82
LIVEABILITY, STREETSCAPE, CONTEXT: CONTRASTING CASE STUDIES
IN TOKYO AND SHANGHAI PERIPHERY
Marco Capitanio
Ph.D. candidate
Keio University, Tokyo
Graduate School of Science and Technology
co+labo radović / GESL Program
186-0004, Tokyo-to, Kunitachi-shi, Naka 1-16-12
capitanio@keio.jp
KEYWORDS:
LIVEABILITY, STREETSCAPE, PERIPHERAL AREAS, KUNITACHI,
PUJIANG TOWN
Abstract
This paper questions the implicit assumption of all
liveability rankings that liveability can be univocally defined,
measured and benchmarked, by carrying out a comparative
study of streetscape, which is considered to be one of the
fundamental factors in shaping the quality of the built
environment. Following a conditional definition of liveability,
Kunitachi, a city founded in 1926, and Pujiang Town, a new
town founded in 2004, located in the periphery of Tokyo and
Shanghai respectively, illustrate how the notion of liveable
streetscape is influenced by the given socio-economic
context. Morphological and behavioural analysis showed that
strategies to maintain and improve the quality of streetscape
are shaped by the specific issues and goals of a community.
On the one hand, Daigaku-dōri, Kunitachi’s boulevard,
testifies the importance of a collectively-managed, inclusive
public space to improve the whole town’s liveability: it is a
place where the community gathers and expresses itself. On
the other hand, in Shanghai, enclosed, semi-public spaces
within compounds (xiaoqu), despite their drawbacks, can
foster a sense of belonging and spark the quest for identity
in a new neighborhood, being gradually opened-up as the
community gains self-confidence. On a methodological level,
local peculiarities determined the most appropriate methods
of inquiry, while quantitative and qualitative analyses
supported each other. In fact, behavioural observations were
necessary to confirm or confute morphological findings, as
in the striking difference between Space Syntax simulations
and on-site analysis of Daigaku-dōri: unless a certain
“detour ratio” was allowed in the computation, shortest-path
“betweenness” simulation of pedestrian flow did not match
actual observations. This mismatch led to the conclusion that
people prefer to walk considerably longer (up to 30%) routes
if options with higher-quality streetscape are offered.
Introduction
A liveable neighborhood is the result of a multitude of
actors and circumstances, pertaining, among other things,
to the built and natural environment, its socio-political and
economic context, adjusting over time. Despite countless
lists ranking cities’ or nations’ liveability, the assumption that
it can be exhaustively defined, measured and compared is
highly dubious. While liveability measurements attempt to
be holistic, there is no consensus on the specific elements
that should be taken into account, nor on their relevance
or methodological assessment (The National Association
of Regional Councils 2012; Veenhoven 2006). As such, each
attempt to ultimately and quantitatively define liveability
is biased by the researcher’s own professional discipline
and personal preconceptions, to the point “that inclusive
assessment of liveability is not feasible. The best we can do is
to make promising condition profiles.” (ivi:12)
This paper tackles streetscape as one of the fundamental
factors of neighborhood liveability1 (among others Gehl
2013; City of New York 2013) and argues that the definition of
liveable streetscape changes according to each location. This
hypothesis is tested through morphological and behavioural
analyses of streetscape, embedded in the socio-cultural
context, of two case-studies: Kunitachi in Tokyo and Pujiang
Town in Shanghai. Both cases are located in peripheral areas2
and were founded from scratch as new towns, planned top-
down on the basis of a western city grid. Such peripheral
areas have been chosen for this research because, on the
one hand, they are primarily constituted by residential
neighborhoods and, on the other hand, they host the highest
potentials and are subject to the highest threats in the
context of Japanese and Chinese (de)urbanization (Sorensen
2012; den Hartog 2010). Kunitachi, even though not yet 100
years-old, has been able to emerge as an attractive town
with a strong identity and self-consciousness, by means of
preserving and improving the quality of its streetscape. In
view of Japan’s population decline and consequent threats to
the cohesion of the urban fabric, this town proves that high-
1
Because of space limitations, this paper examines streetscape isolated from
other liveability factors, even though other elements such as land-use, densi-
ty/compactness etc. are being analyzed as part of a larger Ph.D. research.
2
This term does not carry any inherent qualitative judgment. In this research,
it defines the condition of a neighborhood where its inhabitants are largely
commuting to work to the city center on a trip that takes at least 45 minutes.
As such, peripheral neighborhoods are understood as being, to a certain
degree, dependent on the city core and, at the same time, spatially detached
from it.
83
quality, inclusive and versatile urban environments are key to
policy-making and design strategies to cope with the threat of
deurbanization in peripheral areas.
