on the website of the project under http://transurbaneuchina.eu/results/.
December 2019
We could grow old together (100 Days campaign website)
Essen and Changzhou are working together on innovation, sustainablity and elderly care.
Global tensions between the world powers, especially the US and China, have been on the up, but at local level, European and Chinese cities are taking a very different course. "It all started in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing," remembers Markus Pließnig, Essen’s head of communications and international affairs, "the then mayors of Essen and Changzhou met there and started the Sino-German Innovation Park. That was in 2013, and we followed it up in 2015 with a further agreement in the presence of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and President Juncker."
Continue reading on https://www.100days.eurocities.eu/article/We-could-grow-old-together
November 2019
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA PROJECT MEETINGS IN BEIJING 2019 AND PREPARATION OF THE PROJECT’S APPEARANCE IN THE AAAS 2020 MEETING IN SEATTLE
On November, 11 and 12, 2019, the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA (Transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities in the EU and in China) arranged its 4th consortium meeting and 2nd external advisory board meeting with representatives of 14 European and Chinese institutions. Also present were Professor Florence Graezer Bideau from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and Mr. Zhenshan Zhang from UN-HABITAT. The project partners discussed the question of how urban development can be more sustainable through socially integrative cities, and which instruments cities may successfully use.
The consortium members dealt with a number of technical issues, and they prepared the next year’s presence of TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA in the AAAS 2020 conference in Seattle, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which is co-sponsored by the European Union. The session organised by the project will deal with "Socially integrative cities - paving the way to urban sustainability". It will have speakers from Europe, China and Latin America.
For those who are interested in more information about the forthcoming AAAS 2020 meeting, please refer to https://meetings.aaas.org/
November 2019
Press Conference of Global Cities in the Vision of Belt and Road Initiative at CAUPD 2019
10 November, the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA (Transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities in the EU and in China) joined the Press Conference of Global Cities in the Vision of Belt and Road Initiative at CAUPD. Present were Mr. Baojun Yang, president of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design (CAUPD), Professor Bernhard Müller from the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Professor Otthein Herzog from the Universitaet Bremen and Tongji University, Mr. Zhenshan Zhang from UN-HABITAT, Mr. Nikolaos Kontinakis from EUROCITIES, Dr. Edna Pasher from the Israel Smart Cities Institue, and other experts and scholars.
The Belt and Road Initiative facilitates inclusive globalization, towards a paradigm shift based on consultation, contribution and shared benefits. It is an effort to real the profound transformations and future course of the evolving global cities. In the afternoon workshop, the experts and scholars discussed the published global dynamic index and the “Belt and Road” potential index for 485 cities around the world based on assessment of their vitality and potential for global engagement and prosperity.
For more information (in Chinese) please refer to http://www.xinhuanet.com/money/2019-11/11/c_1125218131.htm
November 2019
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA in Wuhan 2019
On November 4 to 8, 2019, the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project arranged a series of stakeholder interviews, urban living lab workshops and a world knowledge café in Wuhan, China. The project received prominent attention from local officials, entrepreneurs, scholars, and students. Project members included researchers and experts from the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR), the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER), the Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH (AIT), and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Wuhan is one of the project’s so-called "urban living lab cities" where new ideas regarding the transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities are discussed and evaluated on the basis of cross-cultural communication. In May 2020 a series of related workshops and the fifth joint project meeting will be held in Wuhan.
October 2019
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA at the China Annual National Planning Conference 2019 in Chongqing
On October 20, the 2019 Annual National Planning Conference took place in Chongqing, China. It dealt with the theme of the integration of ‘Landscape, Humanities, City, and Countryside’. More than 8,000 experts and planners from well-known institutions attended the conference and discussed new trends in sustainable urban and rural development.
Professor Bernhard Müller from the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) gave a keynote speech about the Horizon 2020 project TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA, "The transition towards urban sustainability through healthy and inclusive cities", and chaired a session together with Mr. Baojun Yang, president of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design (CAUPD).
During the well-attended session, a number of issues regarding the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project were discussed, such as community building and place-making in urban neighbourhoods, international experiences in urban renewal and urban expansion of cities as well as instruments to make cities smarter and more environmentally friendly.
For more information (in Chinese) please refer to http://www.planning.org.cn/2019anpc/index.html
October 2019
EU and China on what makes a city smart
Europe and China are working together to build smart cities, but can they agree on what a smart city is?
Indeed, given that while Europe’s five largest cities have an average population of 4,219,139, China’s have an average of 16,541,032, before approaching the thorny issue of what it means to be smart, we may need some clarity around what it means to be a city.
