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Shaping Lujiazui: The Formation and

Building of the CBD in Pudong,
Shanghai
Article in Journal of Urban Design May 2011
DOI: 10.1080/13574809.2011.552705

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Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 16. No. 2, 209232, May 2011

Shaping Lujiazui: The Formation and Building

of the CBD in Pudong, Shanghai
CHARLIE Q. L. XUE*, HAILIN ZHAI** & BRIAN MITCHENERE*
*Division of Building Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong;
**
Department DATA Design, Architecture, Territory and Environment Technology, Rome
University, Rome, Italy

ABSTRACT Acknowledging the globalization of Chinese cities, this paper studies its
influence on the formation of a newly-built Central Business District in China. Used as a
case study, the Lujiazui Financial District of Shanghai Pudong is a commendable
achievement in urban development during the past 19 years. This paper reviews the
background to the planning of Lujjiazui and comments on the international design
competition that exhibited different planning approaches to the district. By reviewing the
various plans and comparing them with the adopted project by the local institute, the
authors reveal the reasons for the way Lujiazui was planned and built and discover a new
type of Chinese city which was shaped by both global and market forces.

Introduction
Globalization has become an inescapable process in the urbanization of cities. The
economic climate has never been linked so intensely between states and societies
throughout the world (Marshall, 2003; McGrew & Lewis, 1992; Olds, 2001).
Promoted by financial forces, the entire world has had a hand in the destiny of
many cities, irrespective of location. In China, the past 20 years have witnessed
rapid urbanization involving a great deal of new-build and the renovation of
existing stock. Chinese cities used to be classified as socialist as they were often
the product of Soviet planning practices and aesthetic preferences (Kuan & Rowe,
2004; Rowe, 2005). After the open-door policy and the introduction of market
mechanisms, cities started to experience huge physical and less tangible
transformations (Davis et al., 1995; Friedmann, 2005; Lu, 2006; Xue, 2006a,
2006b, 2010). Based on that understanding, this paper explores whether economic
globalization together with the specific modification of the socialist cities will
produce a new urban form for Chinese cities. The paper also examines to what
extent it will shape the urbanization of the central area in the Lujiazui Financial
District, in Shanghai Pudong (Figure 1).
Shanghai began to gain a reputation as an important metropolis in the world
in the first decades of the 20th century. After the Communists took power in China
Correspondence Address: Charlie Q. L. Xue, Division of Building Science & Technology, City
University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Email:
[email protected]
1357-4809 Print/1469-9664 Online/11/020209-24 q 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13574809.2011.552705

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Figure 1. The location of Pudong Lujiazui in Shanghai East.

in 1949, Shanghais former ties with the west were cut and its international status
diminished. Half of a century later, it began to recover and revive as a world city
(GaWC, 2008). This took place in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, especially after
the development of Pudong, on the east bank of the Huangpu River (Xue, 2006a,
2006b, 2009, 2010; Yeung & Sung, 1996).
With its historical global connections, Pudong was soon representative of
China and played an essential role in international shipping, manufacturing and
financial services. As planned during the development of Pudong, all these
activities and particularly financial services, were concentrated in the Lujiazui
district (Figure 2), the city core of Pudong. The trend toward globalization and the
consequential recognition of international standards became an inevitable factor
in the modernization of Chinese cities. After the economic boom, the focus shifted
to the quality of the built environment and the effects of those new urban spaces
on the daily lives of users, for whom the city is built (Gamble, 2002; Gang, 1996).

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Figure 2. The location of the Lujiazui Financial Central District and other functional districts bordering
the Century Avenue in Pudong.

The Bund, with its magnificent neoclassical facades, has stood in Shanghai
since the early 20th century. Today this image is replaced by clusters of
skyscrapers in Lujiazui Pudong, which portray the proud achievements of
contemporary urbanism in Shanghai. Lujiazui exhibits the typical progression of
Chinese urbanization from an under-developed area full of docks, warehouses
and vast rural lands, into a pivotal part of the modern metropolis. Shanghai is
reshaping itself during the economic development in Pudong. The whole region
has become a new type of Chinese city and by-passes the socialist model by
embracing globalization and the influences from Western cities.
The development of Pudong originated in Lujiazui. In the late 1980s the
general idea for a CBD in Lujiazui came into being. On 18 April 1990, the Premier
of the State Council Li Peng announced the decision to develop Pudong, Lujiazui
Financial District, thereby prioritizing the project for its task force teams. In 1992
an international urban design competition was held by the Preparatory

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Figure 3. Shanghai Lujiazui Urban Design International Competition. Source: Wang (2003).

