Chinese Generic Cities and Their Urban Futures

Authors

  • Sunnie Sing-Yeung Lau Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Paula González Martínez

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.201319358

Keywords:

China, generic cities, urban growth, cultural identity, large scale

Abstract

Despite the fact that China’s urban growth has been widely studied and discussed over the last decades, this paper intends to offer a particular and most recent vision of the present scenario. From our Hong Kong and Mainland architectural experiences, being fully involved in the cases that we are about to describe and trying to avoid generalizing, we aim to redefine somewhat of a repetitive reality and the implications of it in the near future because of two major dangers: 1. The new cities become generic without proper assimilation process to illustrate locality and cultural identity; 2. Built large scale development losses adaptability to changes into other program once obsolete.

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Author Biographies

Sunnie Sing-Yeung Lau, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sunnie Sing Yeung LAU. Hong Kong born, US trained architectural designer. Lived and worked in various US, and European cities. She holds a Master degree in Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Certificate in Urban Design. Prior to her continue research at the MIT, she worked for Morphosis Architects (LA), MVRDV (Rotterdam) and OMA (HK); participated in numerous international competitions, building projects and large-scale urban developments in various countries. Currently, other than working as a practitioner in Hong Kong, she is actively participating in various academic research and building projects; serving as a frequent design guest critic at the Hong Kong University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and City University.

Paula González Martínez

Paula González receives Architecture training in the Polytechnic School of Architecture in Madrid, Spain in 2007. After graduating with a Master of Architecture degree with an excellence mention she completes an MBA in Real Estate Business Administration (MDI) and joins the ETSAM/HKU PHD program in order to research urban issues in the Asian city. She has worked for international design firms such as OMA, WEST 8 and Atkins before as an architect Herzog and De Meuron. Through her experience on international project design and development, project coordination, administration, and construction coordination she brings a strong technical background and expertise to all projects while thinking of the Asian city as an urban planner and architect.

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Published

2013-12-31

How to Cite

Lau, S. S.-Y., & González Martínez, P. (2013). Chinese Generic Cities and Their Urban Futures. ZARCH. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, (1), 60–69. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.201319358

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