The Penn-China Landscape Symposium is a series of five biennial events convening leading Chinese and international academics and practitioners on the big issues and research topics in China now. The Talks are hosted by the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design, beginning in 2015, and will take place biennially at the new Penn Wharton Center (PWCC) in the heart of Beijing.
The symposia are based on the proposition that in ‘landscape’ we can find matters of pressing cultural, economic and ecological importance to China’s future. China’s historical veneration of landscape and the way in which landscapes are now rapidly changing make this a powerful topic for focused but also wide ranging discourse about China’s transition from an agrarian to urban society in the context of 21st century globalization.
“Coordinates,” the first of five Penn-China Landscape Symposia will take place on the 13th of March at the PWCC in Beijing, from 1 pm to 6 pm. This introductory symposium is intended to bring a small but prominent group of leading academics and practitioners from across China together with representatives from PennDesign.
论坛1: “坐标” 03.13.2015
The question the introductory symposium will address is: “What are the most important ecological and cultural pressures facing the future of Chinese cities, and how can landscape architects, architects, urban designers and preservationists engage these issues in significant ways?”
The question is intentionally very general so as to enable wide-ranging discussion on the occasion of the first symposium. The purpose of the first symposium is to establish the coordinates for the entire series of symposia. It will provide a snapshot of major issues toward which research efforts should be directed and also help clarify the themes and the organizational strategy for the following four symposia.
The introductory symposium will be structured as an open forum or think tank with a core group invited to make brief inspirational verbal and visual presentations following which discussion will be opened to all the delegates.