thames town - London Meets Shanghai

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Wow -- I have to admit, this really looks good.
 
wow. ridiculous. assuming the church is not a church, what do you think is in the church?
 
a630 said:
wow. ridiculous. assuming the church is not a church, what do you think is in the church?
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What exactly do you find ridiculous about this? Would it be less ridiculous if it were built outside London? or New England?
 
certainly. it's your basic suburban planned use development writ large with different facades tacked on, and it will function as a suburban planned use development. it's just like celebrity in kissimmee. i'm sure it's set off a 6 lane freeway too. i'm not saying it should have been done any differently, i just appreciate it for what is is: boomtown kitsch.
 
While I cannot speak for Thames Town, I can for Celebration. I'm not sure I understand what "different facades tacked on" means but most buildings in Celebration, in the town center, were designed by well known architects and esteemed urban planners (don't forget that the birth of new urbanism began in Florida). Fifteen years since it's inception and Celebration is as much a functioning suburb as any I can think of. It continues to grow, infill, and change over time. Some things they initially tried didn't work, some did. One thing I found quite interesting about Celebration (I was there as recently as July) is that the kitsch novelty shops in the town center have all but disappeared and have been replaced by pubs and wine & cheese bars. As the town matures so to is it's identity maturing.

So sure, Celebration may be surrounded by Kissimmee sprawl but Celebration is promoting a more urban lifestyle for those who chose to live there.
 
bdurden said:
While I cannot speak for Thames Town, I can for Celebration. I'm not sure I understand what "different facades tacked on" means but most buildings in Celebration, in the town center, were designed by well known architects and esteemed urban planners (don't forget that the birth of new urbanism began in Florida). Fifteen years since it's inception and Celebration is as much a functioning suburb as any I can think of. It continues to grow, infill, and change over time. Some things they initially tried didn't work, some did. One thing I found quite interesting about Celebration (I was there as recently as July) is that the kitsch novelty shops in the town center have all but disappeared and have been replaced by pubs and wine & cheese bars. As the town matures so to is it's identity maturing.

So sure, Celebration may be surrounded by Kissimmee sprawl but Celebration is promoting a more urban lifestyle for those who chose to live there.
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Well said. I think think this type of development should be commended, not mocked.
 
I'm sure this will be wildly successful as well. I didn't say it was wrong, I said it was ridiculous, it makes me laugh, and i appreciate it for doing that. It's a design marketing tool for a PUD. This stuff has been around forever (nobody ever denied that walking to things was convenient), except now new urbanists like to take credit for it and they use some especially involved design schemes to exaggerate the point. funny no?
 
I just don't understand why the Chinese can't develop a kitschy Chinese suburb, instead of making the mock European ones...oh, and that church bit. Good question.

How can China have a "middle class" in the first place?
 
The Chinese government has been chipping away at the country's economic socialism since Deng Xiaopeng, even as it maintains strict authority over how it is done and what Chinese people can say about it. Now even most of the global private contracts for water provision are in China - to French companies Suez and Veolia, those are the big ones.
 
kennedy said:
I just don't understand why the Chinese can't develop a kitschy Chinese suburb, instead of making the mock European ones...oh, and that church bit. Good question.

How can China have a "middle class" in the first place?
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How not? China is a capitalist country and has a middle class of over 350 million, greater than the entire population of the US. Though, "middle class" wages are at a different standard in China, right now they are $10,000-$30,000/year, great for a developing country, but perhaps not up to US standards.
 
a630 said:
I'm sure this will be wildly successful as well. I didn't say it was wrong, I said it was ridiculous, it makes me laugh, and i appreciate it for doing that. It's a design marketing tool for a PUD. This stuff has been around forever (nobody ever denied that walking to things was convenient), except now new urbanists like to take credit for it and they use some especially involved design schemes to exaggerate the point. funny no?
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Let me attempt to clarify, as I think I understand what you are saying (forgive me if I do not).

Basically he is saying that it is silly that practitioners of New Urbanism (which is actually Old Urbanism, if you think about it) are portraying their planned unit developments as if they are some sort of novel idea, and are doing so in a way that is almost comical by romanticizing the concept in the form of an English village. This is a commentary on how off track things have gotten since the advent of motorized travel, not a mocking of dense development.
 
China is communist in a nominal sense only. Functionally, it is pretty capitalist. India is a democracy, LA is urban, yada yada
 
I see visually appealing, mixed-use, walkable streets. From a design perspective, it looks like a nice place to live, especially in comparison to most of the new developments in the US. Why is it laughable that they are building a community in English style? Good for them.

Also, why is everyone assuming that the church is not a church? Are you under the impression that China is still an "atheist nation."
 
I'm pretty sure you are confusing his point. see my above comment which I think (could be wrong) clarifies things.
 
I read the posts, but your comment doesn't really make sense to me (perhaps because you were responding to his comment, which also didn't make sense to me). Nothing has really been shown here but pictures. No one linked to an article about new (or old) urbanism. No one has taken credit for anything, or marketed anything. How can a picture say "Hey, look at this novel idea. I invented this"? His comment was a response to pictures of a walkable, mixed-use, development with an old English style.

Kennedy then suggested that they should do something similar, but with an Chinese style.

Basically, none of the criticisms in this thread make any sense to me.
 
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