The Fourth Sustainable Landscape-City Development International Forum and the First RCEP Design and Consultation Industry Summit was held at the Chongqing Yuelai International Conference Centre on the morning of 13 October 2021. Revolving around the theme of “New Opportunities in City Development and International Collaboration”, the hybrid format of this forum catered to both online and offline audiences.
Over the same period, four sub-forums were also conducted on the following topics: “The Influence of New Development Ideologies on Landscape-City Design Innovations”, “The Paths to Landscape Ecology and Sustainable Constructions”, “Advanced Interdisciplinary Technologies of Cities’ Basic Infrastructures”, and “Tackling Cities’ Basic Infrastructures in the Smart and Green Way”.
The Sustainable Landscape-City Development International Forum in Chongqing
The forum brought together over 200 professionals — locally and internationally — with the aim of contributing to the progress of landscape-city developments from around the world, in a comprehensive and multi-dimensional manner.
Hailing from various sectors such as design companies, engineering consulting firms, relevant government departments, and financial institutions, there were also experts from higher education institutions and scientific research institutes. Together, these professionals were all keen on an in-depth exploration of the impact that new development ideologies have on landscape-city innovations, the advanced interdisciplinary technologies of basic infrastructures, and smart and green ways of manufacturing.
The forum featured more than 10 industry fellows, experts, and scholars who delivered powerful speeches focused on landscape-city development, globally-shared technology intelligence pool, and the promotion of extensive inter-industry interactions. With these focal points, the ultimate goal was to seek the most optimal way to bring forth new city development opportunities, as well as international collaboration prospects. Dr. Liu Thai Ker attended this international forum on invitation, and shared his thoughts on ecological significance and sustainable development in landscape-cities.
“Urban development is the crux of every city. It should not be changed easily and should be carefully planned, in order for the future generations to sing praises of it. The three key elements of urban development are the government, land, and planning. That being said, the core of reasonable planning lies in servicing the people and the land, such that the urban plans continue to be applaudable as time passes.” Dr Liu elaborated.
Besides introducing the basic principles of reasonable planning, Dr. Liu also drew a comparison between the planning environment in Singapore and China. He stressed the need for China to be aware and devote its efforts into ensuring urban planning for large, medium, and small-scale cities are given equal consideration. Dr. Liu cited Singapore as an example as he explained the need to integrate the idea of constellation cities into the urban planning solution for Chongqing – a city that houses more than 30 million people.
Towards the end of his speech, Dr. Liu spoke about his views on the challenges in urban planning that were posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Cities exist to better fulfil the everyday needs of mankind, and the pandemic is just one of the many factors that has to be considered on a bigger scale in urban planning. At any point in time, the basic principles of urban planning should be kept constant, but the finer details can be tweaked slightly.
Urban planning has to safeguard the natural beauty born out of landscape and ecology. To avoid being termed a “city in a jail” due to over-congestion, cities must then have a smooth and highly-connected transportation system that can form the “Great Wall in a city”.