The world has witnessed the accomplishments of many construction wonders in China in past five thousand years, ranging from the 8,852 km Great Wall (construction commenced in the 5th century BC), the 1,776 km Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (the Sui Dynasty 581-618), the 30 meters tall Ying County Wooden Pagoda (1056), to the 720,000 square meter Forbidden City (1406 to 1420), just to name a few. The projects were implemented with resources and technologies available at times when most modern construction equipments were not in existence. Chinese have made these significant achievements by their wisdom in project planning, procurement, organization, coordination and control, in the absence of modern organizational theories and management science tools.
Despite a glorious history of construction, China has lagged far behind many countries in terms of construction engineering and management in the past two centuries. Since 1949, particularly during the past three decades, with its opening to the world market, the strong economic growth has triggered major investments in buildings, infrastructure and industrial facilities. This has made China one of the biggest construction markets in the world and cutting-edge materials, equipments and processes have been applied particularly to some of the high profile projects such as the Olympic facilities.
However, many of these modern projects are not completely departed from the construction tradition of China - as a matter of fact architects have been trying to mix traditional Chinese architectural concepts with modern designs. This therefore raises some interesting questions such as: what differences are there in terms of construction technologies for these construction wonders between the old time and the present? What are the differences in project planning and control for these projects between the past and today? How were the technologies and management methods borrowed from foreign contractors adapted to fit into a context with a strong tradition of its own?
To address these questions, the theme of this year’s Tsinghua Summer School Program is focused on comparison and contrast of the ancient and modern construction practices in China in terms of technology and management. This will be highlighted in the first four days of seminars and site visits. We hope this will provide an interesting and fresh perspective on construction method planning and project management, which will lead to a deeper understanding of the determinants of the evolution and progress of construction technology and construction management in a rapidly growing economy with a long history and in transition.
In addition, we want to carry forward our ‘baseline’ courses which focus on some critical aspects of international construction and property development and investment, including strategies of leading global players, international contract administration, infrastructure sector for private participation using PPP/BOT methods, safety and risk management in construction, and the Chinese property market.
We believe this is a comprehensive and balanced curriculum for the forthcoming Tsinghua Summer School Program suitable to accommodate the expectations of students who are from different parts of the world and with different backgrounds. We look forward to your enrollment and full participation. If you have any thoughts or comments about the theme of this year or if you want to inquire about the program timetable which can be found at this website, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Chuan Chen, the Program Coordinator at chuanc@unimelb.edu.au or call +61 3 8344 3102.