• LINKS
  • BELAB WEBSITE
  • SICHUAN UNIVERSITY
  • CENTER OF BUILT ENVIRONMENTS, UW
• CONTENTS
  • BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
  • BE LAB SEQUENCE AND TIMELINE
  • PREPARATORY SEMINAR AND CHARETTE
  • SUMMER FIELD STUDIO
    • Study Tour in Sichuan and Yunnan
    • Survey and Design Work in Taoping
  • UW TAOPING DESIGN STUDIO
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  • PARTICIPANTS
  • NOTES

The earthquake of May 12, 2008, in Sichuan, China, killed up to 90,000 people, rendered over 5 million homeless, and displaced more than 15 million. In response, faculty in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments proposed to devote the first of a new series of interdisciplinary, multi-departmental Built Environments Laboratories (BE Labs) to the problem of “Resilience in the Built Environment”.  Partnering with Sichuan University in Chengdu, this BE Lab would explore how an urbanizing, ecologically and culturally sensitive region may recover from a devastating disaster, and enhance its resilience in the face of future disasters, by: empowering local communities; giving voice to local knowledge; respecting the natural and cultural character of localities; employing resource-saving technologies; and building trust between and among members of society and different levels of government.  To address these multiple dimensions of resilience and to develop appropriate methods and techniques in planning, design, and construction, the studio adopted a model of interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and cross-lingual collaboration. 

The UW-SU collaboration was based on both the sister-state/province relationship between Washington and Sichuan, and a longstanding teaching and research exchange centered in anthropology, biology, forestry, hydrology and environmental science.  Now, with the need for post-earthquake reconstruction in Sichuan, faculty of UW’s departments of architecture, construction management, landscape architecture, urban design and planning, and civil engineering sought to explore an increased role.  With this goal in mind, Prof. Dan Abramson of Urban Design and Planning visited Chengdu in June 2008 to meet with Profs. Li Wei, Luo Qian, Ai Nanshan, and Li Yongxian and students in Architecture, Planning and Archeology at SU to discuss possible collaboration.  We agreed that a focus on the resilience of minority ethnic settlements and methods of engaging them for more participatory planning and reconstruction would make the best use of our expertise and would have the most significant impact.