Streets in Shanghai: Transformations and New Dynamism ZHUO Jian, ZHANG Xiaoling, TANG Xiaolong Tongji University
I. CONTEXTS 1.1 Spatial expansion and structural transformations 1.1.1 The central agglomeration of the Shanghai has seen a considerable sprawl in the last two decades (Fig-1). From 2003 to 2008, the built area has grown from 1505 km2 to 2288 km2. Among the new urbanized areas, there were 273 km2 in suburb and 458 km2 in exurb. As millions of inhabitants were moved out of the central city, the social-economic activities were developed in an enlarged spatial scope, the average travel distance of individual increased significantly. According to the Transport Surveys realized by Shanghai City Comprehensive Transportation Planning Institute (SCCTPI) in 1995, 2004 and 2009, the average travel distance in Shanghai increased constantly from 4.5 km to 6.5km, passing by 6.2 km.
Fig-1 Central agglomeration and built area of Shanghai in 1991, 2003, 2008
1.1.2 The overall urban functional structure of Shanghai has been completely transformed under the guidance of Master Plan 1999-2020. A hierarchical and multipolar organization has been introduced in two spatial scales. In the level of municipality, a “multi-axis, multi-tier and multi-core” spatial structure has been defined for the urban development of municipal territories. The Plan figured out 11 new cities in order to moderate the sprawl of central agglomeration (Fig-2). The urban pattern of the municipality has been further clarified in 2004 with a hierarchical system named “1-9-6-6”: 1 central city, 9 new cities, 60 new towns and 600 key villages. For the central city, 4 secondary city centers have been planned to reduce the over concentration in the CBD. They are completed in addition by several district centers
(Fig-3). Guided by this general orientation, the commercial center system has experienced a very fast development during the period of the Eleventh Five-year Plan (2006-2010). In central city, there are now 10 municipal-level commercial centers, 24 district-level commercial centers and more than 40 community-level commercial centers.
Fig-2 (left) Urban system of Shanghai municipality, Master Plan 1999 Fig-3(right) Urban centers layout in central city, Master Plan 1999
1.2 Growth of travel speed 1.2.1 The prolongation of travel distance induced the demand of speed in urban transportation. The growth of travel speed can be observed through the development of high speed modes both in public transit and individual transportation system. First, the stock of automobile in Shanghai rises during the past 5 years (2006-2010) from 1.09 to 1.71 million (Fig-4). In the same period, the trips carried out by car grow 37%, passing from 5.89 to 8.06 million. 300 250
248.8
243.4
234.4
227
213 200
170.7 150.3
150 109.5
122.9
135.5
100 50 0 2006年
2007年
机动车保有量
2008年
2009年
2010年
汽车保有量
Fig-4 stock of civil motor vehicle and automobile in Shanghai
Second, regarding the trips made by two wheels, both the modal share and traffic
volume of bicycles declined significantly. From 2004 to 2009, bicycle trips reduced by 41% while that of motorized two wheels (scooter or E-bike) increased by 211% (Fig-5).
Fig-5 number of trips made by motorized 2-wheels, by bicycle and on foot in Shanghai
Regarding public transit systems, the modal share of subway has raised significantly, from 2% in 1995 to 33% in 2010. On the contrary, that of bus/trolley has regressed from 84% to 47%.
Fig-6 Evolution of modal share of subway, bus and taxi in Shanghai
1.2.2 The general acceleration of trip speed results in the raise of travel cost. The transportation and communication become the sector in which the daily expenses of urban household increases the fastest. In 2010, the average expenditure in urban transportation per capita in Shanghai is RMB 749 Yuan, increasing by 50% comparing to the year of 2005.
II. Street and Verticality 2.1 Verticalization, the development of urban complex 2.1.1 From the point of view of urban economics, the verticalization is a reasonable choice for such a dense metropolitan like Shanghai who still attracts more and more new immigrants. The construction in vertical allowing more usable areas on the same piece of land is considered necessary for the urban renewal projects. After hotels, office buildings and luxury apartments, the commercial centers become recently the new object to be verticalized. In most of the cases, they are combined together to form the urban complex.
