View
214
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f18626033200897234… 1/17
This article was downloaded by: [The University of Texas at El Paso]On: 02 January 2015, At: 11:43Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Journal of Landscape ArchitecturePublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjla20
Beijing's New Urban Countryside – Designing with
Complexity and Strategic Landscape PlanningAntje Stokman
a , Sabine Rabe
a & Stefanie Ruff
a
a Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Sciences , Leibniz University Hanover
Published online: 01 Feb 2012.
To cite this article: Antje Stokman , Sabine Rabe & Stefanie Ruff (2008) Beijing's New Urban Countryside –
Designing with Complexity and Strategic Landscape Planning, Journal of Landscape Architecture, 3:2, 30-45, DOI:
10.1080/18626033.2008.9723402
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2008.9723402
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representationor warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Anyopinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not theviews of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be
independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losseactions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoecaused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematicreproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anis expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/paterms-and-conditions
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2008.9723402http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditionshttp://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditionshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2008.9723402http://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080/18626033.2008.9723402http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjla20
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f18626033200897234… 2/1730 Jo urn al of La nds ca pe Arc hi te ct ure / aut umn 200 8
Antje Stokman, Sa bine Rabe, Stefanie RuffFcuty of achitectue n lncpe science, leibniz Univeity Hnove
Beijing’ New Ubn Countyie – deigning withCompexity n sttegic lncpe Pnning
Abstract
One of the key challenges facing sustainable urban and landscape design is
the land-use management of the rural-urban fringe, a dynamic area where
a range of urban and rural uses collide. By examining the present situation
of one of the world’s most dynamic fringes, the planned second green belt
of Beijing, it becomes clear that rapid land-use change processes are closely
connected to the adaptive and inventive connections between people and
the land. Thus a new management system leading to sustainable develop-
ment and design of the green belt can only be achieved by designing new
ways of interaction between the different actors and the land. During a Si-
no-German workshop seeking deeper understanding of land-use patterns
and processes, different scenarios for the future development of Beijing’s
urban countryside were developed and discussed.
Rural-urban Fringe Landscapes / Green Belt Policies / Multi -func tiona l Des ign / Bei jing
Introduction
Evolving patterns of Beijing’s urban landscapes
Maps of Beijing cannot be amended fast enough, and master plans for its
development always lag behind the realities on the ground. Beijing is one
of the most dynamic and rapidly developing cities in the world. Within
three decades, China’s open door policy has stimulated economic progress
and urban development of unrivalled speed and dimensions. Since 1981,
350 million Chinese have migrated from rural areas to the cities, espe-
cially those on the east coast. To keep growth under control, the Capital
Planning Commission of Beijing has been trying to achieve a well-ordered
layout of urban expansion by applying masterplanning and green belt
concepts since 1953, shortly after the founding of the People’s Republic
of China. However, when observing Beijing’s contemporary urban land-
scapes on the urban fringe, one can hardly believe that there have been
any attempts to apply physical urban plans, as the actual dimensions and
patterns of urban growth are obviously not a result of planning – apartfrom the clear system of ring roads.
Taking an area on the fringe of Beijing as a case study, this paper dis-
cusses the distinctive landscape morphological patterns resulting from lo-
cal interactions between urban and rural land uses, forming a new kind of
vernacular landscape. By using research-based approaches of mapping to
analyse, organise, and present complex interrelationships, this study re-
interprets the role of design in strategically linking spatial landscape pat-
terns to social dynamics. It reads and interprets different strategies and
adaptations to local conditions as a self-organising system in which the
basic elements – the existing rural villages and land parcels – are devel-
oped into various land uses. Describing the transition rules that affect
the change of individual land parcels creates an argument that we need tofind new ways of dealing with the complexity, speed and unpredictabili-
ty of a megacity’s urban growth and landscape change. In the worldwide
process of extremely rapid urban development, landscape architects have
to address and make use of contemporary physical and social practices,
meeting local needs by designing landscapes for survival .
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f18626033200897234… 3/17 Jo urn al of La nds cap e A rc hit ec tur e / a utu mn 20 0
Emerging versus planned urban landscapes
The emerging phenomenon of a new type of complex urban landscape onthe fringe of Asian mega-cities has been described by numerous schol-
ars ( Yoko hari et al. 200 0; Frie dman 2005 , R ead 200 5 ). Most of them are re-
ferring to Ginsburg (Ginsburg 1990) and McGee ( McGe e 19 91) as the first
to describe the special characteristics of ‘rural urbanisation’ or ‘rurban-
isation’ in Indonesia and other Asian countries. The spatial characteris-
tics of this kind of urban landscape, although related to the phenomenon
termed ‘Zwischenstadt’ (Sieverts 1997 ) or ‘Splintering Urbanism’ (Gra-
ham and Marvin 2002) in Western cities, are considered distinctively Asian.
They are characterised by an intense and seemingly chaotic mixture of
different micro-scaled agricultural and non-agricultural land uses that
can be found in most of today’s well-developed economic regions, espe-
cially around the central cities and stretching along infrastructure corri-dors between larger city cores. Generated from dynamic relations, these
territories are the physical expressions of social processes and economic
flows, ordered as a diverse patchwork of parallel operations. They rest on
an emergent dynamic of multiple interrelated actors with individual mo-
tives, operating in modular ways in an open-ended process (Fig. 1).
These kinds of self-organizing and complex urban landscapes are typ-
ical of chaotic land use by modern urban and landscape planning, as the
expression of unorganised and unpredictable urban sprawl. The concept
of clearly separating urban areas from surrounding rural areas is a funda-
mental concept of modern Western urban planning theory as adapted by
most Asian countries ( Yokoha ri et al. 20 00). The Western concept of use planning system by zoning was introduced to guide urban expa
by clearly separating designated urbanisation promotion areas fro
rounding urbanisation control areas. As the cities grew and their
structure became more and more dense, in the early days of the m
planning movement planners initially used urban parks and green
spaces within the urbanisation promotion areas as recreation and
health amenities. As cities expanded even further, planners promot
creation of green open spaces, preferably in the shape of ‘green belt
rounding the urbanisation promotion areas, to restrict the disorder
pansion of urban areas into surrounding rural landscapes. This mo
land use and greenspace planning has long been applied in Europ
the United States, and subsequently adopted by Asian countries ining China and the city of Beijing.
