OVER the past 30 years, urban construction in China, characterized by ‘bigness’ and ‘rapidity’, has successfully contributed to rapid economic growth as well as helped improve the city dweller’s living conditions. This is truly a great achievement, indeed. However, this pattern of development has also given rise to new concerns. Today, questions are being raised such as: Why do all the new cities look the same? Why do we no longer experience the intimate urban charm that we enjoyed in the past, and the unique cultural identity that each of us would otherwise be proud of?

Thus, should an alternative attitude, different from the current mass production one, be adopted for the next phase of China’s urban development in order to incorporate the distinct conditions and demands of each city and the many ‘special projects’ in poor areas?

A case study of two cities, Shanghai and Huangyuan, one from the most developed coastal area and the other from an underdeveloped inner land respectively, drawing upon our research and practice over many years, is presented here. It illustrates an alternative way of imagining and planning our cities.

The primary strategy adopted during the previous phase of urban development was to prioritize the physical side of development, with less emphasis on culture and other refined aspects. This appeared reasonable at the time, given the pressures resulting from rapid economic development as well as the explosive nationwide urbanization. The following statistics demonstrate the validity of this approach.

 

In the past thirty years following the reform and opening up of China, alongside rapid economic growth, the country also experienced the fastest and greatest urbanization movement ever seen in human history. The urban population rose from 19% of the total population in 1980 to 50% in 2010, with numbers growing from 191 million to 670 million people – a figure 3.5 times greater than that of 30 years ago. This is a net increase of 479 million people, 1.5 times more than the total population of the United States.

This urbanization brought with it large-scale construction, which included the renovation of old cities and the building of new urban centres – particularly the construction of many industrial and technical facilities demanded by economic growth. As a result, the built urban area nationwide also expanded rapidly and reached 40,058 km2 by 2010, a number five times greater than the 8,842 km2 in 1984. However, this has not happened uniformly across the country, with the coastal regions experiencing a far greater concentration of cities.

As a key feature of this mega urban construction movement, residential development was certainly the most significant achievement, providing urban residents with rapid improvements in living conditions. The per capita availability of living area in China in 1980 was a mere 7.2 m2; this increased by four times to become 31.6 m2 by 2010.

 

Admittedly, large-scale events such as the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai World Expo further stimulated the rapid development of cities across China. In host cities, opportunities were seized to boost infrastructure and meet long-term needs. For instance, Shanghai got its first subway line in 1995. However, by 2010, the city had completed ten additional subway and light rail lines with 290 subway stations. With an operating mileage of 420 kilometres, Shanghai is now ranked as the first in the world in this aspect.

Meanwhile, the physical look of Chinese cities has undergone a fundamental change, and some of the world’s most iconic buildings have begun to pop up in the major cities. As an example of the scale and speed of these changes, Shanghai built its first post-concession era high-rise building in 1980; today, Shanghai has moved close to New York as home to the largest number of high-rise buildings in the world. The Lujiazui financial district in Pudong along the East coast of the Huangpu river has undoubtedly become the new symbol for Chinese cities in the 21st century.

Alongside the rapid growth of its cities, China has also been focusing attention on upgrading the national level infrastructure for over a decade now. In 1988, the total length of highways in China was a mere 10,000 km. Currently, China is ranked second in the world with a total highway length of 74,100 km. This has fuelled a desire to buy cars, promoting the growth of China’s automobile industry from nothing to what it is today. The increase in the number of manufactured automobiles from 220,000 vehicles in 1980 to 18.27 million vehicles in 2010 has made China the world’s top car producing nation. Expectedly, this has impacted on the infrastructure of cities and pattern of development by ushering in an ‘age of automobiles’. City traffic has borne the brunt of this new development, with Shanghai being less affected than Beijing where congestion is notorious. Moreover, this has also given rise to a corresponding form of urban sprawl and suburbanization. Indeed, all the developments mentioned above have effectively provided support for the rapid economic growth and massive scale of urbanization, and also consolidated the popular image of China’s pattern of urban development.

 

Even as these miraculous developments are widely celebrated, fresh problems and challenges have emerged that mathematics and material progress cannot provide simple answers for. Although this rapid pattern of development has to a large extent benefited China, it has also created its share of problems and side effects. Among these, the following cultural observations are of particular concern.

