In this round of China's economic development, every local city has tried to find its core value of differentiation, striving to stand out in this round of economic development, and has made great efforts to do urban planning, urban construction, urban investment and urban operation. Some cities have also begun to do the overall brand design and brand dissemination of the city. What's on the air? So, I can't help thinking, for a city, its development does not have an ultimate perfect model? Is there a general rule to follow?

Let's start with the ultimate model.

The so-called ultimate model is the deductive model set up to achieve the ultimate goal. Let's take a resource company that does coal business as an example. Now we must first set the ultimate goal of this resource enterprise.

I think there are several possibilities for the ultimate goal of the business.

A. Sell all the coal in the mine at the fastest time and the highest price.

B. Selling coal to places where there is demand and making profits;

C. Transport coal to places in need, cooperate with their resources and share profits;

Of course, there are other possibilities. We don't list them all.

Through the above simple analysis of the ultimate goal of the enterprise, we can draw the conclusion that according to the location of the ultimate goal, the models are naturally different, and the ultimate model has a relative aspect.

The ultimate goal determines the ultimate model of operation mode. For example, under mode A, the operation mode of an enterprise is to increase production on the one hand and open up sales channels on the other; under mode B, the operation mode of an enterprise is transformed into expanding or cooperating with the number of coal mines on the one hand, collecting supply and demand information globally and opening up freight transportation channels on the other hand; under mode C, the operation mode of an enterprise is to expand the number of coal mines on the other hand. The focus of the operation mode is different. On the one hand, we should grasp the coal resource partners, on the other hand, we should find the demand partners, and at the same time, we should do a good job of supply and demand information and capital balance calculation. On the basis of this operation mode, the ultimate model will be produced.

For an enterprise, the ultimate goal is different, and the direction of efforts is different. As a city, the ultimate goal has the same meaning.

The above coal enterprise realizes the dredging between goods and people's needs through economic means. Different ultimate modes determine different ways of making profits, but the purpose is the same.

As a city operator, it is not only to supply a goods to the people in need, but also to meet all the existing needs of people, including basic life needs, quality of life needs, and higher life value needs.

Therefore, people are the center of urban development and evolution. However, at the minimum level of construction, many cities neglect the central position of human beings. For example, the village where the Chief Executive has spoken for hundreds of years has disappeared, the planner strokes a broad road through the city, but there is no space for people to walk, and so on. All these are deviations from the concept of human-centered urban development.

From the perspective of the users of the city, we should consider and deliberate on the functions of the city's products. First, we make a rough classification of urban users, which can be roughly divided into aborigines, foreign residents, workers, tourists, people with special needs (disabled people, children, the elderly and the weak, etc.). Requirements are listed below.

Aborigines: warm living environment, good neighborhood atmosphere, orderly and harmonious family relations, stable material security, optional educational resources, accessible transportation (to meet leisure shopping and other needs, relatively short distance), suitable entertainment and leisure, friends who are willing to share, perfect medical support, beautiful. Natural environment, as well as the place where beliefs are expressed, etc.

Workers: More job opportunities, accessible transportation (meeting the needs of commuting, bicycles, cars, pedestrians), good office environment, harmonious co-workers, reasonable promotion channels, convenient pressure relief space (such as Central Park), suitable meeting space (lawn, wide area). Site, quiet place to talk, etc.

Tourists: convenient location identification, suitable living space (to meet different types of needs), different cultural experience, friendly interpersonal perception, etc.

Special needs: barrier-free action facilities, public awareness of help, convenient first aid medical care, a sound security system (child and elderly maintenance, protection, etc.).

Above is only a rough demand analysis of several large groups of people, which can be divided into more specific needs, such as foreign residents, entrepreneurs, artists, migrant workers and so on. By sorting out the needs of these sub-categories and weighing the relationship between resources, we can at least achieve a human-centered design of the ultimate mode of the city.

A city built with the 'people-centered' initiative must be a healthy city growing up gradually. On the contrary, once the initiative mingled with the eccentricity of quick success and instant benefit, and seeking foreign things, the city's faults will gradually increase. During the construction period, there are many faults. Later, when the disease is treated again, the people will be laborious and lose money.

Urban Planning in Song Dynasty and Urban Structure Map of DongJing in Northern Song Dynasty

DongJing City in Northern Song Dynasty

Full map of Kaifeng Prefecture

I think the ultimate model of the city is consistent on the top goal, that is, to construct the orderly physical space, rules of order, information field of harmony and Tao, to provide people with life security, in order to promote and educate the people's function. Before the function of rejuvenating and enlightening, all the work was basic work, not the ultimate goal.

Of course, revitalization and enlightenment is a compound concept, not only referring to educational work. Planning and order, architecture and degree, external objects and rituals of a city are all energy fields of city life, which can be educated.

In a word, I think the ultimate model of a city's development is not the ultimate model defined by economic data and population, but the ultimate model defined by purpose. We should let the residents live happily and the travelers travel happily, let the city have its own distinct personality, let people live and produce smoothly and smoothly in this city, and let people live orderly in the city every day, and return to people's inner order by communicating with the city.

Central Park Planning in New York

Paris City Planning

Everyone's life has its own order: one is the innate order; the other is the order influenced by the acquired. When the innate order and the acquired order are unified in the order of Tao, life will be healthy, while the order of the innate order and the acquired order will be unified in the order of Tao, and the great life of the world will be healthy and the same.

The acquired order is susceptible to the influence of external things, and the acquired order is affected. If it falls short of the congenital order, the disease will come. Many people are under the normal pressure of acquired order. The so-called normal pressure is that the pressure is there, you can't understand it, because you are used to it, the order is different from the congenital order. A healthy city should let people return to their own order every day in the process of communicating with the city, and be able to calm down themselves, instead of bringing impetuosity and insecurity to themselves, which is also a specific goal of urban construction.

Looking at the ultimate model nationwide, I think that our country is experiencing not only the reconstruction of the domestic order, but also the reconstruction of the world civilization order. In this round of urban construction, we need to mobilize the best global resources, from creativity to design, and then to high-tech technical materials. But at the same time, it is not a freak to use it compatibly to form a living organism that coexists with its own context and harmony.

This requires us to dig deep into the essence of our own culture, in the body, in the West for the purpose of overall planning and speculation.

In terms of pattern, I think there will be four levels of urban settlements at this stage. The first level is the landmark city, the second level is the super city, the third level is the functional city, and the fourth level is the human settlement ecosphere.

Symbolic city is a symbolic city with national symbolic, political, historical and cultural representativeness. In China, only Beijing can do this function.

Super cities are places where all kinds of resources are highly concentrated. They are the products of the end of the urbanization process, such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and so on.

Functional city is a city that undertakes the national strategic function, such as Xiongan New Town.

Habitat ecosphere is the main unit of human settlements in China. An ecosphere is a complete ecosystem of human settlements. In this system, resources and talents can achieve basic self-sufficiency and smooth access to external transportation, communication and information.

The above four levels of cities will form a new state of production and living order of the country. One or two levels form a large cycle, while three or four levels form a small cycle. About 80% of the residents will live in the ecological cycle. This pattern may last for many years.

—— Zhao Xingpeng

March 29, 2017 - Book in Yihetang, Beijing