Beijing’s master planning overtaken by reality
Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China i n 194
jing has become one of the largest and most rapidly developing ci
the world. It is hard to believe that in the preceding 500 years the ci
seen hardly any dramatic change to its urban outline and main f
work, with the urban built up area covering around 62.5 km2 fro
Ming Dynasty around 1420 (Gan 199:359) to the foundation of the Pe
Republic (Deng et. al. 2004:227 ). Since then, fast population growth a
Figure 1 Location of the Floodscape projects(NW Europe section of Interreg III shaded)
Figure 1 Contrasting, interesting and confusing patterns of Beijing’s urban fringe inCuigezhuang County – a prototype territory of self-organising and complex urbanlandscapes situated in the projected second green belt of Beijing.
agriculture company
urban street village palais de fortune
construction workers
art exhibition space
new villagecontriction sites
electricitydistribution
drinkingdrinking water golf course
traditionalvillage superhighway densified village
farming entertainment
fish ponds
transport home orchard billiard parlour
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f18626033200897234… 4/1732 Jo urn al of La nds ca pe Arc hi te ct ure / aut umn 200 8
4th and 5th ring road – seem more fantasy than reality. Confronted with
the danger of losing the extension of the second green belt and consider-
ing the serious environmental impacts of urbanisation, the planners didnot give up: They invented an even larger green belt plan, which has been
pursued by the municipal government of Beijing since 2002 (Ouyang and
Wang 2002). The revised second green belt is composed of a reduced inner
plus an additional outer green belt, located mainly between the fifth and
sixth ring roads with an average width of 10 km but not defined by exact
borders. According to the study, about 40% of this area is already built on
– and this ratio should not be exceeded. At least 60% of the land needs to
be reserved for ‘green cover’ with at least 70% of the total ‘green elements’
being forests (Ouyang and Wang 2002) (Fig. 3).
However, while the planners are busying themselves with plans and
calculations, outside the remit of official planning within the designated
new green belt area the city is evolving according to its own rules. Urbanexpansion does not follow an overall planned vision but is driven by un-
related governmental or politically motivated actions and by private eco-
nomic activities and speculation. There are not enough resources to devise
and implement regulatory policies and tools to control the pace of devel-
opment. Conventional masterplanning is unable to address uncertainty,
as its assumptions and strategies are too rigid to adapt to fast-changing
and unpredictable external factors. With every solution the planners de-
velop, the urban frontiers appear to be less designed and more evolved.
Bei jin g' Ne w U bn Cou nt yi e a. stokmn, s. rbe & s. ruff
rapid increase of housing and economic activities have expanded the in-
ner city’s built up area to cover more than 700 km2 with a typical expan-
sion pattern following the concentric ring roads (Li et al. 2005:1). While thesecond ring road on the land of the former city wall was built in the 1980s
and the third ring road in the 1990s, since then three more ring roads have
been completed, with the 6th ring road comprising around 130 km of ex-
pressway some 15 - 20 km from central Beijing (Fig. 2 ).
Faced with the extreme pressure of urban growth, since the founda-
tion of the People's Republic of China Beiji ng has also applied the above-
mentioned planning models to guide and structure its urban expansion.
After the f irst concept o f the 1950s to intro duce a green belt around the
old city on the land of its ancient city wall was preempted by construction
of the second ring road, the concept of a second green belt to separate the
central city from the surrounding development of new outskirt districts
has been put forward. The ‘Master Plan Scheme on Construction of Bei- jing City’ from 1 982, which was meant to guide urban development un-
til the millennium and limit the population to 10 million by 2000, first
introduced this idea. However, the population had already reached 10.86
million in 1990, overrunning much of the designated green belt land.
The revised masterplans for Beijing in 1993 and 2004 reduced but still de-
fined the area of the second green belt. Looking at the current state of Be-
ijing, although there have been more than 50 years of masterplanning,
apart from the definite ring road system the urban and landscape struc-
ture seems to lack any overall concept. The planned main elements – ten
satellite towns separated from the urban c ore by a green belt within the
* * *
City Area, 1992 City Area, 1988City Area, 1975
**
City Area, 1996
City Area, 2002
Figure 2 Rapid expansion of Beijing’s urban area andring shaped infrastructure system from 1975 to 2002(Source: Master Plan of Beijing 2002 – 2020)
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f18626033200897234… 5/17 Jo urn al of La nds cap e A rc hit ec tur e / a utu mn 20 0
Realities – spati al impacts of urbanisat ion p rocesses on Beijing’s fring e
Seen from the perspective of traditional land-use planning and regula-
tion, the current landscape of Beijing’s urban fringe may seem alien and
over-complex. The discipline of landscape architecture, however, engag-
es with complex relationships of landscape patterns and processes, rec-
ognizing ecosystems as diverse, complex and self-organizing lifeworlds.
It has developed useful strategic models and techniques for both under-
standing and designing within the complex circumstances of given sites.Therefore, from the perspective of landscape architecture a joint Sino-Ger-
man expert and student workshop was organised by Peking University
and Leibniz University Hannover. Taking the existing proposal for a new
masterplan of an area in the northeast of Beijing’s rural-urban fringe as
a starting point, new methodologies of strategic landscape planning and
design were developed during the workshop and discussed with invited
experts from Germany and China. Instead of transforming the site to ac -
commodate the two-dimensional forms and fixed spatial compositions
of the existing proposal, new ways were to be found to address the place’s
qualities of life and space with regard to future potential, weaving togeth-
er its multiple economic, social, environmental and aesthetic dimensions.
This approach implies a shift in design and planning methodology to-wards devoting more effort to site research and investigation of the forces
behind the making of this landscape.
By conducting field studies and on-site research on the rural-urban
fringe of Beijing, the different forces and the resulting landscape patterns
were analysed, interpreted and made visible by the method of mapping.
“Avoiding the failure of universalist approaches toward master-planning
and the imposition of state-controlled schemes, the unfolding agency of
mapping may allow designers and planners not only to see certain possi-
bilities in the complexity and contradiction of what already exists but also
to actualize that potential.” (Corner 1999:214 ). Exploring and describing the
physical attributes of the existing terrain of Beijing’s urban fron
an expression of various hidden forces, during the workshop we v
ized these interrelationships within many different mappings, wh
called ‘episodes’, thereby implying that a mapping always represent
one version of spatial reality as a result of exploring, selecting, abstr
and relating a chosen set of aspects from the factual observation. Th
pects can include natural processes such as wind directions, hydroand soil conditions, local history and stories, social relationships an
nomic interactions between different groups of people as well as
spatial and economic activities determined by legislative condition
To introduce the rich and varied spectrum of experiences of
landscape conditions within Beijing’s rural-urban fringe, selected
ings from many different episodes collected during the workshop
been aggregated within four general episodes, presented in the foll
section. Grounded on real observations, these episodes are based on
graphic selection and schematisation. For each episode, based on de
ing both the spatial and aesthetic qualities within plan and sectio
jections of a ‘model site’ enriched by photos from typical situation
underlying socio-economic processes and interactions shaping thevisually depicted. Different stakeholders with different backgroun
motivations are introduced, creating different social networks th
tribute and use the existing resources in different ways. Thus the fo
isodes conceptualize the fringe landscape as a self-organising syst
which the basic elements, the villages and land parcels, are develope
various land uses. Each episode, however, is a mere snapshot of a s
constant flux, with the spatial qualities we see today being partly
pression of a long history, serving as a departure point and framewo
different ways of transformation towards the future.
