PORTFOLIO
Creative and Literary Works in Non-textual Form
Caterina Villani PhD Candidate, City University of Hong Kong cvillani2-c@my.cityu.edu.hk
Published Projects
CATERINA VILLANI - PORTFOLIO
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CBD: A New Porosity
CATERINA VILLANI - PORTFOLIO
2018 - Villani, C. “CBD: A NEW POROSITY”, in: Walkable Cities in High Density China: Livable, Healthy and Sustainable. Yuan, C. (Ed.), Tongji University Press, Shanghai, pp. 83–109. Author and Designer In this research I investigate the pedestrian space examining both morphology, mobility and societal dynamics of Lujiazui CBD in Shanghai. The focus of this study is on the accessibility and connection of pedestrian spaces. It starts by examining the origins of Lujiazui and the rapid pace evolution to an iconic globally recognized CBD. Moreover, it highlights the correlation between the greater dimensions of the blocks and the articulation of an alternate pedestrian mobility inside the blocks and on off-the-ground multilevel spaces. Finally, this research elaborates several urban strategies for Lujiazui CBD area aiming to reconnect the blocks, enhance the accessibility of pedestrian spaces, and promote social activities and functions.
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CATERINA VILLANI - PORTFOLIO
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Green Corridors: Urban Habitat for Lake Chad
CATERINA VILLANI - PORTFOLIO
2014 - Villani, C. IUAV University of Venice Designer Lake Chad is one of the emblematic places in the desertification process in sub-Saharan Africa. An inhabited green belt, based on the geography existing north of the lake, represents the territorial strategy within which to define sustainable regional development. High water pumping towers, built with a steel lattice structure, constitute the architectural element that identifies the project: the position of the towers determines both the path of the green corridors directed towards the lake and the articulation of the inhabited nuclei, included between the corridor green and supporting infrastructure. The result is a dense system in which geography, infrastructure and architecture contribute to defining alternative territorial morphologies. Published in: “Dove comincia l’Africa” in 13°17’50”N AFRICA GREEN BELT PROGETTI SOSTENIBILI GLOBALI E LOCALI. De Dominicis, F., Galli, J. pp. 44-49 ISBN 8854875864
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Exhibitions
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June 2019 City University of Hong Kong, AC1 bldg. Exhibitor and Panel Design The exhibition showcased the final results of the advanced urban design studio (CA5137) projects of the Master of Urban Design and Regional Planning, where I was teaching assistant. The panels illustrate strategies and visions for new sustainable developments in the New Territories of Hong Kong.
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"From the first moment we saw Patrick A b e rc ro m b i e ' s d i a g r a m o f L o n d o n ' s community structure, officially named 'Social and Functional Analysis' also known as the 'egg diagram' or, as we call it, the 'Potato Plan', we were fascinated by both its beauty and its striking clarity.
One possibility of distribution of different modes
Land Use Zoning
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of a larger organism at the same time.The recognition of urban sprawl as a problem on the one hand and the need for a progressive decentralized spreading principle of population and production as a solution on the other was a unique driver of the plan. Abercrombie described the need for an outward movement through the creation of New Towns to cope with the overcrowding of the city, but in line The Potato Plan illustrated by Arthur Ling, with London's organic character, urbanization was part of the first chapter of the County needed to follow the principles of a regulated of London Plan entitled 'Social Groupings system of interlinked communities in order to and Major Use Zones'. The plan poetically preserve London's identified image as a city illustrates that an urban agglomeration of villages. He was convinced that the spirit of consists of a large number of communities these communities was still there, but that their and centralities of distinct characters, which 'boundaries were blurred and lost in London's are both more or less self-sufficient and part untides sprawl'." Space Matrix Zhan Minghu GB
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from entering the community and bicycles are promoted. BRT lanes and trans-
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fer points are set along the main road. People can complete the conversion of
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M. and Christiaanse, K. (2018) The Potato Plan collection: 40 cities through the lens of Patrick Nai Within the astonishing technologicalZüger, advanceAs a hypothetical colonization ofAbercrombie. a MartianAmsterdam: enment of the last decades the spectrum of a dyvironment, as an answer to congested and stopian biopolitical control is haunting us. As a hyper-dense contemporary urban environmenLONDON response to a data driven society, this vision pro- THROUGH THE LENS OF ABERCROMBIE ts, this scenario aims at questioning the approposes a city where the internet backbone, data ach to urban design, stressing –as in the Athens centres, server clusters, and other physical apCharter– the need of thinking in three dimenpliance of the internet infrastructure become a sion. Inspired by Yona Friedman’s “Mobile Arvisible material part of the cityscape. Within the chitecture”, the Spatial City is made by elecity, access to internet is limited to dedicated ments that can be combined and repeated ad areas. Spaces of connections and disconnection infinitum. Learning from the scientific approach are visually emphasised and spatially defined. to urban planning proposed by Ildefons Cerdà, the Spatial City uses a mathematical formula to calculate dimensions and spatial articulations.
