Panel Introduction

In the face of outstanding climate crisis and ecological risks in the 21st century, the United Nations has formulated a ten-year plan for ecosystem restoration from 2021 to 2030, which aims to promote large-scale restoration of degraded and damaged ecosystems. Ecological restoration has become one of core issues in global ecological environment governance. However, large-scale ecological restoration inevitably disturbs and reorganizes urban, rural, or wilderness landscapes, and also affects the relationship between humans and non-human species in the landscape.

This panel collects three Chinese ecological restoration cases related to landscape protection. It aims to discusses the complexity of ecosystem structure and function from different perspectives such as concept, technology and management. These cases reveal that ecological restoration is not only a technical strategy that relies on hard infrastructure improvement, but also an assemblage of complex social interactions and historical relationships in contextual regions. This panel advocates the importance of Socio-ecological system (SES) in ecology. Future Ecological restoration research shall be situated in a broader regional political, economic and ecological framework. By doing so, it highlights the driving force of human activities, the unpredictability of nature, and the instability and multi-stability of ecosystem.

进入21世纪，面对突出的气候危机与生态风险，联合国制定了2021—2030年生态系统修复十年计划，旨在推动大规模恢复退化和破坏的生态系统，生态修复工作已成为全球生态环境治理的一个核心议题。然而大规模的生态修复不可避免的扰动和重组着城市、乡村、或荒野景观，也影响着景观中人类与非人生物的关系。本组通过中国三个与景观保护相关的生态修复案例，从理念，技术和管理等不同层面，探讨生态系统结构和功能的复杂性。这些案例揭示了生态修复不仅仅是依靠传统基础设施的技术策略，更是特定地区情境下复杂的社会互动和历史关系的体现。本论坛希望引起大家对社会生态系统（SES）的关注，将生态修复置于更广泛的区域政治经济和政治生态框架中进行讨论，突出人类活动的驱动性、自然的不可控性、系统演替的不稳定性和多稳态性。

Time: 7 pm, 16 January, 2022

Venue: Via Tencent

Keynote 1

基于世界观与社区传统文化的青藏高原草地近自然修复

Grassland restoration as value-based adaptive management in Tibetan cultural landscapes

李黎Li Li

Keynote 2

边界湿地景观的生态治理与迷思 – 以香港湿地公园为例

Ecological governance and myth of border wetland landscapes – Hong Kong Wetland Park

王婷Ting Wang & Mathew Pryor

Keynote 3

栖息地恢复之后还需要什么？以江苏昆山天福国家湿地公园为例

What else is needed after habitat restoration? Jiangsu Kunshan Tianfu National Wetland Park

冯育青Yuqing Feng & 谢冬Dong Xie

An International Webinar organized by The University of Hong Kong and Urban China Magazine

22 May 2020 Via ZOOM

Convener: Ting Wang, Ph.D. Candidate, Division of Landscape Architecture

Organizers: Division of Landscape Architecture and Urban China Magazine

Seminar Introduction:

By 2050, more than two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. The accelerating move toward completely urbanized societies has been referred to by some scholars as “planetary urbanization,” pointing to the increasing human impacts on the environment in the era of globalization. In such processes, how has the notion of “nature” been mobilized in emergent environmental discourses and become “mainstreamed” in specific contexts?

In this seminar, we will explore these questions by focusing on the growing role of wetland construction as environmental solutions in recent years. Our considerations include: What are wetlands? What are the different agendas associated with wetland projects? How are they related to that of other green city concepts such as national parks and eco-cities? How may the impacts of these schemes be compared with those elsewhere？

Keynote Speakers:

Mathew Pryor, Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Landscape Architecture, the University of Hong Kong

Title: The Meaning of Wetlands: Stories from the HK Wetland Park

Michael Leven, Director and Ecologist in AEC Ltd.