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
C
C
C C
C
C C
C
C
C Innercity embedding th
Area of10 satellitetowns
OuterCity area withcou
Plannedarea ofinner grebetween4thand 5thring
Area ofoutergreen belt between5thand 6thring
MunicipalityofBeijing
Roads
Figure 3: Planned city and green belt structure of Beijing(Source: Master Plan of Beijing 2002 – 2020)
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f18626033200897234… 6/1734 Jo urn al of La nds ca pe Arc hi te ct ure / aut umn 200 8
Farmer communities homeland
The first episode (Fig. 4 ) describes a contemporary condition that, of the
four following episodes, bears most resemblance to the original state of vil-
lages around Beijing; the farmer communities homeland, although it con-
tinues to exist, can be seen as the original condition from which the other
episodes of urban villages with their manifold facets have evolved.
The traditional Chinese village is very homogeneous. This is equally
true of its physical appearance and its inhabitants, who are all local farm-ers. It has a compact form and is clearly delimited from its surroundings.
Within the village, one-storey enclosed courtyard houses, all of the same
basic form, are the standard building module, while the clans inhabiting
these buildings are the basic organisational unit. The arable land surround-
ing the village is mainly owned by families and farmed by their members.
As a result, the land is divided into small parcels and intensively cultivated.
Hardly any land is unused, every landscape element has a function related
to the productive functions of the land (e.g., irrigation ditches, wind-shel-
ter plantings, fishponds), and even the smallest and most odd-shaped plots
in the villages are worked to grow crops and vegetables.
Bei jin g' Ne w U b n C oun ty i e a. stokmn, s. rbe & s. ruff
Although today some villages around Beijing still retain a rela tively tra-
ditional air, China’s economic opening has lead to unprecedented diversi-
fication. In the wake of rapid urbanisation and new socio-economic con-
stellations, most villages have changed their character completely and
increasingly become part of an overall urban fabric, dynamic places of
highly contradictory, simultaneous developments.
Floating people’s new territory
While in the episode described above all land is intensively farmed by
families, in the second episode (Fig. 5) some plots lie fallow while oth-
ers are taken over by new stakeholders. The result is a significantly dif-
ferent pattern of land use, mainly due to the new actors and forces that
have come into play since the reform era of the 1980s and 1990s. The ba-
sis for this change in population composition and associated social net-
works are amendments to the Hukou system, a national household regis-
tration system that was introduced in 1958 and is still in force today (Wang
2002). It classifies all people into one of two categories: urban or agrarian.
families living in traditionalcourtyard houses
Sell crops on local
market / in marketcities
working onown fields
working onown fields
F A R M
E R S
M I G R A N T S
I N H A B I T A N T S
P A T T E R N S
S C
H E M A T I C L A Y O U T A N D L A N D U S E
C I T Y P E O P L E
AGRI CULT URAL VILL AGEVILLAGE FARMLAND VILLAGE FARMLAND
Figure 4 Episode 1 – Farmer communities homeland
The traditional rural landscape is dominated by rice fields on villagecommunity land.
Every village household grows vegetables in little gardens along thestreets. The sewage canals are open alongside the street.
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f18626033200897234… 7/17 Jo urn al of La nds cap e A rc hit ec tur e / a utu mn 20 0
For people registered as agrarian, in the past it was virtually impossible to
move to a city. For a long time, the system enforced strict residency con-
trol and served as a key instrument to restrict population growth in cities
(Pilz 2000). Since the 1980s, however, in response to the increasing need for
manpower in the cities this system has been considerably relaxed, and cit-
ies have experienced an enormous influx of ‘floating population’ attract-
ed by good job opportunities and higher wage economies. This commonlyused term describes national migrants that, however, are defined rather by
their Hukou status than by the temporariness of their stay, as the name
might suggest. Today, Beijing is estimated to have a floating population of
4 million, comprising about one fourth of its inhabitants. This migration
movement has dramatically changed the social and physical structure of
the villages as well as land use on Beijing’s rural-urban fringe.
With the migrants’ need for cheap accommodation creating a new
economic factor, the existing village communities have developed a new
source of income that is proving more profitable than farming. Not being
supported by the local authorities and employers, most migrants are mov-
ing into existing villages on the city margins offering cheap accom
tion in informal extensions of the original courtyard houses. In m
Beijing’s urban villages today, migrant workers from all parts of Ch
outnumber the local people. In many villages the population has inc
tenfold since the 1980s. A courtyard that used to house one family n
commodates up to ten. As a result the villages have become much d
roads and paths are narrow and full of people and shops, and thermost no vegetation. The farmers have become landlords, making m
from the tenants of the informal structures added to the original
yards, which in many cases are no longer recognisable. This growth
ever, has happened without much infrastructure improvement; wate
ply and disposal systems are overstrained and the surface water is se
polluted. Social tensions aggravate these environmental problems.
As the main source of income of the original villagers is renting
and even their arable land to migrant workers, more and more ag
tural land lies fallow. In fact, almost no village dweller on the frin
Beijing today can be classified as a farmer in a conventional sense.
F A R M
E R S
M I G R A N T S
I N H A B I T A N T S
P A T T E R N S
S C H
E M A T I C L A Y O U T A N D
L A N D U S E
work onconstructionsites /householdsin the city
familiesliving intraditionalcourtyardhouses
sellcrops
workingon foodcompany land / in factory
rent rooms rentfarmland
rent farmland
live on farmlandcultivating it
sellcrops to Hong Kong
V I LLA GE
F A RMLA N Dcultivated bymigrants
DERELICT
LAND
H I GH WA Y U RBA N V I LLA GE
Densified and transformed byadded spaces rented out tomigrants
COMPANY FIELDS
large fields and greenhouses orcommercial zones
In the densified urban villlages village people extend their housesand therefore densify the village structure to have the maximum spaceto rent out to migrants.
Migrants living in barracks on the fields and farming the land of thevillage people.
Figure 5 Episode 2 – Floating people’s new t
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f18626033200897234… 8/1736 Jo urn al of La nds ca pe Arc hi te ct ure / aut umn 200 8
have not only become landlords, but some have also, at least temporarily,
moved to the city for work, or found employment in local factories or ag-
ricultural companies where they can earn more. These companies, usual-
ly owned and managed by city people, sell their crops as far away as Hong
Kong, which again leads to new interdependencies and commodity flows.
With industrial-model, modern agricultural companies arising, the par-celling of land has also changed and plots have become much larger to
permit intensive farming.
In conclusion it can be stated that migration, new sources of income
and the weakening of the clan structure have fundamentally altered both
the physical and socio-economic structure of the villages as well as the
patterns of land use (Heberer 2003). As urban and rural land use and life
styles have mixed on the urban edge, both the original and floating rural
residents have now become urbanised and are no longer dependent on ag-
riculture to make a living.
Urban pioneers experimental field
In the third episode (Fig. 6) city people, including non-Chinese residents,
appear as a new group. The increasing variety of stakeholders is also di-
versifying the range of activities on Beijing’s outskirts. As family-based
farming as a source of income has declined new, more unconventional and
experimental land uses have emerged. Because land on the urban periph-
ery is still cheap and local landowners are increasingly willing to sell offproperty, they are meeting the needs of city dwellers searching for cheap
land and space for various activities that have been priced out of the city
centre. This demand brings both a further transformation of the exist-
ing physical structures and patterns and the emergence of new socio-eco-
nomic networks.
