Dynamic City Foundation :: Project Summary

The Dynamic City Foundation

The Dynamic City Foundation is a research and design institute focused on the rapid transformations of China's urban landscape. In 2003 the DCF has started the Urban China 2020 project; an in-depth study what the effects of China's flash-urbanization are and how designers can respond to this process. To achieve this an online collaboration platform has been established (www.BURB.tv) for open-source research and design. The objective to build four hundred new cities by the year 2020, as formulated by the former Chinese Minister of Civil Affairs, provides this project with its research framework and its name: UC2020. Central question is how to benefit from the dynamic forces at hand? For an illustrated introduction to the project please download the Project-summary.pdf (2MB)or watch the slides and download the transcript of a lecture of Neville Mars at Peoples Architecture's 3X3 lecture series to get an idea of the project: www.peoplesarchitecture.org.

Urban China 2020

In a multidisciplinary team of sociologists, planners and designers the DCF does research and develops a catalogue of design prototypes suitable for the increasingly market-driven conditions of the PR-China. Goal is to achieve strong cities in a clearly defined network by the year 2020 (sketch on the right). The work will be presented in the form of models, workshops and a video-installation. In addition a number of descriptive essay will be produced. The results have been presented in exhibitions in China and Europe (Millennium Museum, Beijing; Guangzhou Triennial; DIAF international art festival, Beijing, Trace de Chine, Paris; Architects in Booming China, Amsterdam). October 2006 the Urban China 2020 research results will published in the portal www.BURB.tv which offers a global stage for discussion feedback on the urbanization of China and will include the research image database. see preview.

Dynamic Density

The DCF will use the magnitude of the Chinese objective to its advantage and treat it as the starting point for a new design and planning strategy; Dynamic Density (DD). This strategy aims to tackle sprawl and increase compactness over time; compactness not merely as a way to achieve efficiency and sustainability, but as a social necessity for the future of cities. The strategy acknowledges that density in the contemporary metropolis is subject to constant change. Dynamic Density is developed as an integrated strategy from a regional planning perspective to the architectural scale. Dynamic Density is developed as an open-source model protected under the Creative Commons Licence (www.creativecommons.org) - further reading below.

Further reading

• Urban China 2020


• Dynamic Density and China



• Illustrated preview of the UC2020 book:
  Book-preview-01.pdf (pdf, 7MB)

Overview UC2020

Within a term of two decades China's open door policy has triggered economic progress and urban development of unrivalled speed and dimension. For the coming two decades China - and the world - expect the explosive growth both of the economy and the urbanized areas to reach a new pinnacle.
This advancement has propelled Chinese cities and their inhabitants into the future with amazing velocity. Modernity sweeps across the country beyond the coastal boomtowns deep into the countryside. In this cross-fire of underdevelopment and accelerated progress, of rigid communist hierarchies and dispersed market development an entirely new urban reality is created. As it unfolds we are presented with an amalgamated landscape of contrasts and hybrids and the effects of persistent change. Although from a Dutch perspective of regulation and conciliation this landscape may seem alien and its ingredients volatile, it is in Holland that a project has been formulated to investigate the forces behind market-driven urbanization; a project determined to understand the chaotic nature of dynamic environments and eager to harness the potential they offer.

Without glorifying the Chinese condition this project will approach China's landscape as the quintessential example of a dynamic urban environment from which we can learn, at a time when China is in dire need of an urban masterplan. This makes the project significant for China. Simultaneously it as a starting point for international interdisciplinary collaborations concerning dynamic urban design.

Current development forces in China are characterized by a steady population growth, an ongoing urbanization of the former agriculturally-based population, an aggressive economic growth and a rapid motorization. And although the reinforcement of the existing policies blocking the movement to the cities is strong, economic forces become increasingly decisive in the process of urbanization, giving impetus particularly to the growth of the large cities. At the same time, there is no comprehensive regional planning, nor national land development approach. The consequence threatens to be a scattered low-density urbanization of the countryside and a fast, uncontrolled and uncoordinated growth of the large city regions.

The project aims to contribute to China's overwhelming need to provide a masterplan for its urban development. We recognize that the sheer size of the Chinese planning objective can only be met with a comprehensive and integrated approach that takes into account the projected migration of hundreds of millions to the cities. Therefore the framework of this design research is defined the by one of China's boldest objectives as it was formulated by the former minister of Civil Affairs Doje Cering:

However clear and comprehensive such an objective might seem, the reality is that urbanization will largely occur beyond the scope of the planners or architects. The local developer, in conjunction with local politician, will most likely be the defining factor shaping the future of the Chinese urbanity unless a more unified approach is adopted in policy; this can be attributed to the following two concerns:

1. The pressurized state of the Chinese economy results in a speed of urbanization that simply outruns coherent planning and design



2. Only with very ambitious and overarching goals such as the one central to this project can overall plans for development be described. However, this ignores the reality of the scale of China and its political structure that obstructs their implementation

The Dynamic City Foundation feels it is critical to investigate this dilemma, and generate solutions, especially now as China is in its ascendancy and policies and political structures are morphing. Furthermore, we feel that by addressing these issues from outside the political framework of China and with an approach that transcends traditional urbanism by integrating the many disciplines involved, that we can make a valuable contribution to the development of the Chinese conurbation. Integral to this is treating the Chinese-formulated target of four hundred new cities as a definite and feasible one.

