URBAN DESIGN International (2007) 12, 21–40
r 2007 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. 1357-5317/07 $30.00
www.palgrave-journals.co.uk/udi
Importation and adaptation: building ‘one city and nine
towns’ in Shanghai: a case study of Vittorio Gregotti’s plan
of Pujiang Town
Charlie Q.L. Xue* and Minghao Zhou
Division of Building Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue,
Kowloon, Hong Kong
During the past 25 years, China has seen a large influx of imported foreign architecture. What is the
mechanism of introducing foreign design in China? What methodologies and ideas do foreign architects
adopt for their designs in remote China? How can ideas be turned into real buildings? This article tries to
find the answers through a case study of Vittorio Gregotti’s design for Pujiang Town and some other new
towns in Shanghai, China. The article shows different methodologies adopted by various foreign architects,
and how the ideal concepts are transformed into real buildings. The authors suggest that more practical
aspects of local life should be studied before imposing any spectacular plans by the overseas architects. This
may ameliorate the common approach of imitating indigenous building vocabularies visually and
superficially.
URBAN DESIGN International (2007) 12, 21–40. doi:10.1057/palgrave.udi.9000180
Keywords: Shanghai; one city and nine towns; planning; Italian design; Vittorio Gregotti
Introduction
Since the open door policy was adopted, China
has launched a drive towards modernization and
witnessed an exponential growth in construction
activities. From the 1980s, large-scale building
works designed by foreign architects have been
introduced to the coastal and hinterland cities.
The similar importation of overseas design was
seen in the Middle East in the 1970s, and in Japan
and other fast-growing Asian countries in the
1980s–1990s. But none of the countries in the
world has experienced the importation of foreign
architectural design of such immense quantity in
such a short period (Xue, 2006a, b; Cody, 2003).
In 2001, the Shanghai government declared to
build ‘one city and nine towns’ in its suburban
areas and planned to introduce the European
townscapes of Britain, Italy, the Netherlands,
*Correspondence: Tel: þ 852 2788 7434, Fax: þ 852 2788 9716,
E-mail: [email protected]
Germany, Spain and Scandinavia in the new
towns, using conceptual designers from the
respective countries. The announcement was soon
associated with ‘theme park-like development’ by
the mass media. The implementation of these
projects aroused extensive discussions and debates
among professionals and citizens. In spite of the
criticism, the shape of some of these towns has
already emerged on the horizon.
This paper tries to uncover the intentions behind
the activities of ‘one city and nine towns’,
introducing the mechanism of involving foreign
architects, and the roles of foreign architects in the
process. Several aspects of the foreign architects
are focused on – first, their understanding of the
design conditions, and strategies of problemsolving; second, the adoption and adaptation of
their designs by Chinese developers and their
attitudes towards the design of foreign architects;
and third, the relationship between the Chinese
and foreign parties in the process of preparation
and construction.
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C.Q.L. Xue and M. Zhou
22
Vittorio Gregotti is a native of Milano, Italy and
his design of Pujiang Town in Shanghai was
chosen to highlight the design and development
aspects of this study. After a brief introduction of
‘one city and nine towns’ policy, the paper
analyzes the design of Pujiang Town in detail.
The views from the designer, developer and
Chinese design partner are presented for a better
understanding of the project. The authors hope
that the case study and analysis will enrich
the discourse of importation/exportation of
architecture in fast developing Asian cities and
provide a useful criticism for the practitioners and
administrators.
Background of ‘one city and nine towns’
The dream of ‘World City’
In the early 1960s satellite towns were built
around Shanghai, influenced by British planning
ideas. This has evolved to the practice of
‘auxiliary town’ and ‘new town’. In its planning
for the year 2020, Greater Shanghai is zoned in a
hierarchy of five classes: (1) city proper (within
the inner ring road) – (2) three major new towns –
(3) general new town (totally 11 new towns) – (4)
22 central rural towns, and (5) general rural
towns.1 ‘One city nine towns’ means one city of
Songjiang in Class (2) and nine new towns in
Class (3). They are mostly built on the farmland,
and away from the old towns – this is the reason
they are called ‘new towns’. It was proposed in
2001, to use more axis, layers and multiple cores
to replace the old model of endless sprawling of
concentric central city, conforming to what Patrick
Geddes proposed almost 100 years ago (Hall,
2002).
