Ville en mouvement • Citie on the move

IVM's 9 years in China
Last update : Wednesday, October 14, 2009

International meetings: Innovation in transportation
Debates on local questions: the city workshops
Establishing easier spaces of movement: mobility spaces
The new Chinese streets

Innovation in transportation

International conference: Accessibility in the metropolitan environment Innovative solutions in China and in Europe December 2006 Download the program (french version) Download the summary (french version) Download the lectures and articles Organised in December 2006 at the University of Tongji, this international conference provided an opportunity to examine the issues of accessibility in modern cities around two themes. The first focuses on metropolitan organisation at a regional scale, and the second on innovation in access to the city and transportation for people with reduced mobility.
Colloquium: “Urban growth, transport methods and intermodality.” Chengdu, 2001 IVM’s China Program seeks to promote innovation in transportation through international meetings. The very first meeting: “Urban growth, transport methods and intermodality”, which was held in Chengdu in November 2001, contributed to the debate in China on the issues of intermodality in transportation. The proceedings of the colloquium were published in China and a bilingual version was published by Tongji University Press.

Colloquium: “Urban mobilities: the challenges – research issues in China and abroad”. Beijing, 2004 In October 2004, as part of China’s France Year, the colloquium “ Urban mobilities: research issues in China and abroad”, organized with the University of Tsinghua’s transportation research centre, brought together several international experts in Beijing to discuss the research issues of urban mobilities. Download the program

Round table "Urban growth and sustainable mobility" at the European Parliament

Patron: Mr Jean-Marie Beaupuy, Chairman of the Urban Intergroup at the European Parliament

On December 12, 2006 in Brussels, at the invitation of Jean-Marie Beaupuy, Chairman of the Urban Intergroup at the European Parliament, the City on the Move Institute presented its program of exchange and activities with China's universities and cities. It also organised a round table for discussion between decision-makers from Europe's institutions and cities, academics and journalists.

The round table was led by:

Jean-Marie BEAUPUY, Chairman of the European Parliament's Urban Intergroup;
Eleni KOPANEZOU, Head of the Clean Transport and Sustainable Development Unit in the European Commission's Transport Division,
Pan HAIXIAO, Professor of urban planning at the University of Tongji in Shanghai
Xavier FELS, Secretary-General of the City on the Move Institute,
Didier REBOIS, Professor of architecture and Secretary-General of Europan,

Seminar on "the new Chinese streets"
in Shanghai

University of Tongji
July 20-21, 2006

On July 20-21, 2006, in association with the University of Tongji's Architecture and Urban Planning College and the Urban China Journal, the City on the Move Institute organisation and on "the new Chinese streets". Significant figures in the world of urban planning and architecture from Shanghai, Nankin, Beijing and Canton came to present projects on the following themes: "streets for living"; "intense streets"; "plural streets"; "vertical streets"; "intermodal streets". The aim of the event was to cover modern currents of thought in the design of China's urban space and its relations to mobility. The result of the discussions fed into the exhibition "The street belongs to all of us!"

The city workshops

It is sometimes difficult for mobility issues to be integrated locally because of administrative and functional divisions. IVM seeks to bring together multidisciplinary groups at local level for discussions on choices and strategies between local stakeholders, and national and international experts. In 2003 and 2004, city workshops took place in the cities of Canton, Wuhan and Chongqing to discuss real ongoing projects.

To find out more, download the workshop programs:

November 2003, Chongqing, “Revising the municipality’s transportation plan” (soon)
January 2004, Wuhan, “Developing the second orbital road” (soon)
March 2004, Canton, “ The relation between Panyu’s future high-speed train station and the city centre” (soon)

The spaces of mobility

Is China in the process of inventing the streets of tomorrow?
International seminar, March 2008, Tongji University
■ Download the program
■ Télécharger la synthèse, par Wang Yu

Session 1: “City models, street models: in search of a Chinese way”

► YANG Dongyuan, Vice-President of the University of Tongji
“Urban transport and lifestyles” (English/Chinese version)

► Didier Rebois, architect, Assistant Prof at the Paris-Val de Seine School of Architecture
“The street: a spatial platform for urban innovations” (French version)

► PAN Haixiao, Professor at the University of Tongji,
“Redefining the function of the street in urban planning”