The homogenization of new cities: The rapid mode of development has resulted in the construction of many ‘average cities’ with no marked cultural identity or special characteristics. All the new cities and urban areas are similar looking, making it difficult for people to recognize and distinguish between cities in different locations. A similar problem exists within the city, with all residential districts appearing identical since most of them have been built by the government or developers in a standardized mass production manner. Moreover, the uniform and mandatory planning regulations in China, such as the requirement that every home must have equally adequate sunlight, have given rise to a typical residential pattern with all buildings placed in parallel, facing south with identical in-between distance. The otherwise decent ideology of modernism has turned into a cultural nightmare!

Erasing memories of the city: What happened to the different cities that many of us remember as being our own sweet home town? Admittedly, many were severely damaged during the initial stages of development. Old cities, unfortunately, were regarded as symbols of an older era that was seen as unclean, not modern, and with very narrow roads. And so, not only were buildings demolished, but alongside it vanished the fine grain of street fabric for large street blocks. Today, people are beginning to wake-up and stop or at least minimize this type of destruction in order to salvage the many precious memories that remain. The challenge is no longer one of preservation, but rather that of rebuilding the memories of our homes that have been lost. Unfortunately, many of these precious and distinctive characteristics had been demolished during past urban relocation efforts.

 

The loss of cultural identity: In part due to a hunger for cultural identity, in recent years many cities are in active search of a ‘cultural signature’. Take for example, the Tang dynasty reconstruction movement currently underway in the famous historic city of Xi’an. The basic thrust of this initiative involves replacing the real traces of history with mass produced fake antiques of Tang dynasty style, in an effort to rebuild the glory of the city.

On the other hand, reflecting a rather different endeavour, Shanghai launched a ‘one city nine towns’ programme ten years back. This involved the construction of European style towns on the outskirts of Shanghai as a way to express its openness to the world. Among these towns, Thames Town represents an extreme example. It is not just old British style houses, but even factories from the Industrial Revolution era and the functional conversions which followed, that have all been faithfully replicated. These new buildings are obviously very different from those built during the concession era. While the latter, even though drab and unaesthetic, truly reflected our history, the former more resemble a ‘theme park’ whose greatest value is as a prop for wedding photographs.

It is primarily a lack of cultural confidence and awareness of history that impels new cities to blindly copy such trends. An example of this tendency is the wide use of popular Western European architectural terminology in Chinese city planning. For instance, motifs such as circular shapes, once considered the pinnacle of city architecture in Europe, are today commonly considered to be modern and beautiful, and thus more likely to be selected by juries deciding on city beautification projects. As a result, a large number of circular plazas have been indiscriminately built across the country. Ironically, while all cities making such decisions initially seek to be the best and to stand out in the crowd, they eventually end up becoming another ‘average’ place, boring and hollow.

 

Suburbanization and overly large scale: Very similar to the urban sprawl which took over the West decades ago, China too is experiencing a similar process of suburbanization in tandem with its urbanization movement. The sudden outbreak of an urban sprawl, alongside the emergence of the age of automobiles in China, has pushed the suburban pattern into the heart of urban areas. As various studies on the newly developed areas of Shanghai reveal, the emergence of super-block, gated communities, the lack of quality street life, and so on, are today among its most notable features. The city now looks more like a super sized cold machine than a warm space for human beings.

While many of the problems China faces in its urban development are indicative of the general pattern of modern development the world over, nevertheless, they also reflect the special circumstances of China as an emerging, developing country. In this regard, China has become particularly typical because of the intensity of changes that have occurred within a relatively short period of time. Today, the major challenges facing Chinese urbanization are: How to pursue a ‘humane’ quality of life in a modern city, while retaining the benefits of functional efficiency and technological advancement? And how to create culturally distinctive cities that will serve as the collective wealth and memory of all humankind in an era of globalization?

 

The Shanghai case – how can we repair and revitalize the newly built urban areas? As an icon for reforms, Shanghai Pudong has taken the lead in China’s urbanization movement. I, however, feel that despite the many high-end, large-scale new buildings which have been constructed, the Huamu Cultural and Administrative Centre, the centrepiece of the new district as a whole, still lacks the capacity to be a true urban magnetic pole. Therefore, the objective of research was about repairing and revitalizing the newly-built district.

