area 110 | expo 2010 shanghai

Getting closer to the community: Urban Best Practice Area of the Shanghai World Expo

A project which did not make it for UBPA
As far as the Urban Best Practice Area (UBPA) of Shanghai World Expo is concerned, I am a by-stander or an outsider rather than a specialist evaluator. My knowledge of the UBPA dates back to 2008 when Bob Lee Songping, professor of Konstfack in Sweden, and I were leading a Sino-Sweden joint design project “Wetland Square in Stockholm”. We made our efforts to introduce this project to UBPA, and attention and support were given by Mr. Tang Zilai, chief planner of UBPA, as well as by relevant officials from Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination. They even planned to locate our project in northern part of the Expo site, on the square. Many of the concepts of our project are in coincidence with the ideas promoted by UBPA, such as water purification through small wetlands, improvement of micro-environment, and access to the wetlands in modern methods – the interaction with the wetlands via computers or cell phones from anywhere, the open and interactive management of the wetlands actually available to everybody via Web2.0, or downloading of various cultural texts, be it music, video, or wireless charging – so that intelligent technologies can be integrated with ecological technologies. In addition, the wetland square could become a channel of interaction between Stockholm and Shanghai, involving more people from different parts of the world. But it is a pity that Stockholm failed to submit the application on time and the project missed the good opportunity.

general view - photo by Shen Zhong Hai

The UBPA of collage city, a visualized 4D textbook
Most of the cases in UBPA are mature and excellent in terms of design and technology, no matter whether it is the zero-energy home from London Paddington Residence area, the bamboo house from Madrid, or the live water park from Chengdu. Besides the new buildings, another attractive point of UBPA is the renovation of power supply plant and other old buildings. They are not only examples, rather, they are more of a presence of the history, bringing back some of the memories of Shanghai residents about the progress of urban development and displaying a vivid image of urban evolution track to all the visitors. Encompassing so many interesting facilities into one area, the UBPA itself represents a process of re-writing, forming orderly placed community blocks and streets. Not to mention their function as an exploration into the technological urban life. Different cases mirror each other, resembling a co-existence of different languages – as is mentioned by Colin Rowe in his book Collage City – an re-integration of urban structure and urban texture. From a certain point of view, this type of collage is the reprocessing and redesign of the original relationship. To my personal believe, the most important meaning of UBPA is the incorporation of so many outstanding cases of urban construction and urban life via an approach close to Disney land methodology. This is a process of visualization, from concepts and ideas to realities. It would be much easier for the public to accept the ideas (such as low carbon) if all the cases are represented through real things. From this point of view, UBPA is like a 4D textbook. Let’s look at an example. The live water park of Chengdu is a very successful project, well recognized in landscape design sector of China. The tainted water of Funan river, after flowing through the water park and purified by the wetland, flows out of the park clear and clean. The visualization of the water purification process and its combination with a public space have wisely made a technological application closer to everyday life. I used to carry out a research project on sustainable development in Chongming Island of Shanghai for two years. Locals told me that five years ago water here was clear and clean. But it is not any more. Following a technological approach we would quite possibly try to find out the solution as to why it won’t help even if we have provided tap water and sewage treatment facilities. Even if technology could provide the formula and the methodology of water purification, the role of river has been shrinking: its important role of everyday necessity has given way, natural river water has been replaced by tap water; although tap water is from river water, people will pay less attention to rivers and ponds. With the importance of living by the river side being declining and the riverbank landscape is deteriorating, water’s importance in everyday life is more questionable. Therefore, to visualize the concept of sustainability can play a very important role.

