Months have passed since the learning city Sino-Germany urban planning studios ended. We take Wujin Changzhou and Luhr as examples, do the research and design for three weeks in Nanjing and academic communication for two weeks in Germany.

What I learned most in this studio is to combine different thoughts from different cultures and majors. My major is urban planning, so when I cooperated with people who are major in economics, geography, architecture or urban system, there are lots of new ideas and inspirations. It is a totally different experience from my daily course and it remind me the importance of communication.

There are also conflicts when we hold totally different concepts, especially when we talk about how to do the protection and renewal of old factories. However, where there is conflict, there is thought. It’s not important for one side to persuade the other side, because no sides are absolutely correct in such a complicated question. It is more meaningful for us to think, learn and reflect during the conflicts. For example, what we should learn from the experience of the transformation of Luhr is not the case itself, but the lesson of the wrong ways.

We should know not only what to do and how to do, but also why to do, so that we can make the cities better in their process of urbanization.