Committee of Pudong New District, which was assigned by the Shanghai

Municipal Government (SMG). Several international architectural firms were
invited to submit proposals for the design consultancy, including Richard Rogers
from the UK, Dominique Perrault from France, Toyo Ito from Japan and
Massimiliano Fuksas from Italy, jointly with the Shanghai Urban Planning and
Design Institute (SUPDI).
Pudongs development process and especially the early exploratory stages in
the founding of the new area was particularly dependant on the visions created in
the Lujiazui international urban design competition (Figure 3). The general
visions stemming from the competition entries gave rise to thoughts on the
development of Pudongs physical form. These ideas were then linked to the
prevailing economic and political climate, which together formed a viable
environment for development. The impact of globalization and the subsequent
positive reaction from China to the ideas adopted from Western cities, led to their
inclusion in the Pudong development. The ideas were totally new to China and
therefore unique when used in the physical planning process in Pudong.
Evidently the main purpose of the competition was to absorb the latest
Western ideas on urban form for the development of the CBD. These physical
forms would then be integrated into the current economic principles and marketoriented land reforms applicable to the Lujiazuis financial district. At the same
time, the organizer hoped to attract global attention by holding an international
competition involving many well-known architects and planners.

Lujiazui: Shaped by Economic Forces

The area known as Lujiazui is nearest to the traditional centre of Shanghai and
located in Pudong (Figures 4 7). However, it was not a greenfield site as was
sometimes envisaged in the proposals by a few foreign firms. In fact, the existing
use played an essential role in the formation of the financial area during the period
of planning and construction. With two sides confined by the Huangpu River,
Lujiazui literally means a mouth-shaped waterfront. It was named after a local
celebrity Lu Shen (1477 1544), whose family had been living there since the Ming

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Figure 4. Historical photograph of Pudong Lujiazui in the 1980s. Source: Wang (2003).

Figure 5. Panorama of Pudong Lujiazui around 2000. Source: Wang (2003).

Dynasty (1368 1644). Lujiazui Financial District generally encompasses a quasirectangular area surrounded by Pudong Road South and Taitong Road in the east,
Dongchang Road in the south, and the Huangpu River in the northwest. Within an
area of approximate 1.7 square kilometres, there was a population of 49 234
habitants in the early 1990s (Shanghai Lujiazui Group, 2001).
The harbour activities were developed before 1949 and there was some rural
village development of a low rise but dense nature. This type of rural
development can no longer be easily found on the periphery of Shanghai and has
been replaced by large real estate developments or by the mega-projects in the
central area, as is the case in Lujiazui. After the 1970s some residential blocks were
constructed in response to the population explosion in Shanghai. Within the site of
Lujiazui, all rural and harbour buildings were bulldozed completely in the early
1990s (Figure 8).

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Figure 6. View of towers in Lujiazui from the Bund, 2008.

Figure 7. View of Lujiazui from the tallest tower, Global Financial Center, 2008.

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Figure 8. Pudong in 1982. In the 1980s, the built part in Pudong was concentrated on the riverfront area
of Huangpu River and belonged to three separate administrative districts. With some industrial
development with residential settlement scattered in the hinterland, the total land area was
approximately 36 square kilometres.

According to interviews with Huang Fuxiang, the leader of the Lujiazuis

planning task force in the SUPDI (Chen, 2007), the studies on Shanghais CBD
started in 1978 during meetings with businessmen abroad who were very

