Dwellings - One city nine towns

 

Dwellings - One city nine towns

 

Shanghai, located on the Southern estuary of the Yangzte River, recorded population of 24.28 million as of 2019, and holds the title for the most populous urban area in China. Striving for decentralisation of the city, a strategic plan was born in 2001, named the ‘one city nine towns’ project. Nine new town centres were proposed, lying in the surrounding areas of Shanghai, and interestingly, were themed on cities from varying geographical regions. To reduce pressure on the centre of Shanghai and prevent daily commutes, each town was planned to be ‘24-hour towns,’ providing job opportunities, services and residential areas housing 50,000 – 100,000 people each. The idea of having themed towns was to ensure that each one was its own individual entity.

The towns to be developed were: Gaoqiao (Holland), Fengcheng (Spain), Pujiang (Italy), Anting (Germany), Songjiang (England), Luodian (North European), Fengjing (North America), and Zhoujiajiao (a traditional Chinese style water town). A last town, Zhoupu (Mixed Vestern), was planned but eventually cancelled. Architects from each respective country were employed for the design of the towns.

Despite the ambitious plans for these towns, they are mostly now unsuccessful and eerily quiet replicas of stereotypical blocks from various countries. The majority of traffic through them is from tourists who are intrigued to see these odd copycat areas, or couples who have travelled to get their wedding photos taken in a different country without actually leaving the country.

So why are the towns so unsuccessful?

The reason for the failure of the ‘one city nine towns’ project isn’t black and white, with several factors influencing the reluctance of people to move to them. The preparations and design of the towns were completed in a very short time frame, particularly for those that were the first to be constructed. Additionally, as the government wanted as many pieces of each culture as possible squeezed into each town, it is argued that they have become a ‘mismatch’ of architecture, with landmarks and buildings clumped together which just don’t fit beside one another.

One of the most well-known towns is ‘Thames Town’ (Songjiang), complete with cobbled streets, red telephone boxes and a Winston Churchill statue. It has been announced that 95% of the units in this town have been sold, however the streets remain empty. This is due to the fact that a three-bedroom villa costs the equivalent of £585 k, rendering them out of reach for your everyday worker. The units which have been sold were snapped up by those rich enough to invest in extra property in hope of the town becoming more attractive to buyers in the future, allowing them to make a profit on a re-sale. Therefore, most units which were sold remain empty and workers that are needed to create a sense of community by working in shops, pubs etc. cannot afford to move in. Obviously, this doesn’t help to solve the problem of over-population in Shanghai at all.

Additionally, many of the architects did not take into consideration traditional Chinese town-planning protocols during the design and development of the towns, such as Feng Shui principles. Not all towns (especially the earlier builds) have South facing buildings or separated residential and retail areas, discouraging people from re-locating.

Perhaps in the future the fate of these towns will change, and they will be bustling with people and business (and this guy below might finally get a customer or two!), but for now, it’s not looking overly promising.

Alice