Lecture Recap and Video: Jie Hu on 'Urban Design with Nature: Exploring Sustainable Urban Development in China'

Sept. 24, 2021
Who
Jie Hu, Clinical Professor of Landscape Architecture and Chair of the Master of Sustainable Urban Design program at the University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts
What
CAPLA Lecture Series Event
When
September 23, 2021
Image

In order to solve the environmental problems in China's urbanization, Jie Hu and colleagues have proposed Shan-Shui City ideas, which consider human beings and nature as equals and attempt to realize human demands for social development while protecting nature and the environment to achieve co-prosperity. They have applied the Shan-Shui City idea to projects of different scales, including:

  1. The Beijing Olympic Forest Park, Planning and Design
  2. Tangshan Nanhu Eco-City Urban Design and Nanhu Central Park Landscape Design
  3. The Comprehensive Master Plan of Beijing's 2019 International Horticultural Exposition
  4. The Landscape and Ecological Master Plan for Sino-German Eco-Park in Qingdao

The principles of a Shan-Shui City include: focusing on the history of natural ecology, respecting and protecting historical-cultural elements, apply indigenous thoughts and philosophy, following the local ecological and geological conditions, valuing human needs and natural requirements with equal attention, adopting low-impact and creative design and achieving co-prosperity.


Watch the Lecture


About Jie Hu

Jie Hu is clinical professor of landscape architecture and chair of the Master of Sustainable Urban Design program at the University of Illinois, College of Fine and Applied Arts. His major research focuses on the "Shanshui-City," which explores sustainable urban development in China. Before coming to Illinois, Hu taught at Tsinghua University, establishing the Landscape Architecture Research Center (LARC) inside the Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning and Design Institute (THUPDI). He served as director and chief designer of LARC in THUPDI. Hu received the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) 2018. He is a member of the Chinese Council of Landscape Architecture and is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (FASLA). He holds a bachelor's degree in architecture from Chongqing University and two master's degrees in landscape architecture from Beijing Forestry University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


Header photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

  

Subscribe to The Studio

Sign up for CAPLA's monthly e-newsletter to get the latest news and events, insights from faculty and leadership, profiles of students and alumni and more.

Subscribe Now

Latest CAPLA News, Projects and Profiles

Image
Teresa Rosano AIA awards

Teresa Rosano Receives Dual Honors at the 2025 AIA Arizona Design Awards

In November, Associate Professor Teresa Rosano received two top honors at the 2025 AIA Arizona Design Awards: the Architects Medal and a Community Design Award for a student-led capstone project. The recognized project—the Tucson Hope Factory Micro Shelter Village—aims to support unhoused communities in Southern Arizona through a collaborative, student-designed micro-shelter prototype. Rosano’s awards highlight both her influential architectural career and her deep commitment to education, adding to her recent series of teaching achievements.

Image
Tucson, Arizona

Balancing Buyer Protections with Development Costs: A Panel Discussion on Arizona’s Construction Defect Liability Law

In this panel discussion, we will explore the impact of Arizona’s construction defect liability laws on multifamily development, with a particular focus on possible legislative reforms to better balance buyer protections with development costs. While construction defect liability laws provide important protections for buyers, there is a growing concern among researchers and housing advocates that, if overly restrictive, these laws can increase development costs and lower production.