China Is The Emerald City
I recently checked out an exhibit w/ Grace about the future of China from a city designer’s perspective. When we arrived, it turned out that they weren’t ready for the opening so a lot of things were still being built, classic China. But we were still able to go in and see what they did have. I think the biggest factor that the architects had in mind was the fact that China has a huge population, and is still growing. This meant, HUGE capacity, and the ability to expand easily without disrupting the “flow” of the city.
While it was cool to see, I was hoping for more detail in their models. Things like working lights, fake grass (like moss I used to use in my science projects in elementary school), water (anywhere in the form of a lake, river, fountain, etc.), and a railway with a working train. That would’ve been sick. How can you not have a moving train in your model city? To all my architect buddies out there, always ALWAYS include a train in your models. Trust me, you’ll get all the attention. Bonus points if the train whistles and has steam.
I’m a fan of scale models, especially when they are working, detailed models. You know that Storybook Land ride at Disneyland? It’s the most boring ride, but I’ll ride it again just to see all the little models of the classic Disney movies. The Cinderella one has the castle, and you can see the little pumpkin carriage going up to it. If you haven’t seen it, I would recommend it. Legoland is another place I enjoyed because of their cities of the world created with Legos.
Back to the exhibit though. While I was there, I couldn’t help but think that if they actually built cities like these in China, they would be destroyed within a year. It’s nothing against China, but it’s the same idea with the concept of driving. I’ll explain. There are bad drivers here. I’ve seen cars make 10-point turns, backup on a highway, and drive on the wrong side of the street. But upon looking at the driving test, it explained some of the behavior. Common sense is not your friend when taking this test. It was actually entertaining when a group of us read questions from the test to each other. I kid you not, there is a sign that warned drivers that they are about to drive under a curved bridge, with the emphasis on curved. I don’t know, maybe they just like to be specific here. Like I said, though, this is nothing against them. It is unfair to directly make a comparison with a country that had a long driving history, like the US. In the US, the people that created the tests probably are experienced drivers. I think it would be safe to say that their parents were also experienced drivers. Basically, driving is as common as brushing your teeth in the US, and has some history. China was late to the game. Driving was not common, and the people making these tests probably did not have too much experience neither. Because of this, I feel that they are doing their best with what they were given. For everything, there is a learning curve, and China’s still on it when it comes to driving. So when I say China has bad drivers, consider it at the same level as calling a student driver a bad driver. It’s just a given fact at no fault to the student, or in this case, China.
So it’s the same thing with these new city concepts for China. There are too many other prerequisites that this country needs to achieve before these cities should be built, but can be achieved quite quickly.
One of the city concepts had a design where it could easily expand with population growth the same way you add length to a train one car at a time. For some reason the model used this light to give the city a greenish hue, and it reminded me of the Emerald City from the Wizard Of Oz.
I felt it was an appropriate comparison not just because of the green lights, but in terms of people being drawn to it. The world’s economy, for one, will heavily depend on Chinese consumption. It’s a no brainer. There are over 1.3 billion people/consumers in China, and while the rest of the world felt losses last year, China’s GDP increased. Everything is coming here, and the international community is growing as well. Just recently, I found out that a Fatburger is opening up here, and that abstract bit of information somehow assured me of what I just shared. The concept cities are not out of reach, and I really do hope to see a China like that, but first things first: learn to drive.