On the morning of February 26, the launch ceremony of the 2025 (8th) "Silk Road Joint Graduation Design for Urban and Rural Planning Major" was held at the School of Architecture, Chang'an University. Nearly 100 teachers and students from 9 universities including Chang'an University, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Northwest University, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Xi'an Technological University, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Ningxia University and Shihezi University attended the proposal opening meeting. The meeting was hosted by Teacher Guo Qiwei from the Urban and Rural Planning Department of the School of Architecture.
The Proposal Opening Meeting
Professor Hou Quanhua, Dean of the School of Architecture, delivered a speech. He extended a warm welcome to the teachers and students from sister universities, and expressed the expectation that the students would transform classroom knowledge into solutions to practical problems with an interdisciplinary perspective and innovative thinking, injecting youth wisdom into the high-quality development of Yaozhou District. At the same time, he hoped that the joint graduation design activity would promote exchanges between teachers and students of various universities, seek common development, and jointly improve the quality of education and teaching in the urban and rural planning major along the Silk Road.
Site of the Proposal Opening Meeting
With the theme of "Stories of Yaozhou", this session of the joint graduation design takes the ancient city of Yaozhou as the main body and the resilient urban regeneration of the planning base as the core. Relying on the regional endowments and resource characteristics of Yaozhou, based on practical problems and needs, it focuses on practical challenges such as the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage, the optimization of urban space and facilities, the planning and cultivation of industries, and the improvement of human settlements. Its main task is to explore how to better tap the historical and cultural resources of Yaozhou, implement urban regeneration actions, continue urban memory, and promote the high-quality development of Yaozhou.
Group photo
At the proposal opening meeting, Teacher Jing Xiaopeng from the Urban and Rural Planning Department of the School of Architecture conducted an in-depth interpretation of the topic from four aspects: analyzing urban regeneration, understanding Yaozhou City, getting to know the planning base, and thinking about design issues. He elaborated on the development history, essence, definition, strategies and contents of urban regeneration, as well as Yaozhou's urban historical evolution, pattern and structure, local culture, historical figures, and the base's street pattern and current characteristics. He also put forward core design issues in a guiding way. Teacher Guo Qiwei explained the graduation design assignment and the organization and arrangement of the base research, further clarifying the division of graduation design stages, time schedule and content requirements.
After the proposal opening meeting, teachers and students from all universities took buses to Yaozhou District, Tongchuan City. With the support of Tongchuan Urban Spatial Planning Research Center and Tongchuan Yaozhou District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, they carried out a 2-day on-site survey and research on the joint graduation design base.
Initiated jointly by Chang'an University, Northwest University and Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, this activity focuses on the theme of sustainable development of urban and rural areas along the "Belt and Road". Through joint research on inter-university topics and resource sharing, it continuously deepens cross-regional planning education cooperation, explores the training mode of innovative talents in the urban and rural planning discipline, and injects new momentum into the high-quality development of urban and rural areas along the Silk Road.
Group photo
