A summer school on the theme of the Horizontal Metropolis in the Yangtze River Delta, jointly organised by the Department of Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Zhejiang University, China Academy of Art (CAA) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), recently came to a close. Held at the UNNC, the ten-day summer school began on 10th August and attracted over 28 students from eight of China's leading institutions in architecture and urban studies, including Peking University, Zhejiang University, China Academy of Art and Chongqing University.

Dr Andrea Palmioli and Dr Eugenio Mangi from the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at UNNC; Paola Viganò, Professor of Urban Theory and Urban Design at the EPFL, - Doctor Honoris Causa and Grand Prix de l'Urbanisme-; Dr Qinyi Zhang, architect and urbanist at Paola Viganò's studio; Dr Yuting Xie, Lecturer at the Institute of Landscape Architecture at Zhejiang University; and Ir Yimin Su, Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Art at the CAA, delivered the summer school. All six tutors have a solid professional background in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism, helping students to gain deeper design expertise and multidisciplinary understanding of urbanization processes in China.

The idea of this summer school was proposed by Dr Andrea Palmioli and Dr Eugenio Mangi, as a following step of the last September’s exhibition “Hong Kong Horizontal Metropolis: a paradigm shift” (www.hkhm.org) co-curated by Professor Paola Viganò (EPFL), Dr Andrea Palmioli (UNNC), Dr Gianni Talamini and Dr Christine Kaiser (CityU, HK), which has been the foundation for further developing a new research and teaching framework focused in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). In the past four decades, the rapid process of urbanization and industrialization has transformed the YRD into a Mega-Urban Region (MUR) characterized by a dense cluster of intensively and extensively developed large and medium-size cities intermingling multifunctional rural areas. Central to this aspect, the expansion of Mega-Urban Region leads to the potential increase of the demand for food production, industrial zones, decline of agricultural land, rural depopulation, and energy consumption, all at major expenses of rural areas.

This summer school aimed to respond to these challenges by studying three specific areas in Nantong, Ningbo and Suzhou in the Yangtze River Delta, formulating cutting-edge design strategies under the framework of "Horizontal Metropolis" research.

Originally tested in 2011 by Professors Paola Viganò and Bernardo Secchi while elaborating a long-term vision for the masterplan of Brussels, the concept of Horizontal Metropolis defines processes of conveying urbanity in diffuse and extended metropolitan territories. The concept of horizontality, in relation to urban environments, concerns the roles played by different parts of territories of a mega-urban region, their dependence or complementarity. Aim of the summer school was to conduct interdisciplinary comprehensive research and spatial integration between urbanism and environmental disciplines and expand the cognition and understanding of urban transformation in the Yangtze River Delta.

Students majoring Architecture, Economics, Urban and Landscape Design, conducted an inter-disciplinary exchange of ideas and enhanced their understanding of the resilience and sustainability of these regions. The design strategies and physical models elaborated during the summer school will be displayed at the Ningbo Urban Planning Exhibition Centre for sharing with professional and non-specialist audiences.

Dr Andrea Palmioli and Dr Eugenio Mangi believe that in design-related disciplines, interdisciplinary thinking and teamwork are skills that every student should master. They wish that students will continue to strengthen their critical thinking and to expand their interest in urbanization after participating in the summer school.

The Summer School was also well received by the 28 participants, with the following positive feedbacks on their participation in the overall course experience:

"I really appreciate having such a precious opportunity to meet teachers whose teaching methods are different from those of our school, and to learn some large-scale ways of thinking. What makes me feel more fortunate is that I can meet kind and diligent seniors in our group who have great enthusiasm and love for our major:)!" -- Jiayi Luo, Chongqing University

"As a second year landscape architecture student at a domestic university, this is my first experience of such foreign teaching style, which feels more practical than theoretical than at our school. I was amazed by the huge studio and all in all, it was a splendid summer school experience! " -- Qizhen He, Zhejiang University

"This summer school is involved with people of different professional background. I could learn from each other and when we were brainstorming together it felt like solving engaging puzzles. Teachers gave clues continuously to lead us to analyse from different angles under diverse conditions, enabling further exploration towards a variety of possibility of system to solve the problem. The whole process is very tired but with great harvest. Thanks for the support and love from both teachers and classmates." -- Xueying Chen, China Academy of Art

“I really enjoy the UNNC library and the ‘horizontal’ education during the project. Very nice experience! ” --Tuoyue Zhang, Peking University

“It was a wonderful and exciting ten-day learning experience about the Horizontal Metropolis, especially for an architecture student. Although there were times of great confusion, tutors and teammates always had the time to defuse the confusion and were always willing to help. This summer school consisted of participants from many different professional backgrounds. Everyone worked well in groups to enquire information through research and a large amount of brainstorming to achieve the final design.

Ultimately, this educational experience enhanced my understanding of urban planning and the methodology used. It was an enjoyable summer experience that will be forever ingrained into my mind. ” --Matylda Maria Szymanska, UNNC