Shanghai New Towns, China Architecture Book, Harry den Hartog Publication

Shanghai New Towns Book

Chinese Metropolis Growth – publication by Harry den Hartog

4 May 2011

Shanghai New Towns Book News

Shanghai New Towns – Searching for community and identity in a sprawling metropolis

Edited and written by Harry den Hartog

With contributions by Li Xiangning, Jiang Jun, Laurence Liauw, Mari Fujita, Marijn Nieuwenhuis, Zhou Jing

Photography by Chen Taiming and Richard Rowland

Graphic design by Studio Joost Grootens

010 Publishers, Rotterdam

English/Chinese

416 pp / 240 x 170 mm / paperback

ISBN 978 90 6450 735 9

Best Dutch Book Design 2010

Shanghai New Towns book photos

Each year, more than 15 million Chinese leave the rural areas of China and move to the cities. This figure exceeds 300,000 in the case of Shanghai. Before 2015 the majority of China’s population will be living in urban areas.

Shanghai New Towns documents and analyses the meteoric rate of urbanization of the countryside round Shanghai, most particularly the part played there by new towns and new villages.

This decentralized planning model takes its cue from classic examples from Russia and Western Europe. A few pilot new towns have been developed on paper with help from Western designers and then adapted to suit Chinese standards.

This book shows how the plans have been put into practice. Photos, essays by Chinese and Western critics and descriptions of projects illustrate what daily life looks like and how these new cities function within the Yangtze River Delta Metropolitan Area as a whole. It dwells at length on the international exchange of knowledge and the differences in method.

Shanghai New Towns book photos