Prosperous Lishui: A Project for Suburban China

The unprecedented growth faced by the Chinese cities in the last decades entailed serious consequences: economic and social disparities, environmental crises, and demographic imbalances between the rural and the urban areas. These issues, together with a growing awareness of the intrinsic unsustainability of Chinese economic model, has stimulated debate on redefining the approach to urban development. In this framework, Lishui, a minor municipality of Zhezjiang Province, launched the international competition Future ShanShui City. Dwellings in Lishui Mountains in 2020. In line with the main policies enacted at national level, this competition highlights the need of new spatial relations between urban and rural. This approach leads to a radical reconfiguration of the suburban spaces, which is giving rise to an unprecedent landscape where urban services are integrated in the countryside areas, and, vice versa, agriculture and environmental elements are part of the city. The publication explores the ongoing processes of suburbanisation in Lishui Valley based on three years of design, research and teaching activities carried out by Politecnico di Torino and South China University of Technology since 2020. With a rich collection of original essays and projects, this book combines reflexive knowledge, critical imagination, and design experimentation to provide scenarios for Chinese suburban development.