Category Archives: Architecture

Shanghai street stories = 上海街头故事

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Shanghai street stories = 上海街头故事. Retrieved 24 June, 2014,  from http://shanghaistreetstories.com/

The pace of urban development in Shanghai is as swift as it is unrelenting and its impact is far-reaching in both the positive and negative.

I photograph and collect stories in Shanghai, seeking to capture the lives of ordinary Shanghainese and 外地人 or “waidiren” in the city, as well as the process behind the city’s rapid urbanisation.

My work is a mix of photojournalism and street photography. The former allows me to cover a wider gamut of topics such as old architecture, individual stories, lifestyle, while the latter is indicative of a style of photography I sometimes prefer. 

For interviews I have given about photography, blogging and Shanghai in general can be found on the Published Work page.

To learn more about how the website is set up and the plugins that run the blog, read “The Anatomy of My Blog: An Amateur’s Tale (and Tips!)“.

Read the blog : http://shanghaistreetstories.com/

More information about the author and the blog itself

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Jiaju, a remote Tibetan village confronted with tourism

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This picture was taken at the entrance of the Tibetan village Jiaju, located near Danba in the mountainous region of western Sichuan. A seeing spot has been set up with a glass railing so that visitors could admire, safely, the amazing view of the Tibetan village from above. The woman in the picture, dressed in a traditional Jiarong style, came two minutes after I, and three other Chinese visitors in their SUV, arrived. She gave a tight smile and started to pose, to the joy of some, and the unease of others…

Why all this orchestration in this remote and peaceful village?

In 2005, Jiaju was selected as the most beautiful village in China by the Chinese National Geographic Magazine.

A journalist wrote:

The village of Jiaju has no doubt benefited as a result of tourism – there are few signs of poverty and many villagers own new cars and sports utility vehicles. But tourism has also impacted the surrounding environment and changed the fabric of the village. Indeed, Jiaju embodies many of the issues China’s minority regions face as the country’s internal tourism industry grows.

He Ming, the director of Yunnan University’s Research Centre of Ethnic Minorities in China’s South-west Frontier, says increased tourism helps foster development of minority regions and increases local incomes. For Han tourists, the experience of visiting minority regions provides a valuable cultural exchange that promotes goodwill between China’s different ethnic groups.

But He says that governments at the federal and local level must take steps to protect the rights and interests of the minority cultures, rather than exploiting them to accommodate Han tourists.(( Mitch Moxley, Inter Press Service, 2010 ))

Thus, the local government’s choices will shape Jiaju’s future. However, it will also depend on the ability of the communities to make their own choices: to develop the image of the “most beautiful village of China” and spread it over the world, or to keep a slice of authenticity by preserving their local identity, practices and architecture from mass tourism and exploitation. Furthermore, if they decide to preserve the authenticity of this place, the next step is to define a way to proceed. Should the UNESCO intervene and impose its Western rules in terms of heritage conservation? Or should the local government create an new system, which combines some Western practices in terms of heritage conservation with new Chinese ones?

 

 

Oriane Pillet

Intern at the CNRS, UrbaChina project. M.A. in urban local development (IEDES, Paris); M.A. in international development studies (Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris - Utrecht University); B.A. in geography and law (Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris).

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Construction of Chongqing Industrial Museum, Dadukou district

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The old industrial district of Dadukou, located in the south of Chongqing, is being revitalised after the Chongqing Iron and Steel Company Limited, Chong Gang, moved out 65km away from the inner-city in 2006. The project of urban renewal will preserve the site’s history with the construction of the Chongqing Industrial Museum, and will establish spaces for new creative industries and develop urban systems and services. The Chongqing Industrial Museum Company is in charge of the project with international architects and designers partners. For this occasion, the Statue of Chaiman Mao will be moved inside the museum.

