Urban Design Under the Influence of Government Reform: Away from Urban and Rural Planning Management?

TANG Yan

1 Institutional Reform of the State Council: How to Re-define the Relationship Between Urban Design and Urban-rural Planning and Management?

Since the reform and opening-up, the State Council has experienced eight major governmental institutional reforms to improve administrative efficiency,reduce administrative costs, improve organizational structure and lean management personnel. In Feb.2018, the Third Plenary Session of the nineteenth CPC Central Committee adopted a new Plan for Deepening the Reform of Party and Government Institutions, and made clear to integrate the responsibilities of the Ministry of Land and Resources, the planning responsibilities of organizing and compiling the main function areas of the National Development and Reform Commission, urban and rural planning and management responsibilities of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (hereinafter referred to as MOHURD), the responsibilities of water resources survey and rights registration management of the Ministry of Water Resources, the responsibilities of grass resources survey and rights registration management of the Ministry of the Ministry Agriculture, the responsibilities of forests, wetland and other resources survey and rights registration management of the Ministry of the State Forestry Bureau, the responsibilities of the State Oceanic Administration and the responsibilities of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping1, and establish the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People’s Republic of China as a component department of the State Council.

After the plan was announced, a huge wave of controversy arose over whether the urban design and management functions under the MOHURD shall be transferred to the Ministry of Natural Resources or retained to the MOHURD. As the implementation of the functional organs for urban and rural planning and management of the MOHURD transferring to the Ministry of Natural Resources, it is possible that the urban design management function remains in the MOHURD. So, what kind of positioning changes and work changes will be brought about by the substantial institutional adjustment of the urban design management work that used to rely closely on urban and rural planning? Will the relationship between urban design and urban planning face reconstruction? Will urban design management gradually step away from traditional management tools such as statutory planning and planning permission? Will the connection between urban design and architecture and construction activities be strengthened?... Obviously, where the management of urban design to go - comprehensive research is needed to clarify and strengthen the “top-level design” of the government, rationally conform to the overall trend of social development,actively meet the objective needs of society, and re-find and locate the future development path and direction of urban design management in our country.Therefore, starting from the basic functions and attributes of urban design, this article focuses on the analysis of the evolution, features and characteristics of urban design management in China since the reform and opening-up, and contrasts relevant international experiences and practices, combine with the possibilities of urban design management in China and the reform status quo of urban and rural planning management relationship reconstruction, and discusses the trend of urban design management under the influence of the reform of government institutions in China and its related thoughts and Suggestions.

2 Basic Functions and Properties of Urban Design:“Bridge Effect”and“Invisible Net”

The modern urban design, as a bridge between the“Planning and Architecture”2, is born in response to the objective condition that architectural design focus on and limited to individual projects and urban planning is more and more inclined to the land use,spatial geography and industrial economy. And has developed into an important field of shaping the three-dimensional urban space environment[1].The basic function of “bridge function” profoundly reveals the inseparable internal relationship between“urban design” and “urban and rural planning” and“architectural design”, which is reflected in the relevant management work, and also indicates the internal demand and operational tendency that urban design management needs close integration and link between urban and rural planning management and architectural design management.

Although urban design can be the ultimate product of direct construction, it is relatively dominant as the public policy control property of the “invisible net[2]”and the process constraint properties of the “second order[3]”. Barnet pointed out that urban design is “a series of administrative decision-making processes and shaping processes of physical environment[4].Wang Shifu believed that the operability of urban design is actually the process of urban design becoming a professional technology of public policy[5].Therefore, the integrated role of urban design guidelines for urban construction needs to be realized through the construction of design rule (design guidelines, design rules and so on) and the process of management operation. In other words, the urban design management process is the most important part in the implementation of urban design, which determines the landing and actual effect of urban design.

3 The Development, Evolution and Operation Characteristics of Modern Urban Design Management in China

Modern urban design in China has taken root and developed with the reform and opening-up and market economy construction, and has been nearly forty years. It has been continuously improved in the unprecedented scale of urban construction and the process of rapid urbanization. The urban design has experienced several important stages in our country, including: ① The pre-preparation period of emulate the Soviet Union and the unrest construction (1949-1979);② The introduction and exploration period of thought and cognition (1980-1990);③ The development and prosperity period of theory and practice (1991-2000);④ The perplexity and introspection period under comprehensive promotion (2000-2015);⑤ The adjustment and specification period (2015-) after the Central City Work Conference and so on.

