AIMS
The aim of this project
is to: deliver the latest results and products of advanced IT applications
in creative building design practice and methodology; gain input from the
mutual knowledge exchange between European and Chinese architectural design
traditions and current developments; enhance the skills and mobility of academic
personnel; contribute to the basis of Europe-China economic co-operation in
the field of design and intelligence of building construction. The target
groups are the academic teaching people and postgraduate students in the field
of Architectural-Urban design and Industrial design. The involved universities
are the Politecnico di Milano University, Italy, University of Kassel, Germany,
Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, Tongji University of
Shanghai, China, and Tianjin University of Tianjin, China. The main activities
are: activation of design/teaching labs for postgraduate and teaching people,
summer courses, common research thesis at Ph.D. and Masters’ level, exhibitions
and lectures to Chinese design communities and construction industry, international
conferences. The duration of the project is 24 months, with programs self-sustaining
further beyond.
OBJECTIVES
Aligned with
the overall objective of the Asia-Link Program, this project promotes multilateral
networking of architecture and design education staff and advanced academic
personnel in Europe and China, specifically, among Politecnico di Milano University
in Italy, University of Kassel in Germany, Eindhoven University of Technology
in The Netherlands, Tongji University and Tianjin University in China. The
project is designed to develop and enhance Europe-China co-operation, first
of all among the participating universities to foster and promote mutual awareness
and understanding especially in the area of technology and methodology of
generative approaches in creative building design, and subsequently among
multiple regional building design communities and the building construction
industries through further spreading of the influences and practical results
of the co-operation among the universities. More specifically, the main
objective of this project is to:
A. Upgrade and enhance the skills and mobility of teaching and research
staff and postgraduate students of the participating universities, particularly
in the field of architectural and industrial design, through
(1) collaborative teaching in design studios and other instructional courses
of each participating university,
(2) periodical seminars in Europe and China (with audio and video delivery
to all participating partners),
(3) workshops of special design project focuses in China and Europe, and
(4) creation of joint research groups with specific themes among habitat
identity and quality, industrial design and intelligent production, and teaching
methodology for evolutionary architecture, housing and industrial design;
B. Promote the exchange of experiences and encourage mutual knowledge and
recognition of study programs and reciprocal exposure and access to higher
education through the means listed above;
C. Promote networking between European and Chinese design education communities
by extending to these new partners the existing network of Generative Design
community, sustained by the international GA conference held annually in Politecnico
di Milano University for the last 5 years, and further enlarging the base
structure of the network for future developments and co-operations;
D. Enhance the attractiveness of European design education within its higher
education system among Chinese communities through the comprehensive cultural
exchange and common experience in this collaborative project; E. Raise the
awareness of mutual opportunities in the design and construction sectors and
create opportunities of future extended co-operations for mutual economic
benefits by introducing the most advanced technologies of intelligent design
and industrial production and managing of the habitat evolution developed
in Europe to Chinese universities and regional industry.
The project is expected to achieve the following multilaterally beneficial
outcomes:
1. The dissemination, diffusion and expansion in China of the latest development
of an innovative approach to design and design education that has been developed
to a mature level of leading stage for European and western design culture
(generative design and its related tools, methods and applications);
2. Recognition and application of the generative design teaching model,
and the development of a new operable and effective European-Chinese design
education model based on the same technology and methodology;
3. Development, exchange, establishment and application of a new design
methodology and practices that comparatively fuses and integrates the European
formalization of design synthesis with Chinese dialectic analysis of design
and evolutionary design process;
4. Diffusion and expansion of the technology of intelligent industrial production
in the fields of building and industrial design, where the technology is based
on breakthrough advancement in design automation characterised by designer-centred,
man-machine interactive and automatic reprogramming systems that are able
to manage numerically controlled manufacturing industrial machines that is
one of the main export of Europe, and particularly of Italy;
5. Establishment of equalised European-Chinese mutual opportunities for
human resources of the design teaching institutions of the participating
universities and, furthermore, of the professional design communities in
the continuously growing construction industry and emerging intelligent industrial
production manufacturing industry.