14HDC21-Land use structure and urban morphology

Essay on

SHANGHAI- URBAN GROWTH & SYSTEM OF

CITIES

Submitted to: Dr.Shobha M N

Poorna Chinnappa

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
BM SREENIVASAIAH COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
VISHVESHWARYA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
M.Arch Semester 2 - 2016-17

TABLE OF CONTENTS
2.

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 3

3.

EVOLUTION AND GROWTH............................................................................... 3

4.

GLOBALIZATION AND WORLD CITIES...............................................................6

5.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROVISION.......................7

Physical infrastructure and privatization............................................................7
Financial district.................................................................................................. 8

6.

HOUSING AND URBAN SPRAWL.....................................................................10

An integration of trading and dwelling activities..............................................10
Housing prototypes....................................................................................... 10

7.

SOCIAL IMPACTS AND EQUITY........................................................................11

Slums................................................................................................................ 11

8.

CONCLUSION................................................................................................. 12
Smart growth and the future of cities...............................................................12

9.
10.

TABLE OF FIGURES........................................................................................ 14
REFERENCES.............................................................................................. 15

1. INTRODUCTION
Urbanization is a defining phenomenon of this century, and the developing
world is where this demographic transformation is taking place. Systems
of cities are human interaction networks and their connections with the
built and natural environments. Theory of a system of cities is an essential
component of economists' efforts to understand and model economic
growth and international trade. (Ernstson, 2010)

Economic theories of systems of cities explain why production and

consumption activities are concentrated in a number of urban areas of
different sizes and industrial composition rather than uniformly distributed
in space. (Abdel-Rahman, 2003)
This report has been structured to understand urban growth and system
of cities by taking example of the city of Shanghai, Peoples Republic of
China. The development of Asian cities is characterised by rapid and
continuous urbanisation on an unprecedented scale, with rapid economic
growth led in most places by the manufacturing industry, and rapidly
increasing motorisation. The result has been escalating greenhouse gas
emissions, sprawling urban development and local environmental impacts,
as well as disparities in income, education levels and job opportunities in
the urban population.

2. EVOLUTION AND GROWTH

Shanghai is located on the western coast of the Pacific Ocean and at the
central section of the north-south coastline of China.
External forces drove the cities' function to change in a short period. Within one century,
from a small fishing town it came up to be the biggest modern city in China.

Before 1845 (Open trade), the town of

Shanghai was concentrated on a 2.04
km2 piece of land, surrounded by cultivated
fields, marshy soil, and Huangpu River at the
east. The town center, a typical traditional
Chinese town, was enclosed by fortified
walls with a perimeter of 4.5 km, and
accessed by seven guarded gates at the
perimeter.
1845 - 1849, when the English capitalists
first came to demarcate the site for their
concessions, they chose a land north to the
old Chinese town and west to Huangpu
River. They placed their first office and
Embassy in a neglected fortress where only
old ship manufactures, carpentry shops and
cotton fields can be found in vicinity. This site was of great importance due
to its strategic
in sea and river

Figure 3.1 Land use in Shanghai Urban

Area in 1936; Source: Yan, 1984, pg-104

convenience
transportation

and an international port was established. Hard-surfaced roads 8 m in

width were constructed and continuously expanded westward. The port
was built along the Huangpu River within the English Concession, and had
grown to be one of the biggest port in the nation. Clusters of foreign
concrete-slab buildings in a variety of European styles were erected along
the Bund.

Till 1914, the foreign concessions had obtained an area of 32.32 km2,
sixteen times of the old Chinese town. It became the new national center
for trade, commercial, transportation and light industries, etc. Shanghai
was listed among the top ten international trade ports, and had
established trade relationships with over one hundred countries all over
the world. The concession turned out to be the commercial and financial
headquarters of Shanghai. The Bund, with its grand foreign-styled
architecture,
became a symbol or
landmark of the city.
Shanghai, the
largest city by
population in the
world, has been
growing at a rate of
about 10 percent a
Figure 3.2The evolution of Shanghai during the last one century;
Source: (Zhang, 1992)

year the past 20

years, and now is

home to 23.5 million people nearly double what it was back in 1987.