2.1.2 The development of urban complex is in accordance with the political ambition to make Shanghai a national or even international shopping center, so as to reinforce Shanghai’s cosmopolitan lifestyle (Fig-7). According to the recently complied “Shanghai’s Planning Outline for the Layout of Commercial Outlets (2009-2020)”, the number of municipal-level commerce centers will be increased to 12 from the existing 10, and the number of district-level commerce centers increased to 24 from the existing 14. In the meantime, Shanghai will keep boosting the development of commercial clusters with various features, increasing the number of which to 40-50 in the future from about 30 at present.
Fig-7 evolution of total commercial volume in Shanghai (m2)
2.1.3 The restructuring of urban transportation system, especially the development of high speed travel modes, contribute to this evolution. The express way, arterial roads and subway network destroy the continuity of urban space and generate the polarization. Most of the urban complexes are located close to the intersection between the arterial roads or near the interchange hub of subway network (Fig-8).
Fig-8 Location of some important commercial centre in Shanghai
2.2 The concept of street in the urban complex 2.2.1 The development of urban complex is going with the decline of traditional commercial streets in central city of Shanghai. As the traffic volume grows, the street
space is reconfigured in favor of automobile circulation. The preference of high speed goes against the multi-functions of streets and does harm to the commercial activities. In Shanghai, the road-side parking is not permitted on the main streets so that the shops along the street lose a group of clients – the automobilist - whose number is increasing. Even for the non-automobilist, the complex has more advantages that traditional street. It is convenient for access, connected directly with subway station. It is more comfortable, with air conditioning and protected from rain and wind. It is safe, free from the interface with traffic… 2.2.2 However, the spatial organization inside the complexes is very similar to that of traditional commercial streets. Though most of the complexes were owned and managed by private developers, they are built as an open place accessible for all. The various shops and services that we could find on traditional streets are overlapped around a huge atrium. From bottom to top, the vertical layout of different types of shops and services is quite similar from one complex to another: supermarket and food-court in the basement floor, cosmetic and luxury products on ground level, then ladies’ and gentlemen’s habiliments, cinema, amusement zone, gym, restaurants on the top levels. They are jointed with the lifts, escalators ramps and stairs. The circulation of client flows has been carefully studied in order to create a continuous and enjoyable shopping experience. In some complex, the concept of street has been emphasized in the spatial organization. The street furniture is placed in the striking place in order to provide the atmosphere of the open air. The decoration of shops and public space uses the traditional elements to simulate the old streets… (cf. maps and photos of 3 complexes in Shanghai) 2.2.3 Some think that the decline or even the disappear of traditional streets has its origin in the development of urban complex. For the others, the urban complex represents a new form of street, the vertical street. These “interiorized” streets are in accordance with the modern lifestyle, being the joint between fast (subway, automobile) and slow (walking) flows. The huge underground parking space is a standard facility for the urban complex. It is regarded by the opposition as the catalyst of the motorization and the road congestion. However, the walking trips generated inside the complex are generally ignored by the transportation surveys. Because the urban complexes - no matter how big they are - are usually considered as a point but a container for various short trips with different Origins and Destinations.