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receptive to investment opportunities in the city. The concept of a CBD has been
applied to the re-urbanization of downtowns in many Western cities for the
revitalization of decaying central areas. During investigations particular attention
was given to successful examples such as New York and London. The significant
role played by the CBD in American cities convinced Huang Fuxiang and his
colleagues to include this new concept in their design plans for Pudong and
enable the city to perform a new role (Chen, 2007).
The planning for Shanghai Pudong never really started during the decade
1978 1988. Meanwhile, cities in southern China, led by Shenzhen, were
experiencing tremendous changes under the open-door policy. As a Special
Economic Region close to Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997, Shenzhen
succeeded in turning itself from a small fishing village to the most spectacular
metropolis in China. All this activity in the south stimulated Shanghais economic
revival. However, Shanghai had always generated large revenues for China and
the central government would not run the risk of experimenting with it, especially
as the experiment would have been carried out on a trial and error basis. It was not
until May 1987 that the SMG set up the Pudong Development Research
Consultant Group (PDRCG) to carry out the preparatory studies for the
development of Pudong.
On 1 May1988 after one years preparatory work, an international conference
was organized by PDRCG to discuss the feasibility of the Pudong development.
The SMG succeeded in attracting the attention of many foreign institutions and
obtained assistance from them to generate a strategic plan for the construction of a
new town in Pudong. The international debate on the planning concepts played a
significant role in pushing through economic reform at central and local level. The
involvement of academics from different fields nationwide contributed to the
construction of a new theoretical political and economic framework justifying the
introduction of various reforms (Chen, 2007).
Due to the good relationship between China and France, the Paris-based
Institut dAmenagement et dUrbanisme de la Region ile de France (IAURIF) provided
SMG with technical assistance in the planning and restructuring of the city and
developing a metropolitan planning strategy (Olds, 1997). This technical
assistance proved to have a profound influence on the following process of
developing Pudong, particularly in the positioning of the Lujiazui financial
central district.
It was in 1988 after several fruitful liaisons between SUPDI and IAURIF that
Pudong was selected as the favourite candidate for the development with the
front area, Lujiazui, designated as the pioneer for the application of reforms.
Combined with the traditional CBD on the Bund-Nanjing Road area, Lujiazuis
vision was set up as the new CBD in Shanghai with a Gross Floor Areas (GFA) of
1 800 000 2 400 000 square metres. Although this preparatory work was essentially
sanctioned by central government, SMG still found itself facing many questions
which required urgent solutions. Questions included the area needed for
rehabilitation, the definition of mega-projects, the infrastructure investment in
different phases, the interaction between Pudong and Puxi (west bank of Huangpu
River), the city-image of the future CBD and the economic feasibility of the projects
under consideration. Limited in their knowledge of managing such a huge project,
the SMG decided to continue to collaborate with the IAURIF whose experience was
based on decades of dealing with the urbanization of Paris. In April 1991, during the

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meeting with the Minister Luis Besson of ministe`re de lEquipement, des Transports, du
Logement, du Tourisme et de la Mer, the mayor of SMG Zhu Rongji announced an
international competition for the urban design of the Lujiazui Financial District
(Chen, 2007).

Formation of Lujiazui Financial District

In general, the foreign architectural firms selected and invited by the organizer
shared several common characteristics. First, they were leading architects with
outstanding abilities in developing architectural concepts and their projects were
spread throughout the world, especially in Europe and Japan. Second, the projects
of these firms were mainly restricted to architectural design and urban design on a
respectively small scale, as was usual in developed countries. Notably, all the
selected figures had a professional background in architecture rather than
planning. (Usually projects on a scale similar to Lujiazui are only reserved for
professional planning firms.) Third, all these firms had never undertaken projects
in Shanghai, nor anywhere in China. The lack of knowledge of Shanghai in
particular and China in general, limited them in their understanding of the actual
site and its social context. As a result of this handicap all the submitted proposals
had a strong inclination to form an ideal city with little consideration for the status
quo of Lujiazui. More reliance was expected of their understanding in general
terms of the nature of a new city, its CBD and its image for the 21st century.
Urban design connects planning and architectural design and special care is
given to the relationship between public spaces and the built blocks. Urban design
was a new concept in Shanghai in the early 1990s and it probably entered China
via this international competition. As a procedure for shaping cities, there is not a
fixed or well-recognized definition for urban design. Therefore, the ideas
generated in the competition brought out the difference between the foreign and
local institutes.
Richard Rogers & Partners proposal (Figures 9 and 10) was the favourite
among the invited submissions; it was a result of collaboration between Richard
Rogers & Partners, Ove Arup & Partners, the Bartlett School of Architecture in
London and the Cambridge Institute of Architecture (Burdett, 1996). The basic
concept was a perfect circular figure located in the centre of the Lujiazuis site and
from the circles centre six radial roads extended centrifugally which connected
the new centre with the rest of Pudong. The building blocks followed the shape of
the circulation form and the height of towers ascended from outside to the core.
Rogers proposal adopted the classic principles for creating an ideal town plan in
the West. Similar to many examples in Europe, this circular pattern with its radial
development proved to be the most effective way of coping with the citys
expansion and could create convenient connections to the surrounding spaces.
(This pattern appears again in the schemes for Lingang New City in Shanghai.
Proposed by German architects GMP several years after the international
competition, this new city is being faithfully realized according to GMPs scheme.)
By using this centralized pattern in Lujiazui, Rogers plan had a strong
intention to become a new city core for all of Shanghai rather than just a local
centre for the Pudong district. Traditionally, the Bund area opposite Lujiazui, and
loosely confined by Peoples Square and Suzhou Creek, was regarded as the
downtown of Shanghai. Downtown ended on the Bund with the famous

