我院主办的城市形态科学国际研讨会顺利召开

会议内容 

At the opening ceremony, Professor Bin Li (Assistant President of Nanjing University), Professor Guohua Ji (Dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning), and Professor Ziyu Tong (Executive Chair of the Seminar) delivered the speeches respectively. The opening ceremony was chaired by Professor Andong Lu (Vice Dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning).

Assistant President Bin Li pointed out in his speech that this seminar focused on urban morpho-science, which is located at the intersection of architecture, urban planning, geography, and computer science. It has great value in understanding and shaping cities. As a top comprehensive university in China, Nanjing University advocates interdisciplinary integration and innovation. And School of Architecture and Urban Planning is also at the forefront of education and research. He expressed his gratitude to the experts and scholars, looking forward experts and scholars to sharing the latest progress of urban morpho-science, exploring new ideas and approaches to solve urban problems to meet the challenges of rapid urbanization.

Professor Guohua Ji delivered a speech as the representative of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. He pointed out that urban is constantly developing under the combined influence of society, economy, and technology. Therefore, urban morphology research is crucial for understanding current urban changes and guiding them toward a harmonious and sustainable future. He emphasized that the importance of urban morphology lies in a holistic approach to understanding the city, and believed that this seminar would not only be an academic exercise but also a key step in shaping future cities.

Professor Ziyu Tong delivered a speech as the representative of the seminar. He pointed out that urban morphology plays the important role  in shaping sustainable, resilient, and inclusive cities, and the current exploration of urban morphology in China requires not only the strength of a single discipline, but also comprehensive research from multiple interdisciplinary perspectives. He also briefly reviewed the achievements of our research team in the study of urban form and expressed his gratitude and welcome to the guests.

During the opening presidency, Professor Andong Lu introduced the background of the seminar. He reviewed the important international academic conferences in 2004 and 2014 held by our school, pointing out that this year's seminar is a continuation and inheritance of the two decades span international academic exchanges. This conference focuses on the important issues of the current urbanization process and technological development which is a forward-looking response and exploration of our academic research to the needs of the times.

Finally, the president of the seminar, Professor Wowo Ding, summarized the opening ceremony. She encouraged active communication between experts inside and outside the university to achieve multi-angle integration and learning of urban form disciplines.

This conference lasted for 4 days and successfully held three keynote speeches, two thematic speeches, and two round table discussions.  During this period, 12 professors and industry experts from both domestic and international sources, as well as our school's urban form research team, delivered numerous brilliant speeches on the theme of Urban Morpho-Science, providing valuable insights and cutting-edge thinking for the research and development of Urban Morpho-Science.

On the afternoon of October 26th, the keynote speech, titled "New Technologies and Methods in Urban Morphology Research," was chaired by Professor Youpei Hu from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Nanjing University. Professor Filip Biljecki from the National University of Singapore, Dr. Martin Fleischmann from Charles University Prague, and Professor Yu Ye from Tongji University respectively gave keynote speeches titled "Crowdsourced and open approaches to quantitative urban morphology", "From A Building to A Region: Scalable Morphology with Urban Morphometrics", and "Quantitative Urban Morphology: An Emerging Trend within Computational Urban Science".

Professor Filip Filjecki utilized crowdsourcing data and open resources to quantify urban form, emphasizing the potential of crowdsourcing data in urban form research and providing new perspectives and tools for urban planning. Dr. Martin Fleischmann introduced the scalable morphological research methods based on urban morphometrics, aiming to reveal the evolution patterns and intrinsic connections of urban morphology across scales through quantitative analysis and visualization techniques. Professor Yu Ye explored the application of quantitative research on urban morphology in computational urban science, emphasizing its contribution to understanding urban spatial and functional evolution.

On the morning of October 28th, the second keynote speech titled "Theoretical Framework of Urban Morpho-Science," was hosted by Professor Ziyu Tong from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Nanjing University. Professor Stephen Marshall from University College London, Professor Sergio Porta from Tesla Strathclyde University, Professor Tao Yang from Tsinghua University, and Professor Wowo Ding from Nanjing University respectively delivered keynote speeches titled "Advancing the Science of Urban Morphology", "Urban Morpho-Sciences, Urban Futures and Conviviality: Towards an Evolutionary Shift in the Ontology of Cities", "The Study and Application of Artificially Evolved Urban Spatial Morphology", and "Design Oriented Research: Understanding of the Characteristics of Urban Form and Its Effectiveness Based on Urban Morpho-Sciences".

Professor Stephen Marshall explained the development process from traditional urban morphology to urban science and focused on three aspects of urban science: Morphographics, Morphometrics, and Morphogenetics. Professor Sergio Porta elaborated on how urban morphology science interprets urban evolution and future directions for harmonious development, from comprehensive disciplinary issues in urban morphology to urban morphometrics. Professor Tao Yang explored the formation of urban spatial form, introducing Euclidean topology and AI algorithms to simulate digital twin cities, realizing multi-dimensional visualization generation evaluation, and constructs manifold cities. Professor Wowo Ding focused on designing goal-oriented morphology science research. Her team’s researches concentrate on the urban form quantification and explore their potential applications in evaluating the different urban performance.

On the afternoon of October 28th, the keynote speech, titled "Practical Significance of Urban Morphology", was chaired by Professor Andong Lu from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Nanjing University. Professor Dafna Fisher Gewirtzman from the Israel Institute of Technology, Professor Hiroyuki Usui from Chiba Institute of Technology, Professor Karl Kropf from Oxford Brookes University and Professor Dongqing Han from Southeast University delivered keynote speeches titled "The Journey Towards Predictive Models: The Influence of Urban Morphology on Human Spatial Perception", "Relative Variability in Streetscape Skeletons and Spatial Association: Application for Identifying Harmonious and Inharmonious Streetscape Skeletons in Tokyo", "Exploring the Morphology of Route Networks and the Process of Pericentrification", and ""Plot" in the Conservation and Regeneration of Xiaoxihu Historic Block in Nanjing City".

