NCKU Urban Planning Department Draws Attention with “2050, Nangang Brownfield Greendesign” Project

TAINAN, Taiwan--()--Like many other contemporary Asian cities, Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, is technologically advanced, but one of the city’s most pressing issues is what to do with their manufacturing residue and post-industrial sheds.

A team from Department of Urban Planning at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, has teamed up with University of California at Berkeley, University of Washington, Georgia Institute of Technology, United States, and University of Tokyo, Japan, for a project entitled “2050, Nangang Brownfield Greendesign”, focusing on Nangang, a working-class and industrial neighborhood in Taipei, which is currently targeted for redevelopment.

The “2050, Nangang Brownfield Greendesign” project, initiated by the city government of Taipei, is a series of workshops where teams of academics and designers have been invited to imagine the future of Taipei, a city of seven million, as a creative industries hub and to turn it into an innovation quarter for creative production.

NCKU Department of Urban Planning has obtained a subsidy of more than NT$2,000,000 from Taipei Urban Planning and Design Grants to Universities of International Exchange and Cooperation Projects and cooperated with internationally top universities to facilitate an international exchange on the issue of urban design and planning in Nangang.

The proposed “2050, Nangang Brownfield Greendesign” project mainly divides into five themes, including Taipei Healthy City, Nangang Area Regeneration Project, Overall Space Planning of Nangang Train Station and Surrounding Areas, Nangang Bottle Cap Factory and Space Planning of Nangang 202 Armament Factory.

First of all, the concept of Taipei Healthy City is to use existing abundant resources in Taipei to solve important issues and thus to achieve the vision of an environmentally-friendly city.

Nangang Area Regeneration Project summarizes the current five issues of Nangang District and expects to generate measures through the improvement of the most crucial issues, in order to achieve the goal of regeneration and acquire the maximum profit.

The concept of Space Planning of Nangang Train Station and Surrounding Areas emphasizes on the improvement of the environment of Nangang Train Station and its surrounding areas as well as the integration of human oriented traffic with urban design to promote the use of public transportation resources.

The idea of Nangang Bottle Cap Factory is to engage in planning from the perspectives of the city government and the local residents and to create a win-win situation through the recycle and reuse of bottle caps, thus accelerating the urban regeneration of the entire Nangang District and the transformation of its image as a “Black District.”

The Space Planning of Nangang 202 Armament Factory plays a balancing role from the living and ecological point of view and stresses on the improvement of living quality and the diversity of rich urban activities.

The “2050, Nangang Brownfield Greendesign” project is the first time that national universities have worked with internationally top universities, which ranked among top 20 in 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, including University of California at Berkeley, University of Washington and University of Tokyo, to conduct an international planning design practice.

Among the internationally renowned universities, Department of Urban Planning at National Cheng Kung University has signed Memorandum of Understanding with University of California at Berkeley and University of Washington.

The NCKU Urban Planning Department “2050, Nangang Brownfield Greendesign” team includes Principle Investigator Chairperson Ko-Wan Tsou, Prof. Feng-Tyan Lin, Dean of NCKU College of Planning and Design, Assistant Prof. Tzu-Yuan Chao, Assistant Prof. Kang-Li Wu and Assistant Prof. Oliver Feng-Yeu Shyr, as well as Prof. Jeff Hou and Associate Prof. Christine Bae from University of Washington, Associate Prof. Perry Yang from Georgia Institute of Technology, Prof. Robert Cervero from University of California at Berkeley, Prof. Shuichi Matsumura from University of Tokyo, and other teachers and students.

Contacts

National Cheng Kung University
News Center
Crystal Chen, +886-6-275-7575 ext. 50042
Fax: +886-6-238-9919
crystal@mail.ncku.edu.tw

Release Summary

NCKU Urban Planning Department Draws Attention with “2050, Nangang Brownfield Greendesign” Project

Contacts

National Cheng Kung University
News Center
Crystal Chen, +886-6-275-7575 ext. 50042
Fax: +886-6-238-9919
crystal@mail.ncku.edu.tw