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Figure 9. Rogers Scheme. The solution they proposed is based on a circular configuration around a
central park, with a general structure of varying heights that optimizes access to daylight while
creating open perspective angles to the river and the city. From the park just six main road axes
radiate out, the major part of the network giving priority to the circulation of pedestrians and cyclists
in the district, and public transport to access the city center. Available at http://www.centrepompidou.
fr/education/ressources/ENS-Rogers-EN/ENS-Rogers-EN.html (accessed June, 2009). Source: Rogers
Stirk Harbour Partners.

neoclassical facades fronting the Huangpu River. According to the new vision set
for the competition, Lujiazui was supposed to be a new main CBD for Shanghai in
the 21st century and the international communications centre for East Asia.
Rogers plan responded to the vision with a clear expression of urban form. In fact,
as a whole, the plan for the Lujiazui district eclipsed the Bund area as the primary
CBD for Shanghai.
By comparing the proposed plans for the Lujiazui CBD and the old CBD on
the Bund, it could be seen that Rogers had tried to incorporate the scale and
density of the old Shanghai which was erected by the British half a century
previously. The building heights had changed dramatically due to the demand for
increased floor areas. Nevertheless, the way that typical plots in Lujiazui were

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Figure 10. Model of Rogers Scheme. Source: Rogers Stirk Harbour Partners.

divided into several parcels was very similar to those in the Bund area. Specific
building development potential for each plot was controlled by guidelines
inherent in the controlling plans. Models made by the architect recommended an
ideal solution with options for each plot.
In addition to its consideration of buildings and streets, Rogers proposal also
received praise for its recognition of urban public space. In the centre of Lujiazui, a
circular area was left vacant for a city park and alongside the riverfront a strip was
reserved for public use. The contrast between the dense blocks and urban voids
appealed to the SMG and the idea was integrated in the final plan, which was
made possible by demolishing blocks of vernacular housing. Interestingly, the
same strategy for creating public space appeared in proposals by other foreign
architects.
When compared with the Rogers scheme, however, the others (Figure 11 13)
were preferred less and they have had little influence on the final plans. Although

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Figure 11. Toyo Ito Schemes. The skeleton of the city is defined by the infrastructure of the subway at
the lowest underground level, and the road system above. A park formation was developed in which
city trolley buses, bicycles and pedestrians moving on the ground can interact freely. Commercial,
business, sports, residential, and other structures are arranged horizontally in bar code formation.
Lines of traffic are driven through the creek network destroying this parallel order (see Toyo Ito
Architectural Monographs No 41, New York: Academy Editions). Source: Toyo Ito & Associates.

based on different understandings of the Lujiazui Financial District and therefore

expressed with different layouts and architectural expressions, these schemes
played a minor role in the process that followed. Generally speaking, all concepts
started by introducing a relatively self-regulating order of urban forms with
weaker connections between Lujiazui and the rest of Pudong. Second, the projects
from Perrault and Fuksas failed to propose a legible structure for the subsequent
urban development. In Perraults explanation (Perrault, 1996), the project focused

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Figure 12. Dominique Perrault Schemes. Facing the Bund, espousing the meanders of the river, a line
broken into an L. A park at waters edge, with its concatenation of tall buildings, lays the foundations
for Shanghais future development toward the East. Like a furrow in a field, this angled block scores
traces of the future city, where all types of building will germinate, different in form, height and
number. It is more concerned with the void between things than with things in themselves, thus
allowing for a large degree of free architectural expression. (Herausgeber, 1996). Source: Dominique
Perrault Architecture.

