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tion of widespread private property and the ensuing pressures (and cultural mechanisms) which are placed on property owners in some market societies to demonstrate this.

There are, therefore, a number of taken-for- granted assumptions - economic, social, po- litical, cultural - in this particular approach to urban design and if a second edition is to be published, it would be useful at the start to make these more explicit. Unlike older books on architectural design which aim at recreating the environment according to the author’s own (sometimes monumental) ideas, this book represents a more sensitive, even modest ap- proach which aims to integrate new design into existing environments and practice. The ques- tion which this provokes is to what extent such an approach is inherently socially and politi- cally conservative in that, by focussing solely on physical data (irrespective of economic and social data) it serves to reproduce existing so- cial and economic relations. This, in turn raises further questions concerning the role, power and scope of the “physical” designer and sug- gests that architecture and urban design must work in tandem with economic and social planning.

A.D. KING Architectural Association

The Bungalow Leeds LS8 2P‘4

Ct. Britain

ANCIENT CHINESE CITY PLANNING

A Brief History of Ancient Chinese City Plan- ning by Wu Liangyoung, Edited by R. Fletcher and C. Preisert. Sonderband Urbs et Regio, Kassel, 38/ 1986 (Kasseler Schrif- ten zur Geographie und Planung, Gesam- thochschule Kassel), first edition, 1985, 132+ 7 pp. index, price DM36, ISBN 3- 88 122-286-3.

The enormous planning challenge posed by China’s burgeoning urban population, to-

gether with the welcome and increasingly fre- quent visits by Chinese academics and planners to Western planning schools underlines the rel- ative scarcity of recent material on Chinese ur- ban planning, not least of knowledge about urban and planning history in China. This brief but interesting well-written and well-illus- trated account which the editors’ preface sug- gests constitutes “the first concise, overall view of ancient Chinese city planning written in a Western language” is therefore very welcome. Written by one of China’s outstanding special- ists in the field, Wu Liangyong, a professor of architecture and city planning and Director of the Institute of Architecture and Urban Re- search at Qinghua University, the book is based on a series of lectures of Architecture, City Planning, Landscape Design and Applied So- cial Sciences at the Gesamthochschule Kassel in 1980-8 1, and the account skilfully incorpo- rates perspectives from these different disci- plines, packing a great deal of detailed discussion into 132 pages.

The book is very well organized: Part One deals with the development of the capital city in the feudal period and carries useful sum- maries of each of the ten brief chapters; Part Two then covers the provincial cities of the same period, including administrative, handi- craft and commercial centres, military cities and towns, religious and cultural centres and concludes with a very useful discussion on forms of cities in feudal China. Where pre- vious accounts of Chinese cities have laid es- pecial emphasis on symbolic functions, much of the informed and detailed discussion here gives equal if not more emphasis to the rela- tion of urban form to the economic regional, cultural and political structure of the Chinese feudal states and relates political and miltary functions for example, to the planned urban form.

The overriding impression is of both conti- nuity, both in planning principles and in urban form over 2500 years, yet also of development where practices of earlier models are incorpo-

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rated into new capital construction, culminat- ing in the complex and sophisticated example of Peking. A valuable table (pp. 89-90) on “The Evolution of Chinese Capitals” not only helps to locate the developing forms of some two dozen cities discussed, from 800 BC through the various dynasties (and also ac- cording to the Christian calender) up to 1800, but also provides comparative sketches on the area1 extent and form of some contempora- neous cities in Europe (e.g. Rome, Athens, Paris. London). This provides both a useful aide memoire for the text and enables the reader to trace the continuity and develop- ment of various elements in the Chinese capitals.

In a brief review, it is not possible to do jus- tice both to the wide and systematic generali- zations on city planning at different periods as well as the detailed, yet succinct descriptions derived from a wide range of sources-ancient texts. archaeological accounts and fascinating illustrations taken from paintings, murals or street and landscapes on decorative bricks and tiles. Discussion of different capitals of feudal dynasties emphasizes the centralizing power of the feudal state, as well as the relation of urban form to the caste society. Early planning texts deal with city and regional planning and, be- cause of the frequency of wars, reflect the em- phasis of state policy on agriculture and warfare in urban plans. Common principles are iden-

titied: the division of cities into two strictly segregated areas; one a residential area for rul- ers, the other for common people and officials. Likewise. most show an overall grid structure with inner and outer city a recurring feature.

The detailed description of Kaifeng, eastern capital of the Northern Sung dynasty from the tenth century, with its flourishing commodity economy, many business streets, markets, fifty theatres or temple for 10 000 worshippers, or the equally detailed description and functional explanation of the intriguing plans of Peking serve to show the enormous cultural richness of China in the history of city planning. Equal attention is paid to the importance of gardens, landscaping and royal architecture of palaces and villas.

Whilst the text is printed in camera-ready (typed) copy, the 80 pages of illustrations in- clude many hitherto unpublished maps and il- lustrations of ancient Chinese cities and help to make this a most valuable introduction to urban and planning history in China. Both the author and editors (whose contribution should be mentioned) deserve commendation. A fur- ther volume on post-Maoist urban planning is in preparation in the same series.

ANTHONY KING Grudmtc School

~rchitectural.lssociut;~)~~

London

Gt. Britain