Invisible Logic of Space Forming - Rethinking the Urban Growth in Yueyang, China

Abstract

Not only visitors but also local residents of China can be visually aware of the country’s spectacular and accelerating urbanization in the last three decades. In the era of globalization, China’s urban landscape has been dramatically changed by massive deconstructions of existing building fabric, as well as large scale new construction of imported western architecture, imitational architecture, and replicated real estate buildings, which were mostly driven by the search for economic benefits and recognition. They are composing an image of visible spectacles in many contemporary Chinese cities, and disconnecting modern China from its past, and the collective memory of its citizens. In response to the miracle of urban expansion in China, this thesis studies and re-envisioning the development in Yueyang, located in north corner of the Hunan Province. It provides an overall picture of the process of urbanization in China’s small cities. Additionally, this thesis explores public spaces that formed by the logic of urban daily life. By responding and provoking the current city’s urban proposal of the Yueyang Pavilion district, this thesis suggests a slower development through a series smaller urban interventions that can enhance the idea of the invisible city. The invisible city is a place of inclusiveness, an open-ended space that permits poetry and dreams, and an engaging life style that contains the city and its people’s past, present and expectation of future.