Pujiang Town, on the other hand, represents a place which
is still developing and has yet to form its own identity and
sense of community, a typical example of Chinese newly-
built peripheries, where attention to end users has given
way to market speculation. In such a contested environment,
enclosed and exclusive spaces provided by housing
compounds (xiaoqu), which represent a continuity in the
history of Chinese urban models (Capitanio 2012:30-34),
can be seen as a first step towards community-building, to
be later adjusted towards more inclusive, compact low-rise
models.
The juxtaposition of these cases is not to be understood as
a comparative study, however: Kunitachi and Pujiang Town
are currently experiencing different evolutionary stages, the
former is “established”, while the latter is “nascent”, they are
thus ultimately incomparable. The goal of the research was
rather to identify the factors that contributed to streetscape
livability in Kunitachi and to discuss their applicability and
meaning in Pujiang Town.
Methodology
A generic and one-size-fits-all treatment of liveability is an
absurdity. Even though both case-studies presented here
were founded from scratch as new towns in peripheral
areas, their socio-political and economic milieu is completely
different. For a coherent understanding and theoretical
speculation, in fact, historical and geographical characteristics
cannot be underestimated3. Instead of considering “the
places themselves, the question is: what are the tendencies,
mechanisms and processes that produce them? What are the
diverse determinations that condition concrete outcomes
of objects?” (Brenner 2010:78) Therefore, as argued by
Gans (1991), the specific challenges and goals of each
community (the threat of depopulation in Tokyo and spatial
segregation and environmental degradation in Shanghai)
have determined the most appropriate factors to be analyzed
and the methodologies to be employed.
The analysis of each case-study is contextualized by a chapter
about the most relevant local liveability issues, and by a short
historical introduction to the site. Morphological mappings
and on-site behavioural observations constituted the starting
3
Frederic Jameson (1981:9) in the preface of his The Political Unconscious
proclaimed “Always historicize!”
point of the analysis for both cases. In Kunitachi the enquiry
concentrated on the quantitative and qualitative analysis
of pedestrian activities and flow along its main boulevard,
carried out with Space Syntax and Gehl methods, while in
Pujiang Town the degree of enclosure and the typologies of
open space were given particular attention.
Liveability (of streetscape): theoretical and operational
definition
Given the caveat that liveability cannot be exhaustively
framed once and for all, but still in need of a definition for
explanatory purposes, this paper advances an operational
concept and a set of three theoretical hypotheses.
Liveability encompasses ecological, social and economic
issues, and, on an operational level, is shaped by three main
areas of influence, namely the built and natural environment,
its management, and the policies that regulate it. Literature
(e.g. The National Association of Regional Councils 2012)
suggests that the “key elements of a liveable city often
include attractive public spaces, walkable, mixed use, higher
density neighbourhoods that support a range of green
infrastructure and transport, affordable housing.” (Ling &
Yuan 2009:3) In this paper, liveability is limited to streetscape:
the characteristics of liveable streetscape were first adopted
a priori from existing literature4 (e.g. Gehl 2013; City of New
York 2013), but later adapted a posteriori based on the
specificities of each location.
On a theoretical level, liveability is defined as:
I) A function of time and space, i.e. it changes according to
the spatial and temporal context, akin to the lefebvrian vécu
(Lefebvre 1991).
II) A project, i.e. it is the result of the interplay between
multifarious actors (e.g. Brenner 2010:70).
III) A negotiation between individuals (groups, family etc.)
and society, i.e. individual interests could be sacrificed for the
greater good (e.g. Tomba 2014).
4
Gehl (2013:239) lists “12 quality criteria for the city at eye level: protection
against traffic and accidents - feeling safe; protection against crime and
violence - feeling secure; protection against unpleasant sensory experiences;
opportunities to walk; opportunities to stand/stay; opportunities to sit; op-
portunities to see; opportunities to talk and listen; opportunities to play and
exercise; scale; opportunities to enjoy the positive aspects of climate; positive
sensory experiences.”
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Kunitachi
Concerns about liveability in Tokyo’s periphery
“The urge to create liveable cities, neighbourhoods and
suburbs in Japan thus has a rather different base than
that indicated in the global cities literature: it will be driven
primarily by the imperative of attracting and retaining
population.” (Sorensen 2012:216)
The anticipated aging of Japanese society will inevitably
restructure Tokyo’s spatial organization in the coming
decades. One of the lowest fertility-rates in the world (ca.
1,45), a high life-expectancy (ca. 83 years) and a very modest
presence of immigrants (1,9% of the total population)
(Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, Statistical
Bureau 2016) are causing the rapid aging of Japanese society.
