Chongming Eco-Community Project: April 2011

14.4.11

DESIGN Harvests Midsummer Festival

DESIGN Harvests and GoodtoSH lauched the first annual Chongming Midsummer Festival to
experience the balance between rural and urban life!

The event aims at making a difference to the quality of life, health and environment
by learning how to plant an organic garden, tasting homecooked Chongming foods,
painting creatively and riding bikes at Chongming island.

Systemic Design

After having identified in the research part different promising fields of action in the local context (food, creative agriculture, hospitality, mobility, leisure), a system of small projects, each operating in one or more of these fields, has been developed, to face specific needs of different targets. All these projects are in some ways connected, and have relevant effects for the future of the local community of XianQiao village.

Partners

1. Residents:

The residents of the village who show initiative by having special skills, providing a kind of service, or farming crops for distribution will be gathered for group discussions throughout the working process. Essentially, the residents are co-partners with the designers to meet specific needs and brainstorm new ideas. It is anticipated that those residents with initiative will become leaders for the rest of the residents to form their community’s identity.

2. Local Government:

The role of the local government is mainly supportive. The leadership here differs from that of resident initiative, in that the village leaders associated with the government possess an overseeing authority to implement ideas. All projects pass through the government to be permitted and realized. If there is a disagreement, the project will return to the designers and residents for revision.

3. Academia:

Academic partners enrich the content of the project and provide the resources for research, whether by working on field, coordinating, providing literature, or developing models, instruments and methodologies.

DESIS-China Network

DESIS is an international network of Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability founded by Ezio Manzini at Politecnico di Milano including centers in Brazil, China and India. The DESIS-China Network is a platform of six Chinese universities for design social innovation and sustainability specific to China. The coordinator of the DESIS-China Network is Professor Lou Yongqi of the Tongji University CAUP.

Studio TAO

Studio TAO is the professional research team of Professor Lou Yongqi, which bridges academia and professional practice by coordinating and contributing research while realizing the research through projects in the design profession. The Chongming Eco-Community Project was initiated through Studio TAO. It is therefore the role of Studio TAO to conduct and manage all collaborators on the project under Lou Yongqi, for both its research and practice components.

Chongming Eco-Community Project

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14.4.11

DESIGN Harvests Midsummer Festival

Systemic Design

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