Making Place in the Greater Bay Area

The objective of this symposium is to discuss the idea of ‘making place’ and how the transformation of the urban environment, through collective and incremental small-scale community actions, could produce significant effects on the quality of public spaces becoming a strategic tool for urban planning and design.

The ‘making place’ aims to provide an alternative lens to study and understand the wide range of informal processes and spontaneous urban phenomena that can influence the perception and use of public space. The strategy for developing the Greater Bay Area into a world-class city cluster will undoubtedly provide new planning opportunities; however, there is a need to inform and enrich this top-down plan with the knowledge generated by bottom-up processes in order to positively influence the social life of public spaces and therefore impact the quality of life within the high-density urban environment. Architects, urban designers, public space scholars and policymakers will discuss and debate this topic and related questions along with an engaged audience.

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Symposium Programme

Each session will run for approximately 2 hours, begin by speakers presentation and followed by a panel discussion. Please note that time stated is in HKT (GMT +8)

14 May 2021

9:00am | Opening and Introduction

– Alan Chan, Provost of The Chinese University of Hong Kong
– Francesco Rossini, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

9:15am | Session 01 | Could the Greater Bay Area provide an opportunity to test new approaches in making places?

Speakers:
– Miodrag Mitrasinovic, New School University New York, US
– Inge Goudsmit, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK
– Margaret Crawford, UC Berkeley, US
– Hendrik Tieben & Ying Fen Chen, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK

Panel discussion with:
– Joel Chan P&T Group, HK
– Philip Clarke, The Oval Partnership, HK
– Setha Low, City University of New York, US (Moderator)

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2:00pm | Session 02 | Making Places. How urban design and bottom-up processes can positively influence the social life of public spaces in Greater Bay Area cities?

Speakers
– Jason Hilgefort, Land+Civilization Compositions, HK
– Doreen Liu, Nodestudio, CN
– Sarah Mui, One Bite Studio, HK
– Wendy Ran Wu, Urbanus, CN

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8:00pm | Session 03 | How to enhance the quality of public spaces in cities and making places that encourage social interaction?

Speakers:
– Matthew Carmona, University College London, UK
– Siënna Veelders, STIPO Amsterdam, NL
– Pablo Sendra, University College London, UK
– Mahyar Arefi, Shaoxing University, CN / Jundi Shapur University of Technology, Dezful, IR

Panel discussion with:
– Sujata Govada, UDP International, HK
– Isabella Rossen, Urban Transcript, QA
– Nuno Soares, University of Saint Joseph Macao, MO (Moderator)

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15 May 2021

9:00 am | Sessions Introduction

– Francesco Rossini, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

9:15am | Session 04 | Bottom-up approaches and informal urban activities: Could theory inform, or better inform, practice?

Speakers:
– Filipe Afonso, Guangzhou University, CN
– Jose Luis Vallejo, Ecosistemaurbano, ES
– Ximena Ocampo, Derive-Lab, MX
– Francesco Rossini, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK

Panel Discussion with:
– Peter Ferretto, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK
– Jia Ping-Lee, Tempatico, MY
– Sujata Govada, UDP International, HK (Moderator)

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2:00pm | Session 05 | How could ‘making place’ become a more consolidated planning strategy to address critical issues and challenges at the district level and reinforce the local identity?  

Speakers:
– Kate Meyrick, Cistri, AU
– Peter Ferretto, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK
– Gianni Talamini, City University of Hong Kong, HK
– Nuno Soares, University of Saint Joseph Macao, MO

Panel discussion with:
– Sujata Govada, UDP International, HK
– Stefan Krummeck, Farrells, HK
– Luisa Bravo, City Space Architecture, IT (Moderator)

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8:00pm |  Session 06  | What’s Next

Pop-up Student Competition, Ceremony Award:
with Prof. Chiu Chi Yue, Dean of the Faculty of Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK

Making Place: Concluding Panel discussion

Announcement of the next Placemaking week Shenzhen/Hong Kong
– Ethan Kent, PlacemakingX, US
– Jia Ping-Lee, Tempatico, MY
– Jason Hilgefort, Land+Civilization Compositions, HK