New Town Urbansim: History, Design, and Implications in 21st-century Chinese Urbanization

Zhongjie Lin is the Benjamin Z. Lin Presidential Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, where he serves as Head of the Urban Design program and directs the Future Cities Initiative. He is a co-founder of Futurepolis, an award-winning interdisciplinary practice of planning and architecture. An internationally renowned expert in urbanism, Dr. Lin has published numerous books on the theory and practice of urban design, sustainable urbanism, planning history, and Asian architecture and cities. His work has been recognized by prestigious awards including the 2012 Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, the 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2014 Abe Fellowship. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Tongji University Department of Architecture, and Ph.D. in Architectural History and Theory from Penn. Before returning to the faculty at Penn, he was Professor in the School of Architecture at University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Amid its groundbreaking political reforms and “largest mass migration ever seen in human history,” China created over 3,800 new towns to accommodate its burgeoning urban population and sustain economic growth. Economic marketization, global trade, inter-city competition, and the exponentially growing real estate industry have driven tremendous investment in infrastructure and large-scale developments, stimulating continuous urban expansion. Surpassing any urbanization initiatives in history, contemporary Chinese new towns emerged as the national campaign to reimagine Chinese cities while reshaping the global geo-economic landscape.

This lecture examines four decades of Chinese urbanization through the lens of urbanism and utopianism. After exploring the theoretical foundations and historical precedents of new town development, Prof.Lin delves into a series of “model new towns” that showcase innovative planning, design, technologies, policies, and China’s broader vision for a modern urban nation. Case studies of the Suzhou Industrial Park, One City and Nine Towns in Shanghai, prototypical eco-cities form the core of this lecture, highlighting fundamental issues in urbanization including economic vitality, cultural identity, environmental sustainability, and socio-spatial dynamics. Prof.Lin scrutinizes these new towns not only as grand visions of governments, planners, and developers but also as physical spaces embodying the struggles and aspirations of residents and migrant workers. By examining both the successes and failures of Chinese new town planning and development, this book illuminates the complex interplay between space production and social transformation within the context of neoliberalism and globalization.