The 6th Sino-French Forum on Architectural and Urban Sustainable Development opened at Tangshan National Tourist Resort in Nanjing of Jiangsu province, Oct.24.
In response to many challenges Nanjing faces in pursuing a high quality development, experts from China and France held in-depth exchanges over many issues, such as ecological planning and sustainable development, the conservation and use of historical buildings and urban transportation. In speeches and round-table meetings, experts also discussed the city’s specific and key projects and shared views on how to promote technical cooperation and exchanges in relevant fields between two countries
The forum is held on the strategic cooperation framework in sustainable development, reached by relevant ministries in two countries and approved by the heads of state. Every year, the forum will organize a summit about the key development strategies of different urban areas and conduct studies over topics including architecture, urban planning, landscape, transportation, environment and culture.
The forum was hosted by the Sino-French Architectural Communication Society (SFACS) and the Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau and co-organized by IFADUR.
China's urban development is now in the transformation from construction-driven to resource protection-driven, and the planning focuses on integrated approach, ecological protection, spatial function control and governance. Since the 1970s, France’s urbanization has entered a stage of steady development, with urban renewal and renovation of old city areas as the main part of planning, and the county has accumulated some experiences in spatial planning and refined management.
Yang Tao, chairman of Nanjing Institute of City & Transport Planning Co., Ltd., attended a round table conference on city rail transportation in the afternoon. He believes in a bright future for China’s rail transportation, while he also expressed his worries about the high price of tramcars. “There is no need to make luxurious or fancy tramcars. Practical but convenient types are the major choice. The advance of technology has provided great chance for cost reduction, and with a systematic planning, it can really benefit the people,” said Yang.
As one of the few cities in China with a history of modern urban planning for nearly 100 years, Nanjing has been in the frontier of planning practices. The CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee and Nanjing Municipal Government have outlined the development vision – building Nanjing into a city of innovation and resuming its beauty as an ancient capital of several dynasties, and a number of projects to make Nanjing more global have already been implemented. The forum has provided more ideas for Nanjing’s urban planning.
Thierry Melot is a French architect and urban planner, who is also president of the Sino-French Architectural Communication Society (SFACS). He made a keynote speech on ten principles of sustainable development, namely, introspect the future, coproduce and interpenetrate territories;, create the city from the public transport network, build around transfer modes and connection hubs, develop urban porosity and percolation territory, promote the proximity and the diversity, encourage energy self-sufficiency, manage the resilience of water, give the urban sense through founding acts, and enhance identity of neighborhoods. Having been to Nanjing for several times, Melot regards the city innovative. He strongly suggests Nanjing to become an energy self-sufficient city to reduce air pollution, “China produce 30% of the world’s clean energy equipment, while only 1% is applied in its country. I think the government needs to work on that in the future.”
Lv Ke and Zhao Xin with Tangshan Management Committee also contributed to this article.