A worker on the scaffolding prepares to move a statue of Chaiman Mao in Chongqing while two men are watching as cranes move the statue covered in red . This is the first time that the city moved a Mao Statue. The cement-made statue was built by a factory in the city in 1968 during the “cultural revolution” (1966-1976). It was abandoned when the factory moved in July 2012. The site around the statue is being rebuilt into a storage yard of a logistic company. The statue will be moved to the newly built Museum of Chongqing Industry, which showcases the city’s industrial history and achievements.[Photo/icpress.cn]

Chongqing moves Chairman Mao statue

Source: ChinaDaily

Oriane Pillet

Intern at the CNRS, UrbaChina project. M.A. in urban local development (IEDES, Paris); M.A. in international development studies (Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris - Utrecht University); B.A. in geography and law (Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris).

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Redeveloping Shanghai with urban ruins

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Ren, X. (2014), The Political Economy of Urban Ruins: Redeveloping Shanghai. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38: 1081–1091. doi: 10.1111/1468-2427.12119

Abstract

This essay analyzes the political economy of the urban ruins captured in Greg Girard’s photo album Phantom Shanghai. Rather than being marginal, irrelevant or merely objects for nostalgia, the ruins of buildings produced by real estate speculation offer crucial insights into the workings of the urban political economy and reflect wider trends of urban governance. Examining how building ruins come about in the first place and how they are represented in visual media can help us better understand the processes of urbanization and place making, and the central role of destruction in contemporary Chinese urbanism. This essay illustrates this point by analyzing the economic function, political legitimation and cultural significance of demolitions and ruins in urban China.

Full article available in the International Journal of Urban Research. (pdf)

Oriane Pillet

Intern at the CNRS, UrbaChina project. M.A. in urban local development (IEDES, Paris); M.A. in international development studies (Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris - Utrecht University); B.A. in geography and law (Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris).

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Shanghai’s 3D-printed houses

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Last week, a Shanghai-based company built 10 « houses » using a 3d printer in only one day.

This extraordinary new construction method may not entirely solve housing issues in China, -many of them are related to the status of land, not to construction price-. Moreover, this can also be regarded as a good marketing operation for the building company. Actually, we still don’t know how livable these « houses » really are.

But this process may undoubtedly revolutionize the way houses will be built in the future. Firstly, these houses are made of recycled materials and so can be considered as green houses. Moreover, by using this method, construction defects might no longer happen as construction models will be optimised.

With this experience, we have surely entered a new era where the whole construction industry might be rethought.

Pictures available on Xinhua.

 

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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The political economy of urban ruins: redeveloping Shanghai

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Ren, Xuefei (2014). The political economy of urban ruins : redeveloping Shanghai. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12119. Prepublished online: 10 March 2014.

This essay analyzes the political economy of the urban ruins captured in Greg Girard’s photo album Phantom Shanghai. Rather than being marginal, irrelevant or merely objects for nostalgia, the ruins of buildings produced by real estate speculation offer crucial insights into the workings of the urban political economy and reflect wider trends of urban governance. Examining how building ruins come about in the first place and how they are represented in visual media can help us better understand the processes of urbanization and place making, and the central role of destruction in contemporary Chinese urbanism. This essay illustrates this point by analyzing the economic function, political legitimation and cultural significance of demolitions and ruins in urban China.

 

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Green apartments in Nanjing, China

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Hu, Hong, Stan Geertman and Pieter Hooimeijer. (2014) Green apartments in Nanjing China: do developers and planners understand the valuation by residents? Housing Studies, 29 (1), 26-43. DOI:10.1080/02673037.2014.848268

The Chinese government promotes green construction as part of the strategy to reduce energy consumption. In practice, green construction can be impeded because various stakeholders valuate green attributes in different ways. This paper uses the analytic hierarchy process to analyse the extent to which developers and planners understand the valuation of green apartment attributes by residents in Nanjing. Results show that buyers of green apartments rank green attributes lower than safety and accessibility, and rank healthy construction materials and comfort much higher than thermal isolation or reduced energy costs. Green developers tend to focus on aspects that define their margin, such as green attributes and locational benefits and overlook the social needs, which are not addressed in building codes and not under their control. They have better understanding of green residents’ priorities with health issues; planners are more familiar with the social needs of residents and lack green marketing knowledge.

