No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Wan Chi Ying, Jenny. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2010-2011, design report." / Includes bibliographical references.

Compact cities, as opposed to the urban sprawl, are being advocated in many countries and regions. As a sustainable urban form, these have significant implications on the pursuit of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. However, despite their advantages, compact cities have negative impacts on urban development. Both positive and negative impacts are derived from developed countries. However, whether these impacts are applicable to developing countries remains uncertain. This research aims to examine the development and impacts of urban compaction in China. Guided by land use policies, compact development in Beijing is currently being promoted through the intensification of existing construction areas rather than the development of new large-scale areas. This research aims to explore the development of urban compactness from the perspective of time and spatial dimensions and examine the impact of compact development. To carry out this research, this thesis reviews the relevant theories on compact cities characterized as high-density developments and mixed-use developments of construction areas that have a well developed public transport system. These compact cities can be achieved through urban intensification. In this work, an indicator system for measuring urban compactness based on the features of compact cities (e.g., high-density development, mixed-use development, and public transport system) is proposed. The development of the urban compactness of an entire city during the period of 1992-2007 is also calculated according to the indicator system. In addition, the development of urban compactness in the different regions of inner city districts, outer city districts, and new towns in 1996, 2001, and 2006 are also studied. Given that compact cities have a significant impact on urban development, some indicators that reveal economic, social, and environmental development are utilized to test the impact of compact cities in Beijing through statistical studies and semi-structured interviews. The results of evaluating the urban compactness development from the entire city perspective indicate rapid population growth and urbanization, along with the rapid increase of urban density in Beijing. Compared with high-density development, mixed use development has not been as rapid. With the mass construction of the subways and the increase in the provision of public buses, the development of public transport has also improved significantly. Following these results, the impact of urban compaction is analyzed, and compact development appeared to be beneficial to economic, social and environmental development, although some of its benefits have not been embodied fully. This research further examines the spatial development of urban compactness. The findings reveal that land use in the central city has become increasingly compact and that the potential for urban compactness could be further enhanced in the outer city districts. In new towns where the urban sprawl is quite severe, high-density development and mixed-use development should be promoted. To increase accessibility, the public transport system should be further improved. By analyzing the development of urban compactness, this study suggests that the support facilities and services in Beijing are insufficient compared with population growth and urbanization occurring in the city; this inadequacy leads to the backward progress of mixed-use development. As a large city, the different regions in Beijing stand in different positions that require varied development strategies to achieve urban compaction. The study fills a gap in the literature on compact development in China and population growth as well as theoretically and empirically enriches the impact of urban compaction in the context of rapid urbanization and population growth. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Urban landscape offers an effective means to improve local capability for regional and global competitions. Along with the growing power of cultural economy, urban landscape with unique identity is increasingly repackaged as venue for cultural, particularly visual, consumption. At the same time, globally oriented cities compete with one another by promoting arts districts. In this context, arts districts have become a global urban phenomenon, contributing significantly to agglomerate cultural consumption activities. For the past two decades, arts districts in Beijing have gained rapid increase in terms of locations and spatial patterns. However ,they were called ‘artist villages’ which represent their undergrounded statues in the early 1990s.It was not until 2000s that some of them were soon commercialized with international galleries, trendy restaurants, caf?s and night clubs appearing on the scene. These underground settlements were eventually recognized as “creative clusters” by the government. Speculative developers have seized the opportunity to investigate arts districts along with the growing importance of cultural economy. Compared with western cases, Beijing’s arts districts merely took less than 20 years to shift from its isolated state to a tremendously popular one among local citizens and foreign visitors. Under this specific circumstance, the mechanism that contributes to such transformation has yet to be explored. Knowledge in this field in China is still on the stage of adopting the western model with a strong passion for explaining their economic capability. Whereas, in order to explore the relation between production landscape and consumption landscape, there is need to conduct a critical investigation for arts districts as a cultural spatial product in a social process. In light of the scenario given above, the study aims to examine the role of place identity in producing Beijing’s arts districts with special focus placed on their branding strategy. The first step of the study is to review the overall development process of Beijing’s arts districts to identify specific background conditions and analyze their development characteristics. In the given urban context, two case studies of Factory 798 and Jiuchang are carried out, which are designed to achieve the research objectives. The two cases display different patterns of development mode. However, according to the study findings, similarities between them can be explored. Based on the distinctive image that the cases create, the study arrives at a conclusion that the role of place identity is evident in forming the characteristic of the consumption pattern. The significance of place identity is recognized for lending its value to Beijing’s arts districts. Further, from production landscape to consumption landscape, the commodification process of arts districts is ineffective without the interplay of social actors. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

Chinese cities have experienced dramatic growth and transformation since the initiation of economic reforms in 1978. One of the main characteristics of contemporary urban development in China has been the massive expansion of urban land, which has become one of the most important means to generate fiscal revenue and promote local economic growth. The existing literature on urban China has addressed issues such as China’s urbanization, changing urban land use and changing public finance. What is missing from the existing literature is the interrelationship among these three processes. The links between urban socioeconomic development and land use change remain poorly understood, and the discussion of the relationship between institutional changes and urban land development has been rather limited. This thesis takes a political economy perspective to investigate the relationship among institutional changes, urban land development and urban socio-economic changes in Chinese cities, using Beijing as a case. The main argument made in this study is that urban land development has worked as an important medium to channel the effects of institutional changes toward shaping the pattern of urban economic and social development. During the period of 1996 -2008, Beijing experienced large-scale urban expansion. The area of agricultural land and unused land dropped by 1.1% and 2.9% respectively while the land used for construction increased by 5.6%, and the urban built-up area in 2008 was 2.75 times of the area in 1996. My research has found that the peak of Beijing’s urban land development occurred in the period of 2001 to 2004 when both the growth of urban construction land and the transaction volume of land conveyance reached their climax. Much of the newly increased construction land was converted from agriculture for industrial use. Over space, urban land development in Beijing was concentrated in the northwestern and eastern regions. My detailed analysis of the sources and dynamics of urban land development in Beijing has identified profound institutional changes made in the central-municipal fiscal relations as the most important driving forces responsible for the temporal, structural, and spatial characteristics of land development demonstrated in Beijing. My further assessment of the effects of urban land development in Beijing has revealed a mixed picture of improved economic efficiency and persistent social and spatial disparity. The efficiency of Beijing’s economic growth has improved significantly when compared with its past and with other cities in the region. However, the internal variations in urban socioeconomic development in the Beijing city-region has been worsen. By establishing the relationship among the three elements, namely urban land development, institutional changes and urban socio-economic development, this research challenges the conventional wisdom that sees land development as simply the passive outcome of economic growth and suggests that land should better be seen as the “medium” to connect and materialize the effects of changes in the political and institutional arena upon urban social and economic transformation. / published_or_final_version / Geography / Master / Master of Philosophy