on the long term, the passing of time, the gradual production of urban landscape,
while letting time take its course. This ambiguous approach was considered to be
less convincing and acceptable by the clients SMG, who needed a fully considered
proposal, or preferably a well-controlled master plan which the city could follow
as soon as possible. Third, all concepts were developed to an urban scale by
creating an entirely new city image for the Lujiazui area, ignoring the existing
urban form.
In 1992 when the international design competition was held, there were
several projects being undertaken for which construction had already begun
during the 1980s. The television tower Oriental Pearl (with a height of 489
metres) was being constructed and became a well-known landmark. There were
also some projects previously approved by the government, which meant the
possibilities for adjustment to blocks and roads were to some extent limited. Those
approved plots with almost fixed buildings could provide a benchmark scale for
subsequent urban design development. However, none of the proposals,
including Rogers, acknowledged their existence.

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Figure 13. Massimiliano Fuksas Schemes. The point of departure [of this scheme] is the creation of a
system of networks which will be superimposed in order to be able to anticipate any future uncertainty.
At the heart of the new district, the ellipse of the inner city, symmetrical to the old town on the other
bank of the Huangpu River, is surrounded by a boulevard. In this central area are the highest towers
and a high concentration of offices, but also residential and commercial premises. On the outer edges of
the inner city is a less densely populated district, marked out by a wide sweep of road edged with trees
and gardens (see Fuksas Massimiliano Recent Buildings and Projects, Zurich: Artemis). Source:
Massimiliano Fuksas Architetto.

The scheme by Shanghai planners (Figures 14 and 15) was different from other
proposals and it was ultimately selected as the winner. Led by SUPDI, the Chinese
team had actually been working on the plan since 1984 while producing a revised
version of the master plan for Shanghai. During the continuous modification
process caused by the changing vision of Lujiazui, they had accumulated many
ideas to produce a feasible scheme. With a less charismatic overall visual city
form, their plan carefully integrated the existing buildings and city fabric into

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Figure 14. SUPDI Scheme. Source: Shanghai Urban Planning Design Institute.

new system. Instead of an urban public park in the centre, an avenue on a huge
elevated deck passed across the site. This so-called Century Avenue connected
to west Shanghai through a tunnel and was regarded as the new axis of the city.
As an important piece of infrastructure built before the competition, the tunnel
could not be relocated and would unavoidably become the main access to
downtown.
Loosely described as a grid city, the urban forms of the Chinese scheme
coincided with some ancient philosophies for creating new cities. Dominated by a
symbolic axis within sets of homogeneous blocks, a new city was confined by some
entrances or geographic borders. Almost all these principles can be found in the
Lujiazuis scheme by SUPDI. Here the super-blocks for the development pattern
replaced the gated residential blocks in traditional Chinese cities. Through the subdivision of each block there would be four or six plots of land and all plots would
have good access to public circulation routes. Furthermore, this super-block design
could reduce the land area allocated to traffic, which effectively reduced the
investment in the infrastructure funded by SMG. Of the five proposals, the plan by
SUPDI had the coarsest resolution in its form and the public space was considered
less due to the lack of efficient enclosure by buildings. However, this was improved
by inserting a central public park after the plan was adopted.

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Figure 15. SUPDI Scheme after modification. The most obvious change in this version was the insertion
of the central park, which was regarded as an important element in the foreign proposals. The public
circulation for the pedestrian was also strengthened by the bridges and elevated paths, however, the
feasibility of these connections was largely challenged in the realization. Source: Shanghai Urban
Planning and Design Institute.

Building of Lujiazui Financial District under Globalization

Due to direct support from the central government, the building of the Lujiazui
Financial District was far more rapid than had been expected (Figure 16). In the
reform of land market policy in Pudong, the most obvious change was that the
local government could reserve a large part of local taxation to meet the needs of
mass relocation in Pudong. Early investment started with the infrastructure such
as bridges, tunnels and the metro line that reconnected Pudong Lujiazui tightly to
the circle of the Shanghai metropolis. In the first five years during the
improvement to the road links, telecommunications facilities and energy systems,
Lujiazui attracted a large number of overseas investors and rapidly took on a highrise appearance. By 2000, there were 25 buildings in the core areas of Lujiazui
around the central park zone. The total floor area of these buildings was 2.5
million square metres, which accounts for approximately 60% of the total floor
area of the Lujiazui Financial District project, with an average plot ratio of 1:5.2
(Shanghai Lujiazui Group, 2001) (Figure 15).
Even though Lujiazui was constructed based on the scheme developed by the
local planning institute, international influences shaped its urbanization in several
ways. As defined by McGrew (1992), globalization is the multiplicity of linkages
and interconnections between states and societies which make up the present
world system. Globalization is a process by which events, decisions and activities
in one part of the world can have significant consequences for individuals and

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Figure 16. The process of construction in Lujiazui Financial District during the 1990s. Source: Wang
(2003).