One such new development is Beijing Crab Island Natural Resort, an
organic farm that attracts huge amounts of visitors. As a model project
sponsored by various state environmental protection agencies it combines
organic farming with recreation and amusement, including a restaurant
and accommodation, angling and even plots of land for rent where people
Bei jin g' Ne w U b n C oun ty i e a. stokmn, s. rbe & s. ruff
F A R M E R S
M I G R A N T S
I N H A B I T A N T S
P A T T E R N S
S C H E M A T I C L A Y O U T A N D
L A N D U S E
C I T Y P E O P L E
families livingin traditionalcourtyard houses
sell crop
work on constructionsites /households inthe city
workingin the city
workingon foodcompany land / in factory
rent roomsrentfarmland
rent farmland
live on farmlandcultivating it
visit restaurant of theorchard
visiting exhibition /buying art artists living and
working in studiospaces
HIGHWAY URBAN VILLAGEDERELICTLAND
ART VILLAGEartists' studios andexhibition space
MIGRANTS-FARMLAND
THEORCHARD
organic farm withgarden +restaurant
The orchard is a tourist attraction combining scenic organic farming ina traditional image with an exclusive restaurant.
Artists needing low p riced working and exhibition space convert farmbuildings to art galleries and build studios nearby.
Figure 6 Episode 3 – Urban pioneers’ experimental field
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f18626033200897234… 9/17 Jo urn al of La nds cap e A rc hit ec tur e / a utu mn 20 0
can grow their own organic vegetables and fruit. Also catering for city peo-
ple who venture to the urban fringe for a weekend outing is The Orchard,
a European- and North American-inspired restaurant especially popular
with expatriates . Set in an oasis-li ke environment with fruit trees and
small ponds, it offers organic menus with ingredients grown on site. Al-
though close to a village, The Orchard has an isolated character. Its ownerhowever, a famous Chinese rock musician, aims to let the village people
also benefit from The Orchard’s success. As a model project, he has started
to renovate a traditional courtyard house in the village, intending to rent
it out to affluent city people or foreigners and thus showing a way for the
village people to make higher rents than they can from migrants.
Another new use that adds to the hete roge neity of Beijing's urban
fringe are art spaces that have emerged on former factory sites close to old
villages. This development is a result of the gentrification of established
art districts closer to the city that is driving artists and gallery owners
out to the periphery (Kögel 2007 ). The former factories, shut down by the
municipality due to the pollution they caused, have been gradually
possession of and remodelled. With world-famous artists like Ai W
living and working in these areas and galleries springing up everyw
this development draws many visitors to the rural-urban fringe – no
from the adjacent city but even internationally, as China’s art scene
coming increasingly famous.The multitude of actors and interests described above results in a
ical pattern and appearance which is initially barely comprehensib
the mapping shows, however, the intertwining of village people an
grants in the village on the one hand and city people outside the villa
the other is relatively low. This will change in the next episode.
Playground for the established and rich
In the last episode (Fig. 7 ), the physical structure of the tradition
lage and physical patterns of agricultural land use have entirely van
All agricultural land has been replaced by governmental forestation
F A R M E R S
M I G R A N T S
I N H A B I T A N T S
P A T T E R N S
S C H E M A T I
C L A Y O U T A N D
L A N D U S E
C I T Y P E O P L E
farmer familiesliving in new houses
work on constructionsites in the city
workin the city
work
in the city
work in villas
rent land
work in the city
rentrooms
renthouses
playing golf
HIGHWAY NEW VILLAGE GOVERNMEN-TALFORESTATION
GOVERN-MENTALFORESTA-TION
GOLF RESORTMRD: MICRO RESIDENTIALDISTRICT
Rich city people move to luxurious micro residential districtsdeveloped on the urban fringe, protected by fences and security guards, with private parks and facilities.
City people play golf in golf resorts.
Figure 7 Episode 4 – Playground for the established a
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f1862603320089723… 10/1738 Jo urn al of La nds ca pe Arc hi te ct ure / aut umn 200 8
ecological measure is in accordance with the effort to establish the eco-
logical function of the second green belt. Crop farming has been largely
pushed back, since it is regarded as consuming too much water and thus
aggravating Beijing’s severe water scarcity. Likewise, animal husbandry
has been almost completely abolished. Instead, large amounts of land
have been forested.
Within these new forest spaces luxurious villa compounds, but also
golf resorts or even software parks, have sprung up, looking like ornamen-
tal inlays as they have a completely insular character without cross-links
to their surrounding landscape. They are connected to a new large-scale
road infrastructure, which provides fast access both to the city centre and
its Central Business District (CBD) located along the third ring road and
the airport along the fifth ring road.
Other new types of neighbourhoods are the ‘new villages’. They mainly
house former farmers who were resettled when their old villages were de-
molished. While the different building clusters within Beijing’s second
green belt are relatively self-contained physically, they do trigger new so -cio-economic interrelations. Former farmers, now living in new villages,
still rent rooms to migrant workers, who in turn work in the city on c on-
struction sites, in households or a s self-employed entrepreneurs such as
car cleaners, fruit sellers, or shoe repairers. To some extent they also work
and even live in the villa compounds as gardeners, maids, cooks or clean-
ing personnel. Some buildings within the new villages are also owned
by city people who cannot afford one of the expensive villas in the com-
pounds described above.
Most of the city people who appeared as urban pioneers looking for
cheap places to live in the previous episode, here attain an established sta-
tus and are looking for expensive, exclusive properties. They reside in the
most luxurious villa compounds with aspirational names such as Palaisde Fortune or River Adagio, and play golf in fancy resorts.
Apart from the officially sanctioned developments in Beijing’s second
green belt, a black market of illegal land and housing transactions has de-
veloped, with local communities trying to sell land that is not designated
for development according to municipal land use regulations. Although
many of these developments have not been exposed there are a number
of illegal construction sites that have been stopped and fallen derelict.
They bear witness to the tremendous dynamics of Beijing’s urban growth,
which can hardly be guided, let alone regulated.
Design scenari os and prospec ts for Beijing’s u rban count ryside
As shown above, Beijing’s master planning has so far been unable to ad -
dress the complex landscape changes on the city’s rural-urban fringes,
which ignore the visions and rules of the municipality’s land-use maps
and regulations. What can strategic landscape planning, from a landscape
architecture point of view, look like when it promotes urban development
that responds to these multilayered societal structures and their spatial
expression on the city margin, carries them forward and simultaneously
develops good open space quality, in both the aesthetic and the ecological
sense, for an entire metropolis?
