THE EVOLUTION OF CHINESE DANWEI SYSTEM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON PLOT DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF NANJING

Abstract

Social and economic policy has a profound influence on urban form development, besides urban planning, urban coding and site indicate. With different backgrounds of social and economic policies, the managements of urban development are discrepant, thus the outcomes of urban form are diverse. In New China after 1949, the state chose the Danwei System as a social organization form, and at the same time, the land utilization planning system was chosen as the land management policy. This made China’s urban construction management and urban form development proceeded on a unique road: instead of plot development, danwei actually acted as the carrier of urban development. Taking Workers’ Cultural Palace as a typical case, located in central district of Nanjing City, this paper illustrated its nine stages of plot development from 1946 till 2017. The transformation processes have revealed the intimacy with relevant social and economic managements in China. The detailed analysis has interpreted unique relationship between the danwei development and national guideline, national economic planning, land disposition system and urban planning. Through a profound and overall investigation, specific way of social influence on plot development in Nanjing can be proved. At the same time, this paper presents meaning transformation of some important elements, such as plot, in the process of urban form configuration in China, which eventually further deepen the understanding of present tangible form.