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Labourers at work on the outdoor areas of the Two Bay City project. View of Pudong. Left, the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV tower; right, the 420 metre high Jin Mao tower. tecture to present a new face to the world and is hiring Western designers to work with local architects to achieve this aim. The new office building for Chinese state television in Beijing, designed by Rem Koolhaas, will be a major new landmark in the city. In Shanghai the tallest building in the world, at 539 metres, is currently under construction right next to the Jin Mao tower, which at 420 metres is currently the tallest building in Shanghai. The 53rd to 87th storeys of the Jin Mao tower house a hotel with a lobby atrium that runs right up to the top of the building, making it the highest hotel with the largest lobby in the world. Planters Shanghai is breaking one record after another. The new South Station, currently being built to a design by the French firm AREP, has the largest clear span glass canopy in the world. The Siemens ‘floating’ train that links the city with the international airport – and later the Expo site – carries its passengers at a speed of 430 kilometres per hour. The train hardly has time to reach top speed before it arrives at its destination. This magnetic levitation train takes just seven minutes to cover the thirty kilometres from the city centre to Shanghai International Airport. The new Two Bay City district in Shanghai. Every month the number of cars in Shanghai rises by 2500 to 5000, aggravating the already huge problems of congestion. The city is avidly investing in new infrastructure, including public transport, and in new public green space. To green the city, rows of planters have been hung on kilometres-long stretches of vehicle safety fences along the urban motorways. The number of parks in Shanghai has also increased from about 50 to more than 250 in recent years: according to official figures 35 per cent of the city now consists of green space. One of the recently created parks is Yanan Green Space, to the west of the city centre, which incorporates Tianshan park. Several new parks nestle in and around an interchange on the inner ring road, surrounded by flyovers and linked together by an elevated pedestrian route. This creative example of intensive land use gives rise to an almost surrealistic image of people looking for a place to relax, hold a quiet conversation, prac- tice t’ai chi or play a game all within a stone’s throw of the hurtling traffic. For West European companies the question is no longer how to compete with China from their home base in Europe, but whether they dare to invest in China and establish a presence there in a bid not to miss the boat. After Germany, the Netherlands is the second biggest European investor in China, with more than three hundred companies in Shanghai alone. These are no longer just manufacturing companies, but also businesses active in more knowledgeintensive sectors. Philips has thirty-six factories in China, and this will rise to more than seventy in a few years time. Tiny homes The explosive rate of growth in China depends largely on its enormous labour pool. The 800 million or so Chinese peasants still in the countryside are a vast source of cheap A dying tradition: tai chi in the open air. Jian Wai Soho, the new business district of Beijing. Traditional alleyway district. 36 ’SCAPE 1 / 2006 1 / 2006 ’SCAPE 37
Yanan Green Space. labour. They can easily be tempted to move to the cities where wages and living standards are higher. Neither does China have a shortage of hard working, entrepreneurial and independently-minded people. Besides their own families and friends, money is high on most people’s list of priorities. It is quiet normal for these workers to live literally on the building site, in barracks, and move on to the next site when the work is finished. Building is a continuous process: in Beijing and Shanghai the sound of construction can be heard ringing out from the brightly lit sites throughout the night. The rapid changes taking place in China are going hand in hand with a major social upheaval. The old districts in the big cities, the hutongs in Beijing and the lilongs in Shanghai, are being swept away and replaced by new developments. In these alleyway districts, with their tightly-knit social and economic networks, the houses are grouped around patios and courtyards linked together by narrow alleys. Much of the social life in these districts takes places outdoors. For many of the inhabitants these close social networks make the primitive conditions in these crowded districts – with their tiny living quarters which often lack private toilet facilities – far more preferable to the comforts of the anonymous high-rise flats. But this is not reflected in the government-controlled media. In the Shanghai Daily you will find only gushing praise for the new developments being built for the 2010 World Expo, while more than ten thousand families are being evicted from their homes to make way for them. The censors do not allow open criticism of these projects for ‘progress and improvement’. Faceless cities The West is the model for progress. Fashion is Western; even the billboards are dominated by white Western models. In the new China, customs and traditions hardly seem to matter anymore. The old ways, such as practising t’ai chi on the street or in the park before work, are still followed by the older generations, but are of little interest to the younger generation. Even traditional Chinese architecture and town planning seem to have been marginalised. Architects are flown in from Europe to design whole new districts on the Western model. In taking this route China is not doing justice to its own rich architectural tradition. This disregard for China’s own values and customs – its people’s very identity – is threatening to disrupt the social fabric. Beijing and Shanghai are already being called ‘faceless cities’, and the first calls have been made to preserve a few alleyway districts for posterity. In this respect the growing tourist industry in China’s main cities may be their salvation. Besides excursions to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square (Gate of Heavenly Peace), a visit to Beijing is not complete without a tour of one of the alleyway districts, where new tourist bars are springing up all the time. Paradoxically enough, transforming a traditional alley into a street full of bars may just be the way to save the hutong. There is also increasing interest in the more recent heritage, as evidenced by the NEW 798 area in Beijing. This industrial complex, built in the 1950s by the Russians and designed by East German architects in the Bauhaus style, was on the list for clearance. However, in 2002 the area was taken over by a group of artists and is now a lively neighbourhood of galleries, studios, restaurants and cafes. The communist slogans of the period – ‘Long Live Chairman Mao’ – which cover the walls throughout the complex are a tangible reminder of China’s history and form a striking backdrop to the contemporary works of art. Chinese toys It is remarkable how quickly the Chinese have put their own stamp on the building boom. The building projects completed in Beijing and Shanghai a few years ago are still marred by Zhu Jia Jiao, or Cambridge Watertown. numerous flaws. At first sight they seem to be quite impressive reproductions, but closer inspection reveals the failings of the builders. The detailing in a project like Sa Na Wei La Villa Park, a gated community designed by the Chinese firm Turenscape, is well below standard. The drainage is poorly designed throughout, as if it was decided to add the drainpipes at the last minute when construction was already well underway – a defect that also plagues the previously mentioned Anting district. The buildings in Sa Na Wei La Villa Park are also aging quickly. The development is rather like a Chinese toy: it looks attractive at first sight, but does not stand up well to heavy use. The projects now under construction, though, are up to the same standard as new buildings in Europe. The phase of minor but nevertheless obtrusive flaws is over, and the building designs are particularly well suited to their environment. In the German theme town of Anting, in the area surrounding the new South Station and in the new Zhu Jia Jiao district (Cambridge Water Town) near Shanghai no expense has been spared on the public spaces. The outdoor areas have been carefully designed using high quality materials (brick pavers, Chinese granite setts) Sa Na Wei La Villa Park. 38 ’SCAPE 1 / 2006 1 / 2006 ’SCAPE 39
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Page 6 and 7: news The launch of the European yea
Page 8 and 9: news Peter Walker: ‘The Twin Towe
Page 10 and 11: Hot spots Barcelona, Beijing, Shang
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Page 14 and 15: Jardin Botànic (Bet Figueras, Carl
Page 16 and 17: Area for three Roman ovens, Vilassa
Page 18 and 19: Park Piedra Tosca. Lagoon of Harnes
Page 22: and large numbers of very big trees

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