As modernity takes control, the contrasts within China and within the Chinese cities are increasing. Both the metropolis and the countryside are brick by brick rebuilt from the inside out with the insertion of new hotels, malls, highways and towers. Neighbourhoods can dramatically change shape overnight with the demolition and resurrection of a new block.

Currently the market-driven development results in a fascinating urban landscape, where new forms of planning and architecture seem to occur naturally. And at present the disorganized arrangement of large blocks erected amidst traditional neighborhoods suspends even the most conservative preservationists in silent amazement. Lively markets and modern department stores, parks and parking towers, small neighbourhood contentment and big city amenities are adequately crammed together. The juxtaposition of the commercial on top of residential, of small and intricate alleyways wrapped around bulky anonymous boxes seem, if only for the moment, to present that magic mixture urban planners have all been looking for. The moment however, is not likely to last. At this pace of development modernity is quick to be taken over by monotony. The centers turn into anonymous business districts and the residential areas can become segregated suburbs - as anywhere else today.

The difference is that China can beat the odds. China's wave of modernization presents its citizens with the conditions to expect and ponder their new future. Unlike an accelerated version of the American Dream (and the transformations it has undergone from the pursuit of happiness to consumerism), the Chinese citizen can still choose to fight monotony and reject any form of mitigated modernity. China can realize its dreams, if only they are visionary enough.

Dynamic Density and China

The absurdity to build four hundred new cities in twenty years is almost as stark as the aspiration to attempt their design. At least when China will boldly constructing these new cities without any adamant masterplan they will be able to grow and adapt to local conditions.
To an extend the countless developers involved will secure a minimum diversity in styles and architectural typologies, whereas a scheme on this scale conceived by one design team all at once, will surely result in some form of monotonous mega-structure. It seems sensible these two forces - fragmented construction and coordinating imagination - will have to be united for any planning measure to have an effect.

From a theoretical perspective it is obvious the sprawling urbanization has to be tackled fast. And today, to achieve this, any serious urban strategy will aim for compact cities. The definition of compactness however varies widely. What is meant by it and when it should be implemented is uncertain. In China every town and city aspires to become a metropolis and every building wants to be a skyscraper. The status the tower has obtained can be a strong advantage in the pursuit of density. But do a few thinly scattered skyscrapers in a vast low-rise suburban region really contribute to compactness? Can villa-style homes, for which demand has much increased, be integrated in the design of a compact city? Is the loss of farmland in return for urban expansions truly damaging? Many such questions remain, when a strategy has to be formulated to house one billion citizens or when building 400 new cities.

Dynamic Density streamlines the urbanization process by aiming for compactness; all the strategic components of the city, such as the layout, the grid, the production centers, the key building blocks are developed with this in mind. Compactness becomes the basis for sustainability and the quintessential quality of a successful urban society. However today, and particularly within the unpredictable context of a burgeoning China, an increasing density can only be realized over time and in response to a set of continuously changing parameters; it is unclear where, how and how fast urban development will occur. The Dynamic Density strategy acknowledges that the optimal compactness changes according to its size and that not every town in China will become like Shanghai.

As China's urbanization presses on and its cities expand they should strive to maintain this optimal compactness. Dynamic Density maps the process from village to metropolis and defines the urban and architectural prototypes suitable for the different stages of development. While on the regional scale a network of hierarchies and interdependencies between the different urban nodes is formed.

The clear objective in numbers of 400 cities of 1 million inhabitants each in 20 years, allows for this project to respond with equally clear numerical targets. The ultimate goal of this project, a proposal for the Dynamic Chinese City can be broken apart to its different elements and quantified. As such the grid systems, building typologies, the necessary size per city, speed of growth, inhabitants per km2 etc., can each be described by an objective numerical target.

To translate these targets to the specific Chinese situation, a considerable amount of analysis of the local context will take place. At the heart of the analyses lies a comparative research study of the Chinese Metropolis. It generates an inventory of possible outcomes for the new cities by mapping the exemplary aspects of existing cities in China. This builds on the innovations that have evolved over the years for instance in Hong Kong, where several qualities of Dynamic Density are already operational and have been tested. So unlike the standard urban comparative research study the many findings will be scrutinized as possible solutions too - most of which have never been acknowledged as such.

In addition a series of specific analysis and design tools for the concept of Dynamic Density have been developed that will be employed for the Chinese situation.