The assigned study site for the first portion of this project is a square area with a surface of 100km2 located in the North West of Beijing, the capital city of China. The site lies between the fifth and the third outer ring of this soon-to-be one of the world’s largest metropolitans. This area is slightly off the central part of Beijing and close to the very edge of the urban sprawl. The site is considered to be the creative and gray-material quarter of Beijing, which houses a number of major national universities and a silicon valley. A notable group of buildings that happens to be in the site is the Summer Palace, an idealistic vacation getaway for the royalties dated back to the Qing dynasty.
The largest metropolitan area of the world, London, capital of the United Kingdom, is chosen to be studied, compared and contrasted with that of China with the aim to identify the differences in urban development patterns between different cultures through time. The same surface area of 100km2 in the London’s North bank is chosen as the object for analysis. This area mainly covers London’s zone 1 and parts of zone 2. Since the United Kingdom is relatively modest in its surface area. The urban patterns of its cities are very intriguing.
Minh Dung Le / Beijing - London
INTEGRATION MAP
Legend Beijing new shape T1024_Inte
Legend Beijing new shape T1024_Inte -1.000000 - 256.000000
BJS
-1.000000 - 256.000000 256.000001 - 739.234920 739.234921 - 1135.933300 1135.933301 - 1456.982400 1456.982401 - 1675.559700 1675.559701 - 1854.834100
256.000001 - 739.234920
1854.834101 - 2016.885300
739.234921 - 1135.933300
2016.885301 - 2189.966100
1135.933301 - 1456.982400
2189.966101 - 2390.916700
1456.982401 - 1675.559700
2390.916701 - 2641.559300
Minh Dung Le / Beijing - London
Legend London new shape T1024_Inte
Legend London new shape T1024_Inte
-1.000000 - 1152.000000 1152.000001 - 3036.828100 3036.828101 - 3422.766100 3422.766101 - 3728.663300
-1.000000 - 1152.000000
3728.663301 - 4022.541500
1152.000001 - 3036.828100
4022.541501 - 4319.799300
3036.828101 - 3422.766100
4319.799301 - 4610.081500
LDN
3422.766101 - 3728.663300 3728.663301 - 4022.541500 4022.541501 - 4319.799300
4610.081501 - 4953.321300 4953.321301 - 5365.742700 5365.742701 - 5990.019500
MOST INTEGRATED MAP
Legend Beijing new shape T1024_Inte
Legend Beijing new shape T1024_Inte -1.000000 - 256.000000
BJS
-1.000000 - 256.000000 256.000001 - 739.234920 739.234921 - 1135.933300 1135.933301 - 1456.982400 1456.982401 - 1675.559700 1675.559701 - 1854.834100
256.000001 - 739.234920
1854.834101 - 2016.885300
739.234921 - 1135.933300
2016.885301 - 2189.966100
1135.933301 - 1456.982400
2189.966101 - 2390.916700
1456.982401 - 1675.559700
2390.916701 - 2641.559300
Minh Dung Le / Beijing - London
Legend London new shape T1024_Inte
Legend London new shape T1024_Inte
-1.000000 - 1152.000000 1152.000001 - 3036.828100 3036.828101 - 3422.766100 3422.766101 - 3728.663300
-1.000000 - 1152.000000
3728.663301 - 4022.541500
1152.000001 - 3036.828100
4022.541501 - 4319.799300
3036.828101 - 3422.766100
4319.799301 - 4610.081500
LDN
3422.766101 - 3728.663300 3728.663301 - 4022.541500 4022.541501 - 4319.799300
4610.081501 - 4953.321300 4953.321301 - 5365.742700 5365.742701 - 5990.019500
MOST ISOLATED MAP
Legend Beijing new shape T1024_Inte -1.000000 - 256.000000
Legend
256.000001 - 739.234920 739.234921 - 1135.933300
Beijing new shape
1135.933301 - 1456.982400
T1024_Inte
1456.982401 - 1675.559700
-1.000000 - 256.000000
BJS
256.000001 - 739.234920 739.234921 - 1135.933300 1135.933301 - 1456.982400 1456.982401 - 1675.559700
1675.559701 - 1854.834100
The most isolated places are the Yuanmingyuan Park and part of the Summer Palace. The Northwest corner boders with a range of mountains which marks the edge of the urban area.
