748 Julu Lu, by Fumin Lu
Shanghai, Shanghai

The Shanghai Foreign Correspondents' Club Presents:



Building the Future - China's New Cities



Albert Speer, Managing Partner, AS & P

James Brearley, BAU

Sun Le & Yang Cai, Urban China magazine, Tongji University



Mesa/Manifesto

7p.m., Monday, January 21 (talk starts at 7.30 p.m.)



China is urbanizing at unprecedented pace - some estimates say the urban population will grow by 300 million people in the next fifteen - twenty years. But as cities around the country build vast new areas, and redesign existing neighbourhoods, what kind of urban environment is being created? Our panel of respected experts will look at the future of the Chinese city - and whether there is any alternative to the model of grandiose official buildings, vast squares, car-focused CBDs, giant shopping centres and enormous gated communities.



Venue details: Function room at Mesa/Manifesto,

748 Julu Lu, near Fumin Lu (6289 9108)



Admission: Members free; Non-members 50 RMB,



RSVP: [email protected] by Friday January 18



About the Speaker:

Albert Speer Jnr heads one of Europe's leading architecture and urban planning practices. Based in Frankfurt, Albert Speer and Partners has designed urban areas around the world - the firm works widely in Africa, and is currently involved in the regeneration of Frankfurt's 'Europa district'. It also devised the masterplan for the 2000 Hannover World Expo. In recent years AS & P has become increasingly focused on China - it designed the original, environmentally friendly, plans for Shanghai's Anting new town, and is currently working on an 'auto city' project in Changchun. Professor Speer is also a respected academic, who has shaken off the legacy of his father's grandiose plans for the Third Reich to formulate his own vision of the need for human-focused, sustainable planning, as highlighted in his 1992 book The Intelligent City.



James Brearley is an Australian architect and planner whose company BAU - Brearley Architects and Urbanists - which he runs in partnership with his wife Fang Qun - has been working on urban design in China since 2001. BAU has designed masterplans for new areas in a number of large and medium-size Chinese cities, including a 12 square kilometre zone in Chengdu, and a new centre for the city of Jiangyin. James Brearley is also an Adjunct Professor of RMIT University of Melbourne, and co-author of the book Networks Cities, which outlines BAU's vision for functional and sustainable urban development. He also organises regular discussions on architecture at BAU's office.



Sun Le and Yang Cai are editors of Urban China magazine, which provides some of the most thoughtful analysis of China's breakneck urbanization, and has covered a wide range of social issues since it was launched by academics at Tongji University in 2005. The magazine aims both to reflect the problems raised by rapid urban development - and to educate Chinese citizens to 'understand and care about urban planning,' and the cities in which they live.

Official Website: http://www.fccsh.org/

Added by jessie.zhou on January 20, 2008

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