3. GLOBALIZATION AND WORLD CITIES

Patterns of urbanization, urban structure, and growth changed
fundamentally in the twentieth century. Another result of twentieth
century economic growth is the evolution of the world city. World cities are
a product of the globalization of economic activity that has characterized
post-World War II capitalism. Globalization, as a process of economic
transformation, has been defined by Tilly (1995) and similarly by Giddens
(1990:64) as an increase in the geographical range of locally
consequential social interactions, especially when the increase stretches a
significant proportion of all interactions across international or
intercontinental limits. These processes involve the movement of capital,
goods, labour, information, and services across country borders usually by
transnational or multinational corporations (Dicken 2003:198). But it is
also a social process that transforms current social conditions into one
where international interconnections of economy, production, capital
flows, and perspective are commonplace (Steger 2003:78). World cities
are created as capital and services tend to concentrate in preferred
locations, often cities with comparative advantages or initial advantages
in an expansive world economy. As a result, wealth and information tend
to concentrate in specific urban locations, producing world cities that are
more highly integrated into the global capitalist system.

4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE

PROVISION
Physical infrastructure and privatization
Early 1990s, the central government decided to accelerate the
development of Shanghai into a world economic, financial and trade
center and to boost the economic development of the whole Yangtze River
area where the city is located. Globalization and privatization brought
about many infrastructure projects to develop Shanghai into a world city
and to compete with Hong Kong which was Chinas leading city with
respect to GDP. During 1978-2000, the city's GDP increased 6.5 times and
reached a worth of 48.749 billion U.S. dollars, with an annual growth rate
of 9.5%. In the early 1990s, the opening and development of Pudong as a
special economic
zone
pushed Shanghai to
the forefront of the
whole national
economic reform
movement.
The street pattern of
Shanghai is a
variation or twisted
one of traditional
checker-board
pattern. The urban grid system is a mixed patch of several of different
types. The street pattern in the original concessions was comparatively
regular and standardized, with a recognizable pattern of gridiron system.
Two factors had an impact in shaping this street pattern and grid system.
One is that the natural geographic conditions of this densely-navigated
water-town was such that it was hard to bring up a clear-cut traditional
checker-board pattern of street network.

Modern Shanghai was not a single city, but three different cities.
Shanghai was divided into three different zones politically during the 1800
to 1900s - the International Settlement (owned by the English and the
Americans), the French Concession, and the Chinese Old Town. The
existence of the three, and their individual administrative-autonomy,
caused out-of-balance and non-integrity in the whole city's development.
In the city's planning, though there were orders in small patches, but the
ensemble lacked a carefully designed master-plan. This situation was a
particular product of that semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. This
densely-intersected and crookedly-composed pattern of street-network,
combining with the water-ways, that formed a dynamic circulation system
conveying the commercial and trade activities of this city.
Facing the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century, Shanghai has
set its long-term strategic objectives for social and economic
development. Key elements of the city's economic development strategy
include:
Initially form the economic scale and comprehensive strength of a world
metropolis
Optimize urban spatial distribution
Initially modernize the city's physical infrastructure
Participate in international labor division and the circular flow of the
international economy
Introduce the operational mechanism of a socialist market economy
Pursue the balanced social, economic and environmental development.
(Government, 2016)
Favorable policies from the central government have contributed to the
dramatic development already achieved in Shanghai. The city has
achieved an astounding economic growth.

Financial district
The district of Pudong is a special economic zone located to the east of
Shanghai China. It includes the financial district of Shanghai, the Pudong
International Airport and the territory between the Huangpu River and the
East China Sea.

Figure 5. 5.3 google maps, Shanghai 2016

Figure 5.5.4 google maps, Pudong 2016

Pudong is dominated by the Oriental Pearl Tower at left, and the new 125story Shanghai Tower, China's tallest building and the world's second
tallest skyscraper, at 632 meters (2,073 ft) high, scheduled to finish by
the end of 2014. Shanghai, the largest city by population in the world, has
been growing at a rate of about 10 percent a year the past 20 years, and
now is home to 23.5 million people -- nearly double what it was back in
1987.