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Flow
Height: 300 m, 600 m Base Area Radius: R=2 m
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→ Designing more details
→ Adding working space
→ Elevated ground floor
→ Creating roof gardens
→ Adding green space
Sewage Treatment Works The STW principle of organizing every community is preserving existing resources and mixing different functions to save commute time of residents and increase their Government leisure time. Different communities adopt different modes to ensure diversity. G
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District OpenSpace
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Local Open Space
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Agriculture
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AGR District OpenSpace
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Green Belt
Education
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Wind
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Local Open Space
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Section
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Reedbed/Retention pond
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Agriculture
Green Belt
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River Channel
Reedbed/Retention pond
Key Road River Channel
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BRT Station
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Retentian Lake
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Key Road
200m BRT
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BRT Station
Retentian Lake
Aerial View
The Cell Surface Environment
1. Storeroom 2. Health Clinic 3. Last Room 4. Rest Room 5. Meditation Room 6. Reception Room 7. Office
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→ Reorganizing the open space
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Education
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The structure of the grid is used here to realize equality and spatial justice, It divides Yuen Long South into many communities in the same size. There is no highrise and high-density center. Public facilities are distributed equably, and everyone Mixed Use MU the same right to access. has
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Government
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→ Combined with road system
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Sewage Treatment Works
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→ Connecting living space
Therefore, we put forward the concept of “Mix(c)ity” to try to avoid these problems.
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Mixed Use
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Original living space From the analysis of three New Towns, we found that many social problems in Hong Kong are also reflected in the New Towns, such as rich-poor gap, housing difficulties, and aging. These arose from the isolation of people in physical space.
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In the face of death, our modern society is ill-equipped. We ignore, isolate and remove the sorrow and desolation that come with it, both physically and psychologically. Unlike in pre-modern society, the cemetery is for us a heterotopia. This project intends to provide citizens with the ‘right to death’ while bringing death inside their daily life. It proposes the spatial integration of the passing away and the physical remains of our body into the city and citizens’ everyday life.
Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3 Mode 4
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3. Provide public space for residents to communicate.
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ing and working in a short distance. 2. Mix different functions in a larger area.
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The Right to Data Yin Chendong
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Life to Death Han Xinrui
→ Adjusting roads to maximize the use of existing roads
there are three mixing strategies. 1. Construct a basic building form to mix livDO
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to shorten the commuting time and promote activities within the community,
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a lot of time on commuting, resulting in a reduction in spare time. In order
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Existing nullah
→ Changing material of revetment
The general problem in Hong Kong’s new towns is that people need to spend
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Existing Ding House
→ Maintaining most Ding House
space equity. E G
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Existing green space
→ Reorganizing the structure
BRT. The establishment of community centers strives for equal resources and E
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Existing roads
→ Roads in group work
the transportation mode at the BRT station and then travel quickly through the
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Nullah
order to provide a comfortable pedestrian environment, cars are prohibited
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Ding House
the program retains most of the status of roads, green space and villages. In
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Green space
lah passes through the site. From the perspective of cost and people-oriented, GB MU
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Road
the two communities in the east and the west are mixed with the village. A nul-
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The project selects three communities in the northern part of Yuen Long South for design. One of the communities in the middle is basically brown land, while
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The cells form the surface of the tower with cables connecting to the core structure. Also, the tower is supported by energy generated by wind, the tower rotated through wind direction
Mountain
Forest
Wetland
Sea
Solar Energy
Wind Energy
Bioenergy
Hydroenergy
Hotel
Residential Area
Commercial Building
Office Tower
Port
Recycling Center
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Energy
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Provide transmitter and storage services. Each cell contains certain types of information, social connection, consumption data and so forth. semi-transparent with the surface. Users can reject the storage to check the data situation.
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22.5m
Users can apply to check their Patrick data usage and active information in the past.
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Housing & Accommodation
Data Cells
Ground Floor Plan
Factories & Facilities
CityU Master of Urban Design Graduation Show
CATERINA VILLANI - PORTFOLIO
Elevator and Data Storage
MIX(C)ITY
SOCIAL AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS 1948, BASED ON HONG KONG PRELIMINARY PLANNING REPORT 1948 Abercrombie
MIX(C)ITY
ZHANG WEILING
DUAN HAIHAO, HANG SHICHAN, ZHANG WEILING, ZHAO LINGYU Factory
Dam
YUEN LONG SOUTH
DOORS TO UTOPIA
Chenxi LIU, Jeffrey Cheuk Hai NG, Qida LIN, Wanhe LI, You MO
PLAN TO ILLUSTRATE
HONG KONG THROUGH THE LENS OFONABERCROMBIE REPORT HONG KONG AT MID
1940s
We are in a time of rapid social and technological transformations. A new civilization of nomadic cyborgs is occupying the spaces constructed by the previous modern man. Kitchens and living rooms are no longer useful, food is prepared and delivered by specialized companies and people are eating at work. Shopping malls core business is replaced by electronic commerce. Books are read on digital supports turning libraries into obsolete spaces. Rural villages are trapped into the urban fabric and left without their vital crops.