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Figure 17. The finalized scheme with detailed control on block construction. Each plot was given a plot
number, functions, land area and floor area ratio (which ranged from 5 10 in the case of high-rise).
Most of these blocks were built up to 2011. Source: Planning Authority, Pudong.

communities in another part of the globe (McGrew, 1992). As the most important
CBD in the Shanghai metropolitan area, Lujiazui was linked tightly to world
networks during its process of growth.
The first influence was the decision to set up a mono-financial area, which
excluded other functions to form a self-sufficient city. Within 1.7 square kilometres
were scattered approximately 80 financial institutions, half of which received
direct investment from overseas. A modern metropolis has a strong tendency to be
organized with clear functional zoning for better efficiency and this was
illustrated vividly in Lujiazui. Like the decaying downtowns in American cities in
the 1960s, Lujiazui was soon criticized as a boring place where diverse human
activity was not encouraged, largely because of the single and monotonous
architectural functions and aesthetics.
Second, when simultaneously planning and constructing an area it is difficult
to establish an overall identifiable structure within the urban form of Lujiazui.
Some international companies such as IAURIF from France have instigated
techniques that have played a useful role in controlling building projects with
suitable height, density and volumetric requirements. During the planning of
Lujiazui until the finalization of the scheme in 1993, construction never stopped
and it was extremely difficult to realize some highly integrated concepts, such as
the elevated circulation system for pedestrians. In the original scheme by SUPDI,
there were detailed considerations for the three-dimensional connections
integrated into an elevated urban deck (Figure 18). This concept was effectively
inspired by La Defense in Paris and the pedestrian system in Central, Hong Kong.

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Figure 18. Urban section design in Lujiazui Financial District. Source: Shanghai Urban Planning Design
Institute.

However, the concept was not applied in Lujiazui because of apathy from both the
government and building developers. Motor vehicle oriented traffic planning
gave cars unchallengeable priority, which sacrificed comfort for pedestrians and
cyclists.
Third, Century Avenue (Figure 19), an import from the Europe, was
constructed as the main axis of Lujiazui. Together with the adjacent towers it soon
became the most iconic place in Lujiazui. Century Avenue took its plan directly
from the famous Avenue Champs-Elysees in Paris, but it differed significantly in its
dimensions and ways of enclosing street space. Originating from the brilliant
administrator Baron Haussmann in the 19th century, the French avenues such as
Champs-Elysees were formed for the sake of civic magnificence and the military
security of Paris. However, when the idea of using this unique element was
supported in Lujiazui, Century Avenue began its far from tranquil future.
Through the tunnel under the Huangpu River, Century Avenue linked Lujiazui to
Shanghai west. For a long period it is the only access to the Bund from Pudong.
With a width of 100 metres, Century Avenue did not possess a uniform
architectural facade flanking its two sides. In addition, the peculiar direction of the
avenue in a grid of blocks unavoidably caused a lot of awkward road crossings.
While Lujiazui is definitely designed for motor vehicles, the insertion of this ultrawide avenue brought extra inconvenience to the pedestrians.
Despite the ideas sourced or adapted from competition submissions,
Lujiazuis final urban form was criticized on two levels. First, due to the lack of
an identifiable structure, the entire CBD area cannot easily be perceived in
Lujiazui. Second, in this mega-project, the public space is far from pleasant. In the
area there are roads that accesses the development projects instead of streets
where human activities can take place. According to Richard Marshall:
If there were one element that the Shanghai authorities should have
taken from the international schemes, it should have been a commitment
to the creation of a public realm in Lujiazui. This unfortunately did not
occur. (Marshall, 2003, p. 100)
Lujiazui, with the highest towers in China, has a strong image. However, the
district still does not exude attractiveness or charm.

