The stunning speed of the recent Chinese urban development presents both opportunities and challenges for both public and private sectors, as well as for architects and planners. After two decades of rapid growth and relentless physical change, Chinese cities are moving towards a more integrated and mature urban transformation. This concerns not only the “hard” index of physical construction but also the “soft” quality of living spaces, such as environmental friendliness, cultural and historical integrity as well as higher demands for practical conveniences and daily comforts.

The key role that urban design plays in this emerging social shift leads us to the question how human interventions -- that is, the controllable “design” process -- may actually impact the transformation of a city. The topic of this year’s conference, “Urban Design and City Types” hopes to identify two major areas of experimentation in the evolving urban sphere that provide direction to our practice, at the macro and micro scales.