Rather than separating the open space within the urban fringe from
the built-up area that needs to be restricted as described by Ouyang and
Wang 2002, the episodes described above show how the multiple issues of
different connections between the use of built-up areas in relationship to
the use of the open spaces are kept in conjunction. However, they not only
permit a glimpse of a seemingly chaotic situation but also show that the
patterns and processes of Beijing’s urban fringe are based on a set of un-
derlying logics. The method of mapping helps to discover new ways of see-ing and understanding these complex urban patterns and processes – and
hence becomes part of a creative design process. James Corner states that,
surprisingly, “the strategic, constitutive and inventive capacities of map-
ping are not widely recognized in the urban design and planning arts,”
although mapping can serve as “an active and creative agent of cultural
intervention.” (Corner 1999: 217 ) Recognizing the diversity of logics and ex-
ploiting the potentials of the existing episodes, new strategic episodes can
be invented in the form of ‘design scenarios’, which are tied to one of the
existing episodes, entering at different stages, forming new links or com-
bining different urban formations.
To develop different design scenarios for a designated area within the
Second Green Belt based on the method of mapping was the task of a four-week cross-cultural student workshop in September 2007, during which
a group of 20 students of Landscape Architecture from Peking University,
Leibniz University Hannover and ENSP Versailles worked in intercultural
teams on a workshop entitled ‘Designing with complexity – Beijing’s new
urban countryside’. As a case study to understand, discuss and develop spa-
tial strategies, the area of Cuigezhuang County and the small-scale site of
Hegezhuang Village were chosen, situated in the northeast of the city on
the margin between the 5th Ring and the airport – the landscape patterns
and images of this area are shown in Fig. 1. At the same time the Gradu-
Bei jin g' Ne w U b n C oun ty i e a. stokmn, s. rbe & s. ruff
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f1862603320089723… 11/17 Jo urn al of La nds cap e A rc hit ec tur e / a utu mn 20 0
ate School of Landscape Architecture of Peking University had been com-
missioned to conduct a research project by the Beijing Municipal Bureau
of State Land and Resources to develop a new spatial strategy for this area,
replacing the existing proposal for a new masterplan. The students’ de-
sign research and ideas contributed to their research and at the same time
prepared the ground for discussion within the concurrent Second Sino-
German High Level Expert Workshop ‘Applications of Landscape Planning
and Design towards Sustainable Urban and Rural Development in China’.
The design approach
Observing the conditions made up of set-piece fragments and parallel
worlds of disparate social and spatial concurrences in an alien culture, how
does one arrive at ideas for spatial strategy-making and proposals for new
spatial layouts? Planning tradition is characterized by a belief in a linear
working process, starting with the large scale before coming down to the
small scale, and completing a comprehensive data analysis before starting
to design and develop ideas. Within the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAF-TEN and its theoretical and practical focus in the field of ‘innovation strate-
gies in landscape design’ (Seggern et. al. 2008) a methodological approach was
developed that involved a non-linear working process to enable the stu-
dents to develop ideas on large-scale and complex sites. During the work-
shop process we worked at several different scales simultaneously (village
scale, county scale, city scale) and at the same time used different approach-
es to conceiving space towards the development of design scenarios:
EXPERIENCE – the intuitive perception
The experience of different situations within space takes place on the 1:1
scale of human perception. When designing in complex spaces it is impor-
tant to use our intuitive abilities to generate ideas out of coincidences of
personal encounters and perceptions in combination with personal expe-rience and interest. Based on their initial impressions, the students had
to design their research strategies for exploring the site very quickly fol-
lowing their individual motivation. Their personal way of addressing the
site, their conversations, observations and interactions with people and
space played a crucial role in the search for ideas. The productive energy
generated from an understanding of people acting in response to the most
diverse needs and motives as well as the appreciation of existing spatial
qualities thus became the driving force of the design process.
REPRESENTATION – depicting processes and relationships
Abstract depictions (mappings and graphics as socio-spatial present
of different ‘episodes’) stimulate, through a process of selection, red
and schematisation, productive reformulation of what is already
Findings from personal experience in combination with additional
mation from different sources formed the basis for representation of
ent episodes within the workshop. These representative descriptions
ple’s ways of life, social contexts, ecological processes and resultant
expressions in the area became the main instrument for generating
leading towards multifarious design approaches and their justificati
RELATION – the analysis of context and connections
Interpretations and design ideas for a specific site always have to b
sidered in terms of their significance and consequences for the ad
areas, the entire metropolis, while the specific context of China mu
be taken into account. With all parts of the city being connected a
teracting, changes to a place or an area must be related to the large
context, and as the site of the workshop was part of Beijing’s plGreen Belt, its overall concept had to be considered. The overall aim
workshop was to design an urban landscape as part of the Second
Belt that was not intended to serve the purposes of growth regulatio
spatial division of city and countryside, but that could create man
relations and interconnections between ecological, social and prod
functions for the metropolis of Beijing.
FABRIC – shaping the physical structure and appearance
Breaking down the ideas to the smaller-scale study area of county a
lage, served to ascertain the ideas’ manifestation within a unique,
ing physical fabric which contributes to the special character of th
Instead of the common land use planning practice in China, desi
abstract colour-coded blocks of building development, transport/uand open spaces, at this stage a plan was sought that conveyed an
of the aesthetic appearance – invoking a sense of the special qualiti
possibilities of an urban l andscape on the city margin. The presen
can no longer be abstract at this level; it must deliver ideas that ma
space’s qualities visible to the relevant stakeholders, but by the sam
ken be open enough to respond to the unpredictable dynamics of a
ning process (Langner/Rabe 2008).
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f1862603320089723… 12/17 40
Bei jin g' Ne w U b n C oun ty i e a. stokmn, s. rbe & s. ruff
EXPERIENCE – Exploring the territory the students discovered that al-
though most of the farmland was not being used by the ‘original’ local
farmers any more, different people are taking over parts of the land, in-
habiting and making productive use of it (Fig.8).
REPRESENTATION - The existing typologies described in the ‘Urban
Pioneers Experimental Field’ episode as ‘The Orchard’ and ‘Beijing CrabIsland Natural Resort’ as well as the unofficial housing of migrants on
leased farmland in the ‘Floating Peoples’ Territory’ episode provided the
team’s inspiration for designing new building types with references to
landscape and farming. By mapping different typologies of land use origi-
nating from the transitional situation of the project area between agricul-
tural and urban culture, the students showed how a relationship between
people and the still productive landscape in the project area can be estab-
lished in an urban way derived from various motivations.
RELATION - Starting with the assumption that a growing urban pop-
ulation will have to be fed from ever-more remote sources, even from
Jo urn al of La nds ca pe Arc hi te ct ure / aut umn 200 8
The following two selected workshop design proposals describe very dif-
ferent scenarios that clearly found a productive connection between land-
scape and life on the margin of Beijing with added value for the whole me-
tropolis.
Agriculture and life – productive landscapes
Addressing the fact that the original farmers within Beijing’s rural-urban
fringe nowadays have other sources of income so that most of the former-
ly productive farmland today lies fallow or becomes afforested, Eva Nem-
cova, Fu Jia, Liao Hui Li and She Yi Shuang asked: “Who could be the new
farmer?” Through this question and their knowledge of people and their
highly diverse needs and social status, they devised new landscape typol-
ogies for work, housing and recreation based on the idea of the produc-
tive use of the land.
