SPRING 2009

GSAPP Advanced Studio VI

Critic: Jeffrey Johnson

TA: Mercy Wong

Mega-Block in Beijing, China

As the world continues to urbanize, in many regions at an astonishing pace, we as architects must find ways to intervene in its physical metamorphosis. Existing cities are expanding and new ones are being formed without historic precedent. How we continue to urbanize is of huge consequence. The contemporary Chinese city can, in many ways, provide us with a portal, or more than likely, multiple portals, into how the world's future urban landscape might be formed. How we understand this phenomenon is critical to our ability to participate in the future urbanization of the world. This means we must invent new ways of thinking about cities and be agile enough to continually adapt and/or discard even the most recently developed theories.

China has a total population of 1.3 billion people, with over 40% living in urban areas. This equates to about 520 million urban inhabitants. This compares to 80% of the US's population living in urban areas, equaling only 240 million. In the past 30 years, China's urban population has ballooned from roughly 150 million in 1978 to 520 million today. Never before, at this scale and sustained pace, has the world experienced such rapid urbanization. It took America an entire century to accomplish what it took China a single generation.

China's expanding economy has fueled this growth, with an average annual increase in GDP of 8% over the same period of time, with double-digit growth in the past number of years. Again, as it compares to America's projected 2.2% growth for 2008. However, China's per capita income discrepancy is among the worst in the world. The urban worker earns the equivalent of $1,382 annually while the rural farmer or worker just $565. Most of the new urban inhabitants have migrated from the countryside, with as many as 225 million people currently "floating" from city to city in search of the next employment opportunity and better wages.

This trend is expected to continue. In the next 15 years, China could have another 300 million urban inhabitants—matching America's entire population. By 2030, China's urban population could balloon to almost 1 billion people, nearly double what exists today. It is projected that there will be 200 cities with more than 1 million people as compared with 51 Cities today. (US currently has 9.) How is this new urban population going to be housed? What possible socially sustainable solutions can be invented for accommodating the rapid urban growth?

Project:

China's default solution for housing the millions of new urban inhabitants, plus those relocated from less-dense neighborhoods slated for redevelopment, is superblock development, a carry-over from the Soviet era Danwei-type urban development planning, and the Modernist's utilitarian housing block. Superblock housing developments are constructed at a rate of over 10 completed each day. These large-scale residential enclaves are taking over the fabric of Chinese cities.

I Want To Be Mao, Matthew Voss

The Chinese government encourages the development of autonomous residential districts and compounds largely in part through their methods of parceling big tracts of land into a collection of large blocks. These "mega-blocks" are then individually auctioned off to a select group of developers. Each mega-block, with rights owned by a single developer, is designed confidentially as an autonomous enclave. Communication between developers seldom occurs and is neither mandated nor suggested by the government creating disconnected islands of urban development. China's dominant mandate for the built environment—that all new housing developments must be self-contained gated communities—does embody potential benefits for integrating commerce and services, maintaining and/or increasing density, and localizing infrastructure and governance. However, much improvement is needed. There are many negative consequences that arise with this type of urban development. For example, because the new mega-blocks are almost always enclosed by walls, continuity of public spaces between blocks seldom occurs. In addition, in most cases very little consideration is given to the self-contained public spaces and building programs that are to unite the inhabitants and provide a sense of community.

Urban Symbiosis

The real estate market also plays a role in the popularity of the mega-block. As the Chinese government relinquished its responsibility of providing social housing for its population, a new commodity-based real estate market formed. Social stratification that was already occurring since the economic reforms of 1978 was now happening in the housing sector. Developers began quickly to fulfill the desires of a growing middle class for exclusive, luxurious and secure housing developments. The walled and gated mega-block was a perfect model to market. Learning much from their recently unified neighbors in Hong Kong, developers and architects found the mega-block could offer their new clientele with all of the security and luxuries offered to the elite around the globe. The exclusive gated community coveted by the newly formed middle and upper-classes could now be attained, for a price, in urban, and suburban, areas throughout China.

The challenge of the studio is to re-conceptualize the Mega-Block. Effectively accommodating the gross numbers of new urban inhabitants is a global challenge. Many regions of the world are, or will, experience rapid influxes of urban growth. It is our responsibility as architects to propose innovative, yet responsible solutions for this challenge.

'Mid-review at the New Museum'