On 16th June, 2019, the 13th annual conference of the International Association for China planning (IACP) was ended in Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU). The conference was jointly hosted by IACP and SWJTU, and undertaken by the School of Architecture and Design, SWJTU. The conference invited many distinguished scholars at home and aboard to share their thoughts on the new challenges facing urban planning today and the responses.

1. The 7th International Dean/Chair's Forum of urban and rural planning

As an important agenda of the IACP Annual Meeting, the School of Architecture and Design held the 7th International Dean/Chair's Forum of urban and rural planning on June 14th. Up to forty experts from well-known universities in the domestic and overseas attended the forum. The forum was hosted by Professor Qing Shen, the overseas dean of the School of Architecture and Design, and Professor Xu Cui, the vice dean of the School. Professor Zhongwei Shen, the secretary of the Party Committee of the School, and Professor Yan Song, the Chair of the IACP, addressed the forum. Later, the participants had lively discussions on issues of sharing cities, institutional reform of urban and rural planning, spatial planning and so on in China.

Address by the leaders of the School of Architecture and Design and the Chairman of IACP

Scholars who gave speeches on the forum include Peng Zeng, the vice dean of the School of Architecture in Tianjin University; Wei Dong, the vice dean of the School of Architecture in Harbin Institute of Technology; Nankai Xia, the former president of Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute; Zhongren Peng, tenured professor in University of Florida, USA, Chair Professor granted by the Yangtze River scholar program; Tong Li, the Party secretary of the School of Architecture and Design in Beijing Jiaotong University; Chun Zhang, the vice director of Urban and Rural Planning Department in the School of Architecture and Design in Beijing Jiaotong University; Jian Liu, the vice dean of the School of Architecture in Tsinghua University; Xiaochun Yang, the vice dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning in Shenzhen University; Xu Cui, the vice dean of the School of Architecture and Design in Southwest Jiaotong University; Ying Meng, the vice dean of the School of Urban Planning and Architecture in Southwest Minzu University; and Steffen Nijhuis, the director of the Research Institute of Landscape Architecture in Technische Universiteit Delft in the Netherlands.

Speeches by guests

Professor Qing Shen, the overseas dean of Architecture and Design in Southwest Jiaotong University and the professor of the University of Washington; Professor Yan Song from the University of North Carolina; Professor Lingqian Hu from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Professor Robin Hickman from the Bartlett, University College London (UCL), Professor Liang Guo from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Professor Lingyun Fan from Suzhou University of Science and Technology participated in the interactive discussion of the forum. The scholars had reached consensus that the education of urban and rural planning must response the demand of national strategies at the time. At the meantime, different schools should consolidate their characteristics in education, cultivating all kinds of talents for urban and rural development in China.

Discussions by guests

2.Opening ceremony of the 13th annual conference of IACP & keynote speeches

On the morning of 15th June, the opening ceremony of the 13th Annual Conference of  International Association for China planning (IACP) was held in the first lecture hall of the library at the Xipu Campus of Southwest Jiaotong University. Zhongwei Shen, the Party secretary of the School of Architecture andDesign host the opening ceremony. Faming Yao, the vice president of Southwest Jiaotong University, Zhiqiang Wu, the academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the vice president of Tongji University, Jian Qiu, deputy director-general of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Sichuan Province, Chunlan Du, the dean of the Architecture and Urban Planning faculty of Chongqing University, Song Yan, the Chairman of the International Association for China Planning, and A.Jacob.Odgaard, the dean of the School of Architecture and Design of Southwest Jiaotong University made speeches in the ceremony.

In the subsequent keynote speeches, the guests gave our audiences a thought-provoking academic feast. Zhiqiang Wu, the Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, shared his latest research achievements in the field of artificial intelligence planning titled with "Planning with AI". His speeches aroused intense interest of students and scholars present at the conference. Dawei Xiao, Professor of School of Architecture of South China University of Technology, gave a speech titled "Towards Sharing: The Necessity of the Future of Historical Buildings". With typical case studies, he emphasized the crucial concept of sharing in the practice of historical building protection. Yimin Sun, the dean of School of Architecture of South China University of Technology, made a speech on "Sustainable Cities: Towards Smart Planning and Building", wherein he introduced some new trends in operating urban design in the new era. Piper Gaubatz, Professor and Geography Program Head University of Massachusetts, with his titled "Chinese Urban Models in the 21st Century", shared her thoughts on the development model of Chinese cities in the future.

Keynote speeches by guests

3. Parallel sessions of IACP and the lecture series of "Urban Planning International to the Universities"

Following the keynote speeches, it is the parallel sessions lasting one day and a half. In total 81 parallel sessions were divided into 6 sections. They covered the much debated and timely issues in the field of urban and rural planning, such as the Belt and Road initiative, healthy city, rural revitalization, the development of cities in west China, protection of ecological environment, public policies and underground space planning. Up to 400 guests from home and abroad exchanged ideas on these topics.

Parallel sessions

On the evening of June 15, the lecture series of "Urban Planning International to the Universities" was held in center of architecture culture of the School of Architecture and Design. Professor Yu Yang, the Party branch secretary and deputy director of the department of urban and rural planning hosted the lecture series. As one of the most important journals in the field of urban and rural planning in China,Urban Planning International enjoys a high reputation among the industry and academia. Zhitao Sun, the deputy editor of Urban Planning International, introduced the journal to the audiences and conducted a Q&A session, which paid particular attention to article writing and manuscript submission.

The lecture series of "Urban Planning International to the Universities"

4. Closing ceremony of the 13th annual meeting of IACP

On the afternoon of 16th June, the closing ceremony of the 13th Annual Conference of International Association for China Planning (IACP) was held in the lecture hall of the School of Architecture and Design. The ceremony was hosted by Professor Xu Cui, the vice dean of the School of Architecture and Design. Professor Ronbin Hickman from University College London (UCL) presented a keynote speech entitled "Transport Space and Equity-transport in Supports of Inclusive Cities", which studied the way to promote urban diversity and inclusion by improving the equity of transport. The IACP Conference Organizing Committee then awarded four scholars for the outstanding papers of the conference and took photographs with the four scholars. With the IACP flag delivered from SWJTU to Shenzhen University, the conference ended in the applause of IACP Organizer Handover Ceremony.

The Closing Ceremony

The IACP Organizer Handover Ceremony

This conference motivated extensive and in-depth conversations among scholars and students on the subject of "Shared Cities: Challenges and Responses to New Urban Planning". It is a timely and significant conference. The success of this conference owes to the support of the leaders of Southwest Jiaotong University and the School of Architecture and Design and the Department of Urban and Rural Planning, the hard work of faculties and student volunteers, and the generous help from IACP and the co-organizers. The conference attracted the participation of a large number of Chinese and foreign scholars and teachers and students from peer colleges. It not only greatly promoted the academic communication among the international planning communities, but also laid foundation for the development of the School of Architecture and Design and the Department of Urban and Rural Planning. We will closely connect with our colleagues and fellows in planning and strive to make our contributions to the development of the discipline and educational enterprise of planning, and ultimately the realization of the goal of beautiful China.