A EcoEx:Edu University program accompanies the Hamburg and Shanghai city partnership, ecobuild shanghai 2006. Over the next 3 years, the HFBK, HAW and TUHH Departments of Architecture and Urban Planning integrate this project into their curriculum. Moreover, they intend to setup a German-Chinese university partnership to support this. Such cooperation will help foster the bilateral transfer of knowledge between students and lecturers, by offering workshops and internships for students in both partner cities.

The joint University Program EcoEx:Edu (Ecological Building Exhibition Shanghai 2006: Educational Exchange Program) follows the actual implementation phases of ecobuild shanghai 2006, and fruitful synergies are therefore expected. Moreover, there are many contacts at an economical and political level, who have the explicit objective of promoting the growth of Hamburg’s enterprises in China (Shanghai) and encouraging Chinese companies to open new bases in Hamburg ("China-Cluster" in the HafenCity).

• The first joint, international appearance of the Departments of Architecture and Urban Planning of the HFBK, the HAW and the TUHH is an opportunity for the planned Hamburg School of Architecture to distinguish itself internationally, even before it is officially founded.

• Science and research in Hamburg can build up an international reputation in the field of environmental building design.· The experience from EcoEx:Edu can serve as a basis for the development of an international Masters Course (e.g. >Sustainable Development in Mega Cities< or >Environmental Design for Mega-Cities<).

• Hamburg’s young architectural generation will be prepared for the growth market that is China (many Hamburg and German architectural offices and building contractors already work in Shanghai).

• Expansion of the fast developing economic and political partnerships between Hamburg and Shanghai in the field of science and teaching. The underlying curriculum structure aims at long-term inter-university cooperation with Shanghai.

• Public events in the context of EcoEx:Edu offer Hamburg and its universities an additional international forum (e.g. combined with the 2005 European Solar Building Exhibition, Hamburg’s Summer of Architecture 2006 and corresponding Chinese events).

The program will be delivered alongside the ecobuild shanghai 2006 and within the same timeframe (six semesters: three years). A comprehensive program is planned for all participating universities. Basic theoretical lectures, as well as project seminars will be offered.

International cooperation will take place virtually through e – learning, as well as through reciprocal study visits. Apart from the seminars (in both partner cities), Hamburg and Shanghai will take turns to host a two - week Chinese-German workshop. Apart from the transnational exchange of knowledge, which accompanies each respective planning phase of the ecobuild shanghai 2006, the content and results of these cooperation projects will be presented to the public through events and exhibitions.

For the winter semester 2006/2007, it is planned that students will actively participate in the running of the building exhibition. The participating students will preferably combine this work with an internship in a building contractor’s practice or architect’s office in Shanghai.
In the final semester, summer semester 2007, the overall project and its individual components will be evaluated by the students and professors. The results from the teaching and the experiences of this joint program will be scrutinized in view of forming a possible long-term partnership. At best this project will serve as a basis for the joint development of a new international Masters Course.

SummerSchool Hamburg 2005

The first activity of EcoEx:Edu was the international SummerSchool in Hamburg which took place from 9th - 22nd of July 2005. 15 students from Tongji University Shanghai and 15 students from the architecture and urban planning department of the Hamburg Universities HFBK, HAW and TUHH were working on sustainable architecture and urban planning, and jointly developed concepts for a sustainable student residence of the new HafenCity University.

The topic of the SummerSchool was >Sustainable Architecture & Urban Planning in Growing Cities<. The Students were working on this by doing a design for a sustainable student residential area in the context of the HafenCity, a redevelopment of approximately 155 hectares of central disused dockside area (for reference http://www.hafencity.com). The work on the design exercises took place in a design studio in an old, industrial building on the site which was rented for this workshop. At the same time the workshop was complemented by excursions, lectures and reports to consolidate the knowledge about the site, sustainable urban development concepts and ecological design principles.

Sustainable urban, landscape and building design is very much linked to a good and deep understanding of a place, making use of natural factors e.g. wind, tides, orientation, connections, layers of history, influencing the design. For the students to develop new ideas we think it is very important to connect analytical and intuitive thinking, combining scientific, logical thinking with artistic + creative thinking. Designing is a process which is not only linear but also always about trying out different ways of thinking which give new ideas for the design process. If an existing situation is really understood at the same time this new understanding can become an idea. So we think that the process of designing is at the same time a process of understanding. On the one hand it is an understanding of the site which is supported by different tasks dealing with different aspects of the site and excursions around the HafenCity. On the other hand it is an understanding about different aspects of sustainable design which is supported by a series of different lectures, reports and excursions to relevant projects within Hamburg and Luebeck.

For more information please contact:
Prof. Sabine Busching
Hochschule fuer bildende Kuenste Hamburg
www.gebaeudetechnik-hfbk-hamburg.de
fon: +49 (40) 42 89 89 - 423
fax: +49 (40) 42 89 89 - 445
sabine.busching@gebaeudetechnik-hfbk-hamburg.de
http://transcampus.de/china/summerschool.htm