2008-2009
Wenwen Wang

Following an examination of National Planning Regulations and informal growth process, the project proposes a critique of national planning regulation on the provision of large-scale transport infrastructure and its relationship with urban fabric. A current oversupply of highway network based on for a car centred approach, combined with the use of mega blocks, is generating the perfect mix for a disjointed urban fabric and the erasure of the existing local fabric of urban villages. The result is a combination of gated communities separated from the rest of the city by fences or motorways, fuelling a growing inequality in Chinese society.

The project proposes, as an alternative, an extended network of transport corridors around which emergent informal growth processes, diversity and complexity of public activities and strong linkages and responses to the surroundings can develop. Departing from the ‘super-block’ model – regarding mixed land-use and density accumulations – as an urban condenser, the projects seeks to push infrastructure to be the neutral ground to be appropriated in unexpected ways.

Based on the primary structure, it proposes a public transportation system in order to enhance public circulation between urbanised areas and rural villages. Public spaces and semi-public spaces are provided along the public transportation system. Instead of only focusing on the internal organisation block, the proposal seeks to ‘thicken’ the infrastructural lines, turning them into an actual spatial proposal linked to public works and shared urban spaces.