Scale: Part 2 - Public Space in China

Having been to the three largest cities in China, several impressions are consistently revealing about life in public spaces in these dense cities. While some effort to preserve historic neighborhoods, such as Beijing’s hutongs, is supported with on-going repairs and tourist related services, the way of life is essentially gone. For centuries multiple generations lived in courtyard compounds with social structures based on intimate proximity, impossible to duplicate in typical apartment complexes. Public parks at historic sites are sometimes restricted for use by retired people at prime times, who gather there to practice dancing and singing, and to exercise. The grass lawns are closed off, but paved areas in the shade are popular and these provide space for the social activities that have survived.

Clearly re-planting projects are part of infrastructure development. Highways are bordered by dense vegetation with the look of American office park design that will improve as it matures. These landscapes block views of the surrounding developed areas or of community gardens on land that will eventually be developed. Green roofs are rare, but most new buildings have flat roofs and may be added later. Streets, such as in Shanghai’s French Concession, are lined with mature sycamore trees that provide welcome relief from the overwhelming scale of the nearby business districts.

Historic gardens, such as the 16^th-century Yu Yuan Gardens in Shanghai, are open to the public and have attracted preservation of the surrounding district made up of low stone and brick buildings used for shopping boutiques and restaurants. Housing in these charming neighborhoods is extremely expensive, and most people live in the high-rise apartments, discussed in Part 1 of this series.

The scale of these public spaces contrasts sharply with recent construction of tall skyscrapers whose height rivals any throughout the world. What is missing in the city is the parochial scale as discussed by Lyn Lofland. Housing developments are linked together by the mass-transit system that most use because owning a car is expensive and the traffic is perpetually congested. Because the government subsidizes housing, developers have little incentive to provide the amenities needed to support social communities. People new to the neighborhood get to know each other in several ways. Taking children to playgrounds brings people with shared interests together, but only the elementary schools are local and many children are sent to boarding schools for higher education. Dog walkers are unusual. Public parks are provided on a city not neighborhood scale. Perhaps the government is leery of unsupervised public gathering for protest that might occur in such places, or it is just too soon. One type of public space might be used to greater advantage is the network of elevated pedestrian walkways that allow people to safely cross the new highways, common in dense areas. Getting from here to there need not be the shortest distance between two points. Meeting others for tea, much like the community life of coffee shops in the United States, might be the needed public space that initiates a “there” to these dense civic places.