Title: Beyond Impact Avoidance: How can the EIA Process Benefit Biodiversity Conservation – A Case Study of a Hong Kong Wetland

Werner Breitung, Professor in David Lam Institute for East West Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University

Title: The Social Construction of Nature – Wetland Conservation in an Urban Borderland

Discussants:

Cecilia Chu, Associate Professor, Division of Landscape Architecture, HKU

Xiaoxuan Lu, Assistant Professor, Division of Landscape Architecture, HKU

Guo Cui, Executive Editor, Urban China Magazine

* This event is also supported by the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong & Macau, CIB-HKU Student Chapter and Shanghai HuaDu Architecture and Urban Design Group (HDD).

For more information, please click here and visit official website

Graduate Students Conference,
The University of Hong Kong
31^st May – 1^st June

Organizing committee:
Ting Wang, Diego Javier Caro, Sben Korsh, Charles Lai

Faculty advisers:
Cecilia Chu, Eunice Seng

Keynote speakers:
Giovanna Borasi Chief Curator, Canadian Centre for Architecture

Jiat-Hwee Chang Associate Professor National University of Singapore

Kelly Shannon Associate Professor, University of Leuven (Belgium)

While modernity is widely perceived as a universal phenomenon encompassing different localities in Asia, we posit that the forms of our cities and urban landscapes are actually continuously reshaped by specific cultural histories, shifting geopolitics, and more recently, the growing ramifications of denuding ecologies. Through analyzing the exchange and transfer of knowledge and people employed by the built environment disciplines, this conference aims to interrogate the role of agents and institutions involved in the production of Asia’s built environment and beyond.

This conference pulls together graduate students and emerging professionals from architecture, landscape architecture, anthropology, and the arts in order to gather in discussion about diffusions, mobilities, and transference in built landscapes. The focus of these investigations include buildings, infrastructures, regional and urban plans, construction sites and ecological engineering.

PANEL 1: Building Cultures, Constructing Identity

PANEL 2: Urban Governmentalities in Knowledge Production

PANEL 3: Shifting Geographies of Power: One Belt One Road

PANEL 4 Vernacular Forms, Colonial Histories

KEYNOTE 1 – We Won’t Be the Same After This Conversation…Well, At Least We Shouldn’t Be
Giovanna Borasi

KEYNOTE 2 – Designing Territories of Resistance: Coproducing Urbanism in Vietnam
Kelly Shannon

KEYNOTE 3 – Transferring, Translating and Transforming Air-Conditioning Complexes: Histories of Sociotechnical and Built environmental Hybridities in Singapore and Doha
Jiat Hwee Chang

For more information, please click here and visit official website

TEDxYuyangshan 成立于苏州，我们认同/ideas worth spreading/ 的理念，通过策划线下工作坊，年度大会等活动，深掘苏州每个角落里那些真挚动人的故事，同时构建一个非物质文化遗产的交流及传播平台，记录下那些将要遗失的美丽。同时，我们也希望将国内外有趣且先进的思想带来苏州这个淳朴的土地上，让思想浸润、生根发芽。在交融交汇的过程中，产生更有深远意义的事件，让苏州伫立在世界非遗的顶端。

2019 年的大会主题为/ 迭代/。迭，更递，是无限次的求索进发，也是无限次温柔的审视故有，时代卷携着此间无数的智慧一轮又一轮的递进着，不曾停息， 也不曾忘却。时间洪流中的我们，仿佛站在巨人之肩上，怀抱着一代又一代的积淀，眺望远方！

大会在全球范围内邀请了9 位不同背景的讲者，行径至烟波浩渺的太湖- 渔洋山，围绕 “旧时馈赠”、“时代进步” 和 “无限未来” 3 个方面，分享他们对于 “迭代” 的理解和实践。为不同群体的观众，开启了一场跨界的头脑风暴。

更多大会回顾请点击官方公众号推送

With the fast urbanization, urban rooftop farming (URF) has appeared at the intersection between urban agriculture and green roof concepts. As the number of spontaneous rooftop farms in the city has grown over the last decade, the understanding of the motivation of participants has progressed from food production, to environmental greening and more recently to generating social value. However, few practical research into this topic from social value perspectives has been undertaken in highly dense urban areas like Hong Kong where there is an ambiguous situation of URF because of the gap of top-down strategic policies and day-to-day level regulatory support.