As a consequence, population shrinkage has started in 2011.
Population loss will manifest itself unevenly, and, in the
case of Tokyo, be most dramatic in suburban areas, where
ca. 87% of Greater Tokyo Area’s population lives (Ohno
2005), triggering a gradual spatial restructuring. In fact,
as investigated by many scholars (Ducom 2008, Fuji 2008,
Moriyuki 2005), due to the general population decline of Japan
as a whole, even Tokyo is starting to face population loss in
its peripheral areas, and, according to Masuda (2015), will be
the place “that will have to face a more difficult situation than
any other municipality.” Peripheral areas will be particularly
vulnerable, even though their conditions are rather diverse,
depending on their location, the train lines that serve them
etc. Nonetheless they will, with varying degrees of intensity,
experience the downsides of shrinkage, having to cope
with diminished tax revenues and increasing maintenance
costs of public services. This could lead to the progressive
degradation of peripheral areas and their abandonment or
to the ghettoization of the elderly living there. Some scholars
argue, therefore, that a growth-oriented model should be
turned into a “decline paradigm” (Ducom 2008:15) and that
an era of “deurbanization” (Onishi 2011:27) is about to start.
Moreover, even though Tokyo and its catchment area is
continuing to attract residents, its growth is expected to halt
after 2020, and, due to the massive inflow of the generation
born in the 1930s and 1940s, its aging will be dramatic
(Moriyuki 2005:10, Masuda 2015).
Town’s history and features
“[T]rough the 1970s [...] Kunitachi had consolidated its image
as a child-friendly town known for its sophisticated culture
and natural beauty”. (Molasky 2014:72)
Kunitachi (国立市) is a city ca. 30km (45 minutes) west of Tokyo
Station, lying in the so-called Tama Area. It was founded from
scratch as a new town, developed by Tsutsumi Yasujirō,
business tycoon and member of the Diet, who started
buying land in the early 1920s with the vision of establishing
a university town following the model of Göttingen in
Germany. When the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake struck, he
proposed to the president of the Tokyo College of Commerce
(currently Hitotsubashi University) and of the Tokyo Higher
School of Music (currently Kunitachi College of Music) to
abandon their damaged properties in central Tokyo and
move to the western, leafy suburbs, in a new town akin to
E. Howard’s garden cities. In 1926 the new Kunitachi station
on the JR Chūō Line was opened, which constituted the focal
point of three radial, convergent streets, cutting-through a
city grid composed of 250x75m blocks. The central artery
(Daigaku-dōri), connecting the train station with Hitotsubashi
University, was conceived as a European-style boulevard,
featuring broad sidewalks lined with cherry and ginkgo trees.
In regard to the town’s planning, Tsutsumi consulted Gotō
Shinpei, a high-profile statesman, who had orchestrated the
creation of new railway lines and new towns in Japanese-
occupied Manchuria as director of the South Manchuria
Railway some 20 years earlier. His planners, in fact, following
German urban design models like Mannheim, had used
the very same composition of three radial, convergent axes
starting from the train station, overlaid on a rectangular grid,
in multiple Manchurian locations, such as Chengchun and
Fengtian (currently Shenyang) (長内敏, 2012).
The town developed slowly until the end of WWII, but, in the
early 1950s, triggered by prostitution caused by the presence
of an American military base in neighboring Tachikawa and
by the demand of more infrastructure, citizens (especially
housewives), supported by the local community of professors
and student, formed an organized group with the aim of
improving quality of life in the city. This group, considered
to be the origin of machizukuri (lit. town-making) practices
in the country (Sorensen 2007), applied to the Ministry
of Construction for the status of “Special Education and
Culture District”, which was granted in 1952, the first of its
kind in Japan. Due to such special status, a stricter building
code was enforced, banning certain activities e.g. pachinko
parlors, hotels, dance clubs etc. in the vicinity of the station
and of the university, while buildings’ maximum height was
limited. Such a strong sense of community has helped to
preserve and improve liveability in Kunitachi in the following
decades. In 2016 the city of Kunitachi approved a new urban
code that explicitly calls for bottom-up civic organization to
counterbalance top-down regulations, an approach that is
much more inclusive and transparent than regular urban
governance practices in Japan. The will to empower citizens
is best manifested in the open meetings and public briefings
that the municipality organizes to inform the population and
gather its opinions about the current redevelopment plan of
Kunitachi station’s square, whose completion is scheduled in
2019.
