Planning: from model to modules

The tradition of planning in China is multisecular. The planning of the Chinese Imperial city was based on the model of the walled city that was reproduced and extended over several scales, from micro (courtyard) to macro (an entire city). The spatial revolution led By Mao Zedong in the 1950s resulted in cities’ transformation through the implementation of industries and manufacturing in order to modernize the country. The Red Engineers favored a “scientific socialism” approach to design, experimentation, evaluation and replication. The residential and working unit (danwei) was considered a basic urban module to be developed locally and reproduced elsewhere while gradually adapting to societal change caused by the economic reforms of the 1980s. Both urban and technological planning at different levels in China are emblematic of such a dynamic, which is especially relevant in the Shenzhen SEZ case study.