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UBPA area B3-2 Pavilion - photo by Luciano Romano

The Universality of UBPA
The “overall message” delivered by the collection of outstanding cases could not be clearer. But just like all the other models in the world, man can not stop reflecting on it. Models should adapt itself to local specifics when applied. For example, the case of Tengtou Village, designed by Mr.Wang Peng, is a very romantic depiction of possibilities of residence in the countryside of China. From an architect’s point of view, I like the design very much, and Mr. Wang Peng deserves my respec. But I would think otherwise if it is going to be placed in the reality of Chinese countryside and be promoted as the residence model for Chinese farmers. We should bear in mind that although in old times the countryside of China was not lack of intellectuals and gentries, it is quite difficult to find so many nowadays. It is worthwhile to ponder whether good interactions could exist between the romantic architecture and its users. Another example is that many of the cases are quite successful in terms of technology or in terms of an individual project. But from a systematic point of view, it might turn out that they are not so perfect. Many of the sustainable technologies displayed in UBPA are mature technologies, but we have to bear in mind that many buildings with the awards of LEED Golden Award, Platinum Awards could possibly be completely pseudo-sustainability buildings. They are restraint to one single building and take no account of interaction in a broader range. I remember last year’s top LEED point winner case is a zero public access facility, far away from downtown area and positioned on the edge of a forest. The so-called negative carbon emission could easily be turned over if the necessary transportation is included.
On the other side, many of our parents’ houses, like the old houses along the allies in Shanghai, and many of our primary schools, are still using natural ventilation and natural lighting, without much technology, and we could easily find the traces of sustainability in those cases. Sometimes sustainability means the fine tune of our daily life, like in Japan, government and enterprise offices see relaxed rules concerning employees’ suits. Therefore, a sustainable city is not limited to an overall concept, or a work on technological level. Life shall play a very important role in it. All sustainable technologies are persuasive only after they are combined with life style. We talk a lot about sustainability, but looking at our parents and grand-parents we could find out that many aspects of their life are sustainable and they are not lack of happiness, yet they never talked about sustainability. Their daily life has lots of sustainable potentials, from service to products, and many of which deserve further exploration and development. Therefore, let’s focus more on the dynamic texture of urban life, and by doing so we will find out the unique application of knowledge obtained by local residents based on their daily life in architecture spaces. Anyway, UBPA is a visualization process from theory to practice. As an accessible and physical experience zone, UBPA will outperform textbooks and media in the interaction with the public. But in terms of its value in widespread application, following factors have to be considered: first, whether there would be some obstacles of acceptance in its promotion, introduction and delivery; second, whether there would be some mistakes in its guiding function. For example, LED lightings are widely utilized in the Shanghai World Expo, and the public is informed via media, but misunderstanding such as LED being equal to energy saving could easily be established. Actually, you can not simply say that LED technology equals energy saving. You have to bear in mind that only the true “zero” is energy saving; third, display urban material environment via UBPA, but due to lack of real life elements, the display gives people the impression of a show. It is true that UBPA is a big platform and the life shown on this platform is different from the original life. There are neither daily chores, nor minor frictions. The lack of the elements of real life dynamics allows the display of urban environments to show only one side of the issue, but not the other side of the issue.
Post UBPA, from model to “social innovation”
A successful experience of Shanghai World Expo is the combination of Shanghai’s urban development with important events. Big energy could be released by this big-event-driven urban development, expediting the development of the city. During this quick process, lots of lessons could be learnt and lots of experience could be reviewed. The existence of UBPA not only expresses the political characteristics of Shanghai government, the strong economic foundation of Shanghai as well as the whole country, but also implies a position to interact with the public, expanding the Expo beyond the limit of a science and technology show. Being people orientation and sustainability are two horizontal axis, professionals and the public are two vertical axis, and together with the introduction of Chinese traditional concept of yin and yang, these two rulers compose a intertwined but balanced process of transformation. Only when professionals of  innovation change their professional roles and be in other people’s shoes, intentionally bridging the gap between them and the social public, can the relationship of these four dimensions be re-balanced and adjusted. If the concept of sustainability and the related technologies could be accepted by the vast public, which means the transition from models to social innovation can be achieved, the UBPA could play its role to the highest extent.