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BLUE AND RECOMMENDED GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE OUTLINE DEVELOPMENT PLAN, PLANNING DEPARTMENT, CEDD, ARUP "From the JEFFREY first CHEUK moment weXIYU,saw Patrick of a larger organism at the same time.The CHEN YANAN, FANG YUAN, HAI NG, LIU ZHANG SUWEN Land Use Zoning Masterplan A b e rc ro m b i e ' s d i a g r a m o f L o n d o n ' s recognition of urban sprawl as a problem on The Potential Development Area of Yuen the T h one e Po t e n tand i a l the D eneed velop t Area is community structure, officially named 'Social hand formae nprogressive Long South is Analysis' located toalso the known south of predominantly occupied by open storage and Functional as Yuen the decentralized spreading principle of population Longdiagram' New Town, by and yards, warehouses, industrial workshops 'egg or, asand welargely call it, bounded the 'Potato production as arural solution on the other Yuen we Long Highway and by Kung Um To was intermingled with rural settlements, residential Plan', were fascinated both itsRoad. beauty a unique driver of the plan. Abercrombie the south is the Tai Lam Country Park. uses, agricultural land and livestock farms. and its striking clarity. described the need for an outward movement through the creation of New Towns to cope The Potential Development Area includes with the overcrowding of the city, but in line twoPotato main parts, one in the Yan San with London's organic character, urbanization The Plan illustrated byTong Arthur Ling, Tsuen andfirst the chapter other in of thethe area along needed to follow the principles of a regulated was partarea of the County Um Road. ofKung London Plan entitled 'Social Groupings system of interlinked communities in order to and Major Use Zones'. The plan poetically preserve London's identified image as a city illustrates that an urban agglomeration of villages. He was convinced that the spirit of consists of a large number of communities these communities was still there, but that their and centralities of distinct characters, which 'boundaries were blurred and lost in London's are both more or less self-sufficient and part untides sprawl'."
PLANS AND PROJECTS BLUE AND GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
LIU XIYU
General Masterplan
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“Doors to utopia” is the title of an urban design workshop, carried out in January 2018 within the Bi-City Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\ ArREFERENCE chitecture, as part of the Urban Design Studio AY 2017-18. The workshop sought to provide new scenarios for the adaptation of cities to the Space of Enlightment contemporary needs. The workshop consisted Zou Junyu of three intensive days of urban analyses and design. The first REPORT level1948 of investigation consistSOCIAL AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS 1948, BASED ON HONG KONG PRELIMINARY PLANNING Reflecting on the power of educationUrban in Design proviand Regional Planning History, Theory and Practice Course ed of dérive – analytical technique proposed by Students: Liu Chenxi, Ng Jeffrey Cheuk Hai, Lin Qida, Li Wanhe, Mo You ding means to escape from a condition of po- Hong Kong Guy Debord – and leaded to the production of verty and desolation that affects dense, old and a series of psychogeographic maps of Nantou filthy neighborhoods, this project transforms the Old town. Following, students were asked to most neglected spaces of our cities into places produce utopian visions for the future developof betterment. The enlightenment of the dark ment of Chinese cities. The aim of the workshop back alleys of dense urban areas is here both a was to question the role of utopia in urban dephysical and symbolic action. sign and to provide extreme scenarios of future urban development.
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INDUSTRIAL ZONE
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Züger, M. and Christiaanse, K. (2018) The Potato Plan collection: 40 cities through the lens of we Patrick Abercrombie. Amsterdam: Nai To connect, will provide connections to different communities that villages, DO
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future developed housings, farms, and brownfields together. The formation of a network then allows people to live, work and gather easily inside the community.
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MAIN ROAD
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AGRICULTURAL VILLAGES
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OFFENSIVE TRADE ZONE LIGH AND HEAVY
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Source of the base map: Great Britain. War Office Geographical Section, General Staff NO. 3868, Published by the War Office, 1932
A city is essentially a place existing for people to live. However, the modern urban development was heavily driven by the watchwords of transport planning, such as optimization and efficiency. The cultural elements of the traditional street life were lost and replaced by a fast pace life. More and more people are in rushing through urban corridors, reducing communication with others, making our city indifferent and less vibrant. This vision aims at providing temporal breaks in fast pace lives by opening rooms on the side of corridors.
