Speaker: Yang Yuzhen, Professor of Architecture and Urban Development, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University

***This talk will be in Mandarin.***

Modern public spaces in Chinese cities have undergone significant changes over the past century. The transformation of Chongqing, an inland city, is an essential part of China’s modernization process from east to west. The evolution of the Chaotianmen (朝天门) area in Chongqing provides a representative case for understanding and recognizing the public spaces in modern Chinese cities. This talk first explores the historical changes, forms, and symbolic transformations of the Chaotianmen area in Chongqing since the 20^th century. It analyzes the differences in the spatial reconstruction of Chaotianmen across different historical periods. It further explores the similar conditions of several other cities in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. While discussing the material, social, and conceptual dimensions of contemporary public space production, the author argues that the constant appropriation and rewriting of public space in the historical process is a universal state of collective memory, and how to deal with this problem has become a key issue in the process of contemporary urban development.

Yang Yuzhen is a Professor of Architecture and Urban Development at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Chongqing University, China. His research focuses on the political and economic transformation of Chinese cities from the early 20th century. He is a member of the Academic Committee of the Urban Planning Society of China, and a council member of the Architect’s Branch of Architectural Society of China. He was a visiting scholar at GSD, Harvard University; a researcher of Residency Program at Bellagio Center, Italy. His representative works include:One Kilometre City: Everyday Life, Crisis and the Production of Space (2022),History and Space: Chongqing in the late Qing Dynasty and Its Transformation (2018),and Spatialization of Capital (2016).

现代中国城市公共空间在过去一个世纪经历巨大变化。内陆城市重庆的转变是中国由东而西现代化进程的重要构成。重庆朝天门地段的演变提供了一个理解和认识现代中国城市公共空间的典型案例。首先探讨近代以来重庆朝天门地段的历史变迁、形态和象征变化，分析各个特定历史时期朝天门的问题差异与空间再造状况，并进一步探析长江上游多个城市的“类朝天门”公共空间状况；最后讨论当代公共空间生产的物质、社会和观念维度，作者认为历史过程中城市公共空间不断地被挪用和再书写是集体记忆的普遍状态，如何应对这一问题成为当代城市发展过程中的关键性议题。

杨宇振，重庆大学建筑城规学院教授。主要研究领域在近代以来中国城市空间的政治与经济转变。兼任中国城市规划学会学术工作委员会委员、中国建筑学会建筑师分会理事等。曾是哈佛大学设计研究生院访问学者（2008）、意大利Bellagio中心访住项目研究员（2016）。他的著作包括：《一公里城市：日常生活、危机与空间生产》（2022）；《历史与空间：晚期重庆城及其转变》（2018）；《资本空间化：资本积累、城市化与空间生产》（2016）等。

Presented via Zoom.
Meeting link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/7060207759