ESTRUCTURA DE LAS GALAXIAS Y SU
J. A. López Aguerri
ownership and a
socialist-oriented market economy,
the opening of China to
development resembled
a California gold rush.
An entire district of Shanghai with its plethora of architectural forms and materials is evidence of the lack of public control and a boom-town character where anything goes.
An example of the pressure to develop housing to meet an overwhelming demand, with the resultant lack of concern for the principles of good planning and sensitivity to developing a livable environment.
grained character, defined by the ubiquitous hu-tongs, areas of single-storey residential units organised around a labyrinth of pedestrian-scaled streets and alleys circling the centrepiece of Beijing, the Forbidden City. Greater building heights could be found as one moved further out from the city centre.
Arriving in Beijing today, one is immediately struck by the bright lights and neon, not unlike any major
international city, and the crowded streets and plethora of high-rise megaprojects, sprouting up everywhere in a seemingly random and incoherent pattern.
Looking across the river from the Bund in Shanghai 25 years ago, one could see an area consisting of agricultural and industrial uses. Today, it resembles a 21st-century Gotham City, with high-rises of differing forms and shapes and materials clashing with one another.
Much of the planning for new developments in China appears to be based on a superblock module, a possible remnant of the Russian planning of the 1950s and also a result of the need to accommodate and increase the speed of development. As American cities discovered, however, the superblock module appears to be more appropriately designed, in terms of scale, for the car rather than the pedestrian. The problem was further exacerbated when little attention was given to how these projects met the ground, how they related and contributed to the public realm and to the development of the connective tissue that links projects into a cohesive whole. Now, American cities and their planners have finally become more sensitive to the value-added benefits of developing projects that give
Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s historically famous shopping street, now turned into a pedestrian precinct.
A reliance on the old rather than the new to activate the public realm.
A lively neighbourhood with the ever-present modern high-rise looming in the background.
attention to the pedestrian experience and contribute to the activation and enhancement of the public realm, and to the importance of developing the linkages that create
neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, many of the new mega-developments in China still possess, from a Western perspective, similar shortcomings – a series of singular trophy projects unrelated to one another.
For a large part of the 20th century, transport for most Chinese was either by foot, public transit of some type, or that most sought-after commodity, the bicycle. However, this is no longer the case. The motor car, that great symbol of mobility and, more importantly, of status and prosperity, has made tremendous inroads as the preferred means of transport. It has become, like the television a quarter of a century ago in China, not only an instrument of
convenience, but also a symbol of success.
In Beijing and Shanghai, roads that 25 years ago were populated with bicycles are now gridlocked with cars. Six- to 10-lane thoroughfares cut through the hearts of these cities, causing great damage to the urban fabric and the pedestrian realm, as well as having an untoward consequence for the populace. Of all traffic-related fatalities, only between 3 per cent and 4 per cent are occupants in cars – the remainder are motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians.
Approximately 78 per cent of the USpopulation owns cars. In China this is close to 3 per cent, although about 15 per cent in Beijing and Shanghai. An unfortunate by-product of the increased mobility that the car brings, however, is enabling and reinforcing a horizontal development pattern. Twenty-five years ago, Beijing had one ring road, with proposals for a second. Today there are five ring roads with a sixth to be constructed in time for the Olympics. This urban sprawl is no different to what occurred in many American cities, prime examples being
Los Angeles and Atlanta. Here, the focus was on the needs of the car with little thought given to the parallel development of a comprehensive public transport system. The result is terrible traffic congestion, pollution and quality of life issues. And as such cities are now discovering, the cost and disruption to retrofit a public transit system into the existing urban fabric is enormous.
Shanghai and Beijing are now facing these issues as they plan major expansions of their subway systems. Of greater concern, however, is that many other Chinese cities, now on the cusp of major development, are also focusing their attention on accommodating the car with much less thought for developing a comprehensive private and public transport system.
As the needs of the car remain foremost in the minds of many officials, there are now examples of bicycles, still the main mode of individual transportation for the majority of people, being banned from some of the newly built roadways. This thinking, as well as exacerbating problems of congestion and pollution, can also be seen as disenfranchising a large segment of the population who, for economic reasons, still rely on the bicycle.
For American cities, the issue was not to eliminate the car, but to develop a comprehensive private and public transport system that offered alternatives. Evidence indicates that not only is this less costly before major development occurs, but for China would begin to address the potential social problem of accommodating the multitudes who still will not be able to afford a car.
In China’s rush to build big and build new, it is clear that minimal attention has been given to the old and the existing, although the speed with which development is occurring certainly has also minimised the opportunities for an informed dialogue regarding retention.
The new Shanghai, a man-made forest of tall buildings stretching as far as the eye can see.
realities of the living conditions of the average Chinese.
This said, one can understand an expressed preference on the part of many to live in a brand-new high-rise in an apartment that has more space, new appliances, heat and working plumbing. But the question of retention is more nuanced than either total preservation or total demolition.
