Mapping China: Urbanisation - 9 The City Planners, Designers and Decision-Makers: The Role of Planners and Architects

The master plans for cities, including the codes and physical layout, are usually produced in the planning and research institutes. These institutes originally functioned as departments of the municipal government; they were transformed into commercial entities after the 1990s. Most of them are dominated by state capital, but some have opened up for private shareholders.

Although the institutes are partly privatised, the planners who serve in them are still considered very influential in the organisation of the urban planning system. This is partly due to the fact that they work closely with the government, and partly because they take part in the making of the by-laws.

Architectural institutes used to have managing patterns similar to those of the planning institutes, but today they are much more market-oriented. Besides the state-owned design corporations, there are many private architectural firms in the market today. Planning institutes, on the contrary, are less affected by market ups-and-downs in general.

Although modern urban planning has a relatively short history in China, Chinese planners are generally considered more experienced than most, seen from a global perspective. Just think about the sheer numbers of urban planning programmes and projects occasioned by the intense urbanization in China in the past decades. Planners in China have had much better opportunities to see their ambitions turned into physical reality, and to learn from the results. They are constantly challenged and trained to interact and mediate with different factors and powers, and warned of the risks and responsibilities with every move they take.

The current trend of moving from an economy-cantered urban development to the sustainable urban development approach has brought with it an incremental and institutional change in China’s urban planning. There will be fewer New Town Projects and more Urban Regeneration Schemes. This means a wider open market to absorb more and more private planners and architects, opening gates for creative proposals and experimental practices.