Super Brand Mall [正大广场] Location: Lujiazui, Pudong
Number of level: 13 (3 underground) Number of stores: 244 Number of parking: 436 Total commercial area: 243,000m2 Daily client flow: 180,000-260,000p
Great Gateway [港汇广场] Location: Xujiahui, Puxi
Number of level: 8 (2 underground) Number of stores: 386 Number of parking: 1,400 Total area: 400,000m2 - Office building: 134,000m2 - Service apartment: 85,000m2 - Commercial center: 181,000m2 Daily client flow: 150,000p Subway: Line 1, 4
Cloud Nine [龙之梦] Location: Zhongshang Park, Puxi
Number of level: 15 (4 underground) Number of stores: 680 Number of parking: 750 Total commercial area: 220,000m2 Daily client flow: 300,000-400,000p Subway Lines: line2,
2.3 The case study: Nanjing Road 2.3.1 Nanjing Road is the most famous commercial street in China. Located in Huangpu District and Jing’an District, it is 5.5 km long. Starting from the Bund in the east, it extends to the west and ends at Jing’an Temple area (Fig-9). It is divided by Xizang Road in the middle into two sections, Nanjing Dong Road (east section) and Nanjing Xi Road (west section), situated respectively in two districts (Huangpu and Jing’an). Part of the east section, about 1km long, has been transformed into pedestrian area in 1999. For the municipality of Shanghai, Nanjing Road is at all times an important commercial center at first level. It is not only part of the CBD but also part of the east-west development axe extending to Pudong New Area.
Fig-9 Location of Nanjing Road
2.3.2 The key dates of Nanjing Road (Fig-10): 1845, the British concession in shanghai made Henan Road as the west boundary of it territory. 1848, it extended again to Xizang road. 1851, the organization of horse racing in shanghai was established, as it rented 80 mu to build a park as a whole. It has race track along inside. As it was too small the organization built a track outside on the south later. It was only used for racing, so people called it “road for horse”-“Malu”, which is the Chinese word for road today. And the concession built a road parallel to this one link the bund to the park, called “Main road”. Most citizens didn’t know it was a race park in side, and call this road “park lane”. 1855, the organization sold the first race park, and constructed the second one named new park, as the park lane extended to it. 1862, it was sold again. At The area of today’s people’s square, the 3rd race hall was built and used until 1951. At that time, the main road linked to the new race hall, and connected with the road linked to Jing’an Temple. 1865, for commemoration of the Chinese-English treat in Nanjing, the main road was given the name” Nanjing road”. After the road was established, many commercial industries aggregated along the road. The race hall accelerate the
development of commerce in shanghai. Nanjing east road became the gathering field of department stores. 1901, the owner of the real estate along the road tiled the road with wood from India, and painted it asphaltic, made it the most expensive street in shanghai. 1908, electric bus came up on the road, became the first public transportation in shanghai. 1945, the 2 parts of the road, west and east were named Nanjing east road and Nanjing west road respectively. 1953, the asphaltic surface and the electric bus were demolished, and retiled to be cement concrete. From 1980 to 1999, the Nanjing road experienced reconstructed from small shops to specialized department stores. July 15, 1995, Nanjing road started to be pedestrian road during the weekends. 1999, it became to be totally pedestrian road on the eastern part. 2000, as a part of the development plan held by the local government, Nanjing Road was renovated to be a characteristic pedestrian street. The width is about 28 meters and the total length is 1,033 meters, which extends from Middle He'nan Road to Middle Xizang Road. 2007, the Jing’an and Huangpu district governments agreed to coordinate their policy to enhance the development of Nanjing Road, through a unique launching of a committee. This agreement followed a request by the committee of Champs-Elysees in the perspective of a friendship agreement between both famous streets
Fig-10 Grand transformations of Nanjing Road
2.3.3 Today, the whole Nanjing Road is not more a homogeneous linear commercial space. The east section is divided into the pedestrian area (from Henan Road to Xizang
Road) and non pedestrian section (from the Bund to Henan Road). The later still suffers from the heavy passing traffic. The west section, Nanjing Xi Road, is cut by the south-north elevated express way at Chengdu Road into two segments. One becomes the shopping area for the most luxury products with the concentration of several urban complexes like Plazza 66, Westgate Plazza and Jiuguang department store. The other with a lot historical monuments conserves its character as a culture and recreation area where the headquarter building of Shangai TV, People Park, Shanghai Arts Museum, Park Hotel can be found (Fig-11).
