Shanghai and the Experience of War: The Fate of Refugees

Abstract: This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [AHRC Award ref AH/H026118/1].

Abstract: War-city relationships had long been studied by scholars regarding wars' sudden impact on cities. Studies typically focused on one specific event's impact on urban military, politics, economy, or society. This approach, however, treated war's impact on cities as only temporary, hindered opportunities to reveal multiple political regimes' spatial competition through war-oriented city planning and construction, which is crucial for city development, and their resultant urban form changes through time. In response, this study has examined city planning and construction activities during the short time gaps between multiple military conflicts, with various military objectives, and conducted by different political regimes in Shenyang, China. In accordance with archival research, a space syntax axis analysis has been used to quantify spatial dynamics throughout war-peace-war cycles to explore the impact of military-oriented planning on city-scaled development. We have found these planning strategies, initiated by specific military goals, acted as extensions of war planning, segregating the city and causing urban fragmentation. They also acted as a driving factor which promoted modernization of the city in the early 20th century. We conclude that wars oriented planning can alter a city's development track and impact its structure and form through the creation of internally connected but isolated urban districts. Copyright © 2018 Journal Of Contemporary Urban Affairs.

Abstract: In June 1949, on the eve of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, the country’s most famous architect, Liang Sicheng 梁思成, published an article in Renmin ribao 人民日报 (People’s Daily), entitled Chengshi de tixing ji qi jihua城市的体型及其计划 (The city’s form and its planning). He argued that people living in cities had four basic necessities.