Constructing Utopias

Amid its groundbreaking political reforms and "largest mass migration ever seen in human history," China created over 3,800 new towns to accommodate its burgeoning urban population and sustain economic growth. Constructing Utopias examines four decades of Chinese urbanization, focusing on a series of "model new towns" that showcase innovative planning, design, technologies, policies, and China's broader vision for a modern urban nation. These case studies highlight fundamental issues in new town development including economic vitality, cultural identity, environmental sustainability, and socio-spatial dynamics, and illuminate the complex interplay between space production and social transformation within the context of neoliberalism and globalization.

Zhongjie Lin is the Benjamin Z. Lin Presidential Professor of Urban Design at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, where he serves as Head of the Urban Design program and directs the Future Cities Initiative. He is a co-founder of Futurepolis, an award-winning interdisciplinary practice of planning and architecture. An internationally renowned expert in urbanism, Dr. Lin has published numerous books on the theory and practice of urban design, sustainable urbanism, planning history, and Asian architecture and cities. His work has been recognized by prestigious awards including a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

- Illustrations
- 1: Introduction: New Towns as a National Movement
- 2: The Precursors
- 3: Suzhou Industrial Park
- 4: One City and Nine Towns
- 5: The Eco-cities
- 6: The Ghost Towns
- 7: Epilogue: New Towns after the End of New Towns
- Appendix Notable Chinese New Towns
- Index