To conduct a thorough investigation into the planning and construction history of China’s oil industry, it is necessary to redefine the layers within the Global Petroleumscape (TGP) from a historical institutionalism perspective. The TGP framework, as proposed by Hein, differentiates multiple layers generated by the footprint of the oil industry through three dimensions: spatial, represented, and representational. However, when applying these layers to analyse Chinese cases, it becomes apparent that they have difficulties to accurately pinpoint the transformations in China’s oil industry planning. This discrepancy stems from the fact that the planning and construction of China’s oil industry chain are under the strict control of state power institutions and only allow market transactions within a very limited scope. To address this issue, the paper proposes adopting a historical institutionalism perspective to study and summarize the institutionalized spaces, representations in the development of China’s oil industry. By applying these institutions to extend the usage scenarios of TGP, this research develops a framework more suited for examining the Chinese Petroleumscape. ... Read more

Socially sustainable urban renewal hinges on active public participation, necessitating effective information sharing. Combining Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Ecological Network Analysis (ENA), this study longitudinally investigates how stakeholder information sharing evolves over the project lifecycle of neighborhood rehabilitation and its impacts on resident participation. A representative neighborhood rehabilitation project in Wuhan, China, serves as the study case, with data from 10 interviews, 35 questionnaires, and 3 focus groups. The study suggests that SNA and ENA are complementary and competent in identifying key stakeholders, as well as uncovering undesirable behaviors of manipulation and monopolization, and unhealthy relationships like exploitation and competition. Implementation unit and neighborhood committee emerged as principal information holders, while local media and tenant were least informed. SNA results underscore the central position of neighborhood committee in collecting and disseminating information, demonstrating significant autonomy and control throughout project lifecycle. Conversely, homeowner showed marked dependence and lacked control, particularly in the planning and design phase. ENA findings reveal neighborhood committee’s ongoing struggle with information exploitation, eroding its willingness and capacity to share information during the later phases of rehabilitation process. The information exploitation led to a fragile network that further marginalized local media, undermined by dwindling trust and autonomy. Notably, homeowners amplified their discourse power as project progressed, shifting from passive recipients to active decision-makers. Yet, well-informed homeowners monopolized information sharing, deliberately excluding others with conflicting interests, intensifying issues of inequity and opacity. Policy recommendations are provided to counter unhealthy stakeholder dynamics and promote equitable and inclusive public participation in urban renewal initiatives. ... Read more

The thesis explores the planning heritage created by the Chinese government’s industrial efforts in Daqing from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. It focuses on how petroleum infrastructure and residential developments reshaped the local environment. By examining Daqing’s planning history through the concept of “planning heritage”, as discussed by both international and Chinese scholars, this research argues that documenting planning practices—particularly by addressing planning failures—provides Chinese historians a path to preserve a planning heritage that may diverge from state-endorsed narratives.
Contrasting with the official, heroic portrayal of Daqing’s oilfield development, this work exposes the overlooked and suppressed aspects of mining area planning, construction, and local living conditions. Utilizing the Global Palimpsestic Petroleumscape (GPP) framework, designed initially for capitalist petroleum industries, the study assesses Daqing’s planning policy, rule, and directive path dependencies and the disruptions from political power shifts. By adapting the GPP framework to Daqing’s unique context, this research highlights how these dependencies and interruptions have shaped Daqing’s planning legacy within a state-led socialist system.
The thesis challenges dominant narratives and underscores the importance of a balanced historical perspective encompassing both achievements and failures. It aims to serve as a critical resource for scholars in architectural and urban history and planning studies, especially those exploring heritage within complex political frameworks. ... Read more