A surprising fact was revealed through a follow-up comparative study. The People’s Square in downtown old Shanghai, which may seem ‘imperfect’ due to constraints created by the surrounding urban fabric, nevertheless ensures that all types of service and leisure facilities are accessible within five minutes walking distance. In contrast, in the seemingly ‘perfect’, new Century Plaza in Pudong, it is difficult to find essential services such as coffee shops or restaurants, within a half-hour walk, although it looks beautiful, particularly if seen from the air. Similarly, a high-end community like the Lianyang residential district, which has adopted a super-block design of 300-400 metres span, is all fenced in, with no shops or restaurants permitted along the gated wall. In scale it is not only far larger than the New York central districts (four times the area) or the Boston city centre (nine times the area) in the West, but is also bigger than old Shanghai (8.4 times the area). Therefore, it is neither a Chinese, nor a western urban model; it is in fact a suburban model that has been wrongly superimposed in the heart of an urban area. In summing up our urban diagnosis, the following conclusions emerge: (a) lack of urban services; (b) lack of quality of ‘street life’; (c) the scale of block was too big and; (d) gated communities.

 

Drawing on our research, we proposed a repairing and revitalization design focused mainly on increasing mixed use of a variety of urban services. Furthermore, in terms of physical space, city blocks were divided to create a fine-grain urban fabric to make it more suitable for pedestrians. For instance, community fence walls were replaced with shop straps creating a more inviting walking atmosphere for pedestrians. The specific aim of the design was to form an integrated, attractive urban centre, where it would be possible to ‘sightsee, stroll, sit, eat, and live.’

Based on the above overarching strategy, the proposed renovation of Haitong Street in the same area attempted to translate the general idea into the right spatial language and physical form in the real world. The broad contours of the proposal relating to the Huamu Cultural and Administrative Centre were largely accepted by the government, and significant advances have been made for relevant zones since then. However, due to difficulties associated with the complex planning procedures, the renovation of Haitong Street was set aside after being revised many times. Several years later, though, similar but further evolved ideas were finally adopted and tested in a tiny city thousands of kilometres away far into the western plateau of China.

 

The Huangyuan case – the reformation of local cultural identity of a city located in a poverty-stricken region. This project, which stretched over five years and encompassed architectural design, landscape design, urban design, old town renovation, and master plan, originated from a lecture that I gave to the leaders of Qinghai, a province in the plateau of China’s northwest. The head of Huangyuan county, one of the poorest counties in the nation, told me that while he liked my ideas, the county was too poor to take up any big projects. He then made me an offer to design public lavatories for a passing highway, which I accepted. What concerned me, however, was what I had already seen in the provincial capital of Xining, where the trends of coastal cities such as Shanghai, for example, rounded shape, brightly coloured tops of buildings, and so on, had been indiscriminately replicated, with no consideration for the fact that this was a region with an entirely different climate and culture.

Currently, a large part of Huangyuan town, unfortunately, consists of boring and identical six-storeyed buildings, in parallel rows, which is no different from other cities. Therefore, the task here became one of recreating rather than preserving a city with unique cultural characteristics. The challenge lay in working out how, under constrained conditions, to make urban construction play a substantive role in helping the local population pursue sustainable development in terms of economics, environmental concerns, social equity and cultural identity, rather than simply make another replica of an ‘average’ city.

 

Thus, what was to be a public lavatories project was modified and expanded to develop the ‘Huangyang Yi-Zhan’, an ancient Chinese name for ‘courier station’ used by merchants during earlier times. Subsequently, we not only incorporated a youth hostel into the plan, but also a restaurant showcasing the peculiarities of the local cuisine and a museum telling the story of the area’s long history.

The initial idea was to draw the attention of, even divert if possible, a small percentage of the two million tourists who annually travel on the expressway linking the provincial capital and the famous scenic spot, Qinghai Lake, the largest salt lake in China. We felt that such a project would provide a fresh opportunity for Huangyuan to develop tourism. And this, in the long-term, would guide the region away from its highly polluting secondary industry towards a tertiary industry. Serving both as a cultural complex and a ‘living advertisement’, even a small project such as this could ultimately play an important role in helping reorient the city’s direction of development.