This research considers the phenomenon across Hong Kong, and takes Kwun Tong district as a focused case study site. It aims to demonstrate the potential social value of urban rooftop farming and suggest mechanisms enhance the practice, by investigating and verifying what the social values of urban rooftop farms are and how its intangible social values can be quantified in multiple scales including monetary value, spatial influence and, perceived benefit.

Life is here or there.

The reality and troubles are here while the virtual and dreams are there.

When you work day and night for the living

Have you ever thought about the third meaning of the life?

It is not far away, its right here.

The project aims to redefine the Augmented Reality (AR) into a scenario based restorative landscape system for ‘being away’, in order to heal the mental stress for workers in here in urban village. The scenarios in there are collected from interviews, interactive drama show and deep desires of workers.

The project includes two parts of questions：First, to define what scenarios can let workers to ’being away’ existing stress and to heal? Second, to explore, expect emerging technology, how the redefined AR system can be realize on the ground locally and interactively through regenerating the ‘invisible’ boundary in the urban village with different layering materials?

Hope when you are look at here, you will found here is there.

Life and dreams, they are everywhere.

有人说, 生活不在「此处」, 就在「彼处」

当生活在「此处」时是现实，是烦恼。当生活在「彼处」时是虚拟，是梦想。

当昼夜不停地生活得你，可曾想过生活的第三种可能？

它不远，就在这里。

通过重新定义‘增强现实’这一概念和技术, 该设计旨在为清湖社区生活在「此处」压力中的工人，创造基于愿景设计的疗愈性的景观系统。其中「彼处」的场景，收集于多次和工人的采访，一次与工人的情景互动表演秀，和无数来自工人内心深处的渴望。

设计包括两个部分：第一, 去定义什么场景能让工人‘逃离’现实的压力和治愈心理。 第二, 去实验探索，除了运用新兴技术， 如何通过不同层面材质来‘增强现实’在城中村‘看不见’的边界上，以此将疗愈性的景观愿景设计与场地和公众参与结合.

希望当你在这里回望「此处」，会发觉「此处」原来是「彼处」

生活的梦想，「无处」不在。

Transportation is the most urgent issue that Yangon facing nowadays. The development of city is incredibly increasing overtime which leave a big gap between transportation infrastructures and increased density during urbanization process. The road network infrastructure development is unbalanced between north part and southern part. Different modes’ networks plan and coordination is poor. The users’ experiences of physical environment of traffic modes as main agents of Transportation infrastructure is bad.

In 2040, overall, the government is going to upgrade the transportation infrastructure capacity by building an outer ring road. Subway and new highways will be arranged radially in order to link the central with a higher efficiency. It seems that the government is expected to increase the use of cars and public transportation to response to the expected population growth like many metropolitan cities in Asia. In order to response to the economic growth, the transfer functions of cargo in old Yangon port will be moved down to the new economic zone.

It make Dala become a critical point that all the ports between dala and old yangong will be for commuting. And it still missing the direct connection to the New economic zone. It is still wait to be seen that whether the single subway and highway will be enough to response to the future population growth and the overcrowded CBD. However, as the least developed part of this future transportation network, DALA area, enjoys huge potential especially on the water transportation . 

Even the new subway and highway are planned. The formal and informal ferry would be the major connection between Dala and old Yangon and SEZ in the near future because of the convenience. Thus, it makes Dala area a critical point to narrow the gap of yangon's transportation infrastructure development in the future.

© 2017 by Ting Wang, Ming Yang, Boyang Zhang, Shaoyin Zhang, Shuqi Zhang

Response to urgent drinking water pollution and shortage issue in Dala(a poor district in Yangon), this project aims to integrate water filtration and education by terraced wetland design. Freshwater wetland and salty water wetland were detailed designed in a pilot area.

Freshwater wetland filtration system consists of several interrelated ponds and functional areas: sedimentation pond, water aeration pond, shallow water treatment channel, shallow water treatment channel, central reservoir and phytoremediation edge. Through applying to the existing urban area of Dala, self sufficient water supply system can be formed in the short term that improve quality and capacity of portable water. In the long term, sustainable water education industry can be established in Dala through connecting planned research center and universities.