The cores of the new towns can hopefully resolve
the imminent problems of Shanghai city, for
example, the shift of manufacturing from the city
center to the peripheral suburbs, the dispersing of
populations and the urbanization of the rural
areas. This strategy is referred to as ‘principle of
dispersion-concentration’ in Shanghai, which
means reducing the population from the central
1
The city structure is from master planning of Shanghai
2000–2020, approved by the State Council of Chinese government.
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city and concentrating facilities in the suburban
new towns.
The area of Greater Shanghai is around 6000 km2.
The original city center was a little over 100 km2.
and accommodated two-thirds of its 13 millions
population in the 1970s. Construction mainly
occurred in this core area 20 years ago. In the
past 20 years, the 6000 km2 areas of Greater
Shanghai also developed to meet the demand
for rapid-growing economic development and
urbanization. With the increasing importance of
suburban areas, the ‘one city and nine towns’
became a stepping stone for Shanghai to jump to
the status of ‘world city’. One author noted, ‘if we
want to lead the Yangtze River Delta, participate
in international competition and become a world
city, we should by no means ignore the healthy
development of the suburban areas, which are
really an important layer in the city structure. The
suburb should be a most lively outpost instead of
a transition belt.’ (Zhou Jianjun, 2005) In this
process, ‘one city and nine towns’ shoulders the
expectations of alleviating various stresses of
the central city, operating autonomously in their
locations, and thus achieving the ambition of
‘world city’ ranking.
European-American townscape and foreign
architects
The initial ‘one city and nine towns’ were loosely
assigned in the following manner:
One city: Songjiang – British;
Nine towns: Anting, Jiading District – Germany;
Luodian, Baoshan District – Scandinavian; Zhujiajiao
of Qingpu District – southern China water
town; Fengjing of Jinshan District – Canadian;
Pujiang of Minhang District – Italy; Gaoqiao of
Pudong District – Holland; Zhoupu of Nanhui –
European-American; Fengcheng of Fengxian District – Spanish; and Buzhen of Chongming
County – European-American. Every rural district
will have a representative town under this pilot
plan. The intention of introducing Western styles
is to break through the monotonous model of
rural town construction and build a new order
and identity for the rest of the developments. In
its historic formation over a hundred years,
Shanghai acquired its leading position in the
region by being deeply involved in foreign trade
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C.Q.L. Xue and M. Zhou
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and by selectively assimulating western culture.
The plan of ‘one city and nine towns’ can be seen
as a natural extension of its ‘glorious colonial
past’ (Figure 1).
Most of the towns are administered and developed by the district government except the
Songjiang city that is jointly run by the district
and Shanghai municipal governments. As the city
area accommodates most of the populations, the
municipal government and planning authority
have paid more attention on the management and
control of the city, and therefore, the suburban
governments are relatively independent and
autonomous. The mission of the municipal planning authority is mainly to enact forward-looking
planning outlines and approve large-scale planning projects; while the planning committees of
district level are responsible for the implementation of the approved plan, and controlling the
urban and building design projects. Most of the
‘one city and nine towns’ projects fall in the
category of ‘urban and building design’, and they
have particular requirements on ‘style and townscape’. Therefore, they were given green lights in
the control of planning regulations, and more
freedom since they were controlled by the district
planning committees. Districts vary in their own
interests and financial resources, so the ‘one city
and nine towns’ were inevitably constructed
differently.
In general, the district governments fully support
the projects of new towns, and this is reflected in
the policies on buildable land and finances. The
land is planned as special quotas, and solicited
from local farmers. The affected farmers can be
compensated to buy apartments in the city and
treated as city residents. In this way, the buildable
land is ensured to be available and affordable for
developers. The district governments also provide
incentives for the construction of new towns, like
tax exemptions for developers and the encouragement of local banks to provide long-term
loans.
Among all the designated new towns, Songjiang,
Anting and Pujing towns actively responded and
implemented the policy through international
design competitions to select the master plan.
Foreign design firms from relevant countries were
invited to submit master plans and the winning
firms were also awarded the design of buildings
within the new towns. These three towns already
have a preliminary shape after 3–4 years’ hard
work and are described briefly in the following
sessions.
Figure 1. The distribution of ‘one city and nine towns’ in Shanghai, 2000.
