APA's Policy Director's Article Calls for 'Humane Cities'

Jeff Soule, AICP, APA Policy Director of APA, sparked discussion in China with an article that appeared in both English (China Daily) and Chinese (Xinhua Net).

In his article, reproduced below, Soule recounts his "personal and professional concern for the urban legacy being created for the next generation of Chinese." He discusses "humane cities," reliance on "foreign experts," integration of real planning knowledge in the academic curriculum, and the outlines of a real planning process.

July 30, 2005

Beijing's urban form should reflect its history

By Jeffrey L. Soule, AICP

I have worked on city planning issues and projects in China for 10 years.

As a true friend of the Chinese people and an experienced professional planner, I feel it is my duty to express my personal and professional concern for the urban legacy being created for the next generation of Chinese. The new architecture and urban design in Beijing competes for attention to such detriment of the city that I have been shocked, over and over, at what Beijing is becoming.

The mechanically planned roads, subway stations placed without enough thought of neighborhoods, businesses and attractions are engineered in splendid isolation from the needs, values and activities of the people.

The unique qualities of the historic city are being replaced with urban forms that could be anyplace.

Gifted with a civilization of over 5,000 years, why does Beijing feel the need to act like an upstart teenager, and dress in tasteless foreign clothing?

I believe every Chinese mayor wants to build a great city, and residents expect them to understand how to shape the fabric and layers that constitute a liveable city.

It is understandable that trendy and selfish architects are often manipulative. Many of the academics, whose advice is sought after, are now making money by either acting as commercial contractors, or joining foreign firms to get design projects. This makes them unqualified to give advice in an official capacity because there is a conflict of interest.

The current system allows Chinese experts to make deals with developers or foreign designers. Misleading advice leads to misguided decisions.

The result is disturbing for two reasons. Beijing, a once-grand and lovely place populated with charming and intelligent people, is being replaced by an urban form that increasingly makes the issues of urbanization difficult to solve.

Second, because of its status as the capital, literally hundreds of cities in China, large and small, are following Beijing's architecture and highways as a model.

Some planners and officials alike confused modernity with aggressively unusual design. Those trained as engineers and economists have become the patrons of the outlandish. Some foreign architects whose juvenile designs would otherwise be rejected in their home countries have found a sympathetic audience.

Please, I beg city officials to view the city from their feet on the street as the citizens do and not from a helicopter or through the tinted windows of a speeding limousine.

This obsession with garish design would not be so troubling if it were confined to one or two buildings. Every city needs a few contemporary icons or signature buildings. The problem is making every building an icon.

To my view, some new architecture of Beijing diminishes the city's status and character rather than enhancing it. To manage and maintain the city's historic status and character, an understanding of options based on analysis and a larger civic vision is a must, or Beijing will lose its sense as a city. It will become just a chaotic visual landscape littered with the adolescent musings of architects and engineers.

Humane cities should be mostly background buildings that define the public character of the city, just like an army needs hundreds of good soldiers to line up in orderly and dignified ranks with only a few generals. Beijing is almost being transformed into a city of architectural generals each commanding an army of one.

Beijing does not need to reach out to foreign architects for its identity. Its long history of building should be more than adequate inspiration for confidence in its own identity. Self-confidence forms the core of a nation's dignity and pride.

The understanding of the city as a collection of cultural and physical layers is missing in today's Chinese planning.

A different vision of Beijing would develop a sense of its history not in the precious preservation of a few historic buildings, but in sensitive incorporation of the scale, texture, rhythm and character that is unique to historical Beijing.

Of course this would require a wholesale revision of the planning curricula to train Chinese students in real urban planning rather than how to set up and facilitate so-called design competitions.

The current bidding system has its drawbacks as the architects and the jurors all play the same game with no involvement from the people who must live with their choices.

A real planning process needs to be established to open an interactive and constructive dialogue that occurs systematically over time and in many layers among politicians, policy-makers, developers, residents and scholars, young and old, rich and poor.

A good planning process requires checks and balances. Such a planning system would identify shared values, and create a civic decision making process that reflects those values.

I energetically propose for a reformed planning process to be adopted by Beijing and throughout China: This new planning process will begin with a vision of the city that celebrates and incorporates history and culture. This vision will involve discussions with those concerned from all perspectives and gather opinions from citizens.

The process will take a thoughtful, comprehensive approach, analyzing economic, social, cultural, environmental and physical issues before jumping to physical form.

Design guidelines based on Chinese principles and local variety will be developed and administered by knowledgeable professional staff. When so designed, the city, more than buildings, becomes the greatest art form of all.

In English: http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-07/30/content_464723.htm

In Chinese, with pictures: http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2005-08/21/content_3384159.htm