Under the background of “the construction of beautifully countryside in China”, the project made a deep research about the city morphology and building typology, vegetable condition, ecology environment and culture character to focus on the specific group, children in rural area who will be the main labor force of rural construction in the future.

Through analyzing various perspective relationships in the site, considering different views between adult and children and unique children’s psychological feature, the space is divided into different type of activities space by organic-shaped route and terrain, which is dynamic static integrated and have changeable views.

“Leaning by playing” is also be concerned. Base on the concept of natural education and STEAM education theory, mass open space and constructing blocks is provided for the children to design their space freely in practice which can help them appreciate the natural, countryside social and technology better. In summary, we are not the designer of this site, instead, we only provide design tools for the children who is the real founders of this site in the future rural construction.

在美丽乡村建设的大背景下，该项目充分梳理当地山水机理，结合自然植物条件，挖掘地方空间特色，提取文化元素，以独特的视角关注乡村儿童这一未来乡村建设的主力军。

通过分析场地里面的动线透视关系，考虑成人（1.7米）与儿童（1.2米）不同视角切换， 以及儿童特有的心理特征，构建出流动的地形和自然蔓延的路网，从而划分出不同的空间形态和活动场所，做到移步换景，动静结合。

项目还考虑到寓教于乐，以自然教育出发，结合STEAM教育理念体验性特征，利用大量的开放空间和提供的可搭建设计模块，从而赋予孩子认知，体验和创造空间的最大自由度，鼓励孩子在自然中通过手脑实践，加强对自然，乡村，社会和未来科技的认知。

总之，我们不是场地的设计师，我们只是提供了设计场所的工具，而未来作为乡村建设的主力军的孩子们才是这个场所真正的缔造者。

© 2017 by Ting Wang, Howe Chan, Siyu Chen

Under the new economic vision of ‘one belt one road ‘national strategy and regional advantages of Yunnan, the project hopes to build a southwest tourism town and as well as a demonstration village with a radiation of Southeast Asia and the characteristics of Silk Road. Therefore, the overall goal of this planning is based on the Internet / high-tech AR / VR, using natural way (seasons' time 'factor) to softy regenerate the village. Finally, it will form the model of soft regeneration based on the seasonal‘time’ value and promote the use into other potential characteristic towns.

The representation of soft regeneration/controlled development relies on creative use of virtual reality technology as pre promotion, tourism feedback-phasing construction scheme, seasonal faming mode, all age community led tourism and diversification of ethnic fusion features.

在新的一带一路经济带愿景下，该项目希望发挥云南区位优势，建设成为辐射南亚、东南亚的，有丝绸之路特色的 西南特色旅游小镇和一带一路示范村。因此，本次规划设计的总体目标是一互联网+高科技AR/VR为基础，以不伤害自然，恢复自然的方式，按自然的四季‘时间’ 因子有机更新农村，最后形成基于四季‘时间’因子的坝派村保护性更新模式，并且将其方法推广运用于其他潜在特色小镇建设上。

保护性更新/控制性开发 主要体现在几个发面：AR/VR虚拟现实高科技宣传应用，游客反馈-分期建设机制创新， 四季轮耕模式运用，全龄化社区导向性旅游推广，多元化民族融合特色挖掘。

This project aims to use the language of extending, embedding and triangular to create a series of intersection spaces between the gap of two cemeteries and straight- cut bluff in Hong Kong (Happy Valley) Cemetery.

Hong Kong (Happy Valley) Cemetery is one of the early Christian cemeteries in Hong Kong dating to its colonial era beginning in 1845. It is located beside the racecourse at Happy Valley, along with the Jewish Cemetery, Hindu Cemetery, Parsee Cemetery, St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery and the Muslim Cemetery.

The created intersection space and reoriented circulation can create vantage points for visitors and family’s from two cultures to get to know each other’s culture but not necessarily to fuse. A sequence of vantage points were created. Original big trees were kept and original barren rock surface is designed to experience ecological succession.