After organizing the 3 biennials, the Architectural Biennial is getting its characteristic—to help the urgent construction projects in China and gather the international excellent urban planners, designers and humanists etc. for visiting and understanding deeply the projects in China, and finding the cooperation ways with the rich dialogues and effective practice, by gathering the social and creative resources. By the station of practice of the biennials, we should think over seriously and find responsibly the solutions for the complication construction, and build the human constructive civilization. March 28, D-park751, an original large power factory with 220,000m2 area, got the authorization with the cultural and design yard by the Beijing government welcomes the 3rd Architectural Biennial Beijing (ABB2008), covers about 20000m2 area, focusing on the main theme—Ecological City and Building with five exhibition hall and 8 forums.
The 3-day visits (Oct. 27-28) to the Caofeidian Eco-city Project (150km2) in Tangshan, Hebei province, the Sino-European Flight Industry Area (30km2) & Yellow River Island of the Culture and Arts (24km2) in Binzhou, Shandong province, Beijing Coking Plant (1530,000m2) & Capital Iron and Steel Plant (8km2) will lead the international architects to have a bridge for the future cooperation way smoothly.
Construction, society and life are intimate. Building homes after earthquake, the special exhibition area curated by Mr. Wang Mingxian, Mr. Zhu Qingsheng and the others, shows the responsibility of more than ten Chinese architects, who offered their works after earthquake with spontaneity for calling on the rebuilding of the homes, not only for the beautiful houses, but for the relationship between the spaces and the society.
No matter what the schemes of plan, design and the installation works are, all of them have their special exhibition spaces, to show their own ecological and fit environment. More than 40 active international installation, VD and action artists show the art works, organizing by Mrs. Wu Weihe and Mr. Bai Chongmin. Using the old and deposed materials of the factory to make the creative art works, they make the factory area vivid. The special exhibition of the International Consultant of Plan & Design of D-park751in Beijing, holding the forum “Protection and Development of the Old Factory in Central Town” on Oct. 26, combines the International Jury with the architects who offered the 10 plans for D-park751 for seeking the characters of the age for the heritage of old factories in China how to be protected excellently and found the system protecting the industrial heritage.
The 8 forums of ABB2008, held in No. 5 Exhibition Hall from Oct. 25- Nov. 2, will focus on the problems of the sustainable development of city and building with sharing the fruits of their practice in urban plan and design. (Im)material processes---New Digital Techniques for Architecture, the forum held in the Architecture College of Tsinghua University, takes the 58 groups of the international young architects studios and students from 26 architectural colleges in the 11 countries (USA, Japan, Spanish, Holland, Swiss, Germany, Denmark, England, Austria, Australia and France), curated by Mr. Neal Linch, the famous English architectural critic and Mr. Xu Weiguoo, the professor of the Architecture College of Tsinghua University, will show the international latest digital architecture simulation and its advanced maneuverability.
Recording the real cooperation between Chinese and international architects, ABB2008 is on the right way by its rich dialogues and vivid actions in the world wide.. DR. Luo Li Chief Curator of ABB2008

There has always been something special in Italy’s relationship with architecture and town planning. It is here that the Renaissance concept of an “ideal city” that re-creates celestial harmony on earth originated. As Leon Battista Alberti wrote in the De Re Aedificatoria (1450), a city is a site to
be designed, a space for living in harmony, a place for social encounters, political organization and economic planning.
The first to put this new concept into practice was Federico da Montefeltro: as duke of Urbino from 1474 to 1482, he brought about sweeping changes in the town planning and rchitecture of his court, transforming Urbino from a fortified citadel with winding narrow streets and closelypacked buildings into a capital of Renaissance town planning; this was living proof of the quality and flexibility of urban models in mainstream
Middle Ages history.
Urbino is certainly extraordinary but, as everyone knows, Italy is the land of the hundred cities. A host of schools and distinguished Italian architects, renowned for their leading-edge technological solutions and the extraordinary beauty of their creations, have built upon and enriched this medieval heritage over the centuries. From Brunelleschi to ichelangelo,
from Palladio to Bernini, from Antonio Sant’Elia to twentieth-century masters such as Terragni and Gio Ponti, this tradition has renewed itself continuously, opening up innovative scenarios at the new millennium, with the works of Renzo Piano, Massimiliano Fuksas, Manfredi Nicoletti, Dante
Benini, Mario Cucinella, Enzo Eusebi, and of many young designers already projected into the future. All this is well illustrated in the volume Italy Builds, printed by Arca Edizioni and created and published by a working group on contemporary Italian architecture set up at the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs when I was Secretary General. This book has been translated into various languages; some Chinese-language copies will be present at the ICE stand.
Chinese town-planning culture has, of course, very ancient origins: its great and noble traditions are embodied in a number of very beautiful cities, such as Suzhou and Hangzhou, to mention just two which I know best. At the same time, however, it has an eye to the future. Today, China is the country in which the development of towns is at the center of the most stimulating and multi-faceted debates.
The Chinese and Italian cultures are both born of dialogue, and dialogue is their common wellspring, dating far back in time but still alive and productive. In this sense, the common dialogue between China and Italy constitutes the very premise of the Italian project by Pier Paolo Maggiora,
chosen in the international competition for the new Eco-city of Caofeidian Tangshan.
It is thus no mere chance that such highly promising exchanges have taken place between Italian and Chinese architects and that a considerable number of projects of mutual interest, also at government level, have been initiated.

This year, there will be a joint participation by ICE and the Ministry for Economic Development in the Beijing Architectural Biennial, which will aim to enhance our cooperation with China even further, presenting Italian style and talent in this wonderful country. In this perspective we are planning a major event next year, which will focus on Italian architecture and on all the sectors involved. I wish to extend my gratitude to the Secretary General of the Beijing Biennial Organizing Committee, Ms Luo Li, for having invited ICE - the Italian Trade Commission to this extraordinary event. Thanks to the Italian Embassy in Beijing, the Italian Ministry of the Environment, with which ICE has carried out important projects in China, will also be present, along with the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce. Italy is therefore present at the Biennial in many ways, and we hope that this will contribute significantly to even closer collaboration between our two countries. Ambassador Umberto Vattani President, Italian Trade Commission - ICE