Taubman College Professor Strickland Lectures Across China and Serves on Advisory Board of The Beijing Advanced Innovation Center For Future Urban Design
During the 2016 – 2017 academic year, Roy Strickland, Professor of Architecture, expanded his academic and urban design work in China.
In August 2016, he led a two-week design workshop at the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture (BUCEA) focused on the Chinese capital’s new municipal government center. At that time he was appointed to the advisory board of the new Beijing Advanced Innovation Center For Future Urban Design, a government-supported five-year initiative to address the design challenges of China’s urban development.
In October 2016, he gave the keynote speech, “The Future of Urban Design Education in China,” at the center’s inaugural convocation in Beijing. In March 2017, he returned to BUCEA to give the lecture “The City as Designed Object” when he was joined by Taubman College professors Robert Fishman and Douglas Kelbaugh who presented lectures on garden city planning and sustainable design, respectively. During their appearances, Fishman and Kelbaugh were appointed to the urban design center’s advisory board and will work with Strickland and other board members in planning the center’s activities. As part of their work with the center, Fishman, Kelbaugh and Strickland met with Beijing officials and city planners to discuss topics such as transportation oriented development, community design and historic preservation.
In his third year as International Visiting Professor of Urban Design at South China University of Technology (SCUT), Strickland led a version of his Taubman College seminar “Cities in Film” in December 2016. In June 2017, Strickland spent two weeks at SCUT, leading a video-making workshop focused on the city of Guangzhou, SCUT’s location, and giving the lecture, “The City as Design Lab,” relating the evolution of American cities to his Taubman College urban design studios. Also in June, he welcomed SCUT students and faculty to New York City where he conducted a version of his Taubman College urban design methodologies seminar by giving walking tours of the city.