Figure 5.5.5 Pudong financial district in 1987

Figure 5.5.6 Pudong district in 2013

The geographical distribution of the economic activities in Shanghai is due

to historical, administrative, and economic reasons. Shanghai has
increased efforts in readjusting its industrial distribution and urban
planning. The city has built nine city-level industrial zones in suburban
districts and the county for relocating factories from its downtown area.
The main economic activities in the outlying districts are much diversified,
ranging from manufacturing industries to commerce, agriculture, tourism,
storage and transportation.
At the macro level, the city faces the challenges of upgrading the
industrial structure and restructuring the ownership composition. More

new private industries should be encouraged to make the city economy

globally competitive in the era of the new economy. At the micro level,
many enterprises lack qualified management mechanisms and research &
development ability for the competition in the market economy. (Yang,
May 2002)

5. HOUSING AND URBAN SPRAWL

An integration of trading and dwelling activities
Accompanying the rapid development and commercial prosperity of the
city, population grew. Shanghai had attracted millions of migrants, most of
whom were manufacture workers, and some were petty bourgeoisie, highrank clerks, educated abroad and foreigners, etc. Most of people engaged in
commercial or business activities. Shanghai's rapid development and its highly valued
downtown land resulted in every street facade reserved for commercial activities.
Housing prototypes
Lilong housing were built in brick or brick-concrete mixed structures. Lilong housing had
been integrated into urban street blocks in which shops occupied the street frontage, and
the housing took the enclosed hollow space. Lilongs can be accessed from one to several of
openings in the street facade, usually in the form of archways.
Commercial and social
type of small scale
services - groceries,
barber shops,
newspaper and
cigarettes stands - are
integrated into the site,
taking the space
adjacent to main lanes
or entrance area. A
lilong settlement may
vary in size from 0.35
to 5.0 hectares.
(Guan, 2016)
Different types of
Lilong housing types
emerged. New-type
Lilongs, Garden
Lilongs, Apartment
Figure 6.7 framework of Lilong settlement

variations of this typology.

Lilongs are few

6. SOCIAL IMPACTS AND EQUITY

Slums
Lilongs have become Shanghai's vernacular architecture that created a
close, vernacular culture among those living in the housing settlements.
Over the years overcrowding, overpopulation, poor maintenance, and poor
sanitation from lack of bathrooms or worse have created problems with
lilong blocks which are today considered slum settlements. Throughout
the last century, Shanghai continued to grow and so did the portion of its
population in poverty. Shanghai has six to eight million people living within
its urban slums.

Figure 7.8 Lilong block model

Ever since the early

90s, downtown area in
Shanghai has
undergone a major
modernization
makeup, where old
houses are torn down
and inhabitants
(usually the
underprivileged) are relocated to the outskirts of the city, leaving the
space for modern condos, luxury hotels, shopping centres.

The population of Shanghai was estimated at 23.9

million in 2013. The city ranks first in China and the
world in terms of population, and it has a population
density of 3,700 people per square kilometer
Shanghai has high residential density of 73,97,000
people distributed in 244sqkm.

Figure 7.9 urban texture of

Shanghai

7. CONCLUSION
The new Shanghai is as much a testament to social engineering as it is to civil engineering. A
complete inversion of the historic city where anyone in the world was welcome to move at
any time the new Shanghai centrally-planned the composition of its population as much as
its bridges and buildings. To create the new Shanghai, the authorities brought in several
different types of people a working class of imported rural laborers to physically build the
city, a class of foreign experts to advise its multinational businesses, and a white-collar class
of university-educated, English-speaking Chinese professionals to staff its companies. Taken
together, the different housing forms used by each group have created the disparate urban
fabric of the rebuilt Pudong.
Throughout the metropolis, at the bases of the most sophisticated corporate office towers,
modular dorm trailers, hung with laundry, house migrant workers, the new class of coolies
building contemporary Shanghai. The employment requirement for city residence allows
newly capitalist Shanghai to present an image of the perfect socialist city where there are no
beggars. The poor of Shanghai are all disguised, invariably dressed in their work uniforms.
When Shanghai first reopened for international business in the early 1990s, foreigners could
only live in hotels; in the mid-1990s, an official list of (presumably bugged) apartments were
opened up to foreign renters. Finally, in 1999, the authorities dropped even that requirement
and began relying on a state-influenced market system to corral foreigners with carrots
rather than sticks. Pudongs Western-style suburbs are the final result of the authorities
strategy for luring expatriates to live and work in the city.

