Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Song Jiang was fi nally swallowed by Shanghai, putting an end to the Song Jiang
prefecture, which had existed since the thirteenth century.
21
Some argued that the one city and nine towns were eff ective symbols of
the (in)appropriate role of the “international” in the context of China.
“International” here stands as a code for both an architectural “style” and as
a material practice, as the main architectural fi rm in charge of each town
hails from the nation the town is said to represent.
22
h us, Albert Speer Jr. (of
the Beijing Olympic Park) designed An Ting (German Town). Augusto Cag-
nardi from Gregotti Architects in Milan designed Pu Jiang (Italian Town).
Barcelona-based Marcia Codinachs was the architect of Feng Cheng (Span-
ish Town). h e h ames Town project came from the Atkins Group based in
the United Kingdom (which also did another project on Chongming Island,
although not Dongtan); Stockholm's SWECO, which also is the lead archi-
tect for another major Chinese eco-city named Caifeidian, did the work for
Luo Dian (known as either Northern European or Scandinavian Town).
23
Hamburg's Gerkan, Marg und Partner designed Harbor New Town.
h e one notable exception to this pattern (home country/national devel-
opment) is that the designers of the two “Chinese” towns are international
fi rms with non-Chinese principals. Zhu Jia Jiao was designed by Ben Wood/
Studio Shanghai (the designer of the famous Xintiandi project in downtown
Shanghai) and the Chongming eco-town (another “eco-town” distinct from
Dongtan) by the German fi rm Stadtbauatelier. Ben Wood, originally a Bos-
ton-based U.S. architect, is best known for the “cultural/entertainment”
Xintiandi project, which redeveloped a part of central Shanghai into a more
corporate version of itself with its traditional Shikumen housing. Xintiandi
is complete with both a Starbucks and the First Congress of the Communist
Party Museum.
24
It also led to an unhappy relocation of sixteen hundred
families.
25
One profi le admiringly calls Wood “Our Man in Shanghai” and
explains his “formula” for part theme park, part history, part high-end con-
sumption projects applied throughout his Chinese projects. In another, he
