Common Frameworks: Rethinking the Developmental City in China, Part 1

Common Frameworks: Rethinking the Developmental City in China documents the first year of a three-year research and design study on the future of the Chinese city. A collection of essays and design conjectures, this report focuses on the city of Xiamen and particularly on the ubiquitous megaplot. Asserting that the megaplot has dissolved the idea of the city as a common space, the studio projects present an alternative urban strategy, conceiving a common framework for housing, work space, nature, and civic functions. The critique recuperates the cultural logic of Chinese civilization that underpins all its aesthetic production: the alternation of binary opposites, in this case the reciprocal elements of architecture and landscape, to maintain equilibrium. It sows the seed for an alternative idea of the city for China.

Studio Instructor
Christopher C. M. Lee

Teaching Associate
Simon Whittle

Students
Sonja Cheng Aanya Chugh Lik Hang Gu Waqas Jawaid Michael Leef Roy Yu-Ta Lin Ryan Otterson Ryley Poblete Matthew Scarlett John Martin Tubles Jisoo Yang Jonghyun Yi

Harvard GSD AECOM Project of China
This report was sponsored by the AECOM Fund for China Studios
ISBN: 978-1-934510-36-0