Revitalize the lost enclave : establishing guidelines for the Free Economic Zone in Shanghai

Abstract

This thesis focuses on an emerging urban form: Free Economic Zone. As a special enclave with tax incentives and policy experimentation, the FEZ undertakes the mission to grow the economy and test new rules in developing countries. In this context, the Chinese government established its FEZ project in Shanghai, September, 2013. The aim of the thesis is to reevaluate the criterion for establishing planning and urban design guidelines for the FEZ and subsequently to imagine alternative spatial, formal and typological organizations for Shanghai's new zone. Segregated by walls or highways, these enormous profit machines lacerate the urban connections and become privileged enclaves for governors and entrepreneurs. Residents nearby are only left with traffic pollutions and a lifeless town. Not taking FEZ as a pure profit machine, this thesis proposes a revision of the typical FEZ models by formulating a set of principles, which are: Temporality, Programmatic Diversity, Typological Variety and Spatial Continuity. First, FEZ is only in a temporal state in that it will be transformed to the normative city once it fulfills its economic and political obligations. Hence, the design of FEZ should leave possibilities and set frameworks for future developments. Second, programmatic diversity brings economic benefits to the zone and thus to better serve the goal of FEZ. Moreover, typological variety can offer the zone with flexibility and the ability to change in the future. Lastly, spatial continuity between city and FEZ sponsors the cultural and physical consistency. Not being a huge hiatus in the city, the FEZ can bring back public life to local residents and reconnect missing links in surrounding area. The thesis proposes a design scheme that performs crucial interventions to achieve the four principles previously mentioned while maintaining the autonomy and proceeds of private developers. By engraving planning guidelines into private development, the new organization of FEZ can bring both economic benefits and social responsibilities to the formerly money-oriented area.