A transformation of Shanghai's urban fabric

Due to rapid development of the city, Shanghai has become characterized by drastic juxtapositions of building typologies and urban forms. Entire sections of the urban center are being replaced with large scale developments while the city overall expands into the periphery, replacing farmland with gated superblock developments. The city may be said to be losing identity as large sections of traditional urban fabric are being replaced. It is presented in this Thesis, that preservation of this identity is feasible by the implementation of a plan for the transformation of urban fabric. This thesis investigates a methodology by which an appropriate stepped transformation of urban form arises out of the intense analysis and comparison of traditional and new development samples. The first part of this thesis is titled Context and traces the numerous levels of juxtaposition within the urban environemnt of Shanghai, based on observations during site visit and research conducted in the Fall of 2005 with the MIT research seminar, Sustainable Development in Shanghai. Elaborating on these observations and clarifying the distinct characteristics of each side being juxtaposed, the next section of this thesis is titled Analysis.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Caine, Christine (Christine M.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Yung Ho Chang.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35130

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35130