GuangFutures

Year | 2013

Location | Guang Fu, Youngnian, Handan, Hebei, China

Clients | 

GuangFutures began with a field trip to the ancient city of GuangFu, birthplace of Tai Chi, in the Northern province of Hebei, China. This gave four members of the group, assisted by Hui Shi who is a Chinese speaking alumni of the School, an opportunity to conduct field work and act as ‘forensic Tourists’. On return to the UK the team was joined by additional members who began to amalgamate analysis carried out on site and conduct wider research. From this research and our conversations with collaborators, it became apparent that the best way to disseminate our ideas would be through an online resource.

The focus was placed on the development of GuangFu, considering both the current Masterplan that has been put in place and the impact of tourism. The City already attracts some local tourists, and the Government is keen to expand this aspect of the economy. Our work examines how this growth can occur in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner, looking at a number of strategies. Firstly, three models of tourism are suggested; hospitality, ecological and arts & crafts, with timelines from 2013 – 2040 including varying scales of intervention. Public Space is then analysed, with strategies for core areas, water spaces and interstitial points.  Other proposals more overtly focus on sustainability, with a fresh water city, urban agriculture and working with existing typologies being proposed.

The group worked in collaboration with Hawkins/Brown, a well known practice with offices in China, who were able to introduce us to key contacts and give us valuable insight into the social, political and economic context that we were operating in.  Alongside this, we consulted with the Chinese Community in Sheffield, carrying out participatory events to learn more about China and the experience of tourists. It is hoped these collaborations will allow the project to have a legacy, contributing to the debate about practicing remotely and ultimately with some of these ideas becoming reality.

This project has generated a huge number of learning outcomes, providing many challenges that the team were able to convert into opportunities. Although working in a bilingual context can prove difficult, in this project it has allowed our work to have a bilingual output, therfore greatly expanding the reach. The creative identification of stakeholders in the UK meant that we have gained experience facilitating participatory design workshops despite working remotely from our project site. Overall, the project has been a great generator of ideas and an ideal platform for developing a deeper understanding of a culture different to our own.

广府未来项目始于一次前往位于中国河北省北部的，太极拳的发源地广府古城的旅行。在一个谢大的中国校友石慧的帮助下四名小组成员有了一个机会调研农村，扮演了一回“辩论的游客”。回到英国后,其他成员加入了这个团队,他们开始进行整合分析地段,并进行更广泛的研究。通过各项研究和与合作者的对话,思路渐渐清晰,通过一个在线资源来传播我们的思想是最好的方法。

重点是放在广府的发展,考虑到总体规划付诸实施和旅游的影响。这个城市已经吸引了一些当地的游客,政府热衷于发展这方面的经济。我们的工作是研究大量的策略，找到如何让这种增长可以在社会和环境可持续发生的方式。首先，提出了三种旅游模型：好客、生态和手工艺品,时间跨度可以从2013一直到2040年。接着是分析公共空间,给核心地区、水域和中级空间分别提出相应策略。另外还有针对于可持续发展、洁净水资源、城镇农业和改进现有户型等方面的策略方案。

团队曾与著名的霍金斯·布朗公司合作。该公司在中国设有办事处,因此能够将关键联系人介绍给我们,并提供我们关于项目本身的很有价值的社会、政治和经济背景知识。此外,我们还请教了谢菲尔德的华人社团,开展了一系列活动来更多的了解中国和游客经历。我们希望这些合作能够使项目持续下去,有助于促进远程实践的讨论,最终使其中的一些想法变成现实。 这个项目已经产生了大量的学习成果,团队也已经成功的将很多挑战转化为了机遇。虽然在双语环境中工作是困难的,但也让我们的工作能够在这个项目中实现双语输出,大大增强了其影响力。在英国富有创意的对于利益相关者的识别意味着尽管是远程工作，我们也已经获得了关于如何促进参与式设计工作室的相关经验。总的来说,这个项目能够很好的启发思想并增强对于另一种文化的理解

Credits

Student Team: 

Samuel Atkinson, Dovile Botyriute, Matthew Goodfellow, Sarah Habershon, Edmund Harrison-Gray, Yuan Yuan Huang, Yuan Jing, Sean McGee, Polina Pencheva, Saskia Peters, Josh Piddock, Jing Zhang

Mentor:

Simon Chadwick