architecture
OBSERVED
urbanism
ethics
“We have become the Old World.”
The Chinese Century
Thomas J. Campanella’s new book explores
the implications—and contradictions—of China’s
rapid urbanization.
For 16 days in August, the world was treated to a
kind of architectural fantasia. This summer’s Olympic
Games, in Beijing, were more than a global sporting
event; they were a coming-out party. But the
National Stadium (a.k.a. the Bird’s Nest), the
National Aquatics Center, and the plethora of other
glittering venues were merely symbols, stand-ins
for a much bigger story: the urban transformation
of China.
The fierce, feverish modernization there is a work in progress.
Thomas J. Campanella’s new book, The Concrete Dragon: China’s
Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World (Princeton
Architectural Press), does a masterful job of synthesizing what might
otherwise have been a gargantuan tome (each of its 11 chapters could
be a book unto itself). An associate professor of urban planning and
design at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campanella
has been traveling to China since 1992, a crucial moment when the
country’s development kicked into overdrive. Recently, executive
editor Martin C. Pedersen spoke to him about the book, the ethical
responsibility of Western architects, and the future of this massive
urban experiment.
Is what we’re seeing in China unprecedented?
Very much so. We’ve never seen anything like this in terms of the sheer
amount of stuff being built. But we’ve also never seen so much destroyed in
order to build. You know the old maxim “You can’t make an omelet without
breaking eggs”? Robert Moses was very fond of that saying. Well, China has
busted a lot of eggs to make this great big omelet. The amount of urban
fabric that’s been razed to make way for all this new construction is unprecedented in the peacetime history of world cities. In fact, the only comparable
thing we have—and I don’t want to make too much of this because in
China it’s reconstruction—is the wartime bombings of cities like Dresden
and Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Are they reinventing the city or using largely discredited Western planning principles in a uniquely Chinese context?
They’re definitely doing the latter. But we’re already beginning to get to the
end of that phase. The early phase was “copy the West.”
Campanella
(above) has been
visiting China
since 1992.
Top: A demolition
site in Nanjing.
Book cover and photos, courtesy Princeton Architectural Press; portrait, Wu Wei/courtesy Thomas J. Campanella
It was almost “copy the West from 1974.”
Yes, you’re right. But, in a very short amount of time, it’s gotten more sophisticated. Even during the early copying stage, it was also being churned
through a cultural machine that injected something continued on page 44
