Engineered Ecologies: The Transformation of Landscapes in China

Engineered Ecologies: The Transformation of Landscapes in China

Dorothy Tang - Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Hong Kong

Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - 11:30am to 1:15pm
Room 101, Anthropology See map
51 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
Lunch will be provided.

Infrastructures in China are designed as armatures for development—from the transit-oriented developments along Hong Kong’s metro system, integrated freshwater networks in the Pearl River Delta, to agricultural specialization programs in the Yangtze River Delta—all aim to increase economic production of regions, cities, and villages. These engineered landscapes manipulate political and economic systems, and alter the physical spaces, often with serious social and environmental consequences. However, many of these infrastructures also create unexpected landscapes of great ecological and community value. “Engineered Ecologies” examines the interdependency between human settlements and biophysical systems in China, and attempts to illustrate potentials for landscape design practices in our increasingly “human-built” world.


Dorothy Tang is an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Hong Kong where she directs the undergraduate landscape program. Her practice and research focus on the intersections of regional infrastructure, urban development, and environmental change in developing countries. Her work engages issues of regional environmental degradation in relation to industrial activities; the shifting role of villages in China’s recent rural development; urban infrastructure and the design of open space systems; and the impact of climate change on hydro-politics and infrastructure in Asian deltaic regions. 

Dorothy is an award-winning landscape architect registered in the State of New York and an international member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Her design and research work has been exhibited in the US, China, South America, and Europe.

 
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