85
Figure 1: activities’ distribution and town’s morphology. The color
bar refers to the total floor space, taking into consideration the
buildings’ number of floors. Aerial photograph of Kunitachi at the
bottom
Figure 2: estimation of Kunitachi station‘s catchment area (in
white). On the left, Voronoi cells define the areas closest to their
respective train station. On the right, the boundaries have been
adjusted to reflect local characteristics
Pedestrian flow analysis and morphology of Daigaku-dōri:
results
Figure 1 shows activities’ distribution and morphological
characteristics of Kunitachi It can be seen that commercial
activities are clustered around the train station and along
the three main radial axes. Hitotsubashi University’s Campus
acts as a public park, marking a stark contrast with the low-
Figure 3: four betweenness simulations run with different
parameters. Produced with Rhino UNA Toolbox, City Form Lab,
Harvard GSD
Figure 4: morphological characteristics of Daigaku-dōri.
rise, moderately dense but compact urban tissue (FAR 0,73,
GSI 0,32). Noteworthy is the floor space percentage of public
and commercial uses (respectively 18,5 and 13%). Numerous
educational institutions dot the city, strengthening the image
of a college town.
The enquiry proceeded by focussing of Kunitachi’s
streetscape, counting the number of passers-by over a
time-span of one minute at a fixed location on each of the
three radial streets (Daigaku-dōri, Fujimi-dōri and Asahi-
dōri) following Gehl methodology (Gehl & Svarre 2013). The
counting was performed five times from 8am to 7:30pm
on a sparsely cloudy weekday with mild temperatures in
early October, repeating a 1-minute counting session twice.
The results, presented in Table 1, show how Daigaku-dōri
consistently hosted more passers-by in every counting. Even
leaving aside students (who flock to Hitotsubashi University’s
entrance, located on Daigaku-dōri, in the early morning),
people on Daigaku-dōri outnumbered people walking along
the other two radial streets.
A “betweenness” computation, using the Space Syntax-
based “Rhino UNA toolbox” developed by City Form Lab
(Sevtsuk 2016), followed the Gehl analysis. Betweenness
“approximates by-passing traffic or footfall at particular
locations in a spatial network. The Betweenness of a building
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Table 1: number of people walking Kunitachi‘s three radial
streets in 1 minute at different hours.
is defined as the fraction of shortest paths between pairs of
other origins and destinations in the network that pass by
a particular location” (City Form Lab 2015:23). In order to
simulate pedestrian flow on the three radial streets, train
stations were assumed to be the main destinations/origins
of pedestrian routes, given their prominent role in Japan as
attractors within the urban fabric. In fact, the vast majority
of commercial and business activities in Kunitachi are
concentrated around its station, where buildings’ height and
FAR are higher than average. Voronoi cells5 defined Kunitachi
station’s hypothetical catchment area, subsequently adjusted
to realistically reflect the local context6 (Figure 2).
In the first simulation (Figure 3, A), all buildings represented
origins, while Kunitachi station represented a single
destination, so that each building originated one unique
route: Fujimi-dōri and Asahi-dōri were predicted to host a far
larger number of passers-by than Daigaku-dōri, as indicated
by warmer colors7. In a further iteration (Figure 3, B),
betweenness analysis allowed routes up to 15% longer than
shortest paths: in this case, while passers-by were predicted
to be more numerous on Fujimi-dōri and Asahi-dōri, the
difference with Daigaku-dōri was less pronounced.
5
Given a set of reference points, a Voronoi cell defines the region where all
points contained in it are closer to one specific reference point than to any
others.
6
The area north of the station was excluded from the calculation, since it
is not reached by the radial streets; the southern and western border were
expanded, since Nanbu Line has considerably less relevance than Chūō Line.
The resulting area roughly corresponds to the original planned city grid, com-
prising the central, east and west districts.
7
Since Daigaku-dōri was drawn with two parallel lines, indicating the left and
right sidewalks, the number of pedestrians counted with Gehl method has
been halved.
In the second simulation (Figure 3, C), Kunitachi station
represented a single origin, while all commercial activities
at ground floor represented destinations, so that a unique
route would reach each commercial activity: once again,
Fujimi-dōri and Asahi-dōri were predicted to be the main
thoroughfares, assigning to Daigaku-dōri a marginal role. In a
further iteration (Figure 3, D), betweenness analysis allowed
routes up to 30% longer than shortest paths: in this case,
passers-by were evenly distributed among the three radial
streets, at least in the segments closer to the station.
Lastly, a morphological mapping determined the salient
characteristics of Daigaku-dōri that differentiate it from
the other two arteries (Figure 4) (Figure 4: morphological
characteristics of Daigaku-dōri.): the boulevard is 44m-wide,
including a 3.6m-wide sidewalk with ample room for
pedestrians and sitting space. It features abundant greenery
of various height and kind, and it is lined by a row of ginkgo
biloba and one of cherry trees on each side, providing shade
all day long.
