Urban planning sizzle moves to Asia
China appears to be rapidly taking the lead position in designing and implementing exciting and futuristic urban designs and construction.
The folks at the Urban Land Institute appear to agree, having published a series of articles in the February 2006 issue of Urban Land magazine on China and Asia's remarkable transformation. Also, the folks at Realcomm are putting on a tour of Asian commercial real estate, the NextGen Best Practices Tour (go here and click on "tours" near the top of the screen), which sounds like it'd be fun and fascinating, if you've got $12,500 to spend (plus spare change for buying anime action figures for your kids).
It reminds me of a China tour some CCIM Institute executives took in the 1990s, in which they were given a first-hand look of the breakneck pace of that country's high-rise growth. (One person told me about being taken up a skyscraper under construction, only to find many, many flights up that there were no guard rails along the edge.)
And while design traditionalists like me mourn the destruction of many old, classic neighborhoods to make way for modern highrises, I'm still enough of a science geek to be excited by some of the cutting-edge designs and dense urban (what we'd call "smart growth") creations that are springing up.
About 100 or 150 years ago, it was cities such as Chicago and New York that were thrilling people with their building innovations and bold urban planning. Before that, it had been the great cities of Europe. Now, it definitely appears to be China and other Asian nations.
The folks at the Urban Land Institute appear to agree, having published a series of articles in the February 2006 issue of Urban Land magazine on China and Asia's remarkable transformation. Also, the folks at Realcomm are putting on a tour of Asian commercial real estate, the NextGen Best Practices Tour (go here and click on "tours" near the top of the screen), which sounds like it'd be fun and fascinating, if you've got $12,500 to spend (plus spare change for buying anime action figures for your kids).
It reminds me of a China tour some CCIM Institute executives took in the 1990s, in which they were given a first-hand look of the breakneck pace of that country's high-rise growth. (One person told me about being taken up a skyscraper under construction, only to find many, many flights up that there were no guard rails along the edge.)
And while design traditionalists like me mourn the destruction of many old, classic neighborhoods to make way for modern highrises, I'm still enough of a science geek to be excited by some of the cutting-edge designs and dense urban (what we'd call "smart growth") creations that are springing up.
About 100 or 150 years ago, it was cities such as Chicago and New York that were thrilling people with their building innovations and bold urban planning. Before that, it had been the great cities of Europe. Now, it definitely appears to be China and other Asian nations.
posted by John Zipperer at 8:19 AM
<< Home