Regenerating Chinese cities: a framework for sustainable decision making based on Chinese traditional philosophy

Urban planning and design are crucial for sustainable urban development. Among recent explorations towards sustainable future of the cities, urban regeneration projects have been promoted in China for their contribution to intensified and diversified urban form. However, the existing methodologies for evaluating urban regeneration within the context of China are mostly appropriated from the Western models. These evaluation methods have problems in their utilisations in China due to their reductionist underpinning and lack of sensitiveness to local situations in Chinese cities. These limitations motivate the development of a holistic framework which can integrate system theory and indigenous philosophy in the decision making for the built environment. Taiji Theory is regarded to be the appropriate philosophical paradigm in the context of China for its focus on harmonising the relationship between human and nature. The synergies established between the system theory and Taiji philosophy are summarised as four relational qualities between the dichotomous pairs. Based on this, the establishing of Holistic Sustainability Evaluation Framework (HSEF) for Chinese Cities provides new understanding of how traditional philosophical paradigms could be applied to sustainability evaluation methods, based on the indigenous philosophies of China. This thesis develops the framework based on empirical experience, employing both statistical inference and inductive approaches. Case studies are adopted to provide empirical foundation for the framework in the urban projects. With the qualitative data from thirteen large urban design projects collected in four Chinese cities, this thesis found that the identification of the primary relationships on the site could facilitate the rational choice of trade-off strategies in the regeneration project, which further strengthening the framework. Practical applications of the framework are used to test the validity of HSEF in different local practices. This thesis has presented empirical evidences that the indigenous Chinese Taiji philosophy is applicable to sustainability evaluation through a structured holistic framework and operationalised model. It is argued that the benefits from this conceptual framework provide an alternative paradigm as a culturally sensitive approach to the sustainable decision making of urban regeneration projects in China.