Videos from the “Shenzhen: From Factory of the World to World City” conference held by INTI on December 12 in Almere are now available online through our website. For the first time, the results of INTI’s international research and exchange program in Shenzhen were presented in the Netherlands. Speakers and panelists from both China and the Netherlands discussed the major constraints in the current urban planning process in Shenzhen and presented new stakeholders, new social and economic values, alternative strategies for redevelopment, and future challenges for the “city of tomorrow” within the Pearl River Delta.
The spectacular story of Shenzhen is well-known: lying adjacent to Hong Kong in the Pearl River Delta, the former fishing village became a New Town in 1980 when the central Chinese government gave it the status of Special Economic Zone. Shenzhen soon became a metropolis and a prototype for both economic and urban reform within China. Shenzhen is a city that has been raising eyebrows for years, because of its fast development and exceptional position.
However, the everyday reality in Shenzhen can be unruly. As a city, Shenzhen mainly thinks in top-down strategies and simply adds new hardware – the sum of infrastructure, buildings and industries – in order to encourage urban and therefore economic growth. It hardly touches upon the question of which existing social dynamics need to be accepted or improved in order to strengthen the city’s potential, let alone the socio-economic conditions that are necessary to successfully regenerate an existing neighborhood or to sustainably extend the city. This means that many policies are not in line with reality, creating a gap between government and society. Shenzhen is currently rethinking its economic future and urban identity. INTI aligned with the innovative forces in Shenzhen and initiated research to understand which social, economic and environmental factors need to be improved to strengthen the city’s potential.
PROGRAM:
WORD OF WELCOME
– Word of Welcome by Annemarie Jorritsma – Mayor City of Almere
– Word of Welcome by Michelle Provoost – Director INTI
SESSION 1: SINO-DUTCH COLLABORATION
– Lecture by Linda Vlassenrood – Program Director INTI
New New Towns in Shenzhen: Why we need to rethink the city of tomorrow today
– Lecture by Simone Eijsink – Head of European and International Affairs at the City of Almere
Almere Green City
– Lecture by Han Feenstra – Senior Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Economic Affairs
Shenzhen: A Case Study for International Collaboration in Low-Carbon Planning
SESSION 2: TOP DOWN MEETS BOTTOM UP
– Lecture by Huang Weiwen – Director Shenzhen Center for Design and Deputy Chief Planner, Urban Planning and Land Resource Commission of Shenzhen Municipality
Shenzhen Landscape: Grabbing, Consumption and Possible Redeem?
– Lecture by Stephen Read – Associate Professor, Spatial Planning and Strategy, Faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology
Researching emerging forms of polity, community and economy, and finding pathways towards integral and sustainable development
– Lecture by Juan Du – Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong
Planning from the Bottom Up
– Discussion with Huang Weiwen, Juan Du, Stephen Read and Kees Christiaanse (Founder KCAP Architects and Planners)
SESSION 3: NEW VALUES
– Lecture by Mary Ann O’Donnell – Shenzhen Based Artist-Ethnographer
Civic Ambition: The Shift from Urban Construction to Social Innovation in Shenzhen
– Lecture by Tat Lam – Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Director Urbanus Research Bureau
Shenzhen Shanzhai: New Industrialization, New Power and New Valuation
– Lecture by Markus Appenzeller – Director and Partner MLA+
ChinaComplexCity
– Discussion with Mary Ann O’Donnell, Tat Lam, Markus Appenzeller and Ton Venhoeven (Founder VenhoevenCS architecture+urbanism and consultant Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the World Bank in China)
SESSION 4: CITY OF TOMORROW
– Lecture by Doreen Liu – Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Founder NODE Architecture & Urbanism
What Time is This Place?
– Lecture by Ronald Wall – Economic Geographer at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies) / Tiffany Tsui – PhD Candidate at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies
Shenzhen II: Global Green Economic Zone
– Discussion with Doreen Liu, Tiffany Tsui and Bert Smolders (Senior Consultant Urban Development and Program Manager at ARCADIS, Advisor to the City of Wuhan)
Christine de Baan and JaapJan Berg moderated the conference.
Main partners within the program in Shenzhen are the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Development Institute, Shenzhen Center for Design, Urbanus, NODE, City of Almere, Delft University of Technology, University of Amsterdam, CAH Almere University of Applied Sciences and Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS).
The “Shenzhen: From Factory of the World to World City” conference has been made possible by the generous support of the City of Almere, Creative Industries Fund NL and the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Marit Geluk has been responsible for the video impression of the conference and 1:1 Producties for the recording of all lectures and discussions.
