The 2017 Guangzhou International Design Forum took the ‘design-driven city’ as its theme with the aim to create a platform for conversation between government, society, and experts in China and abroad. It is intended to help Guangzhou explore the direction for the next round of urban development. Vincent Nadin represented TU Delft with presentations to the forum on the role of urban design in urban regeneration and ‘unsustainable cities’ at the impressive Guangzhou Library in Zhujiang New Town. The pace and form of urban development in Guangzhou will change direction as the City Plan approved in 2016 calls for no new districts or development zones to be allowed outside existing approved areas and more emphasis on improving existing urban infrastructure, the protection of historic and cultural sites and measures to build an energy-saving and environmentally-friendly city.
Other speakers at the Forum included HE Jingtang, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering; ZHUANG Weimin, Dean of the School of Architecture at Tshinghua University; Sun Yimin, Dean of School of Architecture, South China University of Technology; Thomas Herzog of Herzog+Partner; Robert Greenwood of Snøhetta; Alan Lewis of SOM; Michele Bonino of Politecnico di Torino; and others.