Shanghai plans to launch 100 major projects this year, with a total
investment of 835.52 billion yuan ($127 billion), China Securities Journal
reported online. (daily, 2016)
These projects include 22 industrial projects, 16 society projects, 55
infrastructure projects, and seven projects involved in promoting
integrated urban and rural development.

Smart growth and the future of cities

Shanghai adheres to strategy of sustainable development, centered with
polluted emission reduction, based on the Shanghai environmental
protection "3-year Action Plan", actively promote the coordinate

development of economy and environment.-Shanghai Environmental

Protection Bureau

Figure 8.10 The proposed conceptual framework for urban green growth in dynamic Asia

(Daudey, 2014)

The Shanghai Expo addressed the urgent need to improve urban planning,
management and liveability. In order to achieve sustainability, urban
development was to be tackled in the following topics:
Urban governance: harmonious cities and liveable life
Economic transformation and urban-rural relationships
Information and communication technologies and urban
development
Cultural heritage, creative cities and urban regeneration
Science and technology innovation and urban futures
Complex interactions among the population, environmental, social and
economic challenges affect the sustainability of Shanghai in pursuing its
development goals.

TABLE OF FIGURE

8.
FIGURE 3.1 LAND

USE IN

SHANGHAI URBAN AREA

IN

1936; SOURCE: YAN, 1984,

PG-

104........................................................................................................4
FIGURE 3.9THE

EVOLUTION OF

SHANGHAI

DURING THE LAST ONE CENTURY;

(ZHANG, 1992).......................................ERROR! BOOKMARK

FIGURE 7.2

URBAN TEXTURE OF

SHANGHAIFIGURE 3.9THE

DURING THE LAST ONE CENTURY;

SOURCE:

NOT DEFINED.

EVOLUTION OF

SHANGHAI

SOURCE: (ZHANG, 1992)..ERROR! BOOKMARK

NOT DEFINED.

FIGURE 5. 5.1
FIGURE 5.5.2

GOOGLE MAPS,

GOOGLE MAPS,

SHANGHAI 2016
PUDONG 2016.......................................................8

FIGURE 5.5.3 PUDONG

FINANCIAL DISTRICT IN

FIGURE 5.5.4 PUDONG

DISTRICT IN

FIGURE 6.1

FRAMEWORK OF

FIGURE 7.1 LILONG

FIGURE 7.2

LILONG

DYNAMIC

2013............................................................9
SETTLEMENT................................................10

BLOCK MODEL....................................................................11

URBAN TEXTURE OF

FIGURE 8.1 THE

1987

SHANGHAI.........................................................11

PROPOSED CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR URBAN GREEN GROWTH IN

ASIA.........................................................................................13

9. REFERENCES
1. Abdel-Rahman, H. M. (2003). Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics.
New Orleans: University of New Orleans, Department of Economics and
Finance. Retrieved from file:///E:/pg%20S2/LUMS/data%20for
%20paper/Theories%20of%20systems%20of%20cities.html
2. daily, c. (2016, march 20). China daily. Retrieved from chinadaily.com.cn.
3. Daudey, T. M. (2014). URBAN GREEN GROWTH IN DYNAMIC ASIA: A
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK. OECD, 66.
4. Ernstson, H. L. (2010). Urban Transitions: On Urban Resilience and Human
Dominated Ecosystems. Elmqvist (pp. 39 (531): 545. Pg. 531- 542)).
Sweden: Royal Swedish Academy of Science. Retrieved from
http://floodofideas.org.au/systems-of-cities/
5. Government, S. (2016, march 20). Retrieved from
http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/gb/shanghai/English/BasicFacts/node1310/nod
e1311/userobject22ai270.html.
6. Guan, Q. (2016, march 20). Lilong Housing, A Traditional Settlement Form.
Retrieved from McGill University: https://mcgill.ca/mchg/student/lilong
7. Yang, G. (May 2002). SHANGHAI'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: ITS
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Washington,
DC: GLOBAL URBAN DEVELOPMENT METROPOLITAN ECONOMIC STRATEGY
REPORT.
8. Zhang, S. (1992). An approach to integrated urban historic conservation.