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New city of Songjiang – British style
Songjiang is a historic district in Shanghai that
includes Buddhist towers from the Tang (618–907)
and Song (960–1279) Dynasties. It also houses
abundant tourist resources, a science park, a
manufacturing base, and a university park. In
2001, an international competition was held to
design a sample district in the ‘British style’. Over
two and a half months, the competition required
participants to submit a planning synopsis for a
new Songjiang City of 60 km2; a conceptual
skeleton for the 23 km2 sample district; urban
design for the core area of 6 km2; a traffic hub of
1 km2; and the ‘authentic’ British style residential
area of 1 km2 (Wang, 2003) (Figure 2).
The new towns range from several square kilometers to decades square kilometers. Internationally accepted regulations to govern such
competitions have not yet been enacted. The
criteria for assessing the submitted plans were
mainly in hard and soft standards. The hard
standards included populations, household number, land area, infrastructure, etc. The soft standards, in the initial stage, mainly focused on the
‘foreign image’, townscape and diversified styles.
With the deepening of judgment, additional attention was paid on people’s behavior, the future life
style, the fairness of society, and traffic modes.
For the assessment of Songjiang New City, all the
schemes were read and evaluated by the jury
members, which were composed by planning
experts from home and abroad. The process was
supervised by a team of municipal and district
officials, and witnessed by the staff from relevant
foreign consulate generals. In the jury meeting,
the experts first expressed their views, then voted
on the submissions. Last, the final decision was
made by the district government. The other new
towns, by and large, followed a similar process of
selecting the winning schemes.
On March 20, 2001, the firm Atkins from Britain
was announced as the winning firm whose
scheme beat others submitted by Architettiriuniti
of Italy, Natural Building Design of UK, Sheppard
Robinson of UK, and S.C.U. of France. The
winning scheme was lauded as ‘not only having
the flavor of old historic towns of Oxford and
Bath, but also the new garden cities as Milton
Figure 2. Master plan of Songjiang City, Atkins, UK, winning scheme, 2001. The winning scheme was lauded as
‘mixed zoning, neighborhood accessible by the pedestrian, unique green belt in the central park and town center,
hierarchy of river system and open space’.
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Keynes’ that exemplified the ‘mixed zoning,
neighborhood accessible by the pedestrian, unique green belt in the central park and town
center, hierarchy of river system and open space’.
A ubiquitous ‘garden’ was emphasized in the
master plan. Atkins was also proposed the design
of ‘Thames New Town’ of 1 km2, with ‘authentic
British taste’. The design takes prototypes from
the native place of Shakespeare. Other characteristics, from British business and life are also
cloned in the new town, like: Scottish Whisky,
souvenirs of British football games, English
porcelain, pub, cafe, restaurant, wax portrait
exhibition, churches and European style wedding
services. The idea integrates real estate property
development with tourism.
The planning went through three stages. In the
first stage, Albert Speer & Partners (AS & P) of
Germany won the competition for the conceptual
scheme. In the second stage, AS & P and the
Planning Institute of Jiading cooperated to complete a set of submission documents. In the third
stage, more than 20 German design companies,
and more than 100 architects, were invited to
develop the architectural design in the direction
of the outline zoning plan for a built area of 236
hectares. The ‘classical dimension’ of Medieval
Age German town and architectural style of
‘Bauhaus’ were applied in the building design.
Advanced building services and technologies
were also employed here and there (Huang et al,
2005, Han and Pei, 2005). The property was
popular and liked by some home buyers (Figure 3).
Anting Town – German style
Case study of Pujiang New Town
Anting is one of the settlements in Jiading District,
and the home of the Volkswagen factory in China.
In this ‘international automobile city’ of 68 km2,
the core residential area of 3.9 km2 is naturally
assigned a ‘German style’, for 40 000 residents.
The process
Pujiang New Town has neither the significant
advantages of industry nor history as the other
Figure 3. Master plan of Anting Town, AS & P scheme, Germany. The ‘classical dimension’ of Medieval Age German
town and architectural style of ‘Bauhaus’ were applied in the planning and design of 236-hectare land.
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Figure 4. The location of Pujiang Town in Shanghai, it is the new town nearest to the city.
towns. But it benefits from the proposed location
of World Expo 2010 in its city center. After its
publication, the masterplan was widely accepted
as a rational design, instead of a theme park-like
‘foreign architectural exhibition’. The foreign and
Chinese parties involved in the development all
feel good about keeping their own viewpoints
and compromising in some common interests.