Read full text on Taylor&Francis Online (restricted access)

Hu, Hong, Stan Geertman and Pieter Hooimeijer. (2014) The willingness to pay for green apartments: The case of Nanjing, China. Urban Studies. Prepublished January, 7, 2014. DOI: 10.1177/0042098013516686

Faced with the challenge of developing sustainable cities, the Chinese government sets green construction as part of the national strategy to reduce energy consumption. However, the consumer market has shown limited response to such policies. To upscale green building, it is crucial to understand the market demands for green apartments. This article employs a conjoint model to estimate the willingness to pay for green dwellings versus accessibility to metros and jobs and neighbourhood quality by different socio-economic groups in Nanjing, China. Results show that the socio-economic status of homebuyers determines their willingness to pay for green attributes. Only the rich are prepared to pay for green apartments to improve their living comfort. To all, the notion of health is appealing as consumers are willing to pay for an unpolluted environment and for non-toxic construction materials used in buildings in good locations.

Read full text on SAGE Journals Online (restricted access)

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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New MSc programme in Urban Planning at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

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This programme is accredited by Liverpool University in the UK but candidates will study in the city of Suzhou, China. The degree is also with recognition of the Ministry of Higher Education, P. R of China.

A generous entry scholarship of 50% of total tuition fee is offered, based on academic merit, for students enrolling in September 2014.

To be considered for the entry scholarship you should submit your application before 1st April 2014.

For more details, please see http://academic.xjtlu.edu.cn/upd/programmes (click on “Masters”)

For more information please contact:

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Socialist and post-socialist urbanizations: architecture, land and property rights

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Date

May 8-11, 2014

Place

Tallinn, Estonia

Submission

Call for papers

Although most European cities both in the ‘East’ and in the ‘West’ grew rapidly in the post-war decades, the important questions regarding the difference between urbanization under the two conflicting political regimes has never been deeply analysed and resolved in the urban studies. Thus, the post-1989 success and current renaissance of the notion of ‘post-socialism’ seems surprising. At the same time, however, the number of critical voices has been growing. Still, can we seriously talk about post-socialism, lacking not only a fully developed definition and understanding of ‘post-socialist city’ but also what ‘the socialist city’ is?

The missing or poor definition of ‘socialism’ is one of the key weaknesses of the concept of post-socialism. Socialism comes into the question of post-socialism in different ways: What are the ‘socialist’ origins of ‘post-socialist’ practices? What importance did the imagined return to ‘pre-socialist’ capitalism play in building the ‘post-socialist’ capitalism? Is negation of socialism (the ‘anti-socialism’) an important aspect of post-socialism? Whereas socialism could be seen both as a political idea and as an actual historical experience, post-socialism appears to be a societal condition only that is, furthermore, primarily restricted to a region of former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

The existence of different socialisms—such as Soviet, Czechoslovakian, Yugoslavian, Chinese and Vietnamese— however, problematizes the regional bias of the term post-socialism. Would it be possible to talk about the common ‘post-socialist’ experience facing such different historical and geographical contexts? Would China be comprehensible as post-socialist similarly as Hungary or Estonia? Does it need downplaying historical and cultural particularities of China (but of course other contexts as well) that unquestionably are present? Would property regimes or ‘urban villages’ in China be comprehensible from the perspective of Eastern Europe?

In this context, we wish to initiate a fresh debate regarding the future of (the concepts of) socialism and post-socialism through engagements with different geographical contexts such as Eastern Europe, Asia, South America, and elsewhere. We would like to engage ‘post-socialism’ with ongoing debates of comparative urbanism but also seek ways to re-develop and conceptualise ‘socialism’ and ‘post-socialism’ themselves.

