ICE BREAKER: ME AND URBAN DESIGN

ME AND URBAN DESIGN

From my five years of study in architecture I have learnt that it is enjoyable to meet the needs of others and improve people’s living environment through my own design.

In contrast to the scale of architecture, I want to enhance the living environment of people at the scale of a city. The design of a building can only have a single point or radial effect, and can only slightly improve the lives of the people around it, but the design or renovation of a city can change the environment of the whole community and improve the quality of life on a large scale, which is why I chose to study urban design instead of architectural design as a postgraduate.

I believe that urban design can improve the efficiency of society and stimulate the potential of urban culture and economic development to achieve the goal of improving the quality of life for all.

Urban Design in China

In China, the discipline of urban design has a large misunderstanding in practice, roughly because the course is still relatively new in China, leading to many people misunderstanding the purpose of the discipline of urban design, and many not even being able to distinguish the difference between urban planning and urban design. There is nothing wrong with this in itself, and there are more and more designers who are aware of this and are starting to do the right thing.

Nowadays, most cities have only urban planning, landscaping and architectural design, which is the current state of most old Chinese cities. But this is only what is seen from the perspective of so-called modernist design; in fact, China has had its own set of urban design ideas since ancient times. With little interaction with most Western countries, including Britain, until the 20th century, Asia has always had its own system of development and design, both in terms of artistic and literary development. To take the simplest example, Chinese itself is a completely different language from English, both in terms of composition and narrative form. In the case of China, then, irrespective of the rest of Asia, the main objective of urban design was defence, with subordinate objectives such as transport, trade and the manifestation of imperial power. As a result, the design of ancient cities in China is mostly characterised by a square, symmetrical central axis, enclosed or stepped physical form. In a functional sense, the ancient Chinese concept of the inner city and the outer city, the eastern city and the western city; the government offices were often located in the centre of the city or at the end of the central axis; the residential areas were relatively free, but normally located in the outer city; and the inner city, in contrast, was the residence of the royal family or officials.

Tradition and Innovation

With globalisation, cultures around the world began to interact with each other, and the best and strongest parts of these cultures began to expand globally, and this included modernist design. There is no denying that modernist design is a design style that has inevitably become popular in the last hundred years as technology has developed, and it is excellent and efficient. But when something becomes too popular, it can also create a serious problem of homogenisation. Designs from all over the world seem to come from one place, which can lead to the loss of regional culture and the forgetting of history and culture. And how to learn from the best cultures without losing oneself becomes a problem for all sectors of society.

This is why, in recent years, retro styles have started to appear all over the world. It is clear that in all walks of life, including urban design, we need to develop and progress, to revolutionise and innovate, but it is only when we do not forget our traditional literature and blend it with the new culture that we can design cities with real personality and that are truly loved by the local people.