Remaking Chinese Urban Form: Modernity, Scarcity and Space, 1949-2005

In this pioneering study of contemporary Chinese urban form, Duanfang Lu provides an analysis of how Chinese society constructed itself through the making and remaking of its built environment. Drawing on archival documents, professional journals and her own fieldwork, she explores hitherto overlooked issues including the history of China’s residential planning paradigms and the development of the work unit as an urban form.

Lu shows how China’s quest for modernity created a perpetual scarc...