This is the reason we select the project as a case
study (Figure 4).
The design and development started from 2001,
and spanned three stages. Summing up the
project, Augusto Cagnardi, the manager of Gregotti Associati International Italy, described it as
‘highly risky, but at the same time madly
fascinating’ (Cagnardi, 2003). For both the Italian
and Chinese parties, this ‘risk’ seems worthy,
when looking at the current outcome (Figure 5).
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In the first stage, the district government sponsored an international design competition, and
the future developer Highpower-OCT Investment
Ltd. initiated a design programme. Gregotti
Associati International, Scacchetti of Italy and
SWA of USA were invited for submission. The
Scacchetti scheme divides, with water, the land of
10 km2 into several plots, each plot using a
famous Italian town as spatial and building
model. The new town is like a collage of historic
themes. The contribution of SWA scheme is
mainly a wetland, connected with Huangpu
River. But the town is basically a clone of an
American suburban village. Single-family houses
and private cars dominate the plan, with little
consideration of the complexity of Shanghai city.
Finally, the scheme of Gregotti Associati International was selected for its merits of rational
planning, connection with the city planning
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Figure 5. Master plan of Pujiang Town with an area of 15 km2, winning scheme, Gregotti Associati International, Italy.
The grid line of 300 300 m controls the whole site.
context, compact and unique building types and
encouragement of public life.
In the second stage, a plot of 2.6 km2 was
commissioned to Gregotti Associati for a detailed
urban design, and the local design institute
designed the infrastructure and planning covenant for guiding the future building design. In
the third stage, 47 hectares of sample area were
allocated for the building design. To encourage
diversity, several other Italian design firms
were invited to carry out building design for
various blocks and land lots, under the direction
of the planning guide, including Battisti, Cellini/
Cordeschi, Galantino, Pascolo and Rizzi, all
coordinated by the Gregotti Associati. Several
buildings, villas and multi-storey apartments, are
now completed.2 The multi-storey housing units
2
The descriptions of Pujiang New Town are partly from the
interview of Le Xing, the president of Shanghai HighpowerOCT Investment Ltd., January 12, 2006, and from the
submission documents for the excellent design award in
Shanghai.
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were sold out, and the villas were also very
popular in the market. The innovative plan has
transformed Pujiang New Town. It is no longer a
marginalized town in suburban Shanghai, and
attracts the attention of building professionals
and considerable numbers of property buyers
(Figures 6 and 7).
junctions of pedestrian paths, pocket parks and
open spaces are skillfully knitted. The original
river network remains to integrate the road
system, and thus the whole masterplan forms a
systematic and varied urban texture.
The planning of Pujiang Town
The rigor of the planning concept was applied to
the urban, street, and building designs. The
design characteristics of the 47 hectares site
developed as follows.
Gregotti Associati adopted a unique method in
planning. After deciding the overall skeleton, the
designer soon went down to the level of building
dimension and form. Feedback from the building
level helped to adjust the planning parameters.
The 10.3 km2 area was planned in such an
effective way that there was no fundamental
change from the very beginning to the final stages
of building design.3
A grid of 300 300 m controls the whole site, with
some occasional alterations according to the
irregular site, and accommodates the various
elements such as boundaries, entrance, center,
road and public space. The site is adjacent to the
Huangpu River in its west, and is surrounded by
artificial greenery hills on the other three sides.
The entrance is from Puxing Road on the east
side, a 300-m wide central mall extends westward
to the Huangpu River, flanked by the important
buildings of governmental administration, a
conference center, hospital, college, church, hotel,
office, a 500 000 km2 shopping mall and ‘Italian
Palace’, and a landmark building with Italian
gardens. The mixed functions provide an area full
of energy round the clock. Perpendicular to the
central mall is a north–south direction green belt,
which separates the functional areas with a
reserve for high-voltage power cables and integrates the sport facilities that include a stadium,
playground, golf course, bicycle path and swimming pool (Figure 8).
The 300 300 m road system defines the street
blocks, and vehicles disappear into underground
parking areas soon after entering the block. A
pedestrian path system, also in the 300 300 m
grid, is interlocked with the vehicular road. At
3
The method of Italian company is introduced by the
Shanghai partner architect, Huang Xiangming, director of
Tianhua Planning and Architecture Ltd., interviewed on
December 28, 2005.
