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

This dissertation explores the process of city planning and construction of the Shanghai International Settlement between 1843 and 1937, where the city grew from a low mud bank to the foremost modern metropolis in China. Modern roads provided the basis and the primary engine for the urban transformation. The study investigates the initial modern street network laid out in the nineteenth century, the jurisdictional and administrative dispute between the Chinese and foreign authorities, the competition and negotiation on the boundaries, and the constant redefinition and reconstruction during the first two decades of the twentieth century. In particular, the study explores the formative process of the three most remarkable urban artifacts in the Settlement, namely, the Bund promenade, Nanjing Road, and the parkways of the garden suburb. Through the investigation of the form, meaning and historical influence of the modern road system, the dissertation argues that the modern road system in the International Settlement was not a copy of any existing “Western model.” Designed by British engineers and city planners, most road schemes were progressive in many important ways to solve the pragmatic, administrative, and financial problems at the time, and to realize a “sanitary, orderly, and profitable” urban enclave in the city. The modification of the road schemes through the prolonged social negotiations made roads the physical embodiment of the desires, ideals, and struggles of various social groups—Chinese and foreigners, locals and outsiders, political elite and businessmen—to design and use the urban space. With the emergence of Chinese nationalism in the early twentieth century, the Western-led city planning was decried by the new generation of Chinese politicians and social reformers, and its ideals and practices, successes and failures were gradually forgotten. Rather than describing the social confrontation between the various parties, the dissertation re-construct the historical narrative of Chinese city planning by considering the Western-led city planning as the first wave of modern city planning in China. This preliminary step toward a modern city which was led by Western city planners had an ambivalent yet profound influence on the following decades of city planning led by the Chinese elite: on the one hand, it successfully defined a progressive image of “Modern City” that all Chinese could easily access; on the other hand, although excluded Chinese from the decision-making process, it also enriched Chinese urban life by creating new amenity and the concept of public spaces which eventually engender a series of social reforms. The study not only highlights the complicated, fragmented and pragmatic nature of municipality in making planning decisions under the process of political, social and spatial struggle, it also reveals the origins and contested meanings of “modern,” “public,” and “beauty” in Chinese context, which remain fluid and disputable. The issues addressed in the study not only clarify the various forces that have shaped Shanghai’s modern built environment but also offer historical insights into the challenges and problems in urban development today. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Shanghai has experienced rapid urbanization over the past three decades, accompanied by large-scale economic development. The spatial structure and landscape of Shanghai has been significantly transformed due to this urbanization and decentralization process. As the byproduct of urbanization process, the creation of all kinds of “wastes”( including actual waste as well as some waste or wasteful places) are an inevitable effect of urban growth which sustain our activities of growth. As a result, these “wastes” have caused a number of negative impacts on the environment, natural resources, human health, social and economic issues. The objective of this thesis project is to explore the potentials embed in those waste landscape in terms of landscape intervention as well as update our understanding and redefine the roles of those areas in the process of urbanization. How landscape as a medium to construct the city and how to redefine and reclaim waste landscape that in order to propose sustainable urbanization in Shanghai would also be explored and reflected from this thesis project. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Environmental Management / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

As cities have evolved over history as a function of human behaviour, they represent the rich social laboratories of a particular civilization. Because of its ancient roots and its particular historical evolution, the urban tradition in China is appreciatively unique, but yet as China is rapidly thrust into modernity and post-modernity of global interdependence most evident in its urban centres, one can discern clearly the serious cultural disparities that threaten the social fabric of the Chinese people. It is through the massive development of its major metropolises that China is embarking on a disturbing trend of false development, a top-down process which imposes disparate images and illusory expectations on a politically-fatigued society. As the centrepiece of China's entrance onto the international stage, the city of Shanghai represents both the vision of Chinas future, but perhaps also its social demise.

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University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration