From April 5th to 13th, 2018, year 2 students from the University of Westminster travelled to China for their annual International Field Trip to work on a collaborative project with WHITRAP, Tongji University in Shanghai and Xi’an Jiaotong- Liverpool University (XJTLU) in Suzhou. The UK team was led by Dr. Giulio Verdini, Course Leader of BA Designing Cities, with the support of Sabina Cioboata, PhD student in urban studies at Westminster. The goal was to foster comparative understanding between London and Shanghai, particularly on the role of medium sized cities in large mega-city regions. The Chinese team was led by Dr. Chris Nolf, Associate Professor at XJTLU, and Dr. Chen Chia-Lin, Lecturer at XJTLU, who have jointly arranged a semester-long urban design studio with a planning course on the topic of “Zhenze: a 21st Century Town of the Yangtze River Delta”. During the workshop students  studied the town of Zhenze, widely known as the ‘town of silk’ in the Jiangnan Region to provide policy recommendations and urban design solutions to achieve a sustainable model of development. The field trip was also an opportunity to discover Shanghai and its new development and conservation areas and the historic city centre of Suzhou.

Further information regarding the workshop in China are available from the newsletter of WHITRAP.