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The urban design of Pujiang Town
First, the urban design and building layout
strictly followed the perpendicular grid laid
down in the planning concept. The public space
of south–north direction is mainly composed of
pedestrian paths and greenery, while the eastwestward space is formed by canal and street,
flanked by single-family villas (Figure 9).
Second, a concept of mixture is proposed –
comprising housing with various prices, and
building designs of different styles. Social economic mixture has proved an effective means in
western society for vitalizing the city and guarding against gentrification. Mixture and density
became the key concepts of neo-urbanism in the
1980s. Gregotti Associati proposed to organize
city life in a mixed way, ‘A problem in itself is the
request for districts with different typologies
correspondent to various income levels. We
reckon, in accordance with the tradition of the
Italian historic cities, that such levels have to be
mixed and that the different needs are taken
into account within the context of the specific
architecture: the ‘‘palazzo’’ is an element of
expression of the urban texture in the same way
as the various house and apartment typologies’
(Gregotti Associati International, 2001).
To achieve the necessary mixture, conventional
‘zoning’ was broken through. There are no strict
divisions of residential, commercial and office
areas. In the residential area, there are some
small-scale office and community facilities. In the
commercial area, there are office, entertainment
and serviced apartments. The permanent and
temporary residents live together, and make the
city lively round the clock.
In every street block, there are different types of
housing, for example, the multi-storey apartment,
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Figure 6. Master plan of Pujiang Town, Scacchetti scheme, collage of various famous Italian towns.
townhouse of 2–3 storey high, high-rise housing
of 10 stories and the detached house with private
gardens. This layout enables the people of
different incomes to live together and communicate, and also creates a visually rich townscape.
The townhouse is usually arranged on the two
sides of a pedestrian street. Openings are left in
the side facing the canal, thus recreating the
feeling of a public waterfront space in Venice.
Ideas of mixture are also embodied in the
architectural design. In the 12 land lots, the
Gregotti Associati designed seven lots, and the
rest were designed by other Italian firms: Galantino in the multi-storey apartment of B-2, Cordeschi in the apartment of B-3, Battisti in the
townhouse of D-2, Pascolo in the townhouse of
E-2 and Rizzi in the townhouse of E-3.
Architectural design
Among those already completed buildings, the
China–Italy Cultural Plaza and garden villas are
the most notable and valuable.
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Figure 7. Master plan of Pujiang Town, SWA scheme, paradise for the single-family house and private car.
The Cultural Plaza follows the general order laid
down by the planning concept. The built form
aligns with the grid, expresses an exquisite spatial
richness and taste of the ancient Roman agora.
The Plaza is composed of the clubhouse, retail,
office, exhibition hall, and a landmark bell tower.
The external court is the core with the richest
expression. It is divided into four huge quadrangles by a stark, thick red wall, elevated above
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people’s height. The concrete wall is clad with
grey slates outside and painted red color inside.
Within the court, people’s vision is naturally led
to the sky. The blue sky, white cloud and red wall
orchestrate an extremely pure picture. The modern form recalls the traditional Chinese, and the
religious ritual elements of the Danteum designed
by Terragni as well. Standing inside the court
surrounded by the elevated red wall, one may
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Figure 8. Sample area of Pujiang Town, 2.6 km2, the urban design is controlled in a grid of 150 150 m.
reminiscence of Also Rossi’s spatial treatment and
Baroque-like space. The deep canopy of the
opening unifies the various building volumes
and elements visually. Such clean and powerful
design is rarely seen in Shanghai, where there
are too many noisy and mediocre buildings
(Figure 10).
‘Garden villa’ is another innovation in building
type, it is neither villa nor row house, but inbetween. In the sample area, there are eight
groups, each group having around 20 housing
units. There are 24 types of ‘garden villa’,
averagely 230 m2 gross floor area for each housing
unit (Figure 11).
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Figure 9. Built area of Phase I, 47 hectares, Pujiang Town, figure and ground.
The design of garden villa emphasizes both the
urban density and family privacy. In a lot of
18 18 m, the L-shape building defines the courtyard in two sides. It is denser than the conventional single-family house, which is usually
surrounded by a garden on four sides, and creates
a continuous building plane for the street. The
privacy of each family is also well protected. It
recalls the traditional lilong lane house of Shanghai. Moreover, the housing group forms a semiprivate and defensible U-shape. The internal path
of groups connects to the pedestrian public space
outside. The transition from public to private is
skillfully arranged, and the boundaries of the
neighborhood are clearly defined. The level of
the private courtyard is a bit higher than the
outside street, so that the residents can overlook
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the street and also communicate with the neighbors (Figure 12).