Discussion
On-site counting of pedestrians’ presence differed
considerably with the simulated results predicted by standard
betweenness analysis. Only by allowing a certain detour
ratio8 could betweenness analysis approximate observed
behaviours, so that it can be inferred that, in the case of
Daigaku-dōri, it is not uncommon that people walk routes
considerably longer (up to 30%) than the shortest possible
path. Morphological mapping and behavioural observations
Figure 5: seasonal variations and versatility of Daigaku-dōri.
Scenery in autumn on the left; scenery in spring in the center; eye-
level shot on the right.
8
“The Betweenness algorithm in the Rhino UNA toolbox has been specifically
customized to make it useful and practical for estimating realistic pedestrian
movement in spatial networks. [...] Whereas a traditional Betweenness index
would estimate trips from a set of origins to a set of destinations along short-
est paths, [...] the Betweenness algorithm in the Rhino UNA toolbox allows
you to relax the shortest path assumption.” (City Form Lab 2015:24)
87
could clarify the reasons behind this discrepancy: people
do not use Daigaku-dōri just as a thoroughfare, but they
perceive the street as a destination in itself. Its broad
sidewalk, protected from traffic by greenery and trees, is an
amenity especially for the elderly and parents with children.
Moreover, local kindergartens take out their little guests every
day during the good season for a walk through Daigaku-dōri
to Hitotsubashi University campus9 . Moreover, the landscape
design, featuring ginkgo and cherry trees, allows for a radical
change of scenery, when cherry trees bloom in spring and
ginkgo turn yellow in autumn, thus linking the street with
cultural traditions such as hanami and autumn leaves
celebrations. Lastly, the wide sidewalk can host a number
of informal activities, most notably a row of temporary
stalls when local festivals, matsuri, are taking place (Figure
5) People like to go to Daigaku-dōri because of its physical
qualities, which have been maintained and improved by
machizukuri practices. This street is heterogenous, i.e. its
origin stemmed from a multitude of actors, and it is versatile,
i.e. it can host multifarious activities and it changes according
to the seasons. It is a thick, soft “edge” that contributes to
Kunitachi’s liveability and uniqueness.
As a solution for the challenges that peripheral areas will have
to face, Doteuchi (2003:9) suggests that they “will have to
differentiate themselves through unique local characteristics.
They must become a space to support lifestyles that take
advantage of the local environment [...] and culture. What
the ultra-aging society represents is an era of living the slow
life in such unique communities.” Since “there is no universal
approach to land use planning for depopulating and aging
society” (Murayama 2016:79), what will happen to peripheral
areas will depend on national policy-making on the one
hand, and on their own ingenuity, the capabilities of local
machizukuri movements and the natural, social and cultural
assets at disposal on the other. The suburban communities
that will stand the test of time will be the ones with the ability
to do so; in this respect, Kunitachi can be considered a best
practice to learn from.
Pujiang Town
Concerns about liveability in Shanghai’s periphery
Since 1990, when it became possible for private developers
to lease land from the government, Shanghai has been
witnessing a high-speed construction pace. This resulted in
9
In one interview, a kindergarten teacher stated that many parents deliber-
ately walk through Daigaku-dōri to the kindergarten because of its qualities,
compared to other possible routes.
congestion in the city center and uncoordinated development
at the fringes, threatening the amount of arable- and open-
land at disposal, and of water resources. To tackle these
problems, in 2001 the municipality decided to embrace a
decentralization policy, through the foundation of new towns
in the periphery. Thus, industrial and population growth
during the 2000s took place mainly in outer areas (Wu &
Phelps 2008). Shanghai’s population is expected to increase
from ca. 17,8 mil. in 2015 to over 20 mil. in 2025 (UN Habitat
2013, 155), even though with a decreasing growth-rate. In
Shanghai, some 170.000 newcomers arrived in 2010, while
some 50.000 people have been relocated each year from the
central districts towards the periphery (Shanghai Municipality
2011).
New towns, thanks to a strong top-down, state-driven
planning, their location on easy-to-compensate farmland
and no organized resistance, could be planned and built at
a breakneck speed. Between 2000 and 2020 the government
planned “to relocate more than 1.15 million people to the
suburbs” (den Hartog 2010:36).