Figure 8 from top to bot tom :EXPERIENCE – Productive Landscapes: Typologies due to social lifestandard and motivations.‘Floating farmer’ lives in this informal settlement close to the village,rents farmland from local people and sells vegetables in the village.‘Floating family’ – ten- and seven-year-old girl and boy living withher family illegally in the fields.‘Floating workers’ – work for a food company that sells products toHong Kong, living temporarily in the village.
Figure 10 FABRIC – Productive Landscapes: Masterplan
Figure 9 RELATION – Productive Landscapes: Beijing’s Second GreenBelt as farmland
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f1862603320089723… 13/17 Jo urn al of La nds cap e A rc hit ec tur e / a utu mn 20 0
abroad, and that, with the loss of its agricultural use, the landscape will
deteriorate both aesthetically and ecologically, the authors designated all
the remaining open spaces within Beijing’s Second Green Belt as farm-
land (Fig. 9), invoking Chinese policy that, because of the food shortage,
had placed protection orders on agricultural land in many places. Their
design is a strategy to revive agricultural areas i n an urban spirit for foodproduction, accommodation and employment creation. Aesthetic added
value for the city in the sense of a Green Belt as local recreational area can
be richer in a cultivated landscape than in an area comprising only wood-
land with very limited access. Ecologic al, aesthetic and functional diver-
sity can emerge through the most varied institutional forms of organic
farming and in variously sized parcels of land (Fig. 10).
FABRIC – ‘Large Scale Fields’ are leased by commercial food producing
enterprises. This model is described in the ‘Floating Peoples New Territo-
ry’ episode as ‘Company Fields/Commercial Zones’. These companies use
modern techniques for effective land cultivation, water-saving irrigation
and harvesting. They employ and qualify migrant farmers who cu
and harvest the land for a wage. What is new, however, is the idea o
pology of small dwellings, financed by the company, for itinerant w
and their families, arranged around public community courtyards
cially designed to fit into the fields and equipped with the latest te
ogy of decentralised water treatment systems that recycle nutrientsin agriculture, these miniature villages become an interesting feat
the productive landscape, serving as official housing for immigrant
are usually only tolerated (Fig. 11).
The ‘Mixed Fields’ typology consists of small parcels of land, each
a small house and paths in between that are accessible to the public
from food production, they are intended to meet both the immig
need for accommodation and to grow their own food, and the w
prosperous city residents for a weekend cottage with access to the cou
side and healthy self-grown food. At the same time they are also reg
as a direct marketing strategy for agricultural produce close to th
Figure 12c Everybody’s Garden: a large ‘garden’ divided into 36 units each of 100 m2 , open to the public as the name sugges
Figure 11 FABRIC – Productive Landscapes: Typology ‘Large Scale Fields’
Figure 12a Farmer’s Small Field: units of 2,500 m2 for self-sufficiency, with a dwelling and business connections to sell prod
Figure 12b Weekend Garden: 100-m2 gardens with small weekend cottages for city dwellers
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f1862603320089723… 14/17 42
Bei jin g' Ne w U b n C oun ty i e a. stokmn, s. rbe & s. ruff
Jo urn al of La nds ca pe Arc hi te ct ure / aut umn 200 8
The ‘Mixed Fields’ are in the public domain and offer places to buy di-
rect from the farmer or to practise horticulture as a hobby. The typology
is subdivided into the ‘Farmer’s Small Field’, ‘Weekend Garden’ and ‘Eve-
rybody’s Garden’ (Fig 12 ). While the ‘Farmer’s Small Field’ is intended to
serve mainly as a garden for self-sufficiency, using the migrants’ farming
skills to create an attractive, small-scale productive landscape that is also
for recreational use, the ‘Weekend Garden’ and ‘Everybody’s Garden’ areintended to attract city dwellers by offering them leisure activities and
the experience of growing and harvesting their own food – either by a plot
that they manage by themselves (private ‘Weekend Gardens’) or by the
help of maintainers. ‘Everybody’s Garden’ is a place for ‘hands-on farm-
ing’, run as a business by one person but carried out by many. The pro-
ductive areas of the ‘Mixed Fields’ offer leisure activities for city dwellers,
amusing themselves with sowing and harvesting, and at the same time
create new job opportunities for the migrant farmers – a kind of experi-
mental field for new urban ways of farming, creating new social relation-
ships and landscape performances.
RELATION – The links between the separate farming plots form a
green infrastructure of trees along the access roads, recreation paths andthe rivers and ditches. This network of woodland and wetland offers broad
protection from sandstorms for fields and dwellings, creates ecological
corridors linking to the river plain, and provides access by linking differ-
ent recreation areas within the agricultural green belt of Beijing. Syner-
gies between the ‘Large Fields’ and ‘Mixed Fields’ agricultural lots and the
green infrastructure create a large-scale public park landscape, the ‘Pro-
ductive Park’, with ecological qualities and aesthetic/design enhancement
for the city population: a new concept of the ‘new good old days’ between
traditional farming culture, modern cultivation techniques and healthy
city life for Beijing’s Second Green Belt (Fig 13).
Woodland and life – dynamic landscapes
Yan Lu and Benoît Fangou approached the study area with a narrative
methodology that addressed the diversity of the existing dynamics, and
developed a spatial framework that makes use of these dynamics and sets
them in new relationships.
EXPERIENCE – The two students took a journey from the city centre
to the site on the rural-urban fringe and thus physically experienced the
changes in appearance of and striking contrasts between different parts ofthe urban fabric along an urban-rural transect.
REPRESENTATION – In mappings, the design team depicted the
processes and resultant tensions between natural dynamics (such as
the dry yellow dust-bearing wind that blows through Beijing from the
north every year and the dramatic fluctuations in water conditions from
drought to river basin flooding) and the dynamics of urban development
processes (such as the streams of commuters into and out of the city and
building development pressure from the airport to the north and the
Sixth Ring to the south of the planning area). They seized on these ex-
tremes, described in the ‘Playground for the Established and Rich’ Epi-
sode, in the juxtaposition of villages and residential developments with
governmental forestation, as their design principle, making connectionsbetween the residential districts and the woodland.
FABRIC – The two shaping elements of the space (buildings and trees)
were allowed to grow towards each other in the masterplan: the wood
spreading from the north, from the river, as a windbreak against sand-
storms and as a natural limit to development from the airport and the
buildings spreading from the south, in the traditional concentric growth
from the Fifth Ring, from which the villages were most strongly reshaped
due to their proximity to it. The students play with the classical oppositions
of city and countryside but suspend them in the moment where woodland
and buildings meet and create a new spatial unity (Figs. 13 & 14 ).
Figure 14 FABRIC – Dynamic Landscapes: Section guiding principle with trees and buildings Figure 13 FABRIC – Dynamic Landscapes: Masterplan
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f1862603320089723… 15/17 Jo urn al of La nds cap e A rc hit ec tur e / a utu mn 20 0
RELATION – How can a wood be of use to a city and its people, above and
beyond protecting them against sandstorms and creeping development?
