No More Tower Deserts: Toward a New Urbanism of Mat-organization

Fields of relentlessly arrayed high-rise residentialtowers constitute much of the (sub)urbanizedlandscape in China. An expanse of orderly housingbars unfolds within largely un-manipulated voidswhich embody the new Chinese urban towerdesert. Fueled by massive urban growth, theurge for modernization, and the transition to theprivatization of housing, this new form of urbanismhas emerged only within the past three decades.As traditional low and mid-rise communities fail tosurvive and adapt to the cultural shift and economicforces, tower deserts have become the new statusquo for contemporary Chinese cities. In their wakethose new urban typologies have created vasturban wastelands – anonymous and hostile placesdevoid of street live and in complete neglect ofthe qualities of everything heretofore. Examiningthis extreme proliferation of residential towercompounds in Chinese cities as a form of remoteterritorial landscape with far-reaching cultural andspatial consequences, the research explores maturbanismas an alternate form of urban housingsystem by investigating both traditional typologiesand speculative housing systems.

Volume Editors
Urs Peter Flueckiger & Victoria McReynolds

ISBN
978-1-944214-16-6