Accordingly, the urban design management has evolved from the direct establishment and implementation of physical design by the government under the single planned economy system at the beginning to focus of the organization and development of domestic and international urban design practice projects,and then to the operation and control of urban design by incorporating urban design achievements into statutory planning and transforming them into planning licensing conditions. After the recent central city work conference, with the introduction of the Urban Design Management Measures and the establishment of the urban design management office of the the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development,the regulatory period of the construction of urban design management system has formally entered into.For a long time, urban design management in China has emerged as an integral part of planning management, with informal institutional constraints, institutional norms entering start-up and multi-scale management and control. It has remarkable characteristics that urban design management closely relying on and integrating into planning management, which are also the root cause of great operational changes and challenges the urban design management will be faced once it “goes out” of urban and rural planning management after the adjustment of government agencies.And the relationship between urban design management and architectural design is more reflected in the simple interaction of the “management” and “being managed”, the construction management content determined by the Architectural Law has not been specifically involved in the urban design.

3.1 Urban Design Management as an integral part of Urban and Rural Planning Management:from informal Constraints to Institutional Norms Start-ups

The operation mode of urban design management integration into urban and rural planning management is widely used internationally. In the United States,the technical involvement of urban design in regionalization is an important means to achieve the design and control. The management mode of the “Taking the design review system as the core, the design guide as the direction and the basis, regionalization law as the support” is formed on the whole. The planning permission system characterized by “discretion” is an important basis for the urban design and operation of British cities, and the management of urban design is realized through the design and control system,and the application of the “urban design review” is an important means to guarantee the quality of urban space environment[6].

Urban design has non-statutory planning attributes in our country. Since the 1990s, although the national and local urban planning laws and regulations have been amended, deleted, or changed repeatedly, it also turns out an important fact that urban design is regarded as an element of planning management in China. For instance, the Urban Planning Compilation Methods promulgated in 1991, explicitly refers to “the urban design techniques shall be used at all stages of urban planning”, and the Urban Planning Compilation Methods implemented in 2006 points out that the regulatory detailed planning shall “put forward the urban design guiding principles of building volume,shape and color of each block”.

Although urban design management has gradually developed into an important part of urban and rural planning management in our country for a long time,due to the lack of specific operational provisions on urban design management in relevant laws and regulations of urban planning, the operation of urban design in our country can be carried out in an orderly way to a certain extent, which mainly depends on some informal institutional constraints (including industry consensus, customary practice) to be followed within and outside of the industry. The compilation, approval and implementation of urban design are carried out within the urban planning system, and the competent department of planning at all levels shall be responsible. The concrete implementation of urban design is adopted[6]:① Integrating urban design content into statutory urban planning;②reviewing urban design on the planning and design or architectural design scheme;③directly taking urban design provisions as the conditions for the planning permission of the “One book and two certificates”.In December 2015, the Central City Work Conference clearly pointed out that China shall “carry out urban design in an all-round way”. In 2016, the State Council’s Some Opinions on Further Strengthening the Management of Urban Planning and Construction also pointed out that “urban design is an effective means of implementing urban planning and guiding architectural design and shaping urban features”. In 2017, the Urban Design Management Measures formulated in accordance with laws and regulations such as the Urban and Rural Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China was promulgated and implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Construction[7],which is an important step in the construction of urban design and operation in our country, marking the beginning of the formal system specification for urban design and management in our country. In response, a number of local urban design and management regulations have also been introduced, such as the Urban Design Management Measures of Zhejiang Province and the Urban Design Management Measures of Hubei Province (Trial) issued in June 2017, the Urban Design Management Measures of Shandong Province (Trial) implemented in September 2017, and the Urban Design Management Measures of Zhongshan City (Trial) announced in March 2018.Although the Urban Design Management Measures at national level initially defined the main functions of urban design, the subject of management and the control path which combined with the statutory programming, it still focuses on the principle-oriented guiding, and the concrete management at practical level needs to be refined urgently. Its main provisions are:primarily determine design compilation and approval subjects of the two-level design of the “Overall Urban Design” and the “Urban Design in Key Areas”; point out the ways to develop and control by detailed planning controlled of urban design in key areas; regulate partly that the individual buildings design and the landscape and municipal engineering design shall conform to the requirements of urban design, provide the development of state-owned land use rights and the related large-scale public building projects, etc. by the way of transfer, so as to incorporate urban design requirements into the planning conditions.

3.2 Multi-scale Control of Urban Design Management: large scale City Design with Special Features

Urban design space objects have a wide range of dimensions, from architectural groups, street blocks,urban areas to cities and even regions, which can be urban design work objects. However, urban design management is different in diverse countries and regions. For example, in Germany and the United States the design and control are both achieved by regionalization, but in Germany, they emphasize the application of “detailed” design controls on specific individual buildings and their surrounding environments through the building planning (B-Plan),while the United States has pursued a larger scale of “structural” design management through “design review” combined with “urban design guidelines”such as city/ block. The causes of this phenomenon are closely related to the development stage of diverse countries and regions, the size of national territory and the social economic system adopted by the state administration.

