On Aug. 29, the “Sino-Italian Workshop for City and Architecture Updating” cosponsored by magazine Time Architecture, Shanghai & Florence- Sino Italian Design Exchange Center and Milan Association of Architects was held grandly in Shanghai & Florence- Sino Italian Design Exchange Center (Florence Base) constructed by DOBE. Architects from China and Italy exchanged ideas on topics like city planning, cultural history, historical building renovation, and the use of energy-saving environment-friendly materials in buildings.
On the day when the Workshop was held, Mr. Pascale, Art Adviser for Italy’s highest national award for industrial design ——ADI Compasso d’Oro, and Florence Municipal Government’s Special Adviser for Public Events, expressed welcome to the guests on behalf of Italy National Industrial Design Association and Florence Municipal Government. After that, Time Architecture’s Editor in Charge Dai Chun and Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute’s Branch Head Xia Nankai respectively gave a speech on behalf of the sponsors and co-organizers. In his speech, Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute’s Branch Head Xia Nankai explained this international exchange’s positive meaning. He said: “Italy plays an important role in world architecture hisory. Its protection and renovation of ancient buildings is particularly world-famous. The close admiration of Italian buildings in this journey left me a deep impression. Tongji University has trained many excellent architecture talents. I hope in future we can have exchanges and interactions with Italian architects, make best of the platform of Sino Italian Design Exchange Center, further strengthen the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries’ architects, and contribute our experience and wisdom to the development of architectural design.”
During the event, Mr. He Jingtang, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor of School of Architecture, South China University of Technology, and Chief Architect of China Pavilion for Expo Milano 2015, started from his personal experience of renovating the studio and explained his thinking on historical building renovation. In his opinion, historical buildings are living carriers of history; the protection of historical buildings not only rests with the full protection of historical buildings, but also needs to inject new vitality into them, making them meet the needs of urban development and modern people’s new needs in work and life. The aim of protecting historical buildings is to create new site traits by overlapping history and present, improve the overall environmental and spatial quality, carry forward site memories and regional cultures, in order to let historical buildings gain a new life from renovation.
Continuing the topic, Boeri Studio’s partner architect Michele Brunello, Studio Archea’s founder Marco Casamonti, Kokai Studios’ founder Filippo Gabbiani and architect Henri Fruchet, Wu Beier from Wuxi HuaCan Chemical Co., Ltd. also discussed today’s new trends, new concepts in architecture from their own design projects, which fully combine elements like technology, economy, ecology, low-carbon, culture, history, to display the harmony and fusion between human, architecture and nature.
In the subsequent discussion, Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute’s Head Yu Jing, Shanghai UA Design Office’s partner Li Yankui, Fuzhou Architecture Design Institute’s Chief Architect Huang Xiaozhong, and other elites from design industry had free exchanges with Prof. Marco Sala from the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence and other Italian architects. Chinese guests’ rich practical experience and Italian architects’ ingenuous way of thinking made the exchange activity full of witty remarks and applause. According to Prof. Marco Sala from the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence, in a few weeks, the University of Florence will start a new academic year. It will work with China, assign some architectural planning projects to Chinese and Italian college students of architecture major for joint design and discussion, and get together again in Sino Italian Design Exchange Center in June next year when the academic year ends, to display the in-depth cooperation between the two nations’ young designers.
Chinese and Italian architects had discussions and exchanges
Participants took a group photo to mark the occasion