High-density was mostly applied in the form of high-rise,
anonymous lower class developments, while detached
villas mushroomed for the upper class. The distance to the
nearest underground station was often too big: one aim was
to discourage commuting to the central districts, but job
opportunities in the new towns still remain scarce. In many
cases apartments were quickly sold out, but buyers turned
out to be speculators. Moreover, since developments were
carried out by private parties acquiring land use rights,
in many cases a balanced mixture of services and public
functions could not be achieved, resulting in a critical lack
of amenities and services10. All this exacerbates Shanghai’s
increasing spatial segregation11.
Contemporary Shanghai’s urbanization patterns are
spatialized through the xiaoqu (小区), literally “small district”.
Apart from residence, it can sometimes comprehend a few
facilities like kindergartens, fitness centers etc., that could
also be used by people living outside the xiaoqu. This sort of
development, given the stress on security and control issues,
10
“Market research into the demand for particular developments is almost
never conducted, and the result is that what’s on offer doesn’t always meet
demand.” (den Hartog 2010:70)
11
Even though it exceeds the scope of this paper, it has to be noted that glo-
balization too plays a role in the production of space in Shanghai’s new towns.
As Chen (2009:436) puts it, “[m]any local, regional, and city-level governments
in the developing world are creating [...] new integrated townships, on the
fringes of existing large urban centers, as another common form of globalizing
the local. These supposedly self-sufficient new towns [...] manifest the current
urban development strategies of attracting capital investment.”
88

is often referred to as compound. It is usually constituted Morphological analysis and use of open spaces: results
by a group of high-rise, south-oriented residential buildings
accessible through a limited number of patrolled gates and The whole area presented a mid-rise character, with a degree
entrances. Compounds clearly separate the open, “public” of compactness comparable to compounds in Shanghai’s
space of the street outside and the semi-private space inside, central districts but with sensibly lower densities (FAR 1,4;
thanks to fences or walls, usually combined with greenery. GSI 0,25). Buildings were generally 6- or 11-stories-high, the
Around their perimeters there can be found rows of outward- former usually located along the xiaoqu’s border, the latter
looking shops, and, in principle, every resident can open a towards the center of the compound, more protected from
business inside a compound, converting his apartment street noise and pollution and thus more expensive.
to a shop or office. The contemporary Chinese city can be
understood as a compound archipelago, holding drawbacks Figure 6 shows activities’ distribution and morphological
and potentials. They represent lack of urbanity and socio- characteristics of the town. More than 80% of floorspace in
spatial segregation, the most expensive ones being gated the area is devoted to residence. Being a relocation, virtually
communities, but, “[a]lthough the ‘archipelago’ of xiaoqu does the totality of the apartments is inhabited. Public functions
not truly promote urban cohesion, the xiaoqus themselves do are represented by two schools and a kindergarten, serving
constitute a means for creating community identity.” (ivi:380) the whole new town. Supra-neighborhood functions are
clustered around the neighborhood’s main central axis,
Town’s history and features namely the afore-mentioned schools, a Walmart supermarket
(opened in 2011) and office buildings. Such uses are spatially
Pujiang Town (蒲江) (south) belongs to the decentralization detached from residential xiaoqu, becoming a block on their
plan called One City Nine Towns. In 2001 the Italian firm own. More than 80% of office space is empty.
Gregotti Associati won an invited competition to build an
“Italian-town” in Shanghai’s southern district of Minhang.
The office was responsible for the masterplan and a small
architectural implementation in the northern part of the
district, targeting high class buyers. The rest of the town
was (and is being) designed by local companies and built by
a number of different developers. When Shanghai won the
bid to host the 2010 World Expo, the municipality chose to
redevelop an area on the eastern bank of the Huangpu river,
resettling industries and households located on that site. The
southern part of Pujiang was selected as the area where to
relocate these people. Moreover, farmers and peasants who
used to live on Pujiang’s site were relocated to the (southern)
new town as well. Construction started in 2004 and was
completed by 2006; 15.000 were the households relocated.
Northern Pujiang is thus considerably different from the
southern part: while the former aims at attracting higher-
middle class, the latter (chosen as case-study area) retains
a “generic” character. Pujiang lies 15km south of People’s
Square and it can be reached by subway (completed in 2009)
in 45 minutes. Nowadays we face a heterogeneous mix of
inhabitants: on the one hand there are relocated people, on
the other middle class households which are either renting
an apartment or have bought one. A considerable number
of white-collar workers decided to move here, because of
proximity to work and convenient apartment prices. Farmers,
who used to live in the same area, had to abruptly adapt
to live in a new urban environment. Even though access
Figure 6: activities’ distribution and town’s morphology. The color
to commercial facilities and other services for them has
bar refers to the total floor space, taking into consideration the
improved, they generally lack enough indoor storage space
buildings’ number of floors (2012). Photographs from left to right:
and cannot grow vegetables and raise livestock in front-yards
informal stall; apartment converted into shop; brackets of shops
as they used to.
along xiaoqu’s border.