Similar to the United States, China’s urban design management covers many scales, such as macro,meso-and micro-scale, but urban design and its management in large-scale cities and regions have become one of the most important features of urban design in China which distinguishes other countries. This can be seen from the two-stage structure of the “Overall Urban Design” and the “Urban Design in Key Areas”.The reason is not only the influence of American urban design, but also the objective demand of China’s urbanization process and urban construction.

On the one hand, China’s early understanding of the concept, method and management of urban design was deeply influenced by the United States. Since the beginning of reform and opening-up, many American urban design practices and works have been translated or introduced into China[8], such as “San Francisco Urban Design” which still has profound influence on urban scale, and the American urban design guide research and so on[9-11]; At the same time, the Ministry of Construction sent a delegation composed of Guo Enzhang and other scholars to visit and study urban design in the United States as early as the 1980s, and the delegations of American architecture and planning experts, such as Lynch, also began to visit China in 1980. The experience and attention brought by the delegation have far-reaching influence on the development of urban design practice and education in China.

More importantly, China’s rapid economic, rapid urbanization and large-scale urban expansion over the past 30 years have brought huge demand for structural, morphological, and guided large-scale urban design which has become an important component of urban planning and design in our country. From Lujiazui of Shanghai to CBD of Beijing, from New Town, Zhengzhou to Kangbashi, Ordos, and from the reconstruction of the Beichuan to Beijing Olympic Park, this large-scale urban design is in full swing everywhere. The design ranges from several square kilometers, dozens of square kilometers to hundreds of square kilometers[12]. Because the technicians and managers who undertake large-scale urban design work are mainly “planners” and other designers with“planning skills”, the integration of urban design and urban planning in China becomes natural and indispensable.

4 The Reconstruction of Domain Relations and the Crisis of Management Major in the Reform of Government Institutional Reform

To sum up, it can be seen that the new round of government institutional reform, on the one hand, can greatly deconstruct and remold the original subordinate, guidance or dependence relationship between urban design management and urban-rural planning,construction management of our country; On the other hand, it is more likely to bring about an allround impact on the transformation of urban design management subject and the change of management content. For these key issues, the author thinks that in the reconstruction of domain relations, urban design management and urban and rural planning management shall try to maintain a sustainable relationship of“discrete but non-discriminatory”, and continuously infiltrate and utilize architectural design management tools through “up-and-down cohesion”; In terms of subject orientation, urban design needs to clear up the responsibilities, obligations and terms of reference of the main body of urban design by adapting to the laws and regulations of the new institutional system, while strengthening the process of program management, it shall be on the road of the “urban design governance”with multi-subject participation .

4.1 Discrete but Non-Discriminatory: Urban Design is Still Inseparable from Urban and Rural Planning and Management Platform

Although the management of urban design shall be vested in the Ministry of Natural Resources to highlight its planning and control functions, or remain in the dual complementary system of design management and construction management in the Ministry of Housing and Construction, the various controversies that have not been decided are points more to the latter, However, the long-term historical relationship between planning and design, the particularity of multi-scale coverage of urban design in our country,and the demand for tools and support of platforms of the design and control system require that urban design management shall not be divorced from urban and rural planning. In contrast, urban design, especially large-scale urban design, is difficult to change in the short term through statutory planning and planning permission management, and it is necessary to further sort out the inter-interrelationship among them and intensifies collaboration approaches. The order, subordinate relationship and work coordination between urban master planning and overall urban design, controlled detailed planning of control in key areas need to be further clarified.

The lack of clear and concrete design and control regulations makes the relationship between urban design and urban-rural planning, construction management and other related systems to adjust and develop, which still has a great deal of uncertainty,and may continue to cause blur and confusion in the object and the action tool on the urban design management. Therefore, under the new opportunity of national institutional reform, the government needs to constantly strengthen the top-level design of the competent authority and function construction of urban design, and further clarify the ways of integrating urban planning with urban design and architectural design. To make the urban design overlap with the content of relevant planning, difficulties in integration, and unclear implementation rights and responsibilities caused by long-term institutional constraints and other issues gradually get cracked.

4.2 Links: Urban Design Enhancement and Management Links Between Architectural Design and Construction

As mentioned earlier, urban design management has achieved a positive integration with urban planning management in our country, but it has always been the a “upper-level” management activity to guide architectural design and construction activities, and formed a relatively simple “management” and “being managed” relationship with related architectural activities, which leads to a disconnection between planning management and urban construction. The way and path to promote and implement the urban design management, through construction management are still blank in our country so far, and the regulations of building laws and rules on urban design have not been involved. Therefore, the management of urban design in our country urgently needs to strengthen the connection with architectural design management,especially after institutional reform belongs to the construction and engineering management category after the management of urban design is vested in the reorganized Ministry of Housing and Construction.

