The Compact City Form : Case Study of Shenzhen

The Compact city is becoming a popular urban development form used frequently in planning literature around the world, especially in Europe. In this paper, we analyze different views upon the compact city concept from different scholars and planners. According to this literature, we consider that the compact city can be characterized by high density in settlements and activities, multiple land use and an efficient public transport system. In the empirical part, we analyze why and how the city of Amsterdam has been implementing the compact city strategy, seen as a forerunner in this area, so that we can learn some experience from it. In our case of the Chinese metropolitan city – Shenzhen, we go through its planning phases from the emerging phase in 1979 to polycentric phase in 2007, and analyze its current challenges, such as lack of land resource, unbalanced development and car-oriented situation. Then we consider that the “decentralized concentration” model is a suitable way to apply the compact city idea in future urban planning. In order to achieve the main factors of compact city form, urban regeneration should be carried out within the existing urban area. Other complementary measures that we propose are improving public transport system and encouraging cycling.