1854.834101 - 2016.885300 2016.885301 - 2189.966100 2189.966101 - 2390.916700 2390.916701 - 2641.559300
Minh Dung Le / Beijing - London
Legend London new shape T1024_Inte
Legend
-1.000000 - 1152.000000 1152.000001 - 3036.828100
London new shape
3036.828101 - 3422.766100
T1024_Inte -1.000000 - 1152.000000 1152.000001 - 3036.828100
LDN
3036.828101 - 3422.766100 3422.766101 - 3728.663300 3728.663301 - 4022.541500 4022.541501 - 4319.799300
3422.766101 - 3728.663300
The most isolated part lies in the Northeast corner, which is near the Warwick reservoir. This part of town is mainly residential. There are many minor points of extreme isolation that spread through out the study areas. These are the gated pocket parks that exclusively served its designated communities.
3728.663301 - 4022.541500 4022.541501 - 4319.799300 4319.799301 - 4610.081500 4610.081501 - 4953.321300 4953.321301 - 5365.742700 5365.742701 - 5990.019500
OVERLAYING PLAN
BJS
From a broader perspective, the connectivity of Beijing’s Northwest region is not very well-established. This is probably due to the fact that this part is the recent result of the massive urban sprawl and it is on the edge of the city center. Best connectivity can be observed at two points: the main junction of silicon valley which houses a series of skyscrapers and the campus of Tsinghua University.
Minh Dung Le / Beijing - London
The connectivity of London is very wellestablished. This is probably the result of maneuvering to get the most out of the limited spaces. London has multiple centers to facilitate the burden on one single central part. More than that, it has also been experiencing in a long period of time with various optimal solutions for public circulation like the subway and bus system.
LDN
Two dramatically different urban patterns can be observed through the process of analyzing the two cities. In an urbanistric perspective, the plan of Beijing is very centralized whereas that of London is the opposite, drastically distributed. This study of the two extreme case can open a lot of possibilities to discover the strengths and weaknesses of various urban development patterns.
EXPLODED ISOMETRIC PROJECTION
Minh Dung Le / Beijing - London
FRAGMENTED CITIES
BJS LDN As a typical centralized city, it raises no surprise that the study area in the Northwest of Beijing is quite limited in its connectivity. The closer it gets to the center, the better the connectivity becomes.
London, with its seemingly perfect distributed pattern of urban development has also have a lot of issues when it comes to the efficient of the circulation system. The main source of every urban problem that London faces such as pollution, traffic jam, high crime rate is coming from the The most isolated parts of this study fact that its size has long been exceeded area both have its historical value. The by its capacity. Summer Palace and the remnants of the fire dated back to the beginning of the One of the downsides of the distributed Quing Dynasty in Yuanmingyuan Park. If urban development patterns is that it the connectivity status is better in those could be extremely difficult and tricky areas. They could be transformed into a to control the comprehensive scale of more successful public area and could be development as a whole. The totality and the ignition for a new urban sub-center. the radical of a master-plan is sometimes quite necessary in order to achieve the Parts with the best connectivity of the site greater picture. With the distributed are the silicon valley and the campus of pattern, one urban entity as a whole could Tsinghua University. For the particular case easily be fragmented and inconsistent if of Tsinghua University, the campus itself the system that runs it couldn’t be able to was designed after Jefferson university work in a most efficient manner. in the state of Virgina, which explains its peculiarity amongst its setting. However, it cannot be denied that with its modest in size, what London achieves Beijing is moving towards a more is undeniably astonishing. Almost mo decentralized pattern for urban square footage of land is wasted or left development. However, this task is out. The least connected parts are usually proven to be challenging when it comes the park-lets that serve their distinctive to issues with through traffic and public communities. transit system.
Minh Dung Le / Beijing - London
Centralized, Decentralized and Distributed Systems (Paul Baran, 1964)
There is no optimal pattern for urban development and there is no use trying to find it out. The optimal solution for future urban development lies in the way we response to the local context. The process of studying and analyzing cities with these digital tool-sets provides another perspective for urban planners and architects to look at those examples and study from it in a different set of lens. Those tool-sets are extremely useful in posing both concerns and solutions for almost any circumstances.