Page 136 - JCAU-6-4

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Socialist urbanism and cultural infrastructure facilities

Since then, Yim’s architecture has become a subject of by elemental forms in symbolic imperial colors, dominates
international interest. Critics find impressive his handling the view at the top of the axis (Figure 3).
of space and the confidence of his designs. The idea that the On Lianhua Mountain, the only major statue of Deng
“power” of Yim’s architecture “emanates from the assurance Xiaoping in China faces the view straight down the center
and sheer scale at which it operates” (Cook, 2013, p. 15) line. On the western side, just south of and adjacent to the
resonates with large-scale state space in China and the Citizens’ Center, the new Shenzhen Concert Hall and Library,
authority to govern it. Debate over the origins of his work is designed by Arata Isozaki, opened in 2007. Underground,
more speculative. The “lucid planning and formal energy” the CBD Book Mall, designed by Kisho Kurokawa, opened
of his designs seem to share elements with the “rationalism in 2006. The Children’s Palace, on the eastern side, opened
of N.A. Ladovsky and the avant-garde discourse of the in 2004. The Futian new city center, first and distinctive,
Soviet Vkhutemas” (Frampton, 2013, p. 11), the influential consequently influenced other cities, including Guangzhou
design school of the 1920s, in Moscow, that emphasized (Sun & Xue, 2020). A main element of the layout places
interpreting space through angular yet sculptural models. cultural buildings adjacent and subsidiary to the dominant
Praise for the “bold, lucid, masculine forms” (Maki, 2013, government building, establishing relational space between
p. 9) of Yim’s designs for museum buildings appears in the the party-state and cultural functions.
architectural literature.
Dongguan and Shunde also developed new city center
In 2006, the Organization Department appointed
Secretary Lin to the leadership of Guizhou province, projects dominated by cultural infrastructure facilities
first as deputy party secretary and then, in 2007, as party
secretary and governor. Accounts of his achievements
in Guangzhou appear widely in the media. In 2011, in
Beijing, on the sidelines of his next post, vice chairman
of the Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Overseas
Chinese Subcommittee of the Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference, reporters asked him to reflect on
the history of decisions about major construction projects.
Lin recalled a time when the idea to build Guangzhou
as an “international metropolis was ridiculed by many
people” (建国际大都市遭到很多人耻笑) (Liu et al,
2011). Lin’s leadership era is remembered for constructing
Guangzhou’s road network, subway lines, port facilities,
and new airport (Xu & Yeh, 2005), in addition to realizing
the new city center project in the Tianhe district.

4.2. New city centers in Shenzhen, Shunde, and Figure 2. New Guangdong Province Museum, Zhujiang New Town.
Dongguan Rocco Design Architects, 2011. Source: Photo by the author
In the mid-1990s, Shenzhen focused on planning a
new city center project in Futian district dominated
by an administrative building and multiple cultural
infrastructure facilities. This initiative marked the second
wave of cultural infrastructure facilities construction in
Shenzhen. In the 1980s, Shenzhen constructed five of its
first eight cultural infrastructure facilities along Shennan
Road, the main east-west artery. For the Futian new city
center, laid out on a north-south axis, crossing Shennan
Road, Shenzhen held architectural design competitions
earlier than Guangzhou. As Sun and Xue (2020, p. 443)
note, “the Futian Central District competition became the
first international competition for a CBD.” Lee-Timchula
Architects won the design competition for the Futian
government administrative Center, known as the Citizens’ Figure 3. The center of the Shenzhen Citizen’s Center at Futian frames
Center. The building’s contemporary flying roof, punctured Lianhua Mountain to the north, 2004. Source: Photo by the author

Volume 6 Issue 4 (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1995