Wuhan. Foster + Partners’ sustainable engagement celebrated in an exhibition

“Sustainable Communities | Shared Futures”, the first retrospective about Foster + Partners to be presented in China is on show at the Tsinghua University Art Museum, in Wuhan (China) until October 7th 2018. Embracing the words of Spencer de Grey, Head of Design at Foster + Partners, who argues that sustainable urban design and planning are “the glue that brings everything in a city together”, the exhibition provides visitors with a broad overview of the practice’s past and upcoming urban design projects, from London to Abu Dhabi and Cupertino.

The show, which explores themes such as connectivity, mobility and wellbeing, underlines the sustainable approach of Foster + Partners to city planning, culture, natural resources, energy and transports; issues that the practice has been dealing with for more than five decades. Employing models, drawings, films and several case studies, the retrospective also presents a series of projects that the firm carried or is carrying out in China, among which are a model of the Beijing Capital International Airport and extensive archive material about the master plan of the new Yuexiu International Financial City district in Wuhan. The project, which according to the architects’ website aims at becoming “a walkable, highly permeable new part of the city”, shall develop into a 147,000-square-metre scheme with office and residential towers, a hotel and public spaces enliven by shops, restaurants and cafes. Another ongoing flagship project in China is the expansion of the Dachong Village at the heart of Shenzhen's High-Tech Industrial Park.