The AIA Shanghai China Design Excellence Awards (CDEA) was set up to have a unique position to contribute our collective voice to lead the profession in urban design, architecture, and interior design. The CDEA’s goal is to elevate the profession in both design and professional practice.

China as the most populous country in the world set goals for an unprecedented urbanization rate in the late 1980s. These goals brought tremendous opportunities for both local and foreign architects and planners. After 30 years of none stop building the tallest, the biggest new cities, and the most complex development. Today, we have arrived at a crossroads of self-reflection for her future city and architecture design identity as well as the resulting quality of her environment. Her ambitions now further set her sights as a world leader in innovation and the fight against climate change. It is with this backdrop that AIA Shanghai | Beijing presents the Master Lecture Series with Edward Mazria, FAIA, who received the AIA Gold Medal 2021, founder of AIA 2030 Commitment, and Qingyun Ma, AIA, Partner of MADA s.p.a.m and the former Dean of the School of Architecture, University of Southern California.

As we near the end of the year, it is time for our annual chapter elections. AIA Shanghai | Beijing is pleased to welcome you to attend our Meet the Candidate's Night to meet our candidates for the 2023 Chapter Officers Elections. Members and non-members are welcome to attend - this is a great chance to learn more about our chapter and how to become involved.

We have invited experts in the field of aviation and transportation oriented design (TOD) from AECOM, Landrum & Brown Aviation Consultants and HOK to share case studies. These will include innovative railway new city planning in Yangtze River Delta, NY LaGuardia Airport, Zurich International Airport and additional airports in South East Asia. The program will include an overview of China's "four airports" concept and "green airport", and the topic of how to maximize return on investment in airport terminals.

1000 Trees project by Heatherwick Studio is a mixed-use project designed to simulate a mountain forest of trees. The western half of the site containing shops and restaurants and public promenades is completed. As the building steps up creating a mountain, unusual for a mall, all units have their own outside terraces and views. The building columns become broad planters in which are planted many diverse shrubs and trees so that during the year the appearance will change with the seasons. The selection was made to minimize pruning and maintenance. Eventually, the project will have over 1000 trees and 250,000 plants. Many artists were commissioned to create artwork for the façade.

Our young and fast-growing AIA chapter seeks qualified, dedicated individuals who possess a strong interest in contributing as a leader in our cross-cultural community. Our chapter is led by a team of volunteer officers serving 2-year terms, supported by a volunteer Executive Committee.

The AIA Shanghai | Beijing Executive Committee is led by 4 elected officers, each serving a 2-year term. President | Vice President | Secretary | Treasurer

Terms for office are staggered - this year, the 2023 election cycle is for the 2023 Vice President / 2024 President and 2023/2024 Treasurer.

Secretary and Treasurer are both two-year terms that rotate on an alternating cycle. Our current chapter secretary Ziwen Cai will remain in this position for the 2023 year.

If you or someone you know is interested in serving as an officer of AIA Shanghai please send us a message at secretary@aiarchitectsh.org. The Candidate Nomination Form must be submitted by November 12, 2022 at 11:59pm.

The American Institute of Architects Shanghai Chapter will be hosting our second-year Wellness in Architecture lecture next Friday, 21st October 2022 at the KPF Shanghai Office. We have invited the Vice-President of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), the General Manager of Sustainability Development Department of Shui On Land, and the designer of KPF to talk about wellness in workplaces & architecture, sustainability strategies in shaping a 'WELL' community, and the case study of KPF Shanghai office in achieving the WELL standard.

Join the American Institute of Architects Shanghai Chapter for an exciting tour of the Shanghai Library East next Sunday, 18th September 2022. Located in Pudong District and sits adjacent to Century Park - the largest park in the city.

The library was designed by Danish practice Schmidt Hammer Lassen and won following a two-stage international competition. According to the practice, the project is conceived as a singular monolithic object floating above the tree canopy within the park. The main library volume floats above two pavilions that will house a 1200 seat performance venue, exhibition and events space and a dedicated children’s library, that will all open up towards a series of landscaped courtyards and gardens. The library will provide 110,000 square meters of space for the local community

One such example is the headquarters of VELUX China where considerable research was invested on behalf of the company’s design team to leverage increased natural daylighting and ventilation as key drivers for improving human comfort. Located in Langfang, Heibei province, around 45 kilometers from Beijing, the building houses management, marketing and the technical department and sales division. The two-storey building, with sloping walls and in the shape of a pyramid with inflow of natural daylight and ventilation through the roof windows, aims to create a healthy workplace for its users.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

The American Institute of Architects Shanghai Chapter is pleased to invite you to our Healing Environment lecture on Tuesday, August 30th 2022 at Roca Shanghai Gallery.

The lecture aims to bring together experts in the field of healthcare to talk on the subject of creating healing environments from the macro to the micro-scale. Speakers will share their understanding of wellness at the urban design level, looking at how a quantitative urban design toolkit could help us to better shape the healthy urban environment. Examining the current healthcare trends and how does it impact the built environment. At the micro level, the featured healthcare projects will show how design can help facilities stay operational, and safe and create healing environments in the post-pandemic era.

Located a 50 minute drive west of Hongqiao Hub, a nature village was transformed by a group of people passionate about life, work and countryside community. The tour will cover several well designed house, villa and public spaces, and meeting up interesting owners with their stories.