Continue reading on http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/EU-and-China-on-what-makes-a-city-smart-WSPO-BHGDC7
September 2019
Time to bridge EU and China
While the media plays up growing tensions between China and the West, something incredible is happening in our cities.
Cities in both regions have recognised that their goals are largely aligned: to use resources sustainably and efficiently for the benefit of their citizens; and that these goals are best met by cooperation, not conflict. There are, however, many hurdles along the way.
Continue reading on http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/Time-to-bridge-EU-and-China-WSPO-BG459F
August 2019
2019 Chengdu·Wenjiang Community Planning International Forum
On August 31, the 2019 Chengdu·Wenjiang Community Planning International Forum was held on in Wenjiang District, Chengdu, China. More than 300 experts and scholars from well-known institutions, such as Politecnico di Torino, Technische Universität Dresden, MIT, Tsinghua University, and Taiwan University, attended the conference. They discussed the sustainable development of urban and rural communities and ways to make them more socially integrative.
The forum dealt with “Healthy and Inclusive Urban and Rural Communities”. Mrs. Liu Jiayan, an associate professor at the School of Architecture of the Tsinghua University, explained the “Chengdu Urban and Rural Community Development and Management Plan (2019-2035)”. Other contributors elaborated on positive examples with regard to making cities and neighbourhoods more sustainable.
Professor Bernhard Müller from the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of Technische Universität Dresden, the leader of the joint EU-Chinese project, gave a keynote speech about the Horizon 2020 project TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA. He emphasised the role of bringing together the experience from different countries about community planning and urban sustainability.
Within the framework of the event, an urban living lab workshop was held together with Chinese and foreign experts, addressing community building, large-scale commercial and residential community governance, and rural development governance. A competition between urban design specialists led to a large number of implementable proposals on place-making and on how to link it with community building in neighbourhoods.
Please refer to the below link (in Chinese) for more details that over 150.000 spectators watched online http://xhpfmapi.zhongguowangshi.com/vh512/share/6479133?channel=weixin&from=singlemessage&isappinstalled=0
March 2019
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA WEEK IN TURIN 2019
26-30 March, the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project arranged a series of events in Turin, including Joint Project and Project Steering Board meetings with the representative of 14 European and Chinese institutes, Project Mid-term Review meetings with European Commission officers and reviewers, Working Package workshops, and a public event ‘EU Research in Social Sciences and Italian Participation’ with the European Commission, Politecnico di Torino and Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development. The project got to learn from, and work with both European and Chinese experts in terms of how urban development can be more sustainable through socially integrative cities.
Photo: Project leader Prof. Bernhard Müller (first row seventh from left), Dr. Rodrigo Martín Galán (seventh from right) from European Commission, Mrs. Xu Chunying (fifth from left), section chief of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Dr. Thomas Sterr (sixth from right) from Universität Heidelberg, and Dr. Federico Caprotti (sixth from left) from University of Exeter. (Please click on the photo to enlarge it.)
March 2019
EU Research in Social Sciences and Italian Participation
26-30 March, the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA Project Meeting and Project Review Meeting will take place in Turin, Italy. The TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA Project invites you to a public event 'EU research in social sciences and Italian participation' on 28 March at Salone d'Onore - Castello del Valentino, Turin in collaboration with Politecnico di Torino and Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development. [Continue reading]
February 2019
AI and Big Data for the Well Being of People in Smart Cities
11-12 February, Israel Smart Cities Institute hosted the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA consortium workshop in collaboration with Tel-Aviv University. Experts and representatives, coming from Tel Aviv University, Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tongji University and other institutes, made presentations about AI and Big Data for the Well Being of People in Smart Cities. [Continue reading]
September 2018
Joint Workshop on Urban Living Labs in Europe and China, organised by TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA and JPI Urban Europe, as part of the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA week in Beijing
The Urban Living Labs Workshop invited 30 experts, i.e. TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA and JPI Urban Europe partners, representatives from research institutions and city network organizations, as well as governmental organizations. The aim was to crate a common understanding of Urban Living Labs as a method and its benefits, as well as requirements and framework conditions to support the operationalization of an Urban Living Labs approach in the Chinese context; learn from successful applications of Urban Living Labs, and; identify the benefits, aim and benefits of implementing Urban Living laps in China.
September 2018
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA Young Researchers Workshop on Sustainable Urbanisation in the EU and in China“ as part of the project week in Beijing – participation of students and young researchers from Europe and China
The Young Researchers Workshop on ‘Sustainable Urbanization in the EU and in China’ gathered 20 young talent researchers to explore knowledge, exchange ideas, build networks with well-known experienced researchers outside classrooms within the framework of TRANS-URBAN-EU-China. The workshop provided an opportunity to meet and discus and to develop new ideas about sustainable urbanization in the EU and in China.