Fig-11 four sections of Nanjing Road
2.3.4 Even the development in vertical can be observed along the whole Nanjing Road, some interesting questions can be raised when we focus our analyses on the pedestrian part.
Fig-12 pedestrianization and verticalization
First, the pedestrianization has little impact on the verticalization along the street (Fig-12). Especially in the two ends of the pedestrian street, with the arrival of subway,
the redevelopment operations around the subway stations all resulted in the construction of complexes, combinations between high-rise office buildings (or hotel) and the multi-level commercial center. The development of vertical streets increases significantly the commercial areas in the pedestrian part. Along the 1033 meter pedestrian street, the total commercial area increased from 357,100 m2 in 2004 to 640,000 m2 in 2008, a growth by about 80%. Second, the pedestrianization has created a strong spatial identity to the area by displacing all traffics (including car and bicycle) to surrounding streets. In order to coordinate the relations between different shops and to take charge of the common facilities in public space, a management committee for the pedestrian street has been found by the municipal government as the local administrator. It has two underlings units, an Executive Office taking in charge of the daily managements and a Supervision Brigade ensuring the respect of management requirements defined by the committee. Even there are many private stores in the pedestrian area, the public managers intend to consider it as a huge public-owned shopping mall. All shops in this shopping mall share not only the pedestrian space but also the prestige of the brand, Shanghai Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street. Third, the development of individual vertical streets has changed the relationship between people and space. In one hand, the street’s functions have been intensified by the verticalization. Both the number and the diversity of shops and services increase. In the other hand, the activities on the outdoor real street were reduced. Because every shopping center makes all efforts to attract more clients and keep them insides as long as possible and lot of activities that used to on the outdoor street have been moved into the vertical streets. If we compare the time that a visitor spends in vertical streets to that on the outdoor street, obviously, the former is much longer than the later.
III. Residential Street 3.1 General introduction 3.1.1 The residential street is a wide concept. In this study, we use it to describe a specific phenomenon in Shanghai relative to the street transformations. The common ground of the residential street in Shanghai is (Fig-13): - It is a secondary road or access road in residential area and, initially, didn’t have any commercial functions. - Initiated by local inhabitants, the group level of some buildings along the street which were designed for non-commercial usage is transformed into shops and services. - Essentially for serving local people, the shops and services are characteristic of small-scale and low-price. They are generally run by a family. The variety on a street is quite rich. Among the shops, mode and accessories, foods, hardware, stationery and chandlery are what can be found more often. For the services, there are small restaurant, house-agent, hairdressing, laundry, cyber-bar, etc.
Fig-13 typical residential streets in Shanghai
3.1.2 The development of residential street started in 1990s. Today, it becomes a ubiquitous phenomenon in Shanghai and other large Chinese cities. It is more developed in the old communities that were built before 1990. A majority of the old communities are the Worker New Villages constructed in 1960s and 1970s during the era of Planning Economy. At that time, housing was considered as a social welfare distributed by the government. And the beneficiary was the workers of public enterprises who represented the majority of urban population. For economic reason, these housings had been planned in mass and built in high density. When the living condition improved in 1990s, part of the rich families moved out and resided in the new-built commercial housings. The old ones become the transition place for the new immigrants coming from other provinces. In generally, the Worker New Villages are characteristic of high concentration of low-income families and high percentage of young immigrants. Under the contexts, several factors contribute to the development of residential streets in these communities. First, the apartment on ground level along the road is not suitable for the inhabitancy. By transforming into shops, the owners can get more profits from the businesses or from the rent, then get access to new commercial housing to improve their living conditions. Second, the shops and services initially planned in the old communities cannot meet today’s increasing demand in term of diversity and of scale. The new-developed commercial centers or urban complexes are generally for standard or luxury products.
