A CALL FOR CO-EVOLUTION! We believe that the architect of the 21st century should be engaged and play an important role in what seems to be the most massive changes in the history of mankind – the sustainable development of better living conditions for the many. CO - EVOLUTION is Denmark’s demonstration of how a new generation of architects can deal with the global challenges of sustainable development in the 21st century through international and interdisciplinary alliances. The question posed by CO – EVOLUTION is: How can China, as an emblem of the world, proceed with its ambitious project of improving the living conditions of its people without exhausting the very resources needed to sustain a better life? During the next 20 years it is expected that 400 million Chinese will move from rural areas to the cities, and the Chinese government has set as its goal to create significantly better living conditions for the entire population of 1.3 billion. This is a positive development that the whole world approves of. But it also puts enormous pressure on the environment and underlines the need for sustainable solutions. Danish architects played a significant role in the development of the Danish welfare model, because they managed to solve the current social problems of the 20th century by an architectural approach. CO - EVOLUTION is the story of how a new generation of architects with roots in the Danish tradition meets the new global reality of our time and creates concrete proposals for sustainable city development in the 21st century. The young architects are exponents of radically new tendencies in Danish architecture where the key words are communication and openness. For them architecture is not only about creating interesting buildings. They think in holistic plan arrangements that tell a story, involve their surroundings and take a position on demands for sustainability from an environmental, economical, social, and cultural perspective. The size and complexity of global development call for consensus on the importance of sustainable development. Therefore CO – EVOLUTION takes a position on The Equator Principles, which are a set of international guidelines established by and for financial institutions in order to increase the degree of sustainable development in the world. CO – EVOLUTION is comissioned by the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC) and curated by Henrik Valeur/UiD. UiD has put together a team of talented young Danish architects, Chinese professors and students from four of China’s top universities, and asked them to present suggestions for sustainable urban planning, that take a stand on concrete environmental challenges in four of China’s biggest cities. It is DAC’s wish that CO - EVOLUTION will contribute with know-how and inspiration to the work with sustainable urban planning, and stress the value of international co-operation. We also wish that CO- EVOLUTION may be the beginning of a long term realationship between Denmark and China. DAC thanks Henrik Valeur and UiD’s team of curators for having paved the way for a valuable international collaboration between Danish architects and Chinese researchers and for having created a visionary exhibition concept. DAC thanks the architect companies COBE, EFFEKT, TRANSFORM, and CEBRA for a fantastic effort to understand the local problems in China and for having created professional and serious suggestions for sustainable city development. We also wish to thank all the Chinese students and Professor Zhao Wanmin /Chongqing University, Professor Pan Haixiao / Tongji University, Professor Liang Wei /Tsinghua University and Professor Liu Linan / Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology or readily sharing their knowledge, for their wholehearted commitment and great hospitality, which has been of vital importance to the fruitful collaboration. Without their local knowledge and research effort the projects would not have achieved the same high quality and relevance. In addition, we wish to thank the Danish Ministry of Culture, Realdania and The Danish Arts Foundation, The Committee for Architecture for their financial support, as well as Carl Bro Group who have contributed with professional and valuable engineering consultancy. Without their contribution CO - EVOLUTION would not have been possible.
Kent Martinussen, CEO
CO - EVOLUTION is sponsored by: The Danish Ministry of Culture; Realdania and The Danish Arts Foundation, The Committee for Architecture. Engineering consultancy by Carl Bro Group.
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