From June 5^th to June 7^th, around how to build a world-class hub complex to drive the revival of the surrounding area and the old town of Liwan, Guangzhou Bai’etan related government departments invited a group of domestic and foreign masters and senior experts in various fields to participate in the Bai’etan Hub Complex Development Planning International Workshop, brainstorming, joint planning, to give the Bai’etan hub a new value. Mr. Kawasaki, Director of Planning and Design of Obermeyer, transport planner Sebastian Schulz and urban designer Jialin Huang participated in the workshop. Together with the team of domestic and foreign masters and senior experts from various fields, we came together to offer suggestions for the revival of the old city of Liwan and the development of the surrounding area.

The expert forum was jointly organized by Guangzhou Metro Group, Bai’etan Management Committee, and attended by Guangzhou Planning Association as a guiding unit, and was attended by the American Strabala+, Obermeyer Group, GMP International GmbH and Professor Juan Carlos Dall’asta of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, representing the international design team, as well as Pan An, Shi Xiaoyu, Wen Chunyang and other 7 experts who has much experience of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Big Bay Area planning, landscape, industry and other domestic authoritative experts. The meeting was attended by relevant departments and units such as the Municipal Development and Reform Commission, the Municipal Housing and Construction Bureau, the Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau, the Municipal Transportation Bureau, the Municipal Land Development Center, the Liwan District Government and the related department of County Garden.

Through three days of intensive work and discussion, and close cooperation with Guangzhou City Design Institute, Guangzhou Transportation Planning Institute, Guangzhou Metro Group and Metro Design Institute, the international design team and the domestic design team formed a preliminary concept design, from underground space, transportation connection, building layout, ecological landscape and other aspects of the project, found and solved the key issues of the site, provides a solid and effective foundation for the future implementation of the project.

Background information

Guangzhou Bai’etan area is located in the western part of Guangzhou, three branch of Pearl River intersection, is also core position between Guangzhou and Foshan. This area is in Liwan District which is Guangzhou's old town, commonly known as "Xi Guan", is the birthplace of Guangfu culture, is the location of the brilliant “Thirtheen-hong of Canton”. As the Guangzhou City urban planning strategies put forward in 2010, in a long period of time, west part of Guangzhou developed behind the overall of Guangzhou city, the vitality of old town of Liwan is gradually declining. Recent years, with the 10th anniversary of Guangfo City Liwan District start to invest city infrastructure, the Bai’etan Central Business District is the core of Guangfo City development, and it’s also the western transportation hub of Guangzhou and even the Great Bay Area. In the future, Bai’etan Station (now Fangcun Station) will be one of the few metro four-line interchange hubs.