URBAN NOMADS IN SHANGHAI

In China most of the bigger cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing) have an Urban Planning Museum, displaying the governmental city planning. The one in Shanghai it is located on the People Square from where you can have a fabulous bird eye view on the city. The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center not only shows the latest urban development, but also shows Shanghai’s historical development. Centerpiece of the exhibition is a 1:500 city scale model that has to be updated permanently.



By strongly promoting the transformation of old areas, Shanghai wants to improve the overall quality of housing with newly built apartments. According to the museum 16.2 million m² were constructed for new housing in the last 20 years, which is 53% of the total housing area.
In 2003, per capita living area has reached 13.8 m² and more than 200 excellent living areas with “planning from a high starting point, high-level designing, high-quality construction and high-standard management” were established.
In the last 20 years, Shanghai’s city construction bureau has focused especially on the transformation of old areas. The museum proudly promotes, that “42.81 million m² of shabby and dilapidated houses have been pulled down with over 900.000 households moving into new residences”.



AFTER EXPO - WHAT NOW?
For the expo site after use visitors are invited to propose design ideas. One can choose between sky rise building or office tower. We suggested planting trees following the slogan: Better city - better life!