AIA Shanghai wants to express our deep appreciation to our members for your ongoing commitment. As a member-based organization, we depend on your continued engagement and initiative. We want to bring our membership together to hear your thoughts, and discuss how AIA Shanghai can support and fulfill the broader needs of our design community. This coming Thursday, we have invited a few of our new AIA members to share some thoughts and experiences.

The 15-minute city model is a multicomplex urban design concept in which community residents can enjoy convenient, fast and comfortable community services within a 15-minute walk from their homes. Shanghai is the first city in China to promote the idea of the 15-minute community life circle (15-minute CLC) and has implemented pilot projects since 2019 with plans recently announced to develop 100 more CLCs over the next three years.

The theme of this event is ‘In Pursuit of Happiness’. We have invited some of China’s female leaders to share with us their personal experiences on how they can find happiness amidst the pandemic and what we can do to come stronger after this crisis.

Jason Holland is the co-founder of the studio and will share with us their design thinking and stories behind many of the new restaurant designs.

The AIA 2030 Commitment encourages architects and interior designers to design and specify materials with carbon reduction in mind. As wood is the most sustainable and versatile building material available, in this program, we will showcase the benefits of specifying wood to fight climate change.

AIA Shanghai│Beijing and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) invite you to a live webinar on the process of obtaining a license to practice architecture in a U.S. jurisdiction. We have invited Mr. Harry Falconer, Jr, Vice President in Experience + Education of NCARB, and Ms. Patricia Ramallo, Assistant Vice President in Innovation of NCARB to share with us the Organizational support and how to progress successfully through the Architectural Experience Program® (AXP®) and the expectation of the Architect Registration Examination (ARE®) for students, foreign and non-foreign applicants. Also we have invited Jiayu Hu, BIM Architect of Hangzhou Bimen to talk about her experiences in acquiring her Architect Licensure in China.

AIA Shanghai Beijing is inviting its members to a presentation on advice for maintaining mental health during lockdown. In these trying times, emotional resilience and mental health are the utmost priorities. This workshop will review coping mechanisms and strategies to assist you in developing emotional resilience, emotion regulation, frustration tolerance, and stress reduction skills in the quarantine/lockdown environment. We will discuss the theoretical underpinnings of stress and anxiety management, as well as concrete skills development and an opportunity for you to share your experiences and learn from one another.

AIA Shanghai | Beijing presents the Master Lecture Series: Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, who received the AIA Gold Medal 2020, one of architecture’s highest honors, awarded annually to architects in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Join this prestigious live-streaming lecture at the Yale Center in Beijing, followed by a Q&A and networking session. Light refreshments will be served for those attending the live event. Limited seats available, registration will come on a first-come, first-served basis.

The “Animal Shelter Design Competition” in Sept. 2021, had provided designers of all experiences a chance to use their creativity to support a good cause and help our animal friends. As the final stage of our charity design competition, we are holding a public auction event on Saturday 26th February at Bubba’s in Shaankang Li in Shanghai. We give our thanks to the support of sponsor See Bamboo who had produced all the design works, which will be auctioned at the event, and all the funds raised will be 100% donated to SCAA. Please come and join us with your pets and or kids, to participate in this special charity and family day event, to meet passionate designers and architects in our community.

Our Monthly Happy Hour + Talk (HH + T) is an interactive social forum, aimed at gathering everyone together to share a drink and talk about architecture! At each session, we invite leading architects and designers to share their projects and experiences covering a specific topic, with plenty of opportunities to ask questions and chat about matters of interest.

As the year comes to an end and we reflect upon all that we have accomplished, we are proud to invite you to this year’s annual banquet, where we will announce the winners of this year’s AIA Shanghai | Beijing design awards.

The “Animal Shelter Design Competition” in Sept. 2021, had provided designers of all experiences a chance to use their creativity to support a good cause and help our animal friends. As the final stage of our charity design competition, we are holding a public auction event next Saturday 15th January at Bubba’s in Shaankang Li in Shanghai. We give our thanks to the support of sponsor See Bamboo who had produced all the design works, which will be auctioned at the event, and all the funds raised will be 100% donated to SCAA. Please come and join us with your pets and or kids, to participate in this special charity and family day event, to meet passionate designers and architects in our community.

As we near the end of the year, it is time for our annual chapter elections. AIA Shanghai | Beijing is pleased to welcome you to attend our Meet the Candidate's Night to meet our candidates for the 2022 Chapter Officers Elections. Members and non-members are welcome to attend - this is a great chance to learn more about our chapter and how to become involved.

"The success of great hotel experiences is the result of collaboration between the architect, interior designer, and the hotel operator." - Silas Chiow, Found of AIA Shanghai.

AIA HK | SH | BJ are pleased to invite you to our ‘Building Tour + Talk’ this Thursday, November 18th at Andaz Shenzhen Bay. The event will be discussing how a tall building architect using steel and glass collaborated with the Andaz hotel operator, to create a tranquilizing interior with the ‘biophilia’ material of wood.

Join the American Institute of Architects International Region for our annual conference at ROCA Shanghai Gallery next Thursday on the topic of 'Innovative Exterior Wall Design in the Age of Climate Change '.

Join the American Institute of Architects for an exciting talk with some experts on the development of entertainment and theme parks within China at ROCA Shanghai Gallery this Friday, 5th November.

The American Institute of Architects Shanghai Chapter will be holding our second healthcare event this year with the International Well Building Institute on Thursday 5th August. We have invited senior designers from Gensler and M Moser to talk about wellness in workplaces & architecture, and understand the importance of employee well-being to business productivity and success.