China City Planning Review (No.2, 2011)

♦Block-based Community in China’s Social Housing Development: A Case Study on Old City Renovation of Kashgar, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region 

Author: ZHU Yali, WANG Xiaoming, YANG Nianshan

Abstract: Through the analysis of the international definition and classification of slums, this paper explores the development of China’s social housing system and the renovation of the Old City of Kashgar. It argues that one of the issues in China’s social housing system is to solve the problems of the scarcity of spatial elements and the lack of developmental driving force in large mixed communities of the Han and minority nationalities. Then it examines the elements of renovation and approaches based on a survey of the local residents in different parts of Kashgar City. Comparing the international development of traditional residential quarters and block-based communities, the paper points out that the block-based community is preferred for its impartiality and sustainability, and applies this mode to the renovation of the Old City of Kashgar in the form of design guidelines. 

Keywords: social housing; block-based community; development mode; small-scale community

♦A Study on Correlation Between Car Use Tax and Urban Space Development: Based on Bid Rent Function of Urban Land-use 

Author: DU Ning

Abstract: Based on the model of the bid rent function in a mono-centric city, this paper, by introducing the concept of opportunity cost and extending partial equilibrium analysis to general equilibrium analysis, conducts a theoretical analysis on the possibility that the typical car use taxes including fuel consumption tax, traffic congestion tax, and parking tax can affect the urban space development through their impact on transport cost and the rent bid under certain conditions. Some conclusions drawn from the comparison might be useful when it comes to the practical problems of urban space development. 

Keywords: tax; bid rent function; urban space development

♦The City is not a Building* 

Author: Alexander Tzonis

Abstract: This paper examines the need for a return to a systemic, holistic, and normative approach to designing human settlements that has been neglected with the decline of the Welfare State and the shift to piecemeal, freewheeling, marked-based development during the unprecedented explosion of construction in the last thirty years. The need for a change is brought about by the current ecological and economic crises linked to a high degree to the current belief that the quality of cities emerges from the added-value of individual buildings or through the assemblage of individual structures put together like a building. This paper argues that a city is not like a building. The contemporary city is characterized by an unprecedented number of problems. These problems cannot be handled by individual good will or simple preventive or corrective actions by architects and developers as it has been done the last three decades. What is needed is an overall systemic framework of planning that ① is driven by normative criteria, ② can handle a high degree of complexity and interdependence of factors, and ③ can deal with unanticipated, unintended, long-term irreversible environmental impacts that characterize the “third ecology,” the inseparable complex of the natural and the human-made. 

Keywords: planning versus development; third ecology; city metaphors; urban models; external diseconomies in planning; ecological interdependence; unintended environmental impact; market limitations in planning

♦Retrospection on China’s Legislation for Historic and Cultural City Conservation^① 

Author: ZHANG Song

Abstract: The article reviews the evolution of China’s legislation for the conservation of Historic and Cultural Cities (HCCs), summarizes China’s existing laws and regulations of both national and local levels on the conservation of historic and cultural cities, discusses the disadvantages of China’s current legal system for the conservation planning and offers some suggestions on how to satisfy the requirements of integrated conservation the historical environment of historic and cultural cities, as well as completing the legal system for urban and rural planning. 

Keywords: urban and rural planning; legislation for protection; historic district; integrated conservation

♦Ten Years’ Progress of Administration Work for Registered Urban Planners 

Author: REN Hong

Abstract: The urban planner qualification system of China was established in the year of 2000. After ten years’ progress, a team of 15,000 registered urban planners has been set up, which has become the backbone of China’s urban planning industry and has played an important role. The enhancement of the administration of registered urban planners is needed for standardizing urban planning education, accelerating the fostering of planning professionals, and keeping pace with the market economy system and the urban-rural planning in the new era. Meanwhile, it is also an important task for China’s urban planning industry to open up to the outside world and catch up with international standards. 

Keywords: urban planner; registration; qualification system