And the supermarkets can hardly provide face–to-face client services. For the low-income families, the residential streets are more convenient and humanized. In particular, they provide a social platform for the new immigrants. Third, the traditional commercial streets are facing the competition of urban complexes and threaten by the increase of traffic. When the commercial streets decline, the shopkeepers who cannot afford the high cost in the commercial centers chose to relocate their business on the residential streets. 3.1.3 The transformations initiated by the individual apartment-owners are not welcome for all. The neighbors are the first opposition. The first concern is that the modifications on ground floor to make the spatial layout suitable for commercial usage may destroy the whole structure of the building. The commercial activities brought about may disturb the quiet and peaceful living environment. Even some could induce pollution, noise and unsafety. For the commuters and the bus-drivers who pass by every day, the development of shops and services makes the circulation more complicated... 3.1.4 However, the development of residential streets has changed the atmosphere of the Worker New Village. The former mono-function area becomes more diversified and livelier. The proximity services provided by the residential street not only meet the demands of local people but also allow them to avoid a number of long-distance trips for the purpose of shopping. 3.1.5 As Shanghai is experiencing the great mutations, the residential street plays an important role for the social development. During the previous reforms, the municipal government put a lot of efforts to push the development of the tertiary industry. The economic restructure resulted in a high unemployment rate in Worker Villages. The residential streets provide new job opportunities for the unemployed people. Moreover, the migration towards the large cities in developed areas is an important trend of current urbanization. The residential streets provide for the new immigrants not only a transition place for staying but also an opportunity to make a living. 3.1.6 The attitude of public authorities affects directly the development of residential streets. In Shanghai, the local governments are composed of two levels, level of municipality and level of district. However, the public administration is undertaken in three levels. Besides the 2 governmental levels, the third one is Sub-district Office who supervises directly the neighborhood committees. Generally, the Sub-district Offices and Neighborhood Committees support the inhabitants’ initiatives. On the one hand, the job opportunities provided by residential streets can reduce the unstable social risks. On the other hand, the development of service industry can increase the local fiscal revenue so as to provide additional resource for the Neighborhood Committees to carry out some improvement works in the old residential areas. Thus, although the transformations were initiated by local inhabitants, the attitude of administration was quite tolerant, which contributes to the fast development of residential streets in the beginning. Change the usage of the property without permission is illegal in China. A specific
procedure has been established by Sub-district Office to examine and approve the individual application. The allowable location and the business scope of the residential street have been clearly defined. Today, as the development residential streets have reached a certain scale, the examination of new applications more and more restrict. The public authorities tend to enhance the regulation on them. In some residential streets, the Sub-district Offices have carried out some improvement works, such as the standardization of the signboards, the renewal of the pavement of sidewalk, increase bicycle parking and small gardens, etc. The shopkeepers are involved in these operations.
3.2 The case study: Tian Zi Fang 3.2.1 Tian Zi Fang is a traditional residential neighborhood situated in the historic center of Shanghai (Fig-14). Although she is not a single residential street, her redevelopment process is quite similar to the later. Today, she succeeds in becoming a new landmark of Shanghai and a unique place attracting each year millions of visitors.
Fig-14 location of Tian Zi Fang
The neighborhood covers an area of 7 hectare with 102,855 m2 of constructions (Fig-15). The majority of the existing buildings are typical Li-Nong residences. With a small front yard to the south, each unit of Li Nong, 3-floors high, is now shared by several families. At the south-east corner of the site, there were some small factories. Part of them have been demolished and replaced by new apartment buildings. The workshops and warehouses reserved on the site belong to the Sub-district Office. They became unoccupied when the municipal government decided to move all the industrial productions out of the central city in 1993.
Fig-16 Google map of current situation
3.2.2 The redevelopment process of the neighborhood can be divided into 3 periods. In 1998, several famous local artists took over the abandoned workshops and warehouses and turned them into art gallery or ateliers. The artist from Beijing, Huang Yongyu, named this area Tian Zi Fang. That the kick off period for the transformations of this neighborhood (Fig-17).