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Figure 19. The rendering for Century Avenue Design. Source: Shanghai Urban Planning Design Institute.

Conclusion
At the 14th Chinese Communist Party Congress in 1992, the central government
formulated a strategy to:
seize the opportunity to develop and open up Shanghai Pudong, to build
Shanghai as the dragon head and become an international economic,

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Figure 20. Gregotti Scheme for the expansion of Lujiazui Financial District in 2007. Pedestrian only
streets, plazas, tree-lined avenues and avenues of water distribute the alignments along the regulating
grid, its rhythm marked by blocks designed as bases that are raised 20 metres with a green covering.
Containing services, commerce and various facilities, the bases guarantee the ground level a high level
of use by the collective urban life and avoid the residual spaces with no identity that are normally
produced by the isolation of skyscrapers. Available at http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/
index.php?fuseaction wanappln.projectview&upload_id1465 (accessed June 2009). Source: Gregotti
Associati International Spa.

financial, and trading center, so as to drive the growth of the Yangtze

River Delta and, in turn, accelerate the whole economy of the east China
coast.
Under this strategy, Lujiazui Financial District was built as the first mega-project
followed by the construction of other projects such as large container ports, airports,
high-tech science parks and free trade zones. Led by the Lujiazuis success in
economic development, many CBDs in other cities were planned and constructed
and most of them were located in the Yangtze River Delta. Inspired by the symbolic
images of towers in Lujiazui, those CBDs inherited a Manhattan-style panorama.
Although a socialist city, Lujiazui has received increasingly positive comments for its
economic and political achievements, which are sometimes more redolent of cities
located in capitalist regimes. However, its monumental built form, especially its
urban design, are often criticized for lacking a human touch.
In 2007, another competition was held for the expansion of the Lujiazui
Financial District. The site is close to the original one, covering a rectangular area
of 0.85 square kilometres. Because of the massive cost for the relocation of the
existing residences, this project will probably not start in the near future.
However, the scheme from Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti (Figures 20 22),
showed a strong intention to revise the urban form of Lujiazui. In Gregottis plan,

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Figure 21. Gregotti Scheme for the expansion of Lujiazui Financial District in 2007. The towers rising
from the bases can therefore take on forms rich in architectural variations, yet respecting an urban
structure that is well defined by the blocks and by their alignments of the road layouts. Available at
http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction wanappln.projectview&upload_
id1465 (accessed June 2009). Source: Gregotti Associati International Spa.

Lujiazui returns to a city controlled by straight grids with each block being well
defined with buildings. Three north-south paths are enlarged to contain the public
services and the towers are integrated into this network of public spaces. The
future projects are co-ordinated by the uniformed scheme. In searching for a local
identity for the expansion of the Lujiazui Financial District, the architect Gregotti
holds that the urban design strategy should be on two levels. These two levels,
including legible structure and comfortable public space, are vividly illustrated in
the Master Plan, behind which the guidelines continue to control the balance
between the built blocks and the urban voids.
Like any other Chinese city in a rapid process of urbanization, Pudong has
never ceased growing and transforming itself. While the modern metropolis of
Shanghai finds its birthplace on the Bund, Pudong finds its origins in Lujiazui. As
the Bund took on its current form with a long evolution, Lujiazui will also evolve
to meet new requirements. Gregottis scheme can be regarded as a possible
foretaste of what might develop eventually in the Lujiazui Financial District. After
all, the most direct way to read the urban form is to check how the city is shaped in
the process of formation and building. In the 20-year evolution of Lujiazui,
Pudong provides a lesson in development for other cities.

Shaping Lujiazui

231

Figure 22. Gregotti Scheme for the expansion of Lujiazui Financial District in 2007. This philosophy of
a city of skyscrapers measured at ground level by human steps and proportions suitable for social life
is entrusted to three large malls, or parallel avenues, over 70 metres wide, with the city mall (a sequence
of plazas with facilities) at the centre and at the sides a water mall and a green mall, intersected on the
front facing the river by a tree-lined avenue. Available at http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/
index.php?fuseaction wanappln.projectview&upload_id1465 (accessed June 2009). Source: Gregotti
Associati International Spa.

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C. Q. L. Xue et al.

Acknowledgements
This paper is part of a study sponsored by the General Research Fund from
Research Grant Council, Hong Kong government, CityU 149908.
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