Cultural planning university towns : an emerging pattern language in China

Abstract

This paper is structured around three planning projects the author made for university towns in China. These projects sought to integrate the university into holistically planned urban settlements that could generate or attract other creative and cultural industries. In each case, the university cooperates with the city or region in the cultivation of new urban patterns of development that run counter to conventional orthodoxy. Specifically the project stakeholders saw value in becoming partly de-institutionalised in return for becoming an active participant in a wider cultural context. This co-evolution of the university and the town creates cross fertilization opportunities as a mutually beneficial venture in the creation of diverse cultural environments. The emerging spatial order is one can more easily embody conditions of inclusion, variation, diversity, and cultural sustainability. These projects are discussed in the context of Franco Bianchini’s concepts of cultural planning and the use of its regional cultural resources in the formation and planning of the creative city.