EMERGENT URBANISM
After decades of stagnation, urban design and urban issues have emerged as a dominant component for current societal, economic and political analysis and discussions.  Emerging economies around the world, especially China, has demonstrated the necessity of understanding the complex issues surrounding urban development and renewal.  As old models break down and new relationships and organizational systems emerge, to understand this complex system, the need to engage and explore China’s urban dilemma in the context of global economy, cultural heritage, and environmental impact create a high value learning environment for scholars. 

In recognition of this, the principle pedagogical thrust of AAC’s summer 2009 offerings is to examine the evolving definition of urban and urbanism in the face of rapid development and economic change in China. The intention is to offer an introduction and continued scholastic platform to generate differing queries and positions.  The collective presentation and convergence of these positions is not intended to bring a coherent point of view nor a preconceived position.  Instead, it is intend to usher potential new urban paradigms which have lost courage in the west and encourage the challenges of different speculations to allow the emergence of new. 

To accomplish this objective, building on the experience of the past year, AAC is offering three courses of studies involving two workshops in Beijing and Shanghai and a travel enrichment course to examine the architecture and urbanism against a rich array of cultural and historical contexts between four distinctly different cities in mainland China: Beijing, Xi’an, Ordos, and Shanghai.

Workshops

Travel Enrichment