In December and January 2017, Avril ACCOLLA, Associate Professor of the Tongji University College of Design and Innovation, organised a course exploring, from a multi-disciplinary perspective, the rural-urban dynamics. 

The course aimed to explore possible winning strategies to enhance rural-urban dynamics in a sustainable way, and developed two innovative pilot projects focusing respectively on a traditional Chinese rural village and on a rooftop garden in Shanghai.

For the pilot project, Dr. Anna-Paola POLA and Dr. Simone RICCA of WHITRAP were invited to participate in a lecture and discussion with the students, focusing on the revitalization of a village. Dr. Anna-Paola POLA’s lecture notably built upon the preliminary results of the ongoing Small Settlements research she has conducted at WHITRAP since 2017. 

On March 16th, 2018, the best student works were exhibitedat the College of Design in the presence of the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. LOU Yongqi, and all the guest lecturers.