89
Figure 7: accessibility and hermeticism of xiaoqu (2012).
Photographs from left to right: patrolled car entrance; unpatrolled
pedestrian entrance; unpatrolled car entrance
Figure 8: type and use of open space (2012). Photographs from left
to right: underused park; Walmart‘s internal square; open space
inside xiaoqu.
It is possible to distinguish between two typologies of
commercial activities in regard to their relevance to the
streetscape: one belonging to the neighborhood scale and
one to the district-scale. The former are small businesses
which serve the daily needs of each xiaoqu, requiring a basic,
almost standard architectural typology: a one-storey, narrow
(2,5-5 mt) shop. When more spacious (i.e. more expensive)
typologies are built, they remain either completely empty, or
their second floor is used, at best, for storage. The presence
of small workstations (generally various kinds of hardware
reparations) indicates that light-industrial activities can be
well integrated close to residences. Shops tend to form a
“bracket” encircling a xiaoqu, either following the north-south
axis, where no apartments would be put for orientation
reasons, or along major streets. Beside neighborhood scale
activities there are district-scale ones, such as Walmart. Much
more than a shopping mall, it hosts a number of restaurants,
high-end stores, entertainment opportunities (though many
of them still empty), targeting not only customers from
immediate neighborhoods, but from the whole Pujiang
Town. Though naturally a commerce-oriented spot, access is
open to anyone, and, especially during weekends, it becomes
an entertainment choice for many families with children.
While being popular among younger generations, elderly’s
behaviour is noteworthy: they tend to gravitate and visit
the shops along the perimeter of Walmart, but do not seem
attracted by the inner courtyard. The lack of enough services
is reflected by the conversion of ground floor apartments into
informal businesses. Occasional informal stalls can be found
both inside and outside a xiaoqu.
Figure 7 shows the level of accessibility and hermeticism of
the case-study area. All xiaoqu present a typical pattern, with
fences (occasionally substituted by shopping strips) and gates
to regulate access. A majority of gates is patrolled by one/two
guards, checking cars driving through, but rather indifferent
to pedestrians. By means of on-site observation, everyone
who did not look particularly extravagant or potentially
dangerous could enter with ease, so that locals were walking
through a xiaoqu in order to shorten walking distances. The
average distance between xiaoqu entrances is around 360
meters.
Figure 8 shows the type and use of open areas. Space
enclosed by fences or walls has always been considered
as a “place” in China, carrying meanings and shared values
(Hassenpflug 2010). From this point of view, it is no wonder
that most outdoor recreational activities are happening
inside xiaoqu, often in landscaped areas with lawns and
trees. There can be found elderly chatting, playing or doing
physical exercises, their bikes showing that some have come
from other xiaoqu. Open parks have still to be appropriated
by local inhabitants though. They are used as transitional
spaces, shortcuts, but not seen as places to be enjoyed,
90
and, during on-site observations, they were almost always
deserted, even though their overall quality is better than
average green spaces. A large, empty plot of land beside
Walmart, located along Pujiang’s central axis, was converted
into an orchard, cultivated by different people. Similarly to
enclosed open spaces, commercial streets are historically
an ordinary component of the Chinese city. The analyzed
streets with shop brackets were very lively, while streets
bordered by fences, especially the ones located far from
underground stations or from public functions, hosted very
few passers-by.
Discussion
If a strong identity, heterogeneity and versatility are
key features of Kunitachi’s streetscape, Pujiang Town is
characterized by the absence of these qualities. The space
between xiaoqu appears rather problematic: from the
point of view of pedestrians, streets are too broad and
buildings’ facades too fragmented, failing to build a proper
streetscape. Compactness, in fact, is a more decisive factor
than density, when aiming at fostering “life between xiaoqu”,
since pedestrian movement and commercial functions take
place almost exclusively at the ground floor.
Mixing land-uses is probably the single most important
factor contributing to the vitality and liveability of Chinese
streetscapes. Brackets of shops, when present, are always
designed along xiaoqu’s borders; it seems worthy to
experiment with commercial typologies inside compounds,
injecting functions targeting the entire neighborhood, such
as sport facilities, health-care services, entertainment etc.