This required that in addition to reasonable functionality, the form too must display unique local characteristics. After long deliberation, designs with shallow, eye-catching features like tall buildings or the use of bright colours were abandoned in favour of low-rise buildings using common local materials such as raw earth and pebbles which allowed the design to merge into the local context. A major challenge was to use the language of modern design to express the characteristics of local culture. An even greater difficulty we faced following the completion of design was the suspension of the project for more than two years due to a lack of funds.

During this process, I was truly impressed by the determination of local leaders. Despite the difficulties, they staunchly continued to support the proposal. At last, after two long years of waiting, they were able to convince investors to commit to the design. Touched by their dedication, we too continued to commit even more to the project, finishing the construction documents, interior design, landscape design, and sculpture design. Today, five years later, this project is nearing completion. In China, for a project under 6,000 square metres to proceed at such a slow pace, lasting for five years, is almost unimaginable. But I believe it has been worth it, for producing quality takes time.

 

When work on the ‘Huangyuan Yi-zhan’ was under suspension, the local government invited me to modify the facade of three office buildings, which finally gave birth to the Huangyuan Public Square and Ecological Park. After reviewing the original proposals, I made a bold suggestion: that we do not simply modify the facade, but rather redesign the buildings and even revise the plans.

Again, considering the continuing difficult financial situation of the local government with regard to urban improvement, I believed that the construction of these three governmental projects – the Forestry Bureau, the Administrative School, and the Tobacco Company – which had managed to source funds from different higher government organs, could provide an important opportunity to improve the public amenities of Huangyuan and, hence, exhibit its unique cultural qualities. All three projects are located on the scenic bank of the Huangshui river, which lies to the south of the city.¹ The original design was made up of three closed courtyards with the typical symmetrical layout of government buildings.

Much to my surprise, not only was this bold proposal accepted by the county leaders, but it also got the support of all three units. An engineer was specially dispatched to Shanghai by the local construction bureau to participate in the process of design, and during the following three years he became the main bridge in controlling the quality of construction.

 

Today, following completion of the project, this design, originally perceived to be unrealistic, has changed people’s impression of government buildings as being stern and forbidding. It immediately received high praise from residents, all of whom sooner or later, began to enjoy the square and park on the waterfront. It also received acclaim from the governor of the province, with the result that the Administrative School has become an external base for the Central Administrative School.

Together with the ‘Huangyuan Yizhan’ project, the construction of the ‘administrative group, public centre, and ecological park’ represents a milestone for the strategy of future master planning, which is now oriented towards promoting tertiary industries by building on history and culture related tourism. Consequently, not only have the people’s lives improved, but the unique cultural identity of the city has also been re-formed. As a matter of fact, back in 2007, this same county had asked me to prepare its master plan. After extensive discussion, it finally accepted my idea that three steps – macro-level master plan, mid-scale urban design, and micro-level architectural design – should be carried out in tandem, within the same overarching framework. If that is done, not only will the pressure of urgent development be taken care of, long-term planning too will get a boost, thereby avoiding doing things in haste that may lead to unnecessary waste. Several months ago, after four years of research, we were finally able to deliver the master plan proposal. In part, because of the goodwill generated by the leading examples of Huangyuan Yizhan and administrative centre, a new urban centre is now proposed in the south of the city in order to relieve the pressure of development, caused by the growing economy, on the old town. An action plan for preservation and renovation of the old town, which we are currently involved with, has thus been made possible.

 

Design inputs can make a substantial difference to cities if we treat each case in a more careful and differentiated manner. Cultural identity and urban memories should not merely survive but deepen in the context of globalization. The city, habitat for mankind for thousands of years, deserves true respect by ensuring that urban development is no longer constrained by the criteria of physical quantities and technology. Retaining and recreating the richness and uniqueness of culture for each city is both a more challenging and meaningful mission for China’s next stage of urban development.

 

Footnote:

1. Huangyuan means ‘the origin of the Huangshui river.’