Professor Dafna Fisher Gewirtzman's speech focused on visual perception, simulation, and automation development, emphasizing the impact of urban form on human perception, and developing models and tools to explore the role of environmental parameters in optimizing human perception considerations in architectural design. Professor Hiroyuki Usui had developed a new method based on the center point of buildings to observe and identify harmonious and inharmonious streetscape skeletons. Professor Karl Kropf simplified the urban road structure based on topological methods and evaluated the evolution of urban road structure over different years through real-life city cases. Professor Dongqing Han focused on using morphological methods to understand and design urban spaces. He took Xiaoxihu District in Nanjing as an example to demonstrate the feasibility of using the urban morphology method to protect and update historical districts through the adjustment of property rights, plots, and building textures.

On the afternoon of October 26th and the afternoon of October 28th, the conference also held thematic speeches, providing attendees with in-depth and extensive academic discussions. The two thematic speeches were respectively chaired by Professor Leilei Sun from the Gold Mantis School of Architecture, Soochow University and Professor Yong Chen from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University. Associate Professor Quan Liu, Professor Ziyu Tong, Associate Professor Lian Tang, and Associate Professor Youpei Hu from the urban research team of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Nanjing University gave speeches respectively, presenting the profound academic foundation and innovative research achievements of the school in related fields.

Associate Professor Quan Liu attempted to explore the complex relationship between population and urban morphology. He creatively proposes a method for evaluating population-based on micro-scale urban form characteristics. Professor Ziyu Tong used a graph model to express urban morphology, and revealed the hidden characteristics of urban morphology through centrality analysis and clustering analysis of the urban graph model. Associate Professor Lian Tang focused on the shortest three-dimensional walking path around subway stations, evaluated and compared the efficiency of walking paths in different areas. She proposed a new indicator to measure the connectivity between urban areas and subway stations. Associate Professor Youpei Hu explored the possibility of improving public transportation accessibility by shortening transfer times by comparing the accessibility of private cars and public transportation in Nanjing. His research provided data support and improvement directions for urban planning and transportation policies.

On the afternoon of October 26th and 28th, two round table discussions were held, respectively. The first discussion "New Technologies and Methods in Urban Morphology Research" focused on the latest technological means and research methods, which can open up new perspectives for urban morphology research; The second discussion "New Theories and Trends in Urban Morphology Research" sorted out the advanced theories of urban morphology, and looked forward to the future development direction, which can provide scientific basis and practical guidance for urban planning, design, and management.

On October 26th, the first round table discussion was chaired by Mr. Christopher Law from Oval Partnership. Professor Stephen Marshall, Professor Sergio Porta, Professor Filip Filjecki, Dr. Martin Fleischmann, and Professor Yu Ye participated in the discussion. The discussion delved into new technologies and methods in urban morphology research from the urban morphology science theories to practical applications under multi-perspective.

On October 28th, the second round table discussion was chaired by Professor Wowo Ding. Professor Karl Kropf, Professor Dafna Fisher Gewirtzman, Professor Hiroyuki Usui, Professor Dongqing Han, Professor Yong Chen, and Professor Tao Yang participated. They discussed new theories and trends in urban morphology research. Multiple topics are discussed, such as big data researchs, urban streetscape, building heights, and aesthetic standards, and practical applications.

The two round table discussions not only promoted academic exchanges and cooperation but also contributed valuable insights to the development direction of urban morphology science.

The seminar concluded with a closing ceremony, co-chaired by Professor Stephen Marshall and Professor Wowo Ding. In the ceremony, Professor Stephen Marshall reviewed the events of the seminar and the presentations of the guests, gave an overview of the multidimensionality of the understanding of the core areas of urban morphology, outlined the power of new technologies, and looked forward to the prospect of leveraging the new power in order to advance the science of urban morphology. Professor Marshall also expressed his sincere gratitude on behalf of all the guests for the organisation of the seminar, not only because of the careful arrangement of everythins, but also because of the richness of the study cases provided by Nanjing city. He expressed that all the guests were very honoured to participate in learning Nanjing. Finally, Professor Wowo Ding concluded by declaring the seminar a great success.

To enable experts from different countries to better understand the morphological characteristics of a typical modern city in China, the seminar also arranged two academic visits in Nanjing on the 27th and 29th. The two themes were ‘Nanjing: Past and Present’ and ‘Nanjing: Urban and Rural’. 

On October 27th, the first trip focused on the evolution of Nanjing's urban morphology. The trip route covers the Yihe Road Historical District, Xinjiekou Modern Commercial District, Hexi Modern Commercial District and Residential District, Zhonghua Gate City Wall, and Laomen East Historical and Cultural Area. Experts from different countries conducted in-depth discussions on urban planning, architectural design, and historical culture to deepen their understanding of the changes in a typical Chinese modern city. The seminar also specially invited Associate Professor Tian Leng to introduce the morphological characteristics and renewal situation of the Yihe Road Historical District.

On October 29th, the second field trip focused on the development of Nanjing city and the renovation of villages. The Purple Mountain, Su traditional villages, and different architectural renovation projects are visited. Experts could understand the efforts to protect the natural environment and historical heritage in Nanjing. The field trip deepened their understanding of Nanjing's urban and rural areas. The seminar also specially invited Dr. Jieqiong Wang to give a full explanation.