Department of Urban Development, Taipei City Government

Chin-Oh Chang, Deputy Mayor of Taipei City, (Deputy Mayor Chang) led Taipei City’s delegation to attend Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) Hamburg, Germany from July 29th to August 4th. Besides visiting and discussing the urban development and housing strategies with deputy mayor of Hamburg City, the Taipei City’s delegation had also carried out an on-site visit. Taipei is the first city outside of Europe that attends IBA since 1901. Taipei used “Individual, Informal, Intense Taipei” as the theme to introduce cityscape of Taipei City to Europe. IBA started from August 2nd, and is expected to end at September 29th. A press conference was held at 11am in August 1st in the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, and an opening party with approximately 400 guests was hosted at 6pm. The opening ceremony had received a positive reception due to its great and creative content. The event was reported by many mass media the next day. It not only successfully promoted Taipei, but also showed Taipei’s design and the innovation efforts and outcomes to the rest of the world.
IBA has more than a hundred years of history, and there are eight different cities that have experienced the transformation of IBA since 1901. The south-east area of Hamburg City had faced many urban regeneration issues, such as flood prone areas, “cluster” immigrant communities and idle industrial sites, and all of which had yet been solved for over many decades. Government of Hamburg has announced IBA plan in 2006, and the plan is to collaborate with IBA and establish IBA Hamburg GmbH. IBA consists of four sectors, including the management committee, IBA partners, the public committee and windows for communication with citizens. IBA Hamburg GmbH provides a communication platform for public sectors, professionals, private sectors and the public. The core values of the area to be urban regenerated are defined as diversification, urbanization and response to climate change after the long deliberation of all the participants. The project has been divided into three phases. The first phase, which took 3 years to accomplish, was to carry out an international bid based on the core values, and to build green docks on the riverside. The second phase is to integrate all the sub-projects proposed by the participants and move them to implantation phase, and hosting event or discussion constantly to reach a consensus. The second phase is scheduled to be accomplished in 2013.
IBA has been collaborated with International Garden Exhibition (IGS). IGS not only upgraded the transportation facilities, but also successfully transformed old communities into park sites. IBA has also imported the most advanced green technology, ecological housing and diversified housing styles (e.g. social housing, youth housing, musician housing, public housing, etc). Deputy Mayor Chang had also visited the IGS planting event while he was in Hamburg. The core spirit of IBA is similar to that of Taipei’s URS, and thus Taipei was invited to participate in IBA Hamburg this year. Mr. Uli Hellweg, the curator of IBA Hamburg, also praised that URS is Taipei’s own IBA.

Deputy Mayor Chang said that Hamburg is an experienced city that made use of all the tools, measures and organizations to promote its urban renewal and regeneration. The core value of urban regeneration in Hamburg is its openness and communication with residents. The city has also used simple and straightforward texts to state the consensus between residents and government, so that they can be recognized by the public easily. The government of Hamburg has also been working closely with NGO and NPO by establishing dialogues, planning and implementing every platform, which as a result, improved the efficiency. More importantly, Hamburg has prepared diversified type of urban regeneration to satisfy the needs of different cities. Deputy Mayor Chang said further that one type of urban regeneration can’t resolve the problems of different cities. Taipei City’s innovative has been approved by attending IBA. Through the idea sharing and discussion in IBA, Taipei has once again realized that the communication and trust between government, citizens and industries, and diversified type of urban regeneration are significant to Taipei’s urban regeneration. Taipei will continue to strive its best through continuous innovation and fostering consensus with citizens to make Taipei into an even better city.