Urban Design Practice Towards Planning Management in China—Urban Design Guidelines in Wuhan City as Examples

Abstract

Urban design is an important means of promoting the urban built environment—it has played an important role in China’s urban planning system as a supplement of statutory plans. China’s modern urban design has been borrowed from European and American countries since the 1980s. After 30 years of development, abundant theoretical accomplishment has been accumulated; many cities have conducted a large number of urban design practices. Over the years, however, planners and designers have been puzzled by the problem of urban design implementation. In recent years, exploring available connections of urban design with Chinese statutory plans to create results in the actual planning management process has become a hot issue in the field of planning. This chapter introduces the urban design practices in Wuhan city and, analyzes urban design guidelines, which are an important link between planning management and development control. Firstly, the status of urban design in the planning system of Wuhan city and the formulation levels of urban design are introduced. Then, contents of urban design guidelines and design control elements are summarized and exemplified by specific cases. Finally, main approaches for urban design’s integration into urban planning management process are further explored.