︎Year 4
Zhonghan Tan
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Rightsizing
Chinese Shrinking City
Yumen, China
Among all the
townships in Mainland China, 19822 out of 39007 are experiencing population
density decrease (Population Censuses of China, 2000,2010). These shrinking
townships and sub-districts were distributed in 367 cities. And the total area
was 3.24 million 𝑘m², which covered about one-third of
the Chinese territories.
Yumen, the first Chinese oil city, has faced the population loss from 130,000 to 20,000 during the past 70 years. The concept of shrinking cities illustrates an important shift: an era of constant growth has gone. The operating system of capital is a stimulating operating system. It depends on the expectation of growth. Once the growth stops, the entire system will collapse. It’s time to form the city to a size proportionate to the city government’s ability to pay for itself. This project discusses this issue through urban resilience and collective community generation.
Yumen, the first Chinese oil city, has faced the population loss from 130,000 to 20,000 during the past 70 years. The concept of shrinking cities illustrates an important shift: an era of constant growth has gone. The operating system of capital is a stimulating operating system. It depends on the expectation of growth. Once the growth stops, the entire system will collapse. It’s time to form the city to a size proportionate to the city government’s ability to pay for itself. This project discusses this issue through urban resilience and collective community generation.
Contact:
zt240@cam.ac.uk