Collecting Knowledge on China's New Spaces. Thomas H. Hahn Cornell University Dept. of City and Regional Planning

Transcription

1 Collecting Knowledge on China's New Spaces Thomas H. Hahn Cornell University Dept. of City and Regional Planning

2 A bit of history May 1949 Proclamation of the successful communist revolution Early 1950 Start of large-scale land expropriation and redistribution 1958 Start of collectivization of the land 1958 The Great Leap forward Late 1950s Establishment of People s Communes Mid-1960s Millions of urban residents sent to the countryside 1966 Start of the Cultural Revolution (until 1976) 1980s People s communes being disbanded, replaced by townships, land parceled out to small cooperatives and individual households, people returning to the cities Mid-1980s economic development zones established along the coast Late 1980s Urban development takes off 2001 China enters the WTO; economists estimate that 150m people will relocate over the next ten years The CCP declares to strive for a Harmonious Society. At the same time, planners, engineers and environmentalists call for a smart growth strategy, which includes and is to a large extent in fact based on the sustainability paradigm.

3 A bit about the future

4 Demographic development

5 Increase in the number of cities In China Urbanization rate

6 Urbanization and demographics at the grass-roots level (2005) Number of villages ( 村庄 ) (in 2005). This number constitutes a decline of (from the previous year). By the end of 2005, the national population average for a township was 8352, up 293 persons from 2004, and up 1496 persons (about 18%) from Small townships 集镇 on average had 2501 people, up 74 from 2004, and up 395 (about 16%) from By the end of 2005, nation-wide there were new residential buildings constructed on the village and small township level (2005 年, 全国有 万户村镇农 ( 居 ) 民新建住宅 ), which represents 2.27% (sic!) of the total of new housing units. I have (very roughly) computed these values, and the numbers here means that about 240 million new residential units were constructed nationwide during the same time period (the last 5 year plan, which ended in 2005). Overall, the percentage of newly constructed residential housing units on this level is 68.8% ( 新建住宅楼房率已达 68.8%)

7 The Socialist Countryside I (A group of landlords being driven from their home and struggled )

8 The Socialist Countryside II (1958 Pig iron production during the Great Leap Forward )

9 The Socialist Countryside III Transforming the land

10 The Socialist Countryside IV as depicted in propaganda posters about Dazhai for example

11 Building the Socialist City New values such as capital equity New socio-economic backbone such as the work unit or the urban commune New notions of centralized planning (in step with mechanisms of control and social engineering)

12 Large public squares and broad streets constituted the new morphology of the modern city

13 Beijing remade and undone

14 Building the socialist city

15 Build-up island in the Min River in Fuzhou (Viennese style architecture)

16 Rem Koolhaas new CCTV Tower in Beijing

17 To build or not to build (well, it s being build anyway)? China planning (place-making, placeconnecting) in the light of valid climate change models. Climate change model for China presented by Maria Blair from the Rockefeller Foundation at the CPN Conference in Beijing in August 2007.

18 Space, interrupted A quick word transportation and mobility related: Much restructuring of urban areas deteriorates access because unfortunate isolation of origins and destinations, or because it does not anticipate the form and magnitude of new travel demands. (Gakenheimer, CPN Transporation Conference, Beijing August 2007)

19 With new spatial strategies and new spatial economies come new plans 5 year plan 20 year plan No, there is no Chinese version of Mapquest!

20 Materials (putting on a librarian s hat again for the moment)

21 Chicago 2040 Growing Pains As of 2000, more than 8 million people were living in our region of northeastern Illinois. That number is projected to increase to more than 10 million by If we continue to develop new land at the current densities, by 2030 the region would consume an additional 337,000 acres to accommodate the projected population growth - an area equivalent to the size of Kane County. For the greater Chicago region to maintain its standard of economic vitality and overall livability, planners and developers must follow a coordinated plan that best accommodates growth while preserving our natural environment. Over the next 30 years, we must proactively plan how to: House 2 million more people and 1.2 million more jobs Mitigate traffic congestion; Deal with a potential shortage of water; Avoid premature consumption of land by pursuing infill and redevelopment; Protect important open space and natural resources; Shape a sustainable future rather than react to ongoing development trends.

22 Hong Kong

23 Lhasa Tianjin

24 A national geo-park 石林风景名胜区总体规划 ( 修编 ) 说明书 / Shilin feng jing ming sheng qu zong ti gui hua (xiu bian) shuo ming shu by 广西建筑综合设计研究院, 云南方程规划设计事务所

25 Masterplanning occurs down to the municipal, county and oftentimes township level. Thousands of important documents, documents I would call the spatial gazetteers of China s future, have been compiled and are still in the process of being compiled (Guangzhou drafted 14 master plans alone since 1949; the latest master plan for Chongqing was just approved by the central government in Beijing in September 2007).

26 What s behind the plan? Guangzhou and Hangzhou concept plans As the environment becomes increasingly competitive, we oftentimes find strategically critical spatial information embedded in these plans.

27 Conceptual and de facto reach of the city back into the countryside Shanghai shaking the hand of the entire lower Yangzi region (population ca. 200 million)

28 Associations, Agencies, Ministries Dozens of the most authoritative (and in some cases most wondersome) reports downloadable as.rar files Conference proceedings

29 Recommendations None of these materials can be had through Amazon.com One has to lobby ministries, agencies, planning commissions Selective process of collecting is sufficient, but broadest coverage (not unlike the statistical yearbooks, local chronicles) would be most desirable National repository does not even exist in China as these documents are not registered publications Plans and designs can easily be digitized, annotated and made available in a searchable database; they can and should be georeferenced and therefore linked to other documents about the locality (if that locality existed prior)

30 Thank you!