The government and the population in China are challenged by rapid urbanisation. The amount of arable land in the urban regions is shrinking at high speed and is therefore a valuable resource in need of a new allocation strategy. There is a high demand for affordable housing, for additional forms of food production, for the reduction of long commuting distances – simply for a compact city organised in clusters of high functionality and with resilient impact.
These demands require a fresh approach that takes social and financial restrictions into consideration. The knowledge and self-help solutions of the floating population in so-called Urban Villages must be re-evaluated and harnessed for the development of experimental compact cluster-cities. There is a need for a new framework and for positive examples and models that rely on the know-how of the users. Searching for new forms of participation and integration – especially of those who do not have a voice in the money-based decision-making – is essential for success.
How to reach an inclusive model that uses synergies and produces a dense network of interaction? How to integrate a city-wide strategy with bottom-up initiatives on a local scale? What are the realities and obstacles of the people living in so-called Urban Villages? How can the existing low-quality settlements at the fringes of the cities be upgraded? Are there new strategies in discussion for a hybrid new habitat?
PROGRAMME:
Friday, 27 November 2015, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Welcome and Introduction
- Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Director, ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin
- Paul Friedli, Director, Transit Management Group, Schindler Elevator Ltd., Ebikon
- Florian Lennert, Director, Intelligent City, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London
- Eduard Kögel, Programme Curator, ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin
Lectures
- Tat Lam, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong - The Potential of Urban Villages
- Shi Ming, Journalist, Berlin - Financing the Change in China
- Zhang Yue, Professor/Vice Dean, Tsinghua University, Beijing - Changes in the Urban Fringe of Beijing
The lectures will be followed by a Q&A session with invited experts from the case study areas and the public.
Saturday, 28 November 2015, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Introduction
- Eduard Kögel, Programme Curator, ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin
Ten by Ten Statements
- Che Fei, Architect, CU Office, Beijing
- John Omwamba, UN-Habitat, Nairobi
- Paul Friedli, Director, Transit Management Group, Schindler Elevator Ltd., Ebikon
- Hassan El Mouelhi, Architect, Technische Universität Berlin
- Heng Chye Kiang, Dean, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore
- Stefanie Ruff, Landscape Architect and Urbanist, Levin Monsigny Landschaftsarchitekten, Berlin
- Barbara Münch, Architect, Technische Universität Berlin
Followed by a Q&A session with invited experts from the case study areas and the public.
Afterwards the discussion will be continued in an Internal Expert Workshop with Friday's and Saturday's speakers as well as the following participants: Hendrik Tieben, Architect, Chinese University Hong Kong, Bettina Hamann, Urban Management, Technische Universität Berlin, Djamel Klouche, Architect, National School of Architecture of Versailles, Paris, Finn Geipel, Architect, Technische Universität Berlin, Paola Alfaro d’Alençon, Architect, Technische Universität Berlin, Andrés Ramirez, Programme Curator, ANCB, Berlin, Verena von Beckerath, Architect, Heide & von Beckerath Architects, Berlin, Hannes Langguth, Habitat Unit, Technische Universität Berlin, Philipp Misselwitz, Habitat Unit, Technische Universität Berlin, Marcos L. Rosa, Architect, São Paolo/Berlin, Nicolas Novotny, Director Urban Design & Infrastructure, Berlin TXL The Urban Tech Republic, Berlin
The event will be in English. Admission is free. Please register at reply[at]ancb.de indicating whether you would like to attend Friday's or Saturday's session, or both.
BACKGROUND
Urban peripheries - such as informal cities, barrios and suburbs - are typically perceived to present only great challenges. With the project Mobilising the Periphery1, ANCB and the Schindler Transit Management Group set out to stimulate new ways of thinking, to question the given preconditions of current development and to initiate a discourse on urban realities at the periphery. The aim of the project is to cross-connect new approaches and insights within a widening network and to archive and share best-practice examples with a global audience, thus creating a new public community for urban peripheries worldwide.
The subject will be explored and interpreted from a range of perspectives prevalent in cities today, including examples of physical periphery – on the edge of the city (ghettos, suburbs, segregated housing estates), unregulated periphery – outside of the formal masterplan (slums, barrios, informal cities), and social periphery – on the margins of society (homeless, disabled, elderly, ethnic minorities).
Over the course of the next years, four types of periphery, exemplified by four case studies – Informality (West Africa), Upgrading (Latin America), Top-Down-Planning (China) and Segregation (Western Europe) – in connection with participation and social justice will be discussed in a range of different formats.
Previous Event: Mobilising the Periphery: 4 Types / 4 Cases. Project Kick-off Symposium. Saturday, 6 June 2015. Watch the video recording here.2