Site Matters: Behind the promises of a new development, lies a disturbing reality

I have decided to choose the site beforehand for my thesis project. This decisions was made with the knowledge that the focus of my project will be to work within a very defined and culturally-rich urban context. Looking at the article "Site Matters", I am struck by the two starkly different images of Leonardo da Vinci's map of Milan, and the plan for Palmanuova. Although the author goes on to express the stark contrast of the "site boundries" as defined in both maps, I see more clearly the differentiation between a planned city and a growing one. Palmanuova is a planned city, the map features clear defining lines and overlaying symmetry, order, and centralized composition. The center is clearly emphasized, denoting it as the origin out of which the city sprouted from. Da Vinci's map has no emphasis on an origin, as if the city could have sprouted from anywhere, or it may have been the coalesence of several growing settlements. Da Vinci's depicition is more applicable to today's cities, past the days of walled cities, protected from the "wilderness" between them. There are few "wildernesses" between cities nowadays and developments within the urban core begins to have impact on the surrounding rural or suburban contexts. The author defines the urban boundary as dynamic and porous, impacting environments beyond the property line. This I completely agree.

In my hometown of Yangzhou, China, on the very block that I grew up, a major commercial development has just finished. This new commercial sector featured a cluster of two-storey mixed-use buildings with retail and entertainment on the first level and offices on the upper-storeys, built as an attempt to attract more tourists to Yangzhou to increase the city's revenue. The architecture of these buildings attempted to apply some of the local features with limited success. However, the development had a HUGE impact on the people and neighborhoods around the area. A residential area of "hutong" small alleyways with traditional-styled housing, was completely torn down before the development. Thousands of people had to be relocated to other residential areas. Although the government offered full monetary compensation, or housing of similar value, many people refused to leave their homes, many of which were built prior to the twentieth century. Families have lived in these houses for generations, and refused to move somewhere else far away from friends, family, and their familiar neighborhoods. The extent of civilian resistance was seen on November 21, 2008, when two elderly women, as a form of protest, decided to live in a cage on the street where demolition was about to take place:

They lived in this cage until the afternoon of December 3, 2008, when the government construction company charged with the demolition, out of desperation, enlisted the help of a local gang. A group of gang members approached the cage and sprayed the two elderly women with an acidic mixture of sodium-bicarbonate, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, and barium sulfate:

The two elderly women received severe burns to their skin and damage to their eyes, and were immediately rushed to the hospital:

Such a horrible type of acts have been committed before, to a lesser degree, in my hometown. These type of unethical and heinous acts have left helpless citizens living under the manipulation of the government.