1. Chinese Urbanism in Global Context
PLAN A6526
Columbia University
Prof. Weiping Wu
Bifurcated urban population & space

2. Presentations Urbanization and policy Built environment
Mega international events
Air pollution
Built environment
Regional planning and urbanization
Compact city planning
Green roof
Western influence on urban China
Ghost cities
Public space
Property tax
TOD
Impact of highway construction
Infrastructure and housing
Green industry development
Comparative analysis of affordable housing
Urban development and redevelopment
PPP for affordable housing
Role of “Urban Villages”
Urban water and sewerage
Redevelopment of “Urban Villages”
Cross-border transport
Urban slums
Enclave urbanism

3. Reconfiguration of urban space
No longer the egalitarian, low-profile, and walking-scale socialist city
Linkage between work and residence has all but disappeared
End of cellular-type of housing built around work units
Unprecedented residential mobility
Rising role of real estate development
Cessation of work-unit compounds
Less pedestrian and bicycle oriented

4. Neighborhoods – differentiation
traditional neighborhoods in old-city area developed before 1949
enclaves of high-end residential development in redeveloped central areas
work-unit compounds built between with high level of social mixture within
mixed-use suburban areas or satellite towns, developed from the late 1970s onward
urban villages formed during reform era

5. Increasing spatial differentiation
Concentration of migrants
Augmented by social networks that sustain migration flows
Return of pre-socialist divisions
Migrants dominate poorer neighborhoods in less desirable locations
Satellite or “daughter” communities of migrants
‘Urban villages’

7. Gating exclusionary? Historical roots
Collectivism-oriented culture deeply embedded in society – neighborhood (jiefang) and courtyard houses
Common work-unit affiliation: housing, work, and social/political/civil functions
Enclosed neighborhood (xiaoqu)
Differ from gated communities in US

9. Remaking of economic space
Creation of new industrial parks in urban periphery
Building of new central business districts
Multiplying clusters of commercial and entertainment activities
So-called “consumer revolution”
Polycentric and highly differentiated

10. Shanghai’s new economic space
ETDZ Economic and Technology Development Zone
CBD Central Business District

12. Migrant settlement
Distribution of migrant residence shifted markedly since 1980s
Initially migrants concentrated in central city
Downtown redevelopment made housing in central city less affordable
Largest number of migrants concentrate in inner suburbs since 1990s
Why not forming squatter settlements as in other developing countries?

13. Spatial distribution
Between 2000 and 2010, many neighborhoods became dominated by migrants, especially outside central city

15. Sojourners in the city Positioning migrants in urban society
Labor is desired but presence unwanted
Limited access to urban benefits
Most migrants trapped in two housing types in spite of high mobility rates
Renting private housing
Living in dorm or workshed.
Few rural migrants make transition from renters to owners after years in city