The challenges of importing the foreign
architecture
Backward or forward looking
The building of ‘one city and nine towns’ shows
the eagerness of Chinese municipal government
in pursuing city identity, urbanization speed and
‘introducing the advanced planning concepts
from the foreign countries’ (Planning Bureau of
Shanghai, 2001). Learning from the results of this
policy, foreign architects should satisfactorily
answer two fundamental questions before making
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and ubiquitous curvilinear shapes. To connect to
the nowadays, the Anting New Town uses
‘Bauhaus of Weimar’ as its building style. By
superimposing the old planning method and
‘new building style’, the designers’ intention is
clear – hybridization can make nostalgia shape
modern towns and buildings. Other foreign
architects tried to collage historic fragments –
several typical Italian cities appearing in the
various districts of Scacchetti firm’s submitted
plan. In the ‘Holland Town’ of Gaoqiao, the
Kuiper Comagonons firm of planning and landscape architecture opted for a method ‘gradually
transiting from traditional Holland to more
modern architectural forms’ – waterfront villa,
courtyard house and multi-storey slab apartment
(Bao and Cheng 2005, p. 80) (Figures 13–16).
Figure 10. China–Italy Plaza is the administrative
center in the Pujiang Town.
their plans. First, how to define ‘style’ – is it
superficial decoration for commercial speculation
or part of the city life and infrastructure? Second,
how can you make a fast-built city to meet future
demands within the boundaries of current reality
and constraints?
In building an ideal new town, historic precedents
become useful references. Different architects
interpret this resource with different methods.
The Germany designers of Anting New Town
tried to return to the ideas of the Medieval Age
and built a ‘pure German Style’ town in modern
China. This style is achieved by the irregular
roads and streets drawn from the ‘city wall of
Medieval Age’, the ‘autonomously growing city’,
The European towns were usually formed over a
period of several hundred years. A Chinese new
town hopes to have similar historic richness and
depth in a much shorter period of time. But is this
difficult and, even, ridiculous? The economic,
social conditions and life pattern in China are
completely different from Medieval Europe, as
pointed out by Raymond Unwin, ‘Though the
study of old towns and their buildings is most
useful, nay, is almost essential to any due
appreciation of the subject, we must not forget
that we cannot, even if we would, reproduce the
conditions under which they were createdy.
While, therefore, we can copy, for we must
consider what is likely to lead to the best results
under modern conditions, what is and what is not
attainable with the means at our disposal’ (Unwin, 1909, 1994, p. 13). To resurrect the old
European town is no doubt a challenge for the
planners, designers and developers. The imitation
of the ‘Medieval townscape’ only reflects the
romantic nostalgia of the decision-maker.
Gregotti Associati answered these critical questions in another way, ‘When assigning an ‘‘Italian
character’’ to a new city, there are two facts to be
considered: first of all that this character is based
on a historic awareness as seen from a presentday angle and second that this awareness is the
reference for projects of the future which move
away from it’ (Gregotti Associati International,
2001). The firm’s design has paid attention to
ideas of change and the transitory nature of
progress, and interpreted the ‘Italian’ style, or
townscape, according to the site and location in
Shanghai, China.
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Figure 11. China–Italy Plaza.
A sandy lagoon in the lower stream of Huangpu
River, the site of Pujiang Town is almost a blank
sheet in history and context. But Vittorio Gregotti’s view of the landscape made him interpret the
city in a holistic and flexible way, as Kenneth
Frampton commented, ‘Completely opposed to
rendering building as freestanding objects,
Gregotti regarded architectural form as the
primary agent capable of contributing to the
ever-evolving character of both land form and
land use. In this respect he remained critical of
any open-ended, instrumental exploitation of
land.’ And, further, ‘Gregotti was the first to
recognize that it is the land itself that is at stake
today rather than the traditional city. He came to
see that the full crisis lay not only within the
historical urban core but also in the ever-proliferating tentacles of the megalopolis, since it was
these that were having the greatest cultural and
physical impact, through the process of speculative subdivision and the wholesale consumption
of agricultural landy’ (Frampton, 1996). In the
submitted documents of the design competition,
the Italian designer writes, ‘The Italian city is a
voluntary foundation act and it is based on the
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geography of the land as well as on its history,
and on the concept of geometrical layout: mainly
the very ancient European and Mediterranean
tradition that dates back to the Chou-Li, the
‘‘great model’’ and ritual book; it well portrays
also the transition between nature and culture
seen as critical reason’ (Gregotti Associati International, 2001).
