Get your
heads
around! What Russian
cities can learn
from China
Markus Appenzeller
MLA+, MARCH
How I will try to spin your head:
• China & Russia – Twins of a kind
• Shenzhen – A place to learn from
• China: the big steps – and Russia?
• The planning agenda of Russia – an attempt
Moscow a CHINESE city?
MLA+
Megacities – a league without Europe
St. Petersburg
Moscow
Beijing
Shanghai
A capital and a special city
Moscow: Rings and Shosses
Moscow: Kremlin – Single power center
Beijing: Rings and Axis
Beijing: Forbidden city and Zhongnanhai – Single power center
A past which is not so different
Concentration and vast emptyness
Concentration and vast emptyness
‘All in the west’
‘All in the east’
Similar past, Partially similar conditions
Socialist planning history
Socialist planning history
Ghost towns - Norilsk
Ghost towns - Ordos
Preference for cars
Preference for cars
Shenzhen – a place to learn from
Shenzhen
High-speed city growth
China: the big steps
– and Russia?
1980 – 1996
Phase 1:
Copying is king!
- Opening up the markets by learning from
the west
- Building utilitarian
- No private sector – all government
- No competition
- Public transport dominated
- All new development around existing cores
- Top down and planned
- Opening up the markets by learning from
the west
- Building utilitarian
- No private sector – all government
- No competition
- Public transport dominated
- All new development around existing cores
- Top down and planned
1936 – 1990
“I don’t care if the cat is black or white as
long as it catches mice.”
Deng Xiaoping 1986
Concept of Arturo Soria y Mata
Linear city as model for industrial city making
Linear city as model for industrial city making
Miljutin: Sozgorod
Shenzhen: Linear city
First Masterplan for Shenzhen 1986
1996 - 2010
Phase 2:
Speed is king!
- Accomodating the wave of new city
dwellers & increased wealth
- Building utilitarian and quick
- Huge profits for private sector
- Little competition, little choice
- Car dominated
- All new development, tabula rasa approach
- Top down and government ‘driven’
- ‘Waves’ of focus (business centers, culture,
sustainability)
- Starting policentricity in larger cities
- Accomodating the wave of new city
dwellers & increased wealth
- Building utilitarian and quick
- Huge profits for private sector
- Little competition, little choice
- Car dominated
- All new development, tabula rasa approach
- Top down and government ‘driven’
- ‘Waves’ of focus (business centers, culture,
sustainability)
1990 - today
Several development directions & formation of centralities
Second Masterplan for Shenzhen 1996
Model of choice: Microrayon
Microrayon – private in the apartment,
public elsewhere
Model of choice: Compound
Compound: private in the apartment, community
space inside the gates, public outside the gates
Compound = segregated piece of city but no
gated community
Compounds with lavish landscape
Microrayons often with little public space quality
because of a lack of feeling of ownership
2010 –
Phase 3:
Quality is king!
- Introducing quality as a next step of city
evolution
- Better adapting cities to climate conditions
- Moderate to high profits for private sector
- Beginning competition, increased choice
- Fixing problems of high speed growth
(environment, transport, informal settlement
patterns..)
- First round of city regeneration
- More inclusive development approach
- No ‘waves’ but contextual decisionmaking
Sustained growth through better skilled people
Attracting and keeping
better people requires
better urban
environments
Establishing parks, beaches, waterfronts
Bringing in culuture – Architecture Biennale
Upgrade through events – Universiade 2011
Massive extension of public transport
An emerging bipolar city and connecting to other centers
Third Masterplan for Shenzhen 2010
A Megacity Region in the Making
Bao’An G107 Corridor – Urban Regeneration
Building the new on the (not so) old
Multicentricity and celebating of situations
Landscape as the tool to improve city
Landscape as the tool to improve city
Landscape as the tool manage water
Landscape as the tool to manage water
Landscape as the tool to improve city
Improvement instead of replacement
Improvement instead of replacement
Improvement instead of replacement
Establishing climate architecture
Collaboration – totally new
Establishing administrative structures to
carry the project further
Code or Guideline?
Guidelines allow for often desired flexibility
Open space guidelines
Subtropical, ‘natural’ street planting
also provides shadow and
cools
Public realm does not stop at the building wall
Pingdi – Sustainablility Demonstration Quarter
Conference center and demo landscape
Refurbishing old landscape features...
... establishing new ones...
... same with buildings
river renaturalization
Sustainable building transformation
Energy saving measures
A production hall becomes a...
... IT startup center
... with greatly increased energy performance
Liu Xian Dong Micro Apartments – Housing a new class
Liu Xian Dong Micro Apartments – Housing a new class
Liu Xian Dong Micro Apartments
A sculpture with a different face from every side
Shared courtyard as puvlic interface
Shared facilities
Ground floor as shared services zone
A different type of plan than usual in China
Design on all scales
Color in the city
The panning agenda of Russia
an attempt
- Network: Establish polycentric models
- Brown instead of green: Regenerate industrial areas
- Italianize: Better adapt cities to climate conditions
- Mobility instead of cars: Promote more and better
integrated public transport systems
- Compound: Reduce public realm and create more
community space while keeping permeability
- Follow society: Increase choice and diversity
- Get them on board: Pursue a more inclusive development
approach
- No ‘waves’ - but contextual decisionmaking
- Guide ‘em all: Move away from static regulations towards
flexible guidelines and a quality management mechanism
A russian planning agenda derived
from experience of China
Get your
heads
around! What Russian
cities can learn
from China
Markus Appenzeller
MLA+, MARCH