The conference aims to explore histories and geographies of socialism and post-socialism in relation to three themes: 1) architecture and urban planning, 2) land use and landscape, and 3) property rights.

Please send your abstract (300 words) and short bio (60 words) by Dec 2, 2013 to uld@artun.ee.

The conference is organized by the Faculty of Architecture, Estonian Academy of Arts. It is the eleventh installment of the now-traditional Urban and Landscape Days.

Please visit www.artun.ee/uld for further information or contact us at uld@artun.ee.

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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World tallest skyscraper in Dubai? No, Changsha.

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Sky-CityWhere will the world’s tallest skyscraper be erected next? In Dubai, London, New York, Shanghai? The correct answer is in Changsha, Hunan. Currently, few people outside China can point Changsha out on a map. The city is best known for its communist past (Mao spent his youth in Changsha), but that will change if it becomes home to the “Sky City” tower.

The plans for the “Sky City” state that it will reach 838 meters and will take only 90 days to build. This rapid and unprecedented construction will be possible thanks to the use of pre-fabricated units1.

However, last July authorities halted construction because the building company had not completed all the necessary legal procedures2. Furthermore, experts are concerned about safety issues and question the company’s ability to build such a tall structure, as it has previously only constructed a handful of small buildings.

It is possible that this company, “Broad Sustainable Building”, has the innovative technology to construct high structures; in which case, their architects will soon be as famous as Gustave Eiffel. Be that as it may, perhaps a more important question relating to this project is why are taller and taller structures constantly being built?

Certainly, his “Sky City” tower would help Changsha increase its attractiveness. I am sure tourists would enjoy visiting this unique structure. But for how long? The problem with this kind of “record-breaking building” is that soon another “record-breaking building” will be planned and steal the limelight. In less than two decades, the race to build the tallest structure has taken a frantic pace. In 1998, Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas towers (452 meters) were inaugurated and became “iconic” thanks to a blockbuster movie (“Entrapment”) setting its climactic moment on their skybridge. Then, in 2004, Taipei broke the record with the 509-meter Taipei 101. Since then, tallest buildings have been constructed in New York, Mecca, Shanghai, Dubai (Burj Khalifa with 828 meters). There is no reason to believe new structures will not be planned. In this case, Changsha tower will only be one among many, and its construction will simply not be worth investment.  I understand that the “Sky City” could become Changsha and maybe even provincial China’s flagship. However, the same technology, if reliable, could be used to construct social housing for migrants, quickly and cheaply. This would make Changsha a truly innovative city and achieve global appeal in a much more sustainable way.

  1. LIU, E., (July 25, 2013), China starts work on tallest building, CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/24/travel/sky-city-breaks-ground/index.html, accessed October 2, 2013 [↩]
  2. Sky city tower halts construction after just 10 days’ work, Curbed.com, http://curbed.com/tags/sky-city-tower, accessed October 2, 2013 [↩]

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Conference on contemporary architecture in China

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Tianshushan-tea house 08

Conference on contemporary architecture in China, October 17, 2013

Marlène Leroux and Françis Jacquier will give a conference on urban and architectural practices in contemporary China.

In order to question the meaning of Chinese modernity, Marlène Leroux will discuss the changes in which the architectural and urban production are currently involved.

This conference, organised by “Espace Campus France de Shanghai” will be held in Shanghai.

The conference language is French.

Conference details

C3 Café 黄陂南路 700 号a 栋 105

700 Huangdi south road, Suite A105

October 17, 2013, 7 pm

 

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Urban China on screen: the postsocialist cinematic city

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Berra, J.1 (2013) Urban China on screen: the sixth generation and the postsocialist cinematic city. Geography Compass. 7 (8) pp.588–596. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12061

This article will consider the relationship between the city and the cinema with regard to the films of China’s ‘Sixth Generation’, a group of filmmakers who mostly graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in the late 1980s and proceeded to make films on the subject of their nation’s urban fabric. These are films which utilise city narrative to comment on social–economic change, but largely observe such conditions, rather than to take apolitical stance. To explore the urban representation of the Sixth Generation, this article will provide analysis of three works that depict life in top-tier or second-tier mainland China cities: Biandan, guniang/So Close to Paradise (1999), Suzhou he/Suzhou River (2000) and Xiari nuanyangyang/I Love Beijing (2001). The manner in which urban space is represented will be considered, alongside the social positioning of the characters, in order to address arguments made by scholars that these films focus on the plight of the individual rather than considering the wider implications of urban planning.

