Holistic approach taken for better urban planning
Urban planners cannot expect to come up with a design concept by simply looking at an area from high above. They must have their feet on the ground and try to understand what people really want, Beijing-based urban planner Tian Shenshen told Guangming Daily.
Tian is a member of one of the 301 urban planner teams hired by the governments in 15 districts of Beijing to work in local communities. The Beijing Commission of Planning and Natural Resources began the arrangement in May 2019 to bring in outside planning expertise and engage local residents in designing and renovating their city.
Teams assigned to different districts of the city have given themselves their own group nicknames, such as the Little Pebbles in Shijingshan district and the Little Bees in Fengtai district.
“These teams have become an indispensable source of expertise in urban renewal and even in the building of a social governance system featuring public engagement and sharing of results,” said Yang Jun, deputy head of the Beijing Commission of Planning and Natural Resources.
The teams have carried out a series of demand-led urban renewal projects to refine civic spaces and promote public participation in city management, she said.
Liu Wei, an urban planner assigned to Laoshan subdistrict of Shijingshan district, told Guangming Daily in January that they went around the subdistrict 30 times to learn about the area and what the residents wanted.
According to the Beijing-based newspaper, one of their findings was that the most wanted public facility in a community built more than two decades ago was a public bath.
“Two in every five residents in the community are aged over 60, and public baths are part of their collective memory,” said Liu’s colleague Tian Xinli. “The survey made us realize that people want spaces where they can communicate with each other and that can evoke their memories. This is something we need to work on.”
“Urban renewal is a collaborative effort that involves both the government and the people,” said Yang with the Beijing Commission of Planning and Natural Resources. “It represents the new concepts and directions for the highquality development of cities in the new era.”
To ensure people’s voices are heard and properly responded to, problems that fall into the category of urban management — reported via citizen services hotline 12345 — are directed to an urban management network comprising the city government, district governments and public services companies, and are quickly dealt with, according to Zhang Yan, deputy head of the Beijing Commission of Urban Management.
Yang said Beijing will continue to promote public participation in urban renewal during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).
“We will fully mobilize the expertise of the district-based urban planners and seek cooperation with social organizations. We will also hold multistakeholder discussions to learn what citizens and market entities want from urban renewal so that we can make corresponding adjustments,” she said.