Get your heads around

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

Multi-ethnic

Multi-ethnic

‘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

Shenzhen 1980

Shenzhen 1980

Shenzhen 1990

Shenzhen 1990

Shenzhen 2007

Shenzhen today

Shenzhen today

Shenzhen today

Shenzhen today

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

New identity...

... 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

‘Living room’

Ground floor as shared services zone

A different type of plan than usual in China

Small but smart

Design on all scales

Color in the city

Under way

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