本文介绍了荷兰建筑史学家赫尔曼·凡·贝赫艾克和其博士生团队对荷兰著名建筑师赫尔曼·赫茨伯格的专访。此次采访是为了准备 2022 年赫茨伯格 90 岁生日的庆祝活动。讨论的重点包括时间和手绘、结构主义、设计的延续性、建筑教育以及赫茨伯格目前关注的领域。在采访中，凡·贝赫艾克和他的团队成员就手绘在设计过程中的重要性、赫茨伯格对结构主义建筑运动的看法以及设计中延续性与时间概念的关系提出了引人思考的问题。此外，讨论还涉及赫茨伯格在建筑教育方面的经验和想法，以及他对该领域目前的兴趣。这次专访提供了对赫茨伯格在建筑基本方面看法宝贵见解，并深入了解了他对于设计标志性建筑的理念。 This article presents an interview with renowned Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger conducted by Dutch architectural historian Herman van Bergeijk and his Ph.D. students. The interview was done in preparation for Hertzberger’s 90th birthday celebration in 2022. The discussion centered on five key topics：time and hand-drawing，structuralism，continuity in design，architectural education，and Hertzberger’s present interests. During the interview，Van Bergeijk and his Ph.D. students posed thought-provoking questions related to the importance of hand-drawing in the design process，Hertzberger’s perspectives on the architectural movement known as structuralism，and the relationship between continuity in design and the concept of time. Additionally, the discussion touched on Hertzberger’s experiences and thoughts on architectural education，as well as his current interests within the field. This interview provides valuable insights into Hertzberger’s views on fundamental aspects of architecture and offers a deeper understanding of his approach to designing iconic buildings. ... Read more

Since the development of the oil industry in the 1860s, petroleum products became increasingly important in economies and shaped the urban form. The impact of oil exploration, exploitation, and transformation led to the creation of districts and cities entirely dedicated to the oil industry. This dynamic relationship between economic activity and urbanization was presented in the shaping of cities and their borders. Although important, the notion of borders and its consequences on the uses of land as well as on the life of inhabitants are often ignored. This paper first conceptualizes the term borders in understanding the interlinkages between oil and other areas closely related, either geographically or for the functioning of the oil industry; it then illustrates the intertwined borders of all these spaces from the contemporary example of the city of Daqing, in Northeast China. The paper answers the question of how past borders designed during the development of Daqing in the 1960s are impacting future planning strategies and the health of local inhabitants? By mapping the current land-use of the city, this paper elaborates on the need to consider borders beyond two-dimensional perspectives by revealing how spatial planning practices in oil-dependent cities can be an environmental issue today and in the future. The objective is to demonstrate the influence of past planning decisions linked to industrial activities on contemporary urban spaces. ... Read more

Since the 1860s, petroleum companies, through their influence on local governments, port authorities, international actors and the general public gradually became more dominant in shaping the urban form of ports and cities. Under their development and pressure, the relationships between industrial and urban areas in port cities hosting oil facilities evolved in time. The borders limiting industrial and housing territories have continuously changed with industrial places moving progressively away from urban areas. Such a changing dynamic influenced the permeability of these borders. Port cities are nodes and logistic points where various flows of commodities, wealth, and knowledge gathered before further re‐distribution. These flows affected port cities by changing their spatial organization and the availabiity of space between borders. The main question here is: How did industrial and urban borders evolve through time in port cities? Through a historical analysis, the article explores the settlements of oil facilities and the influence of oil companies over local, regional, and national governments in creating borders and how it influenced the porosity of port cities. This article, through the petroleum narrative, illustrates the impacts of past borders on the contemporary urban form through the evolution of the French port city of Dunkirk, in the North of France. As a historical study, the article analyzes the changing relationships between petroleum industrial sites and housing areas in the city of Dunkirk, using aerial pictures, archival sources, and regulations of different periods. The importance of this analysis lies in knowing that former oil sites previously located on the periphery of Dunkirk, that were forgotten by the authorities are now located within the current urban tissue. This process demonstrates the importance of historical developments to understand current challenges in the urban planning of industrial port cities. ... Read more

