Urban Verticality Shaped by a Vertical Terrain: Lessons From Chongqing, China

Yi Jin
Additional contact information
Yi Jin: Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Urban Planning, 2022, vol. 7, issue 4, 364-376

Abstract: Urban studies have long been predominantly flat without a vertical dimension. This horizontal hegemony is partly embedded in the fact that many cities throughout the world, especially the centres of knowledge production, are plain cities. This article argues that even narrowing down urban verticality to high-rise buildings is still a product of horizontal hegemony. This article uses the city of Chongqing in China’s mountainous southwest as an example, to extend the understanding of urban verticality beyond high-rise buildings. By investigating three vertical urban projects, namely, the Raffles City, Hongyadong, and the Mountain City Footpath system, the article reveals how vertical terrain, as a vertical element, shapes Chongqing’s urban planning, urban governance strategy, and people’s experience in the city. As a counter experience to horizontal urbanism, verticality both constitutes part of local people’s ordinary living experience and a spectacular experience for outsiders, which has been mobilised by the local government for place-making and city branding.

Keywords: China; Chongqing; Hongyadong; Mountain City Footpath; mountainous; Raffles City; terrain; urban verticality; vertical city (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/5810 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:urbpla:v7:y:2022:i:4:p:364-376

DOI: 10.17645/up.v7i4.5810

Access Statistics for this article

Urban Planning is currently edited by Tiago Cardoso

More articles in Urban Planning from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().