What can we learn from mega Chinese cities? | Joost van den Hoek | TEDxVeghel

As an urban planner: is big better? Better for sustainability?
Cities versus….private gardens.

What can we learn from China, their mega cities.
They grew fast, very fast, in a very narrow time window. For Europeans, hard to grasp.
Green.
What can we learn from less gardens and more urbanization!
World citizen, Planner, Inventor, Strategist, Trying a lot, Reading, Writing, Cycling, Drinking a beer, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Sint Oedenrode.
I was born in Sint Oedenrode, where I still regularly visit my parents. I cycled through the Geelders to Beekvliet in Sint Michielsgestel, where I graduated in Delft with 'honours' in the fields of Architecture and Urban Planning. The next day I was called by architect Pi de Bruijn, City Designer of Amsterdam, who was looking for an assistant. Designing projects such as the Amsterdam Zuidas, Arena Boulevard and from the reconstruction of the fireworks disaster area 'Roombeek' in Enschede, I "learned" the trade.

During the crisis in 2008, there was no money to be made in the Netherlands for an urban planner. Together with a colleague - I was already working at another agency - we decided to try our luck in China. We went back and forth every month. After a year it was a good hit. We won a competition for the redevelopment of the riverbank in Shanghai, which was a great adventure. When I had a lovely sunny afternoon lunch in Shanghai, I suddenly knew for sure: I want to live here. Eight weeks later I was living with my wife and child on the 22nd floor down-town Shanghai.

I have been working for numerous years as director of urban planning at a renowned Sino-Dutch design agency. In more than 50 Chinese cities and regions I have been able to work on beautiful projects.

In addition to working on projects, I have always enjoyed writing about my experiences and my thoughts on the work for the professional world. As a result, I was invited several times as an urban development expert for both Chinese and Dutch TV.

What I am most proud of for the time being - except for my beautiful daughter of 8 who speaks Dutch and Chinesed fluently - is the so-called Mixed-Use Index ('MXI'), which I devised as an index in the evenings, for the relationship between living and working in cities, neighbourhoods and villages. This index is increasingly being used both in the Netherlands and internationally in studies of spatial planning. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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