image via fieldurbanism.com

The new book Changing Chinese Cities: The Potentials of Field Urbanism by Renee Y. Chow released on June 15, 2015. In this book, Renee Y. Chow touches upon the problematic grow and development processes for Chinese cities and Chow proposes new design strategies to sustain urban identity and promote livability globally may find some answers in China’s cities. Simone van Nieuwenhuizen from The Asian Review of Books has reviewed Chow's book: 

''Many first-time visitors to first-tier Chinese cities are surprised at the high-rise apartments, hotels and office buildings that dominate the skyline. these cities can lead one  to forget that, despite its rapid growth, China is still very much a developing country. Cities such as Shanghai and Beijing have been transformed into urban metropolizes that rival (by some estimates even surpass) New York and London.

Renee Y. Chow is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at University of California Berkeley and a founding principal at the Berkeley-based architecture and urban design practice STUDIO URBIS.  (image via fieldurbanism.com)

Visitors returning to such cities for the first time in a decade, or even a single year, find them transformed almost beyond recognition, and not always for the better. In the economic miracle that is China, the drive for breakneck development has led to the widespread erosion of traditional architectural and residential cultures, and transplanted the rural with the urban, creating something of a crisis for the future of urban planning''........Continue Reading

“With exquisite illustrations and accessible prose, Renee Chow has elucidated in this book the dilemma facing not only the contemporary Chinese metropolis but those of our growing cities worldwide. Neither nostalgic nor superficial, this book employs measured drawings, diagrams and other deeply analytical tools to show us the field conditions that once made historic Chinese cities vibrant and could make the contemporary Chinese city more livable in the face of unbridled growth. For designers, urbanists and those concerned with the physical and ecological viability of cities worldwide, this is a must read volume.” reviewed Vishaan Chakrabarti Partner, SHoP Architects; Professor, Columbia University, mentioned in Field Urbanism.

> via asianreviewofbooks.com