SOLID & VOID Axel Hansson, Sweden
“What fascinates me most about China is the behavior of ordinary people on city streets. This project is a reminisce of small public spaces in Chinese
Sustainable Urban Dynamics
urbanism.”
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China is undergoing a rapid transition from a rural to an urban society. This radical urbanization has changed the relationship and interactions of people. In the new Chinese city, fi nely meshed streetscape of courtyards, pocket parks and pedestrian-friendly streets are rapidly being replaced by a caroriented urban landscape with gated communities, central business districts with weak connections for pedestrians and cyclists and loosely defi ned open spaces. High-rise building design to maximize profit with no regard for street life are just one aftermath of the market-oriented economic policies adopted in 1978. A concrete example of what rapid urbanization means for this region shows in the Urban Extent of Chengdu, the mega city 50 kilometers from Dujiangyan. In 2009 it was 167,680 hectares, increasing at an average annual rate of 13% since 2000. The urban extent in 2000 was 53,140 hectares,
increasing at an average annual rate of 11% since 1988, when its urban extent was 14,194 hectares. In such a rapid growth, the human scale is easily forgotten. Dujiangyan is a relatively small city in comparison (600,000 inhabitants). But also Dujiangyan is growing rapidly and the main aim for this project is thus to show how you can create a fi nely meshed streetscape focusing on developing a low/medium - rise, high density proposal that both relate to both the local and national rich history of architecture - and still be profitable. In the development of a large area like this, its important to create different types of characters within the site and allowing variety and unique places to be formed. The proposal is based on three main areas, each with its unique expression. Common to the whole proposal is that the past street network before the area was hit by an earthquake has created a skeleton for the structure.
