Urban dynamic : extending China, the minor infrastructures of megablock

Abstract

Nowadays in China, the expansion of city based on selling a large patch of lands to private developers and let them create both housing and mixed use lands. This trend had become the basic unit of urban fabric in modern Chinese cities, especially in Beijing. This trend of large-scaled development create economic, social and cultural issues. Is it a health way to development with superblocks in China? What is the potential or risk in producing megablocks everyday? Megablock turns into a research center for the outcomes, opportunities, and potential worldwide expansion of Chinese urban models, reevaluated through the channels of environment, financial aspects, and ethics. Landscape infrastructure is getting more important in urban planing. Pierre Belanger explained that infrastructure includes the management of water, food, waste, transport and energy. They are highly related to the regional changing context, the landscape planning and design practice. The planing of infrastructure is no longer limited to civil engineering aspect but also need cooperation from landscape architecture as well as other disciplines. As an integrative and horizontal discipline that transcends disciplinary boundaries, landscape practice is gaining a chance to include and consider the logistical aspect of urbanization. To plan a landscape infrastructure that can help bridge the current economic-ecological gap, the specific regional elements must be study well. For example the topography, hydrology and biomass to facilitate the transmission as well as minimize its by-products that may harm the environment. To sum up, the thesis topic is to study the importance of landscape infrastructure towards urbanization and megablocks. As the megablocks are rapidly developed in China and the trend of it is not going to be stopped as the highly economic value of it, we should propose the proper development consideration at the first step, which is the critical step to design the infrastructure as the faith of the megablocks. Through a proper design for landscape infrastructure, the cultural, social and ecological problem is no longer the obstacle for rapid development.