2022 International Symposium on Sustainable Urbanism and Architecture: Australia and China Perspectives on Urban Regeneration and Rural Revitalization

Despite several obvious social, political, economic, and cultural differences as national entities, legacy of their own history and cultural background, Australia and China share relevant analogies when it comes to other factors and general trends in terms of urbanization and potentiality for their future development. Both countries have vast lands full of natural resources and are set in the Asia Pacific region and recent decades have seen a clear communal pattern regarding urban growth models and planning strategies, with the state-driven efforts to privilege the expansion of urban centres over the more rural zones.

In terms of regional and urban planning, in Australia most urbanization have been absorbed by the few large metropolises in the state capitals in the East coast mainly set along the axis connecting Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne. In China the central government policies have reiterated the strategic importance of the East seaboard concentrating the economic power and growth engines in the sprawling megacities forming an integrated urban network stretching from Beijing/Tianjin, through Nanjing/Shanghai, and to Shenzhen-Hong Kong conurbations.

A pivotal shift is currently unfolding in both countries, and it focuses on the importance to revert the process of continuous growth of the large cities and move toward a progressive modernization of small cities and rural towns (China) and the regional centres (Australia), as alternative poles of immigration and new cores of economic growth and prosperity for the nation and the people.

In the last few years in Australia this process has been fuelled by an emerging new wave of movement of people driven by the pandemic and supported by ad-hoc national and local development policies. Large numbers of professionals and skilled labourers willing to leave behind the constraints of the urban life have been drawn to regional areas by the benefits of a healthier and more personally stratifying regional lifestyle in smaller towns.

In China, the main task of new-type urbanization has been transferred from ‘new town development’ to ‘urban regeneration’ since 2017, when the central government initiated the plan of ‘ecological restoration, urban renaissance’. Following the national ‘Strategic Plan on Rural Revitalization 2018-2022’, the newly established Ministry of Natural Resource intends to facilitate the integrated development of urban and rural areas by considering the ecological capacity of a given area from a more comprehensive perspective.

Among other factors, the outbreak of COVID-19, and subsequent lockdowns and widespread remote working, also forced planners and designers in both Australia and China to rethink everything they do from a broader sense of sustainability and attention to long-term development based among others on environmental considerations and the use of strategies to promote a more effective socio-economic regeneration of the local communities.

1. Urban Design Theory and Practice
   
   Looking at new city paradigms as ‘alternative’ or ‘adjusted’ models of urbanization beyond the conventional forms of city building, this theme invites authors to present papers which might be able to elaborate on the form of alternative future visions and suggest innovative strategies for the development of the built environment of urban and rural communities in Australia and China. Case studies, innovative research, analytical studies focussing on the following issues are especially welcome:
   • (Re)design of resilient communities in urban and rural contexts
   • Urban design strategies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and post-disaster reconstruction
   • Planning and design strategies to achieve carbon neutral cities
   • Innovative urban design for climate change adaptation and social change in urban/rural areas.
   • “Design with Nature”: theory and practice of landscape/ecological urbanism in Australia and/or China
2. City Planning Strategies
   
   Papers are invited to explore and discuss a variety of issues which show a special affinity or interest in relation to:
   • Governance and growth management in rural settlements and/or regional towns
   • Urban regeneration/rural revitalization and the transport infrastructure development
   • New/old city paradigms and scenarios for urban and rural development in the 21st century Australia and China (e.g. Polycentric cites, new towns, regional satellites, etc.)
   • Planning for growing population in regional centres and rural towns
   • Age-friendly cities/neighborhood (e.g. ageing/children friendly cities/neighborhood)
3. Rural Revitalization
   
   This theme mainly looks at issues and practice arising in the transformation process of the countryside. Specifically:
   • Urban-rural integrated development model
   • Rural revitalization and shrinking cities
   • Innovative rural revitalization approaches and strategies
   • New construction techniques that can support rural revitalization
4. Architecture
   
   This mainly looks at emerging issues and innovative practice that intends to cope with the challenges on sustainable building design and construction nowadays. Specifically,
   • Green architecture
   • Building retrofit for energy saving and carbon reductions
   • Lifetime homes
   • Innovative typo-morphological examples of buildings
   • Community development and the built environment
5. Technology and Engineering
   
   This theme focuses on the cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas related to the engineering and construction challenges and opportunities occurring in urban regeneration and rural revitalization projects in Australia and China. Specific subjects of interest might include, for instance:
   • adaptability and transformation of rural buildings to improve community identity;
   • the conservation of industrial, rural and urban heritage as critical assets within regeneration strategies;
   • technical approaches to increase resilience against climate change threats such as bushfires or flooding;
   • data-driven design approaches for environmental comfort in urban regeneration.

Beyond the list above we welcome papers presenting knowledge created and practice-based experience in recent case studies in Australia and China.

ARCHITECTURE , URBAN DESIGN , LANDSCAPE , SUSTAINABILITY , ENGINEERING , GOVERNANCE , HOUSING , CITY PLANNING , SOCIOLOGY & HISTORY , HERITAGE , REGENERATION.