This could help to break the isolation and hermeticism of the
compound archipelago by the mere fact that people living
elsewhere would have a reason to enter another compound
other than just shortening walking distances. Conversely,
such particular functions could also be used as elements
to foster identity, distinguishing through specialization
one xiaoqu from the other. When planning and building is
carried out quickly, without participation “from the bottom”,
the outcome is often not calibrated to the inhabitants’ real
needs. In this respect, as shown by the appropriated plot of
land beside Walmart, temporary uses12 , especially related
to agricultural purposes, should be recognized as having
manyfold beneficial effects.
Within the compound archipelago some islands stand out:
they are shopping centers (Walmart, in this case), combining
12
Zwischennutzung, a well-researched concept in German-speaking academ-
ia.
convenience (numerous services, including a post-office)
and entertainment. They represent the emergence of a
middle class lifestyle, when entire families enjoy going out
spending weekends shopping, since many attractions inside
such commercial centers are targeting children. The analysis
confirmed that “commercialization is [...] indispensable for
the genealogy of [...] public spaces” (Hassenpflug 2010:32)
and that the private sector is destined to play an ever-
increasing role in this process.
Even though “the enclave should be understood as
the typological success formula of market-controlled
urbanization” (Mars & Hornsby 2008:187), incidentally
reflecting the traditional Chinese preference of familiar
and community relationships over civic ones, this urban
model is helping to exacerbate social segregation, unless
it is gradually transformed into a more inclusive model
(abandoning gates, mixing land-uses on a finer grain,
favoring low-rise but high-density typologies etc.) once a
community gains self-confidence. Xiaoqu are useful as long
as they provide an anchoring point for newly-established
neighborhoods, as in the case of new towns. China’s
central government has recognized the drawbacks of the
compound archipelago in its 2016 guidelines for urban
planning and construction management, where it calls for
a gradual opening of compounds by building more access
roads (新华社 2016). These new regulations have unleashed
a wave of discontent among apartment owners, who do not
want to trade their privacy and sense of security with the
public good.
Conclusions
On a theoretical level, liveability was defined, at the
beginning of this paper, as being I) a function of time and
space, II) a project, III) a negotiation between individuals
and society.
I) If Daigaku-dōri in Kunitachi testifies the importance
of inclusive public space and civic engagement in order
to strengthen the community at large and improve the
liveability of a whole town, the enclosed and, to a certain
degree, exclusive spaces within xiaoqu in Shanghai’s
periphery can foster a sense of belonging and spark the
quest for identity in developing neighborhoods. Kunitachi
and Pujiang Town have clarified that different (de)
urbanization stages and specific characteristics of Japanese
and Chinese society shape the notion of liveable streetscape
and determine suitable strategies to maintain and improve
the quality of the built environment.
II) Both Kunitachi and Pujiang Town were founded as new
towns following a top-down approach. While Kunitachi’s
91
identity has been shaped by its citizen’s actions, which
strengthened unique streetscape features and created a
strong community, inhabitants of Pujiang Town are just
beginning to appropriate their streetscape. By initiating
informal activities and transforming the town’s built space
they are gradually creating a bottom-up project that fits their
needs.
III) When Kunitachi was granted the status of Special
Education and Culture District, numerous businesses relating
to entertainment (dance halls, hotels, pachinko parlors,
karaoke, brothels, etc.) were forced to close, sparking a
controversy between business owners and local inhabitants.
Similarly, when the Chinese Government issued new urban
regulations in 2016 regarding the gradual opening-up of
gated compounds to solve congestion and environmental
issues, many apartment owners reacted angrily to what they
perceived to be an attack against their privacy and property
rights. These two examples confirm that streetscape is a
contested space: to a certain degree individual rights have to
be reasonably sacrificed for the greater good. This process
can be understood as a negotiation involving multifarious
actors, ideally finding a balance between top-down and
bottom-up interventions.
On a methodological level, the case-studies have shown that
quantitative and qualitative methods of enquiry support each
other. In fact, behavioural observations were necessary to
confirm or confute morphological mappings and quantitative
results, as in the striking difference between Space Syntax
simulations and on-site findings. This mismatch clearly
demonstrated that people prefer to walk considerably
longer routes if options with higher-quality streetscape are
offered. Moreover, the analysis of Kunitachi outlined a linear,
directional streetscape structure, composed of boulevards,
neat divisions between private and public space, and clear
flow of pedestrians. In Pujiang Town, on the other hand,
the notion of streetscape acquired an areal, non directional
structure, given the fact that the space inside xiaoqu is shared
or semi-private, in accordance with historical Chinese spatial
paradigms.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Darko Radović
and Prof. Davisi Boontharm: their comments and suggestions
were crucial in refining the structure and content of this
paper. My thanks go to Dave Clough for his proofreading.
Funding for this research has been provided by GESL Program
at Keio University, Tokyo.
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