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RESIDENTAL ZONE LIGHT INDUSTRIAL ZONE HEAVY INDUSTRIAL ZONE
Breaks in Time Zhang Linfeng
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LONDON THROUGH THE LENS OF ABERCROMBIE LO
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Mixed Use
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To connect while separate, rivers and green space will help to form communal Sewagethe Treatment Works areas with connections. With landscape features adopted in the river, STW pollution of brownfields can be mitigated, and the riverscape will become a pleasant place for people to meet, gather and mingle. Government G
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CHENXI LIU, JEFFREY CHEUK HAI NG, QIDA LIN, WANHE LI, YOU MO
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District OpenSpace
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Building Stories
Development Phase
Land Use
Nowadays
Local Open Space
Development Phase LO
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Big Settlements
Analysis Road
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Outside Districts
Education Social infrastructure and transportation design will improve accessibility and E comfort. DO
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Central Districts Normal Districts
After 10 Years
After 40 Years
Agriculture
Green Belt
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Cultural Centre Area
Reedbed/Retention pond
Business Districts
River Channel
Institutional Area
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Neighbourhood Reserves New Urban Patches
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Residential Area
Mixed Use Land
Original Village School
Design of Nullah
Key Road
Tower Archipelago
Industrial Zone
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Bike Line Bus Line
Walkway
Secondary Central Districts
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BRT Station
Design Concept ②
Retentian Lake
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Airport and Infrastructure
Original
Green Water
Cover
Uncover
Partial Aerial View
Land fill
Detailed Masterplan
Types Of Open Space ①
RESIDENRTIAL AREAS
Leisure ORIGINAL VILLAGES
Retail Concentrations
LEISURE SQUARE
SPORTS AREAS
RETAIL
Administrative Buildings
CASUAL DINING
② Border
Section Original
Single unit
Double unit
Unit with Ceiling
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Plan Analysis
SOCIAL AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS 2019
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Basic technical index: Total areas of site of detailed design:3.64ha Building coverage:0.6ha Plot ratio:2.2 number of users:1600 green surfaces:48%
SOCIAL AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS 1948, BASED ON HONG KONG PRELIMINARY PLANNING REPORT 1948 Patrick Abercrombie
Urban Design and Regional Planning History, Theory and Practice Course Students: Liu Chenxi, Ng Jeffrey Cheuk Hai, Lin Qida, Li Wanhe, Mo You
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YUEN LONG SOUTH
Facade Analysis
Chenxi LIU, Jeffrey Cheuk Hai NG, Qida LIN, Wanhe LI, You MO
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PLAN TO ILLUSTRATE
HONG KONG THROUGH THE LENS OFONABERCROMBIE REPORT HONG KONG AT MID
1940s
RECOMMENDED OUTLINE DEVELOPMENT PLAN, PLANNING DEPARTMENT, CEDD, ARUP The Potential Development Area of Yuen
The Potential Development Area is
Brownfields in Hong Kong
CATERINA VILLANI - PORTFOLIO
Turning a dross into a resource UABB Hong Kong - Shenzhen Biennal 2017 December 2017- February 2018 H6 CONET, 99 Queen’s Road Central Exhibitor and Panel Design
Brownfields in Hong Kong can be found in the plains of the New Territories, covering an area as big as the entire urbanized portion of Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong government considered as brownfields not only former industrial sites with contaminated soils, but also many other improper uses of former agricultural lands of the New Territories. We are convinced that brownfield regeneration could crucially contribute to Hong Kong future and we believe the solution must be sought together, within a process of participative decision-making.
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Walkable Cities in China: liveable, healthy, sustainable
CATERINA VILLANI - PORTFOLIO
Venice February 2017 “Gino Valle� Cotonificio Veneziano, Iuav University of Venice https://www.artribune.com/mostre-evento-arte/walkable-cities-in-china/ Curator The exhibition illustrated a research path on the evolution of the urban condition in contemporary China and participates in the world debate on the regeneration of large metropolises such as Shanghai and Shenzhen, focusing on a specific theme: walkability, and pedestrian connectivity
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Conferences
(As organiser)
CATERINA VILLANI - PORTFOLIO
Università Iuav di Venezia
SCUOLA D I D OT TO R ATO
CITY PORTRAITS: SHAGHAI 上海 ritratti di città
26 > 28.05.2015 aula Tafuri palazzo Badoer San Polo 2468 Venezia
International Conference Doctoral School, Iuav University of Venice Collaborator Shanghai, a [Self] Portrait explored how the promotion of Shanghai as a Global City is constructed by local actors, and how this promotion affects the city itself. The conference brought together world-class scholars from various disciplines (i.e. humanities, social sciences, architecture and planning), offering a multi perspective portrait of one of the most controversial cities of contemporary global society. As a collaborator I organised the graduate scholars session.
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