China’s economic need for timber is immense, and commercial forestry
would thus be the first conclusion, but looking more closely at the exist-
ing woodland on the city margin reveals multifarious informal urban uses
that, in creating a programme for woodland, open up additional, complete-
ly new possibilities in combination with the commercial use of timber.EXPERIENCE – On the edges of the woods one finds astonishing infor-
mal adaptations: shepherds driving sheep and cows through the woods,
beekeepers who set up their hives there, tethered horses ‘stabled’ there,
even barbers and traders trying to make a living on the edge of the woods
along the through roads … (Fig. 15): an urban wood, then, that helps to
improve the climate and at the same time incorporates the functions of
accommodation and business, a multifunctional wood for inventive peo-
ple looking for a place to work and survive within the urban fabric.
FABRIC - The students incorporated these images in their design and
found a strategy for defining a green forest space to shape the urban lay-
out in which further building development will still be possible: not the
clear spatial separation of city and countryside but mixed forms that pickup on the existing tensions and create space for new possibilities (Figs.
16 & 17 ). The exact specification of the proportion of development land
and maximum woodland area in concentric alternation derived from Bei-
jing’s Ring System lends this planning its strict regularity. The concept is
open enough to allow a dynamic of informal appropriation of landscape
as commercial and recreational space and nevertheless sets clear rules. Yan
Lu and Benoit Fangou compare their strategy with an ‘apples and water’
metaphor. Apples and water are in themselves good and important, but
mixing them creates something new and sparkling: cider.
Discussion of workshop outcomes
With the students taking their episodes as a base for the formulat
new spatial strategies addressing different topics, the resulting wo
be seen as a series of design scenarios for an area of Beijing’s rural-
fringe. Their designs tell about their constructive involvement wit
other in their intercultural teams, their debates, and their explorati
the potentials of the complex site from their different perspectives. T
sults bring to life an idealist way of seeing the urban landscape as aning, open and productive system of creative urban practices. The stu
interpret the existing urban landscape as a framework for new socia
tural, economic and ecological activities that will materialise withi
urban landscape patterns. They show how to encourage opportunism
taking and challenge and thus mobilise different actors which, as i
otic systems, also operate catalytically on a micro-scale and ultimat
fect the whole. Each group’s scenario contains a logical storyline rela
their topic – but of course different scenarios could also be related t
other and interwoven towards new and more complex scenarios.
The explorative work of the student workshop served as an eye
er and stimulator, unfolding new potential and opening up creati
course with the research group of Peking University, the Municipreau of Land and Resources and the invited international expe
landscape planning. Using the richness and resonance of the inv
scenarios, the workshop created an environment of informal discu
within an open and creative atmosphere. Unlike abstract land-use
the designed scenarios with their plans, images and sketches are a
evoke new ideas and dialogues about what to do, why to do it and
to do it. While acknowledging that political and administrative ci
stances will ultimately determine how a plan can be pursued, the s
ios could be developed towards feasible planning strategies, commi
packages and policy agreements.
Figure 15 EXPERIENCE – Dynamic Landscapes: urban woodlandincorporating the functions of shelter and business
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f1862603320089723… 16/17 44
Bei jin g' Ne w U b n C oun ty i e a. stokmn, s. rbe & s. ruff
Jo urn al of La nds ca pe Arc hi te ct ure / aut umn 200 8
Conclusion
Fringe landscapes are complex, and existing planning policies are trying to
compartmentalise land uses to a specific, clearly classified and static cate-
gory without considering the equivocal, synergetic and dynamic interac-
tions that present themselves on the edges of cities. Most existing strate-
gies and tools used in urban development are built on the belief that theformation and transformation of a city can be controlled. Beijing’s mas-
terplanning efforts show that planning has so far failed to think ahead in
addressing the future of its fringe landsca pes – although the plans seem
rigid they continuously have to respond, often in ad hoc ways, to the real
development forces. Many European researchers have criticised existing
urban masterplanning practices as being too deterministic, inflexible and
largely unrealistic in their attempts to predict a two-dimensional urban
pattern at the expense of economic, cultural and social concerns (Giddings/
Hopwood 2002, Loeckx et al. 2004; Healey 2007 ). Internationally, too, many re-
searchers and practitioners in urban and landscape design (Gallent et al.
2007, Friedmann 1996; Gregory 2003; Seggern/ Sieverts 2006; Whitehand 2005; Yu/
Padua 2006 ) conclude that we need to move towards a more responsive stra-tegic design praxis for large-scale urban landscapes, one based on using ex-
isting processes towards new potential i n empowering human creativity
and resourcefulness. To address the general theme of transformation as
the persistent urban condition, planning needs to develop methodologies
that can mobilize wider support by building new partnerships, reconcil-
ing competing interests, and setting up new connections that may lead to
new creative synergies. At the same time, it needs to create a spatial vision,
a sense of place, showing how to create aesthetic and spatial qualities of the
urban and landscape environment that become visible to relevant stake-
holders as a place, not just as an abstract colour-coded land-use map.
Taking the case of a specific site within Beijing’s rural-urban fringe dur-
ing the Sino-German workshop ‘Beijing’s New Urban Countryside’, we
developed and discussed new urban landscape scenarios based on an ap-
proach of mapping complex existing social practices and spatial forms.
By using our intellectual capability to fix assumptions and develop ideasprior to detailed analysis, the applied method of ‘design research’ implies
a process of developing knowledge through design practices of probing,
reflecting and arguing, springing between scales and switching between
methods of gaining and testing knowledge in an interpretative, non-lin-
ear way of ‘sense-and-place-making’. Formal planning procedures favour
hierarchical, systematic, technical and linear logics by first setting su-
perordinate land-use guidelines that small-scale projects have to follow.
However, we believe that planning also needs to apply creative processes
of exploration and discovery on different scales at the same time, generat-
ing new meanings, perceiving new patterns as well as revealing and dis-
cussing new strategic options. To combine a top-down strategy of regula-
tive power with a bottom-up strategy of activating people’s actions seemsthe only way to develop the economic, ecological and aesthetic productiv-
ity of Beijing’s green belt, which will otherwise not withstand the huge
pressure of urban growth.
To address today’s urban challenges, the rol e of urban and landscape
planners should be to investigate the forms of urban evolution and the
processes that create or engender outcomes. On the basis of recognising
and extracting the processes of urban landscape development, strategies
can be developed to influence and cultivate the processes themselves – and
thus create productive and attractive urban lifeworlds.
Figure 16 & 1 7 FABRIC – Dynamic Landscapes: scenarios of multifunctional and dynamic urban woodlands
8/20/2019 JoLA - Journal on Landscape Architecture Volume 3 issue 2 2008 [doi 10.1080%2F18626033.2008.9723402] Stokm…
http:///reader/full/jola-journal-on-landscape-architecture-volume-3-issue-2-2008-doi-1010802f1862603320089723… 17/17
References
Corner, J. 1999. The Agency of Mapping. In Cosgrove, D. (ed.):
Mappings. London: Reaction Books: 213 - 252.
