Masterplanning the Adaptive City

Dana Cuff
Dana Cuff is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of
California, Los Angeles, where she is the founding Director of cityLAB, a think 
tank that explores design innovations for the emerging metropolis. Her research
endeavors include infill housing prototypes, embedded spatial computing, the role
of transit in new city form, and infrastructure as urban design. Cuff has published
and lectured internationally, and her recent books include The Provisional City
(2000), a collection of Robert Gutman’s writings, Architecture from the Outside In
(with J. Wreidt; 2010), and Fast-Forward Urbanism (with R. Sherman; 2011). 
Gao Yan
Gao Yan is currently a Consulting Creative Director of dotA Architectural Design
Ltd. in Beijing, and also Design Director at OCEAN CN in Hong Kong. Formerly
Gao was Architectural Director of the Department of Research and Development 
at Crystal CG, London. He is Assistant Professor of architecture and the Program
Director for the Digital Practice CPD program at the University of Hong Kong, 
and Director of the AA Beijing Visiting School (2010–2013), hosted at Tsinghua
University. He has previously taught at the AA Design Research Lab and AA
Shanghai Visiting School. His projects and writing have been published widely. 
Matthew Pryor
Matthew Pryor is a Landscape Architect, and Past President of the Hong 
Kong Institute of Landscape Architects. He is Assistant Professor, Head of the
Division of Landscape Architecture, and Director for the BA (Landscape Studies)
program at the University of Hong Kong. His research focusses on decision
making and public opinion in the design of urban infrastructure, strategic
landscape planning, and technical aspects of subtropical planting design in Hong
Kong. He has extensive experience in strategic planning, masterplanning, design,
documentation, and contract administration on landscape projects, megaprojects,
and environmental remediation projects throughout China and Southeast Asia. 
Brett Steele
Brett Steele is the Director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture,
AA Publications, and AA Public Programs. He is the founder and former Director
of the AA Design Research Lab MArch program at the Architectural Association.
He is a Partner of DAL, desArchLab, an architectural office in London, and has
taught and lectured at schools throughout the world. He is the editor of Negotiate
My Boundary (London, 2002), Corporate Fields (London, 2005), D[R]L Research
(Beijing, 2005), and Supercritical. He is Series Editor of the AA Words and AA
Agendas series. His articles, interviews, and lectures have appeared in over 150
publications worldwide. 
Su Yunsheng
Su Yunsheng is a CEO of Etopia, a development company based in Shanghai. 
He is also a Chief Planner at Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning Design Institute
(TJUPDI), established in 1996, and a Professor at Tongji University College of
Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP). His TJUPDI team has completed over
one thousand planning and research projects, including sixty-three prize-winning
285
CONTRIBUTORS

---

projects at a provincial and municipal level, as well as twenty-nine at a national
level in China. TJUPDI was the planning team for the World EXPO 2010 in
Shanghai. He has taught at the AA Shanghai Visiting School, and is the 
co-founder and former co-editor of Urban China magazine.
Xu Feng
Xu Feng is a Principal of XWG Studio, with projects including Kai Di Technology
Park in Wuhan, Yunnan Cultural Center, and the recently completed Olympic Tower
Interior. Xu studied at the Design Research Lab at the Architectural Association,
where he researched vector fields and fluid dynamics. He joined Zaha Hadid
Architects in 2007 to work on several towers and urban masterplanning projects 
in Cairo, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Since 2008, he has taught design studios in
London, New York, Beijing, and Shanghai. In 2008 he curated the China Section 
of the Beijing Biennale 2010. 
Xu Weiguo
Xu Weiguo is a Professor and Head of the Architecture Department in the School
of Architecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He received his PhD from Kyoto
University and in 2007 was a visiting scholar at MIT. He has published eight books
on design methodologies and new digital technologies for architecture, and his
papers have been widely published. He co-curated the Architecture Biennial
Beijing 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010, together with Neil Leach. He has lectured
widely in many countries, including the U.S., France, Germany, Israel, Russia, and
Japan. Xu Weiguo is Principal of XWG Studio, based in Beijing. 
CASE STUDIES
Associative Design Program, Berlage Institute, Rotterdam
The Associative Design Program, led by Peter Trummer from 2004 to 2010,
focussed on global urbanization within late capitalism in the production of six
research reports, six movies in six different global cities. Disciplinary knowledge 
in the field of urban design resulted from a materialist approach to urban design
engagement, in the production of actual projects within the regimes of urban
planning and the economic conditions of the city. Each project had a client, a
particular site, and a specific economic environment in which these projects
unfolded. 
dotA, Beijing, Hong Kong
dotA is a cross-disciplinary practice working between architecture, engineering,
and computation, led by Duo Ning, Chang Qiang and Gao Yan. dotA aims for the
synthesis of hybridized architecture which can be engineered irreducibly. Their
design approach fuses deterministic and nondeterministic methodologies in a rich
hybridization and mutation of social, economic, ecological, technical, and political
substrates. Facilitated by the application of synthetic computational techniques,
dotA strives for significant and valuable design in the context of future uncertainty,
and for the realization of innovative, meaningful, and sustainable propositions
through information and communication. 
286
CONTRIBUTORS

---