► Jean-François Doulet, Lecturer, University of Provence
“The street in China: a mirror of urban transformations” (French version)

► Antoine Bres, architect and planner, Assistant Professor at University of Paris I
“From road to street: turning city into neighbourhood” (French/English version)

► ZHUO Jian, Lecturer at the University of Tongji,
“From the expressway to the multispeed street” (French version)

► JIN Yunfeng, Prof, University of Tongji
“A landscape approach to road building” (Chinese version)

Session 2 : “Taking over the street: a cast of players in today’s urban China”

► YUAN Gang, Shanghai Institute of Urban Economics
“Managing the road network”

► Emmanuel Vivant, Asia project leader, Véolia Transport
“The contribution of transport infrastructures to city quality of life: case studies in Rouen and Bordeaux” (English version)

►YU Hai, sociologist, Professor at Fudan University in Shanghai
“Does the street still belong to us?” (English version)

► TENG Shengqiang, Shanghai Traffic Management Office
“Road planning in residential districts” (Chinese version)

► WANG Shifu, Lecturer, Huanan University of Technology in Canton,
“The development of Sanjiajiu Street in Canton: processes and people” (English version)

► TAN Mali, architect, visiting Professor at Tongji University
“Children and the street” (English/Chinese version)


Chinese and English versions	French, Chinese and English versions

“City, usability and accessibility”,
The first work to be published in China urban accessibility.
Presented at the Shanghai Book Fair, it was selected as a 2008 key title by the municipality of Shanghai.

Published by Tongji University Press, Ed. Pan Haixio, Professor and Director of Research at Tongji University and Director of the IVM-China Academic Chair, and Jean-François Doulet, Lecturer at the University of Provence and the Institute of Political Science, IVM-China project leader.

The book is a collection of the main papers given at the International conference “Accessibility in metropolitan spaces” organized by the City on the Move Institute (IVM) at Tongji University in December 2006, as a collaborative venture between IVM, COLIAC (Liaison Committee for Accessible Transportation and Buildings), the National Transportation Centre (CNT), the Shanghai Federation for the Disabled and the University of Tongji. The different papers contribute to the debate on the need for a new approach to urban accessibility: enhancing access for people with reduced mobility also means better conditions for everybody and improved urban quality of life.

The work was presented by Tongji University Press at the Shanghai Book Fair, which ran from
August 13-15, 2008 at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre.

Find out more about the exhibition in Shanghai
Download the presentation pack for the works by Chinese artists (architects, designers, painters, videomakers, performers)
Le programme du séminaire : « La Chine est-elle en train d’inventer les rues de demain »,
le 22 mars à l’Université de Tongji
Find out more about Chinese cities on the move: www.villeschinoises.com

The “Architecture on the Move! Cities and Mobilities” Exhibition, Chinese version
Because mobility has an impact on the city and on urban development, it is important that it should be included in discussions about space and development operations. Through its China Programme, IVM wishes to raise awareness amongst those responsible for Chinese cities on the quality of mobility spaces. The tour of the “Architecture on the move!” Exhibition in different cities (Shanghai, Chongqing, Wuhan, Canton, Beijing and Xi’an, at the International architecture and technology conference) introduced Chinese urban professionals to projects by architects who have taken an innovative approach to mobility.

And coming soon:

The “Architecture on the move!” Exhibition will be presented at the Xi’an architecture events in September 2006.

The architecture and urban design competition on “sustainable development and new urban mobilities” between six Chinese and European schools of architecture

In 2005, the Institute organized an architecture and urban planning competition between Chinese and European architecture schools on the topic of “sustainable development and new urban mobilities”. The competition confronted teams of students with members from both regions to produce a project on three sites in China (Canton, Wuhan and Shanghai) each matched with specific themes (planning transportation networks, integrating different transport methods and creating integrated urban interchange points).
On November 3 and 4, 2005, the combined Chinese and European jury, whose members included Bernard Reichen, winner of France’s Grand Prix for urban design, selected 10 particularly innovative projects. The top three prizes were awarded to the Universities of Canton, Shanghai and Berlin. City officials came to present the sites for which the competitors had submitted projects to the jury: the Xujiahui shopping district in Shanghai, the main bridge surrounds in Wuhan and the industrial zone undergoing conversion by the Pearl River in Canton.

Find out more about the jury
Find out more about the competition results (french version)