The Project Sites Excursion invited around 25 researchers, especially young researchers, to visit two project sites in Beijing, i.e. Bai Wan Zhuang and Da Shi Ler. The excursion demonstrated the process and outcome of outcomes of communication and interaction with local residents in those communities for a deeper understanding of sustainable urbanization in the Chinese context.
September 2018
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA WEEK IN BEIJING 2018
3-7 September, the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA (Transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities in the EU and in China) has received prominent attention through a series of events. With a programme, this H2020 project was disseminated to the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban and Rural Development (MOHURD), the Delegation of the European Union to China (DEUC), Chinese and European advisory experts and research associations, as well as to local residents in Beijing and young researchers from China, Germany, Jamaica, Italy, and Norway. The project led by the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) and 13 partners from Europe and China is tackling the question of how urban development can be more sustainable through socially integrative cities. [Continue reading]
September 2018
Second Consortium Meeting in Beijing
At the beginning of September, the Horizon 2020 project TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA will have its second consortium meeting in Beijing (China). Under the direction of the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IÖR) and China Academy of Urban Planning and Design (CAUPD), partners from Europe and China are exploring the question of how urban transition can be made more sustainable as well as how cities can be socially integrative. The project team pays special attention to the role of social integration in processes of urban transition.
For more information: Overview Meeting Programme
May 19-20, 2018
Scarabò. A city to educate
On Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 May 2018 in Macerata (Italy) a special festival took place, dedicated to children from 0 to 13 years, as well as to families, teachers and educators: "Scarabò. A city to educate", 2018 edition. 9 students of Macerata University, coordinated and supported by Prof. Fabrizio d’Aniello, ventured among the over 40 educational workshops of the event located in the internal and above all outside spaces of the historic centre of the city. The goal was to carry out collect information and materials useful for the implementation of the part of Trans-Urban Eu-China project devoted to Education. This is indeed a great opportunity of field research and an experience of educating city. More than 450 participating children with their parents attended the events.
For more information: www.scarabo.it, https://www.facebook.com/scarabomacerata/.
March 26, 2018
Logo voting: TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA
With a voting, the consortium has selected the project logo to be used as the visual identity of the project. The logo covers aspects of "TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA", such as societal challenges, community driven research, systematic knowledge base, and cooperation between the EU and China. Given the spirit of an active, engaged and constructive scientific network, it may be seen as 2D hexagons or as 3D blocks fitting together, and symbolising Chinese (red colour) and European (blue colour) urban experience in order to achieve socially integrative cities (grey colour). The three fields of the logo can also be understood as the three major features of the project: knowledge base (book), tested knowledge (online compendium) and recommendations (policy briefs).
March 22, 2018
Global Growth Program Workshop
On 22nd March 2018 Innovation Norway, in collaboration with DOGA (Design and Architecture Norway), launched a Global Growth program for architecture and construction companies that are interested in winter sports opportunities in China right now. During event a several institutes were invited to presented their ideas and experiences of working with China in the sector of building and construction. NTNU’s Wang Yu was invited to introduce the cooperation with China. URBAN-EU-CHINA and TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA were highlighted as the flagship projects in the presentation.
More details of this event please visit https://doga.no/kalender/apent-kinamote/ and the event live stream video you can find on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=w17swTUtjX4
February 7-12, 2018
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA and URBAN-EU-CHINA at the World Urban Forum 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The successful implementation of the New Urban Agenda depends to a high degree on both, academia and practice, and their close cooperation in research and development. However, such cooperation puts high demands on all concerned parties. Global cooperation, the peer-to-peer exchange of information and experience, and the organisation of urban living labs can be useful tools to support the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.
This was the main message of Professor Bernhard Mueller, Director of the Leibniz Institute of Eco-logical Urban and Regional Development (IOER) and TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA coordinator, during a networking event at the Ninth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF 9) that took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 7th to 13th February, 2018. The event was jointly organised by URBAN-EU-CHINA, an EU-funded project and innovation platform on sustainable urbanisation in the EU and in China, and the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe. … [Continue reading]
January 30, 2018
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF): New ways of sustainable urban development - the EU and China want to learn from each other
At the end of January, the EU-funded project TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA started a two-day conference in Dresden. Under the direction of the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IÖR), partners from Europe and China are exploring the question of how cities can be made more sustainable. The project team pays special attention to the role of social integration in processes of sustainable urban development. … [Continue reading]