Since 2004, the Chinese government has been planning and building enormous petroleum reserves in China’s highly industrialized port cities, located along an environmentally fragile coastline. The construction of these national oil reserves should have complied with the principle of sustainability proposed by the Chinese Communist Party in the 2003 national strategy outlined in the Scientific Outlook on Development. The Office of the Petroleum Reserve distributed the petroleum reserves to port cities based on national economic criteria, but it left the responsibility for environmental protection to the local entities. This paper examines whether and how the top-down national strategy and the bottom-up local plans were aligned to achieve the dual national goals of economic and environmental sustainability. It first provides a brief overview of the administrative levels in the Chinese planning and building processes. It then considers the first national spatial strategy, developed by the Office of the Petroleum Reserve in 2004, focusing on the decision-making process and its impact on spatial and environmental policy. Subsequently, the paper analyses plans made by local authorities from 2007 to 2015 to determine the extent to which these plans aligned with the national strategy. It finds that the port cities mostly activated the presence of the reserves to increase economic development rather than focus on sustainable practices. ... Read more

The Chinese government is heavily investing in trade-related infrastructure with its One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR), a proposal to build a new Silk Road or network of trade routes. This infrastructure-driven innovation will have a large economic, spatial and environmental impact on China; it is also likely to transform entire regions throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe. In pursuing it, the Chinese government seeks to meaningfully combine a strong national interest in infrastructural and economic development with an equally strong national interest in environmental sustainability. This chapter explores how it might meet both goals. How do the initiative's many projects intersect with local interests and needs in China? Will these investments carry out the proclaimed desire of the Chinese government for environmentally sustainable development? This chapter examines these questions by looking at how various governmental players are translating these investments and proposals into spatial plans. It focuses on port city regions, using the Dalian region in Northeast China, one of the OBOR Initiative hubs, as an example. Port regions are key spatial components in the OBOR initiative: as infrastructural hubs and as centres for trade and innovation, as sites of national oil storage, or hubs for the development of new maritime technology. As places where the industrial production and long-distance infrastructure of OBOR encounters densely populated areas, they are also particularly at risk from climate change, including rising sea levels. Thus, the OBOR Initiative’s goals of economic improvement and environmental sustainability may well collide. ... Read more

Since its discovery in the early-1960s, Daqing has been propagandized as the national model for the severe built environment and heroic oil workers. Many of the spatial representations showing the urban and rural forms, architectures, and lifestyles, were created mainly by state-employed professionals, including visual artists (painters and photographers), urban planners and architects. Before the Chinese Economic Reforms (1980s), such spatial representations were substantial. It was easy to distinguish the figure of Daqing and its people through numerous social medias and academic textbooks. However, after the 1990s, the development of the spatial representations started to decline. Only the state-employed artists have produced the visual creations for specific events such as the 50 years anniversary of the discovery of Daqing, while others have rarely included Daqing and its people in creations. Moreover, the current spatial representations made by the visual artists are still presenting the built environment between 1960s and early 1990s. The new changes in the built environment and people’s lifestyle that occurred after the 1990s have not been presented. The paper explores why and how the new changes in the built environment have been ignored by visual artists, comparing the new spatial representations to the new spatial changes. It argues that both the decreasing national investment and the lost identity in the new spatial plans are key factors influencing the constant development of the spatial representations. ... Read more

Since the mid-20th century, the Chinese government in collaboration with various governmental petroleum authorities, first with the Ministry of Petroleum and later with state-owned companies, has transformed the built environment on multiple levels, creating interrelated infrastructures and production sites, installing refineries and petrochemical industries, constructing dedicated oil ports, building workers’ housing and educational, health or leisure facilities, effectively creating a palimpsestic petroleumscape. The development of Daqing oil field can be the best representor showing the how the Chinese government shaped the built environment and people’s lifestyle. Urban form in Daqing has changed extensively after the Chinese Economic Reform in early-1980s when the national policy shifted to complete and optimize the infrastructure and civic facilities. The recent national policies of the OBOR Initiative, which aims at balancing the economic sustainability and environmental preservation and Revitalizing the Old Industrial Bases in China have helped develop Daqing at the regional scale, Moreover, these national plans aim at balancing two potentially conflicting objectives: economic development and ecological sustainability. This paper explores in which manner the national policies and local spatial plans of Daqing have transform Daqing from the old oil mining district to the domestic oil hub, then to a sustainable oil cluster. ... Read more