Summer Workshop

This summer, six GSAPP students participated in a joint international workshop with China Lab, The Central Academy of Fine Arts and Chinese University Hong Kong. The twenty-student workshop focused its research on South Beijing, historically an underdeveloped region of the city that will soon be rapidly transformed into a densely-urbanized link with the city of Tianjin. By using South Beijing as a case study, the workshop proposed critical alternatives to the current trend of peri-urban expansion in China.

How can industrial areas be integrated into new residential developments? Is it even possible for secondary industries and residential blocks to coexist?

As Jiading and other industrial sites around Shanghai are transformed into residential superblocks, a new model for higher-density, hybrid land use and sustainable urban development is needed. This summer, Columbia GSAPP/China Lab researchers have been invited by the Jiading district government to work on a strategy report for the interaction of existing and future industrial sites with a new large-scale residential development.

SUMMER 2009

June 15–July 10.
The four-week workshop will take place in Beijing, China, and will build on a number of research topics on large-scale development established during the previous China workshops as well as expand into new territories of urban investigation.

Megablock to Metablock from China Lab on Vimeo.


Columbia + USC Joint Summer Workshop 2008, Beijing


The June 2008 workshop has concluded with the presentation of the Columbia team's proposal, 'Mega-Block to Meta-Block'. A publication documenting the site research and proposal is forthcoming.

'Leisure City', Urban China Magazine Issue 26: 'Parallel Universe'

The Hainan Summer Workshop's 'Golf City' project has been featured in an article written by Jeffrey Johnson.

GSAPP students:

Apply to participate in a 4-week workshop of urban research and speculative remodeling of Beijing's Northwest First Quadrant.

Contact Jeffrey Johnson at jj2235 at columbia.edu by April 9th for further information.

June 9 - July 4
Participating teams: USC School of Architecture, Beijing Urban Planning Committee, Tsinghua University, Columbia University, Seoul National University
1st & 2nd-year M.Arch. students eligible

SUMMER 2007

• Golf City Magazine available at lulu.com