The grid used in the Pujiang Town gives meaning
to the new settlement – the pure vehicular bypass
roads occur every 600 m, vehicular traffic roads
every 300 m and the pedestrian pathways intersect at 150 m intervals. The pedestrians no doubt
acquire the first priority, but the planning also
addresses the reality of the increasing growth of
automobiles in Chinese cities, as pointed out by
design manager Augusto Cagnardi, ‘the city is not
formed in a day, and it does not last without
change. But if there is no order in the beginning,
the city will be eventually chaotic.’4 The planning
4
Dramatic city – stepping on the small town of Huangpu
River, Design Trend, No. 103, December 25, 2002.
Importation and adaptation
C.Q.L. Xue and M. Zhou
35
Figure 12. ‘Garden-villa’ plan, a building type between single family house and townhouse.
of Pujiang Town tries to provide such an order
and framework on which the future developments can happen and grow.
Gregotti Associati submitted an entry to the
Grand National Theater competition for Beijing
in 1998, but failed in the first round. Its scheme
was an obvious imitation of traditional Chinese
architecture, for example, the red color, central
axis and banner above the fortress, and a pitched
roof. ‘Our judgments were wrong. We don’t know
that more people in the rapid-developing China
are aspiring towards the future, they are always
forward looking, and eager to see the changes and
new things. They even want to forget the past.’5
This early competition gave the design firm a
lesson that they learned – to respect, but not
imitate, history (Figure 17).
5
Ibid., p. 33.
Bridging the ideals and reality
There is still a long distance from a good scheme
to the final built environment. Foreign architects
can meet immense obstacles in implementing
their design, if they cannot successfully engage
the help of local government, developers and
partner architects.
Shanghai Highpower-OCT Investment Ltd., the
developer of the Pujiang Town, acted as bridge
from the planning to reality. They appreciated
the thoughtful plan created by the Italian architects and strictly implemented it from the macro
10.3 km2 to the micro architectural design in a
land plot of 26 hectares. The developer sensed the
commercial value from the project, but also saw
the opportunity to improve upon unreasonable
phenomenon in the development in contemporary China.
The role of ‘Italian style’ was assigned to the
Pujiang Town. But the developer firmly rejected
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Importation and adaptation
C.Q.L. Xue and M. Zhou
36
Figure 13. Street in the ‘Garden-villa’ creates a feel of the old Lilong of Shanghai and introversive intimacy.
the Disneyland and tourist method. ‘Style is not
imposed as a facade only, it should be expressed
from the inner life and form of the city and the
house. If we can absorb the healthy genes of
Italian cities and integrate them to our life, we can
produce a project completely different with the
other mediocre ones.’ The developer and designer
came to a consensus that they should resolve the
problems of the modern Chinese city, instead of
producing mere facades. Based on this pure
understanding, both parties can mutually inspire
the work. The developer unwaveringly supported
the design proposals, such as grid dimension and
mixed community. ‘We want to do a commercial
project with great social idealism, and see if we
can set up an example.’6
6
Quotations in this paragraph are from the interview of Le
Xing, the president of Shanghai Highpower-OCT Investment
Ltd., January 12, 2006.
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In choosing the architects, the developer investigated the background of various designers in
terms of their experience in international operation. They hoped to keep a balance between
ideals, innovation, and the market. A new ‘villa
garden’ was proposed, and such a type had not
been seen before in China’s market. They sought
to control the parameters and modules, and
finally set up the gross floor area at 200–300 m2
for a price of 3–5 million yuan (US$ 360–600
thousand). The architects’ design work turned out
to be an appealing and marketable product as
sales proved its commercial success.
Building cost and design fees always arouse
conflicts between the Chinese clients and foreign
architects. The three grand national projects in
Beijing, the National Theater, CCTV headquarters,
and main stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games,
have attracted severe criticisms, partly because of
their continuous uprising budgets (Xue, 2006b).
