Landmark buildings in Pudong New Area, Shanghai can be seen at night glistening across the Suzhou River on April 6, 2024. 

No matter how the world changes, people’s aspiration for a better living environment remains unchanged. Urban planners factor this in their blueprints and different eras give different characteristics to urban design and architecture. Modernization, technological progress, cultural trends, and social issues have all become drivers of urban planning and building design. 

In addition, architects and urban planners worldwide have to consider several crucial issues today – how to tackle climate change by reducing carbon emission in construction and improving the ecological environment in urban design, how to revitalize ancient cultural heritage, and how to create a new, sustainable urban culture. 

In May 2024, China issued a guideline on the development of smart cities. It envisions digital transformation of urban areas, smarter urban management and more livable, resilient, and smarter communities by 2027. 

This Special Report presents the insights of design and architecture experts from both China and the West, some of whom will attend the China-Spain Dialogue on Urban Planning and Cultural Development in Madrid, Spain, on June 28. One of the many exchanges between the two countries in the field, the dialogue will pool transborder wisdom and share solutions, spurring urban development in both countries.