Deng, F. and Huang, Y. 2004. Uneven land reform and urban
sprawl in China: the case of Beijing. Progress in Planning 61:
211 - 236
Friedman, J. 1996. Modular cities: Beyond the rural-urban
divide. Environment and Urbanization 8: 129 - 131
Friedman, J. 2005. China's Urban Transition .
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Gallent, N.; Andersson, J; Bianconi, M. 2007. Planning on
the Edge. The context for planning at the rural-urban fringe .
New York: Routledge.
Gan, Guo-Hui 1990. Perspective of Urban Land Use in Beijing .
GeoJournal 20(4): 359 - 364
Giddings R., Hopwood W. 2002. A critique of Masterplanning
as a technique for introducing urban quality into British Cities .
www.sustainable-cities.org.uk/db-docs/masterplan1x.pdf
(accessed: 16 September 2008)
Ginsburg, N., 1990. The Urban Transition: Reflections on the Amer-
ican and Asian Experiences. Hong Kong: Chinese University of
Hong Kong Press: 21 - 42.
Graham, S. Marvin, S. 2002. Splintering urbanism: networked
infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition .
London: Routledge.
Gregory, P. 2003. New Scapes: Territories of Complexity .
Basel: Birkhäuser.
Healey, P. 2007. Urban Complexity and Spatial Strategies: Towards
a Relational Planning for Our Times. New York: Routledge.
Heberer, T. 2003. Dorf. In Staiger/Friedrich/Schütte: Das große
China-Lexikon . Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft:
163 - 165
Kögel, E. (ed.) 2007. Ai Weiwei Beijing – Fake Design in the Village .
Berlin: Aedes Land
Langner, S., Rabe S. 2008. Regionale Landschaften und Projekte
entwerfen. In Kompetenzzentrum für Raumforschung und
Regionalentwicklung (ed.) Gestaltungsraum Europäische StadtRe-
gion . Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Europäischer Verlag der
Wissenschaften.
Li, W., Ouyang, Z., Wang, R. 2005. Land Potential Evaluation for
large-scale greenbelt development at urban-rural transition zone – a
case study of Beijing, China . www.isprs.org/commission8/work-
shop–urban/li.pdf (accessed: 16 September 2008)
Loeckx, A.; Shannon, K.; Tuts, R.; Verschure, H. 2004. Urban Tri-
alogues. Visions, projects, co-productions. Nairobi: UN-HABITAT.
McGee, T.G., 1991. The emergence of desakota regions in Asia:
expanding a hypothesis. In Ginsburg, N., Koppel, B., McGee,
T.G. (ed.) The Extended Metropolis: Settlement Transition in Asia .
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press: 3 - 26.
Ouyang, Z. and Wang R. 2002. The general schema on greenbelt
planning of Beijing. Beijing: unpublished document.
Pilz, E. 2000. Closed Versus Open Metropolises: Urban Devel-
opment Strategies in the People's Republic from the Fifties to
the Nineties. In Luckow, K.; Vöckler, D. (ed.) Beijing, Shanghai,
Shenzhen: Cities of the 21st Century . Frankfurt / New York: Cam-
pus Verlag: 540 - 544.
Read, S., Rosemann, J., van Eldijk, J. (eds.) 2005. Future City.
London: Spon Press.
Seggern, H.v., Sieverts, T. 2006. Gestaltung der Stadtregion als
Landschaft. In DGGL (ed.): Regionale Gartenkultur. Über die Iden-
tität von Landschaften . München: Callwey: 14 - 19
Seggern, H. v.; Werner, J.; Grosse-Bächle; L. 2008.Creating Knowledge: Landschaft: Urban . Berlin: Jovis.
Sieverts, T. 1997. Zwischenstadt. Zwischen Ort und Welt, Raum und
Zeit, Stadt und Land . Braunschweig/Wiesbaden: Vieweg..
Wang, M. Y. 2002. Small City, Big Solution – China's Hukou
System Reform and its Potential Impacts. DISP 151 (4/2002):
23 - 29
Whitehand, J.W.R. 2005. Urban morphology, urban landscape
management and fringe belts. Urban Design, 93: 19 - 21.
Yokohari, M., et. al. 2000. Beyond greenbelts and zoning: A new
planning concept for the environment of Asian mega-cities.
Landscape and Urban Planning 47 : 159 - 171
Yu, K. and Padua, M. (ed.) 2006: The Art of Survival. Recovering
Landscape Architecture. Victoria: Images Publishing Group
Biographical Notes
Antje Stokman studied Landscape Architecture at Leibn
versity Hannover and Edinburgh College of Art. Since g
tion she has been researching and lecturing at Hannov
versity, TU Hamburg Harburg, TFH Berlin, Peking Un
and Tongji University Shanghai, China, concurrently g
practical experience as a landscape architect in many in
tional projects with Rainer Schmidt Landschaftsarchit
Since 2005 she has been Associate Professor of Ecosystem
sign and Watershed Management at Leibniz University
nover.
Sabine Rabe studied Landscape Architecture at Leibniz
versity Hannover. After several years of practical design
rience in the lad+ landscape architecture diekmann off
has been working as a freelance designer since 2005, an
entific Assistant at Leibniz University Hannover. Her fo
teaching and designing is on urban landscapes and larg
planning.
Stefanie Ruff trained as a gardener and studied Landsca
chitecture in Berlin. She has gained professional experi
Berlin, Sydney, Beijing, Amsterdam and Shanghai. She
her Master’s degree in International Urban Studies fromhaus University Weimar and Tongji University Shangh
rently she is based in Berlin.
Antje Stokman, Sabine Rabe and Stefanie Ruff are mem
Studio Urbane Landschaften , an interdisciplinary networ
search, teaching and practice at the Faculty of Architec
Landscape Sciences, Leibniz University Hannover.
Contact
Antje Stokman, Sabine Rabe, Stefanie Ruff
Studio Urbane Landschaften
Institut für Freiraumentwicklung
Fakultät für Architektur und Landschaft
Herrenhäuser Str. 2a
D-30419 Hannover
Germany
antje.stokman@freiraum.uni-hannover.de
sabine.rabe@freiraum.uni-hannover.de
stefanie.ruff@freiraum.uni-hannover.de
Acknowledgement s
The international expert workshop and research in Beijing was funded
by DBU (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, reference number 25670-42)
and the accompanying international student workshop by Leibniz Uni-
versity Hannover and Peking University. All diagrams of the four epi-
sodes’ mappings were drawn by Anke Schmidt (Studio Urbane Landschaf-ten). Many thanks to Christina von Haaren (Leibniz University Hannover)
and Kongjian Yu (Peking University) for their strong support of the work-
shop. Very special thanks to Dihua Li (Peking University) for orga
the workshop and to Hille von Seggern (Leibniz University Hannove
Timm Ohrt (Ohrt von Seggern Partner, Hamburg) for their teachin
port. And of course we would like to thank all students and exper
volved for their excellent contributions, which formed the basis fopaper.
Recommended