Importation and adaptation
C.Q.L. Xue and M. Zhou
37
Figure 14. House interior of Pujiang Town.
major parts, and substitute materials in other
parts. All these measurements helped to control
the budget.
Figure 15. Comparison of Anting Town and Middle Age
European city, they use similar city fabric.
The Pujiang Town met with similar problems. The
design fee for the Italian architects was supposedly 10 times higher than that of the Chinese
architects, owing to the exchange rate between
RMB and Euro. The requirements of materials in
the sample house made the cost much higher than
the prevailing price of similar houses. The
Chinese developer tried to reduce the workload
of Italian architects, and let the local partner
architects undertake more auxiliary works. The
developer fully discussed these matters with the
architect, to ensure high quality materials in the
The cooperation mode also decides the project
quality. The Italian and Chinese architects/developers worked together, sometimes in Italy, and
sometimes in China. Although internet allows quick
data transmission, face-to-face communication and
working was indispensable to solve the problems
encountered. Through working together, both
parties can thoroughly understand the ideas of their
counterparts. The developer also led the Italian
architects to visit local buildings to be familiar with
the living habits. These made the cooperation
smooth, pleasant, and eventually led to the complete
implementation of the design concepts.
Conclusion: the importation and
adaptation
Contemporary society sees the coexistence of
enthusiasm for renovating the city to address its
urban problems, and the market pursuance of the
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C.Q.L. Xue and M. Zhou
38
Figure 16. Completed buildings in the Anting New Town.
financial profits (Heynen, 1999). The two aspects
contradict in most cases. Capitalist force and
value obviously dominates most societies, and
critical consciousness and social consciences,
usually, have to give way. From Edward Howard’s garden city to Le Corbusier’s ‘city of
tomorrow’, the utopian ideas of changing the
industrial city all proved failures, no matter
whether they resisted or fully relied upon the
help of monopolist capitalists. Today, with the
process of globalization, maximization of profit
still controls building practice in the developing
countries with power and money, and destroys
ruthlessly the local identities.
Pujiang Town may show an example of how the
critical culture and capitalism can coexist and
even cooperate in an era of globalization when
China is establishing its own marketing mechanism. On one hand, the architects should retain
their critical edge while also becoming familiar
with the rules of game in the capitalist market. On
URBAN DESIGN International
the other hand, the developers should take care of
universal social responsibilities. The developers’
personal values can be realized only when the
social value is achieved. The government, developer, and architect share the same basis for
success – that is social value.
The conflicts between indigenous and foreign
cultures, between national resistance and global
capitalism are common phenomenon and cultural
discourse for almost all developing countries.
Rational criteria for foreign architects’ designs
should rely on its conformity with the local life
and conditions. But in most cases, the evaluation
is only degraded to the esthetic aspect. For
example, people praise the design of Jin Mao
Building in Pudong, Shanghai, designed by SOM
in 1998, mostly for its ‘pagoda-like’ tower form.
However, a successful work of urban design or
building should address much more than its
appearance. There are tons of concrete urban
problems that the designers have to face both in
Importation and adaptation
C.Q.L. Xue and M. Zhou
39
Figure 17. ‘Holland New Town’ in Gaoqing Town, dedicated to the Holland style.
western and Asian cities. Only after solving those
problems, will designs of built form transcend
ordinary esthetics.
Compared with the other projects of ‘one city and
nine towns’, the Pujiang Town prevails with its
historic/modern sense and methods. As the buildings are just finished, the residents – the end users –
have not yet moved in, and their voices are not
heard. It may be too early to draw any conclusion
at this stage. Allowing some years, to revisit
Pujiang and other projects of ‘one city and nine
towns’ will be extremely significant for the research
of architectural importation and exportation.
Acknowledgements
This paper is part of a study supported by the
Strategic Research Fund, City University of Hong
Kong, No. 7001763. Le Xing, Ye Jing, of Shanghai
Highpower-OCT Investment Ltd., and Huang
Xiangming, of Tianhua Architecture Planning &
Engineering Ltd., kindly provided the materials
and views on the Pujiang Town planning. The
English draft was edited by Luther Tsai. Figures
4–11 are by courtesy of Highpower-OCT Investment Ltd., Figures 2, 3 and 17, courtesy of Ideal
Space. The authors express their hearty thanks to
all the above people and organizations.
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