Urban design strategies for shanghai and nanjing: application of “in-between realm” and “sharing”

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of exploiting anonymous urban space and buildings to improve the quality of people’s life in developing countries such as China. And the background of the issue is based on the research on chaos caused by urbanization and aging problems in China. Firstly, this paper definitely traces the thoughts of the “in- between realm” in the architectural field since the architecture modernism, and further extends this spatial phenomenon into the urban context. Secondly, according to the research which used mapping as an relatively reliable methodology on “in- between realm” of specific urban blocks in China(including Nanjing and Shanghai), the existing problems about such anonymous urban spaces are summarized; finally, based on the related design in Shanghai and Nanjing that participated by the authors, a new strategy based on the concept of “sharing” and the “in- between realm” at both architecture and city aspects were explored.