Looking at Asia, the urban design and management of South Korea is also a component of planning management and construction management, which is conducive to the real use of urban design as the bridge between planning and construction. Item 2, Article 8 of the Building Law promulgated by the Government of the South Korean Government in January 1980 clearly stipulates the special ordinance on the urban central buildings and, for the first time in the revision of that section in November, introduced the standards for the compilation of urban design. Based on this,South Korea’s urban planning focuses on the city as a whole, and the urban design focuses on the characteristics of specific sites, the architectural design focuses on the individual building contents, and forms the city construction guidance system with different emphasis and mutual support. From the domestic perspective,the 2009 Compilation of Tianjin Planning Building Guide, published in Tianjin, covers the planning section (architectural feature, color, height control guidelines), construction section (top of building, glass curtain wall of high-rise building, wall design control guidelines) and facility section (street furniture, shop signboard decoration design guide), which is a positive attempt to promote urban design and planning and building implementation integration guidance.

4.3 Subject Positioning: Updating and Propulsion of Urban Design Laws and Regulations

Article V of the current national standard document Urban Design Management Measures stipulates that the leaders of urban design management is still “urban and rural planning government” at all levels from the top to down: the competent department of urban and rural planning under the state council is responsible for guiding and supervising the national urban design work; The competent departments of urban and rural planning of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the autonomous region shall be responsible for guiding and supervising urban design work within their respective administrative areas; The competent department of urban and rural planning under the county people’s governments shall be responsible for the supervision and administration of urban design within their respective administrative region. Then, with the relocation of urban and rural planning and management functions moving into the Ministry of Natural Resources, it may not be feasible to determine the subject of urban design and management by this way, which will lead the subject of urban design and management to re-locate and through updating of management methods, and through sustainable urban design laws and regulations construction to accurately set the city design management content and the strong appeal of responsibility subject.

It is worth noting that, compared with the relatively stable construction of laws and regulations, the formulation of technical norms, principled suggestion or prescriptive procedures can reflect the current appeal more timely, flexible and accurately, and it plays an effective role in filling vacancies and supporting rules of laws and regulations. Therefore, in the field of urban design and management in our country shall encourage national and local government combined with the latest national strategy to introduce various policy guidance, so that the goal of design and control can be consistent with the national advocate, and give local government more administration space for independent decision-making and adaptation to local conditions.

4.4 Design Governance: Integrated System for Design and Control Moving to Multivariate Participation

As an important tool for improving urban space quality and promoting social and economic progress,urban design has become an integral part of modern national governance. In 2016, Professor Carmona of Bartlett College, University of London (UCL),pioneered the concept of “Design Governance”,He advocated the establishment of an action and decision-making system composed of government,experts, investors and citizens, using various types of “formality” and “informality” governance tools to promote urban design operations[13]. In the past,taking design technicians as the core and according to government plan and task, the practice of “elite design” for design sites was carried out in order to serve the people has not been adapted to the needs of the new situation. With the further development of market economy and the awakening of democratic consciousness, urban design needs to comprehensively deal with the interests of developers, the public, the government, professional technicians and other third parties, and ensure the rights and ways of these multiple roles participating in the design and control process through procedural legislation. Thus,the development of urban design becomes the governance tool of the whole society, and realizes the common-governance and sharing of the design process.

Although our country has not yet passed the legal system construction of urban design to ensure the legitimacy and necessity of public and various non-governmental organizations to participate in the design, and governance, at present many local governments have begun to try to introduce more governance subject of urban design control methods, such as Guangzhou,Beijing and other places have gradually established the system of “Regional Responsible Urban Designer/Urban Planner”[14,15], by employing design experts outside the system to assist local design review,scheme consultation, process coordination and so on; In addition, many renewal activities such as Shanghai’s “colorful community” and Guangzhou’s“micro-transformation” are using the bottom-up community building to organize, cultivate and guide the public participation, and constantly broaden and guarantee the ways and channels of social participation in space design.

5 Conclusion: Clarifying the Future Development of Urban Design Management through the Top-level Design

To sum up, the reform of government institutions has brought about a significant and profound impact on urban design management and it even has fundamentally changed or undermined some basic understanding of urban design and control formed over the last four decades, as well as the formal and informal mechanism of urban design integrated into urban and rural planning management. Therefore, combining with the long-standing problems of incomplete laws and regulations, insufficient policy guidance, insufficient connection with construction management,lack of protection of system innovation, lack of participation in multi-role and ineffective role in the construction, etc., the urban design in China shall take the opportunity of institutional reform to truly clarify the function, management subject and implement ways of urban design through the adequate “top-level design” to realize the mandatory institutional change of urban design management[16]. This institutional change shall highlight and strengthen the essential role of urban design as a bridge between urban and rural planning and architectural design, continue to maintain the close relationship between urban design and urban-rural planning management, and enhance its effective connection with architectural design and construction management, so as to conform to the transformation orientation that urban design management may belong to “architecture” and “engineering” management of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.