The Dutch Approach to Beijing on Urban Planning

Recently the head of international affairs of the Dutch Fund for the Creative Industries, Bruni Hofman, visited Beijing as commissioner of a new project for China which the fund is currently developing under the working title "Beijing Towards 2050". Appointed project manager, Thijs van Spaandonk of architecture firm VenhoevenCS joined her for this visit. The visit was a research trip to aid further development of the project and define possible partners and key topics within the project, as well as to meet established project partner, Beijing Design Week.

The project is set to focus on the urbanization process in China and aims to look at how the Dutch approach within urban planning, ie. a model of collaboration and consensus, can relate to the Chinese context and be adapted and localized to a new hybrid model that could aid planners in the future. The duo met with a vast array of experts within a broad area of expertise, both close and distantly related to the urbanization process - from architects to urban planners to fashion designers and magazine editors. Meetings were set up jointly by the Beijing Design Week organization and the embassy in the form of topic based brainstorm sessions in order to jointly define current key issues in China's urban expansion process.

In addition to local experts the duo also had a fruitful first meeting with director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning, Mrs Huang Yan. Together they discussed the outline of the project and looked at the possibilities of researching concrete issues in the city of Beijing that the Commission deals with. Apart from being a research project, the objective is also to engage with the Chinese context in a more tangible way whereby local governments could play a role.

In its design the project will span a year long. During the course of 2013 and 2014 a series of workshops will be planned in different Chines cities. Two moments are already defined: The first workshop during the Beijing Design Week 2013, being the project launch, and the presentation of the results from the first year of the tour during the Beijing Design Week 2014. The goal of the series of workshops is to define the urgencies but also to develop a Sino‐Dutch Approach to long term and holistic spatial planning that is relevant for the specific cities and regions within China. City by city, the Sino‐Dutch Approach will develop into a comprehensive model, covering all aspects of sustainable metropolitan regions.

(source: Dutch Embassy in Beijing)