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Fall 2000  |
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Shenzhen Speed© shenzhen speed© Unit of abrupt growth. Architectural design in China has accelerated to keep pace with shenzhen speed©. Record design speeds© set in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone: 5 designers x 1 night + 2 computers = 300-unit single-family housing development; 1 architect x 3 nights = 7-story walk-up apartment; 1 architect x 7 days = 30-story concrete residential high-rise. Land and property developments have been excluded from economic activity since Socialist China was established. It has been an all-inclusive public economy and dominant state ownership. Government acted as financier, land owner, developer and investor in all urban land and property developments. Not only were central and local governments in full control of regulations and planning, but also of physical urban construction. The government provided public housing, and supplied offices and factories to enterprises. It was only after the launching of the unprecedented economic reform in 1978 that the new policies called for a shift from overemphasized self-reliance and self-sufficiency to joining the global economy. To improve economic performance, coexistence of public and private participation was called into being. Therefore, private and collective developers were allowed to register and operate in China, and collective design firms were set up in the 1980s. The implementation of the open-door policy and the establishment of Special Economic Zones in the coastal areas stimulated an enormous amount of land development and urban construction which had never been seen before in the history of Chinese architecture. Shenzhen City (Shenzhen), a former fishing village with a population of 25,000 and a land area of 3 kilometers, was transformed into a base for agricultural and industrial export products in 1979 when Shenzhen Municipality was established. Shenzhen City is 2,020 square kilometers in area, approximately two times the size of Hong Kong. It is located on the eastern side of the Pearl River Delta directly north of Kowloon. In 1980, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (Shenzhen SEZ), an area of 327.5 square kilometers, 40 kilometers from east to west and 7 kilometers from north to south, was established after the Standing Committee of the National Congress passed and published Regulations on Special Economic Zones in Guangdong Province. This marked the official beginning of Shenzhen SEZ. This marked the beginning of the first private real-estate developments in China since the establishment of the Communist Party in 1949. SHENZhEN SPEED© | Before 1979, the tallest building in Shenzhen only had five stories. Within three years, the total floor area for buildings completed in Shenzhen increased 15-fold from 0.13 million to 1.95 million square meters. The number of completed buildings taller than 18 stories increased from 1 to 237 between 1982 and 1994, and the total number including buildings under construction increased from 46 to over 600 between 1982 and 1996. As indicated by the 1,256-fold increase in Shenzhens industrial output between 1979 and 1995, the sudden influx of capital investment was beyond imagination. The job opportunities created brought people from all over China and foreign countries to work in Shenzhen. Thus, Shenzhens population tripled and re-tripled within 16 years from 0.31 to 3.45 million: the registered population doubled and the temporary population increased 1,640-fold. The enormous industrial activities and the rapid increase in population not only made accommodating building constructions inevitable and created economic opportunities for real-estate development, but also set record speed for its growth and construction. In general, it takes 10 months to complete the construction of a 15-story concrete building and 18 months to construct a 30-story concrete building in Shenzhen. The speedy production of architecture in Shenzhen motivated speculative developers to demand faster design in order to make more money. Because developers pay dearly to lease state-owned land for €nite periods of years, there is great pressure to complete revenue-generating structures quickly. After a long and often exasperating period of building program approval and lease negotiation, developers want their buildings to go up overnight. mihai cracian back to index |
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