Read full article on Wiley online library (restricted access or purchase options)

  1. School of Liberal Arts, Nanjing University, China

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Housing, urban renewal and socio-spatial integration in Beijing

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Hui, Xiaoxi (2013) Housing, urban renewal and socio-spatial integration: a study on rehabilitating the former socialistic public housing areas in Beijing. A+BE : Architecture and the Built Environment. 3(2) pp.1-796. doi:10.7480/abe.2013.2. (accessed 20 September 2013)

Based on the background of privatization, the former socialistic public housing areas in Beijing confront the ambiguity of their housing stock and the confusion of housing management. While they still accommodate the majority of urban residents and are identified by their good places, (social and programmatic) mixed communities, vibrant local life, and diversified housing types, they are facing the serious challenges of physical deterioration and social decline. Therefore, urban renewal was thought as an effective solution seeking to improve the living conditions in those neighborhoods. Nevertheless, urban renewal in itself is also a controversial issue. In order to solve the housing problem, the large-scale urban renewal in Beijing started at the beginning of the 1990s. The radical housing reform further boosted urban renewal, often in the form of wholesale reconstruction and linked to real estate development. The market-driven urban reconstruction resulted in the resident displacement, community destruction, disappearance of historical images and, more threatening, socio-spatial segregation. It encountered the rising criticism from scholars and activists and resistance from the residents. As a result, many housing renewal projects, including the reconstruction projects of former public housing areas, had to be stopped or suspended in Beijing after 2004. Nowadays there is a dilemma for the urban renewal of Beijing’s former public housing areas.

Read full text on A+BE

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Urban vitality in Dutch and Chinese new towns

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Zhou, J. (2013) Urban vitality in Dutch and Chinese new towns : a comparative study between Almere and Tongzhou. Ph. D. dissertation, Delft University of Technology, Delft.

Building new towns seems to be a rational approach that releases pressure from overly burdened large cities. This strategy was developed in Western Europe in the middle of twentieth century. Since the 1990s, the European new town model has been widely implemented in China. However, the author questions the feasibility of the large-scale, hasty new town developments. The study of worldwide new town experiences, especially European and Chinese cases, demonstrates that many new towns in fact have difficulty in achieving a real sense of urban quality and vitality. So far, few research projects have been conducted to evaluate and develop solutions for this problem.

‘Urban vitality in Dutch and Chinese new towns’ identifies the spatial and non-spatial factors and conditions that facilitate the development of urban vitality in new towns. It is aimed to reveal the impacts of spatial design, urban planning and governance approaches on the degree and patterns of local urban life of new towns in China and in the Netherlands, based on a comparative study of two cases: Almere in the north wing of the Randstad region in the Netherlands and Tongzhou in the metropolitan region of Beijing in China. The study does not intend to tackle the economic and sociological concepts in themselves, but to focus on the interrelationships between space and society.

Download full-text thesis on the TU Delft institutional repository

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Beijing odd villa to be demolished?

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Last week, many Western media reported Beijing’s order to demolish an illegal “rock” villa built on top of a high-rise building.

This event may be anecdotic, but it can also show that municipal authorities are more likely to regulate urbanism and prevent illegal and odd constructions.

These buildings mostly resulted from the fantasy of some millionaires who manage to make authorities close their eyes. But things seem to change in China, and authorities feel more concerned about safety issues and protests from other residents.

 

Read Beijing’s rock villa story on BBC

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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