Sustainability at One | Liuzhou Borrows a Leaf out of Rome’s Book in Cultural Heritage Preservation
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Its tremendously rich cultural heritage of architectures such as the Colosseum, Foro Romano and Palatino, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon plus many others are still in great shape and shine after centuries if not millennium. These make Rome one of must-see destinations in the world. Its know-how and expertise in the preservation of cultural relics is amongst the top in cities worldwide.
That’s why Liuzhou City Vocational College, a local government run college with over 80 years of history and some 20,000 students, believed that it is a good idea to learn the state-of-the-art technologies and knowledge of Rome in cultural heritage preservation. Such expertise is highly sought after by Liuzhou, the second-largest city in Guangxi with a history of over 2,000 years. The city is also rich in both historical and natural tourism resources featuring a national-level A-grade scenic spot.
Such an opportunity arose in 2017 when a new programme started as part of the actions under the International Urban Cooperation programme (IUC) to scale up cooperation between the EU and Chinese cities in select areas. IUC facilitates exchanges and promotes partnership agreements between cities on specific thematic areas to promote integrated approaches for sustainable urban development while addressing social, economic, demographic and environmental challenges. Liuzhou together with Rome were successfully included into the IUC programme as pilot cities in 2018.
In June 2019, IUC arranged a delegation to Liuzhou. Flavio Rosa, Adjunct Professor of Faculty of Environment Building Physics of Sapienza University of Rome, a delegation member, was invited to have a visit to the College. In September, the College and the University signed a MOU for co-operation in many areas such as joint efforts in cultural heritage preservation, study programs as well as exchange programs for lecturers/students.
In 2020, the professors and students of Liuzhou City Vocational College were invited to participate in the Rome-Liuzhou Online Summer School. The experts of Sapienza University of Rome shared their advanced know-how, specifically BIM and GIS technologies, while Liuzhou City Vocational College contributed local case studies to enrich the programme.
BIM (Building Information Modeling) and GIS (Geographic Information System) are two very important digital tools for architecture and civil engineering professions nowadays. These state-of-the-art tools enable the professionals of the aforementioned two disciplines to have more dynamic and holistic capabilities when working in construction design or preservation projects.
Since learning BIM and GIS, the professors and students of Liuzhou City Vocational College leveraged their new knowledge to support over 80 traditional building preservation researches and modern building development projects in Liuzhou and Guangxi.
Liuzhou City Vocational College attributes the achievements of the partnership during the past three years to the successful engagement of the two schools, the authorities, private sector and industry. It is actively looking for areas of driving more co-operation with the Sapienza University of Rome.
