08 conditions of the Jiangnan Megacity Region

Some time since the rise of the English industrial city and the present day, the megalopolis has replaced the traditional nuclear city as the primary working unit within the global economy.Their form is neither that of the traditional city, nor it's planned suburbs: Instead of a single dominating core, they have multiple specialized urban centres. The fabric between them is characterized by swaths of unproductive land adjacent to sprawling factories, and slums at the feet of towering corporate districts planned only months before. 

Megalopolises are also often situated in resource rich geographies, wetlands and river deltas, yet they often threaten to overwhelm the very biological diversity they owe their wealth to. Meanwhile, the desire for increased mobility coupled with immense geography demands new modes of transportation. Yet while high speed transit corridors can bind multiple municipalities into a single comprehensive agglomeration, the regions they attempt to connect are often may be historically and culturally independent that may resist sacrificing local identity for a larger economic union. 

Jiangnan, a collection of 16 Chinese cities, is one such megalopolis well positioned to become a major player internationally. With over 80 million inhabitants today, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou amongst others, are positioned to receive vast numbers of inland immigrants in a country where most of the population remains rural. Yet, urban growth already precipitately straddling the riches arable deposits in the country, where the Yangtze River meets the China Sea. Within one year, travel times reduced by high-speed rail to an hour at the region's widest 300 km girth, proposes to bundle what have been distinct cities evolved over millennia. It remains to be seen if differences in food, opera and even language can persist to insist regional identities in the face of even-handed agglomeration. 

At a time when China is on the brink of mass urbanization and globalization, the union of these 16 cities is inevitable and indeed economically necessary. The question is how to operate within its dualities; dross-capes adjacent production-scapes, urban growth and ecological health, increased mobility versus local cultural resilience, so that the depths of cultural achievements can be realized  with economic prosperity. What is the role of the architect within Jiangnan, the Megalopolis.