AREP an avid supporter of China

AREP is a multi-disciplinary architecture and town planning design firm wholly owned by the French government that was created in Jan 1997 by Jean-Marie Duthilleul and Etienne Tricaud, architects and engineers. It has been an avid supporter of Sino-French exchanges, especially in architecture.

AREP's experience in China began in 1999, when it took part in consultations to rebuild Nanjing Railway Station in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

The Representative Office of AREP in Beijing was founded in 2000 and was transformed into AREP China in 2007.

When the firm undertook the project of designing the Beijing Capital Museum in 2002 it got support from the then city mayor and now secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 2006, AREP saw its first five Chinese development programs inaugurated in China. The programs were Beijing Capital Museum and the Xizhimen transport hub and business center in Beijing, the TEDA financial center and Taifeng housing development in Tianjin, and Shanghai South Railway Station.

The State Information Center of the Shanghai Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, a prestigious and innovative building, the biggest of its kind in Asia, was completed in 2007.

The Shanghai Derivative Development and Data Processing Center, which will be delivered in 2009, is also a complex high-tech venue.

(China Daily 10/24/2008 page42)