Fig-17 First transformations in Tian Zi Fang
Later, more and more artists and shopkeepers were attracted to this area. They started to negotiate with the inhabitants of Li Nong for the rent. From November 2004 when the first rental contract was signed to 2005, the transformations had extended so quickly that the neighborhood received from the municipal government the label of “cluster of creative industries�. In this period, the transformations still relied on individual
initiatives. Generally, the upper floors of Li Nong were occupied by local inhabitants while the ground floor was transformed into arts galleries, shops of souvenirs or antiques, coffee bars, old book stores, etc. The peaceful cohabitation between inhabitation and other activities has been a charming landscape. In order to protect the common interest of the whole neighborhood, a management committee composed by the representatives of owners-occupiers was found in 2006.
Fig-18 Second period of redevelopment
Since the year of 2008, the eve of Expo 2010, the local government decided to intervene and conduct the transformations of Tian Zi Fang. In previous years, the neighborhood attracted more and more artists, shopkeepers and visitors, becoming a well-known avant-garde place. The unexpected success of the transformations implicated a lot of risks concerning the safety. With more and more businessmen and visitors swarming into the neighborhood, the conflicts between the inhabitation and other activities
became more and more difficult to conciliate. In February 2008, a new management committee led by the representative of local government has been found. That indicated the management of Tian Zi Fang went from the autonomic mode into governmental administrative channel. In the same year, the neighborhood was certificated as one of the National Tourism Attractions of grade “AAA�. In 2010, the years of Shanghai Expo, there were 426 commercial or artistic unites installed in Tian Zi Fang, attracting about 2 million visitors.
Fig-19 the official advertising and tourism map published by the new committee
3.2.3 When local government took in charge of the management of the neighborhood, a number of public funding has been invested into the renewal operations. The revival work conducted by the new committee was focused on the public facilities and outdoor space in the neighborhood, in particular, on the streets. The historic fabric of Li Nong has been respected and carefully preserved (Fig-20). The network of inner-streets and
lanes become the most characteristic space of the neighborhood.
Fig- 20 Street pattern of the neighborhood in 1947 and 2010
Fig- 21 Streets is the most characteristic place of the neighborhood
IV. Questions for discussions 4.1 What is a “street”? How to identify a “street” in modern cites? The decline of traditional streets can be observed in a lot of modern cities. Some disappear and become a simple road for traffic. Meanwhile, some new places like urban complex and residential streets develop, which allow the maintenance of urban street characters. Can we define a set of criteria for identifying the street? The definition will be helpful for understanding the concept of street and for discovering new types of street during the current urban mutations.
4.2 What kind of impacts that urban street produces on urban transportation and vice versa? As the urban structure of large cities transforms from mono-centric to multi-polar, the number of commercial streets in municipal level reduces, giving place to the development of streets in district or community level. The streets in second or third levels have been regarded as a service of proximity. However, as they are usually built near the nodes of high speed transportation (subway station, exit of expressway), their real serving radius could be larger, especially in the week-end. The different modes of transport with various speed used to coexist on traditional street. As the speed of some mode of transportation rose quickly, it is more and more difficult to maintain the coexistence. One solution is to separate them into different spaces, such as the development of urban complexes. Within the urban complex, it is car-free and comfortable for walking. This slow circulation environment is usually connected to high speed transit (like subway) or huge parking area. This mode of organization is more favorable for motorization or for walking? When a shopper stays within an urban complex for several hours, the number of trips he makes on foot should be considerable. However, these trips are usually ignored by the transportation survey. 4.3 who are the actors for street-making? How they are organized? The two cases of Shanghai show two type of process for making street. The vertical streets and Nanjing Road are in a Top-Down process, while the residential streets and the transformations of Tian Zi Fang are launched by individual initiative. The idea here is not to compare which one is better but to indentify all the actors who could be concerned by the street-making. The governance has been proved as a good format to get all relevant parts involved. Is there a standard governance framework? or it should be established on case by case basis? ##