Sustainable Urban Regeneration Workshop: International Dialogue between China and the Global South 

The Bartlett School of Planning’s Professor Fulong Wu, Dr Fangzhu Zhang and Dr Zheng Wang recently organised a workshop on sustainable urban regeneration. 

The workshop, which took place on 17th and 18th March, aimed to generate policy uptake for the redevelopment of urban and rural villages in Chinese cities. Urban villages in Chinese cities provide housing for millions of low-income residents including rural migrants from China’s countryside and currently face large-scale demolition. 

Sponsored by the ESRC/DFID, this workshop invited senior Chinese planning officials from the NDRC’s China Centre for Urban Development (CCUD), China Academy of Urban Planning and Design as well as Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces’ Departments for Housing and Urban and Rural Development to work together on a more sustainable regeneration approach in China. 

The workshop also endeavoured to foster a dialogue between senior Chinese planning officials and professional organisations including the UN-HABITAT, OECD, IIED, RTPI and ISOCARP in order to contribute towards the regeneration of informal settlements in other countries of the Global South.

Invited speakers included:

• Prof. Chris Webster, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Hong Kong University who is also the co-investigator the ESRC funded project
• Prof. Chi Shen, Chief Planner of the China Centre for Urban Development and Director of the Urban Planning Institution, National Development and Reform Commission
• Prof. Kai Wang, Vice President of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design
• Dr Xingquan Zhang, Senior Advisor at UN-HABITAT
• Dr Rudiger Ahrend, Head of the Urban Programme at OECD
• Dr Xiaohui Chen, Deputy Director of the Jiangsu Urbanisation and urban-rural Planning Research Centre
• Ir Martin Dubbeling,Vice President of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP)
• Prof. David Satterthwaite, Senior fellow at International Institute for Environment and Development
• Dr Michael Harris, Deputy Head of Policy and Research at Royal Town Planning Institute
• Prof. Juan Du, Associate Dean (International and Mainland China Affairs) of the Faculty of Architecture, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Hong Kong
• Ms Ying Cao, Senior planner of the Department of Housing and urban-rural Development of Guangdong Province (representing Mr Ying Cai the Deputy General of the same Department)
• Ir Saskia Spijkerman, Urbanist and member of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP)