DOI: 10.5176/2301-394X_ACE15.38
Authors: Richard Garber, Fei Hu and Mei Wang
Abstract:
Writing recently in ICON Magazine, Rem Koolhaas laments that our “current obsession” with cities is highly irresponsible as it precludes a more comprehensive understanding of territories that involve the countryside1. Perhaps nowhere is this truer than in rural China, where investment and levels of development are allowing for the rapid construction of fairly dense communities that are significantly separated from that country’s urban centers. Increasingly, as design opportunities in China are moving away from its dense urban centers such as Beijing and Shanghai, planners in China are balancing the increased need for new housing while maintaining, and in some instances expanding, the amount of arable land available for agriculture and food production. The result is communities with high density in the rural landscape isolated from the existing municipal infrastructure. This concept has merit in that it can effectively decrease the amount of one- and two-story sprawl in the Chinese countryside. However the planning and design of such communities, especially as they approach urban magnitudes of density, must be carefully considered given infrastructural requirements and environmental impact. Such work presents a unique opportunity to build ground up communities that are sustainable by virtue of their density, while having the opportunity to engage efficient and ecological ideas about landscape and urbanism within this new frontier.
Keywords: Rural; Metropolitan Area; Planning; Sustainable
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