And in the process, we have also discovered the value of retention of the existing, as representative of the history and culture of a society.
What is apparent when looking at much of the planning and development in China are the similarities to that which occurred in the US. Decisions related to planning and development in Chinese cities mirror those made in American cities in the mid-20th century and that are now, with hindsight, looked upon ruefully. The superblock development pattern, the focus on accommodating the car to the detriment of public transit and the pedestrian, and the inattention given to the public realm, are all reminiscent of the urban planning and design that grew out of the Modernist movement of the 1920s and were implemented during the renewal of American cities in the 1950s and 1960s.
What urban renewal did in American cities in the mid-20th century was, and is, being done in China 50 years later.
Although China is socially and culturally different to the
US, an internal dialogue that focuses on the significant issues related to urban design and architecture that were faced by American cities is still important to determine their applicability to China as it continues to modernise.
Concerns are being raised as to whether China and its cities, in the understandable rush to modernise and to capture the country’s share of the developing global economy, will also end up destroying their past. This is significant if it is deemed important to retain vestiges of one’s history. A related question is whether, in the As a result, substantial sections of the existing fine-grained
historic neighbourhoods that defined the urban fabric of Beijing have disappeared, and are continuing to do so. It is estimated that more than 60 per cent of the low-scale, fine-grained hu-tongsthat defined the city fabric have been destroyed, with more scheduled to be demolished.
Although Shanghai also has seen demolition of much of its existing architecture, it would have been much worse if it had not decided to locate its new financial headquarters and central business district across the river in the Pudong area, which until 15 years ago was devoted to agricultural and industrial uses.
Despite all this, there is evidence of a developing sensitivity to the existing. There are examples in Beijing and Shanghai of a pioneering, grittier adaptive reuse of existing industrial warehouse type buildings that are being converted into artists’ studios, art galleries and similar. Shanghai is home to arguably the highest-profile adaptive reuse project in China, the Xiantindei development, designed by Wood-Zapata. The development is in a part of the city where the French concession was located, and is also the site of the first Communist Party headquarters. Existing small-scale, two- and three-storey buildings were retained and sensitively reconstructed with pedestrian-oriented retail commercial premises including shops, restaurants and bars. Not only has it turned into one of thedestination places in Shanghai, its success is motivating other cities in China to want to replicate it.
Hopefully, these projects are a first step towards a heightened awareness and discussion of the issue of retention. However, as American cities discovered, retention and restoration can be extremely expensive and, in many cases, impossible without incentives. For China the issue is further complicated by the
The skyline of the new Pudong area of Shanghai as viewed from across the river.
Punctuating the line of high-rise buildings is the Pearl of the Orient Tower to the left, for many ordinary Chinese the symbol of the prowess and capability of the new China.
The photography for this article is by Edward Denison, the
photographer and co-writer (with Guang Yu Ren) of Building Shanghai: The Story of China’s Gateway, which is to be published in early 2006 by Wiley-Academy.
information age of the 21st century, with globalisation and an apparent homogenising of world culture, it is important or even possible for cities to maintain an identity of their own. Or will Chinese cities that are being rebuilt, not incrementally, but almost totally over a short period of time, represent the first of a new paradigm – modern metropolises of the 21st century that are indistinguishable from one another or from any modern Western city?
Also becoming obvious is not only the quantity of natural resources that are being absorbed by China to fuel its reconstruction, but the repercussions of this on the rest of the world. Over the long term, it is clear that China, if it continues to expand at the present rate, must give serious attention to development of more environmentally sensitive strategies. Fortunately, there is evidence of this in a number of areas, from cleaner-burning energy sources to strategies
related to green architecture and to the pursuit of energy-efficient cars.
The hope that these issues will be addressed rests with the new generation of architects and planners, many of whom are in their forties, were trained abroad and have returned to China to practise, as well as with the younger professionals who will be the next generation of decision-makers. Their exposure and travels to the West have, and will, allow them the opportunity to see with a more critical eye what has occurred in the renewal of American cities over the last 50 years, and will sensitise them to the problems of development and its relationship to the urban and social fabric of the society.
Many such professionals already realise that they represent the leading edge in examining these profound issues and investigating the validity of establishing a relationship between a contemporary architecture and a new Chinese culture and identity, as the country and its economy mature. They also realise that it is essential to develop strategies to deal with natural resources and energy, and that in the process they can demonstrate to the world China’s creativity and technical prowess. What they discover and develop will shape the new China and in the process may well inform the West as to the role of architecture in shaping a society and culture. There is an old saying that ‘I have seen the future’
and, in this case, it is China. It will be fascinating to see how that future develops and what that future becomes. 4
A typical new multitower high-density residential project in Shanghai, built adjacent to an existing development, clearly illustrates the dramatic changes taking place within the urban scale and fabric of the city.
The rubble of the old makes way for the new.