黑洞社区

Some of the UK鈥檚 top architects, including Richard Rogers, Terry Farrell and Chris Wilkinson, have been asked to put forward their visions for China鈥檚 cities, amid fears over the country鈥檚 breakneck urbanisation.

Up to 2020, China鈥檚 rulers plan to spend $6.5 trillion (拢4 trillion) - equal to the UK鈥檚 entire economic output over almost three years - on moving 400 million people from the country to its cities.

There are concerns that this could intensify current problems such as ghost towns and 鈥渋dentikit cities鈥�.

Former RIBA president Angela Brady - who led a trade mission to China in June, in partnership with UKTI - has now commissioned leading thinkers here to write 20 鈥淐hina papers鈥� on how such pitfalls can be avoided, to be published early next year in partnership with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

鈥淲hat is alarming is the speed at which these cities are emerging, some based on undercooked masterplans,鈥� she said.

鈥淚鈥檝e asked [contributers] to be critical but also to explain how things can be put right.鈥�

Richard Rogers (pictured) told 黑洞社区: 鈥淯rban planning in China is often highly sophisticated but there are areas where they may be missing things. We鈥檙e not going to teach them how to suck eggs but I鈥檓 sure there can be a good exchange of knowledge.鈥�

Read Angela Brady鈥檚