The Pearl River Delta region is a cluster of five cities that will become a megalopolis of 36 million inhabitants by the year 2020. Based on fieldwork conducted from 1996-1997, this book consists of a series of interrelated studies on the Westernization of the area.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A great title and a great project to take up, since china is so often neglected for studies of modern development. The essays were well chosen and provided good insight to an area most of us know little about.However having been to china i felt that the book was a little weak in not fully understanding the chinese outlook on life, and instead imposing western expectations on the cities and subject instead. The images were really fresh and unusual and it is certainly a book that breaks the usual mould of shallow or narrow sighted architecture books. The book is very timely bringing new issues into the arena and the realisation that china is where to look next in architectural terms. The most worthy book yet for starting conversations i have come across!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.2 out of 5 stars
5 reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another interesting Project on the City volume
27 Jan 2003
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
The previous reviewer was disappointed with this volume after reading Koolhaus' books. While the 3 volumes of the Project of the City are under his (loose?) direction, these are actually all anthologies of writings by individuals connected to the Harvard Design School, each book on a separate theme: metropolis (Mutations) shopping (Guide to Shopping) and the Pearl River Valley, this volume. I knew nothing about this region of the world until reading an article in Mutations about it.
Did you know that just one of the cities in this region went from a population of 30,000 to 3.9 million in 15 years? And this growth was accomplished basically without any city planning department? Or that architectural plans for a 40 floor high rise take less than 2 months to complete?
All of the Project on the City books have many similarities, which you can consider a strength (my opinion) or a weakness (previous review). Take a huge subject (PRV, shopping...) provide millions of factoids about it, present those fact in a cacophony of words, graphs, photos (and with Mutations, there is even a CD of avant electronic music). I liked that about S,M.L.XL and I like it in this series. A treatise on architecture and urban planning in the PRV I never would have read. Just too obscure and potentially boring a subject. But after reading and carefully studying all the photos in this book, I'm left with a large, jumbled set of distinct impressions about the PRV, which raise all sorts of questions about the role of architects and planners in developing countries (or in the US, for that matter).
To me the revolutionary things about S.M.L,XL was its insistence that architecture is not best discussed in articles. Even articles with accompanying photos. That is way too static, too two-dimensional a method of transmitting information, and not well suited to how we absorb information in the 21st century. Rem's recent books gives us a cacophony on information simply jumping off the page. The Project on the City books continue those ideas, and I think do a good job of it.
I subtracted a star because of Rem's highly annoying joke of "copyrighting" words that contain key concepts in his writings. This is particularly annoying since some of the writers in this anthology are clearly puzzled by this requirement and lack even the minimal style and humor with which Rem unfurls this trick in his own writing.
25 of 34 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Wasted Idea
26 April 2002
By LongLost Now
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I looked forward with great anticipation to this book. Koolhaas' "Delirious New York" was a fascinating work, and "S,M,L,XL" was both interesting and a great argument against hard drives. This book was a major disappointment. It doesn't delve very deeply at all into it's subject matter (the Pearl River Delta area of China) and most of it's "important ideas" are sophomoric. I would say the most irritating thing about this book (other than the totally artless and pointless photographs that litter the book) are the code phrases (highlighted in red) that read like a grad student's compendium of inanities. Don't waste your money.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A uniuqe and all-inclusive study of the worlds fastest developing economy.
31 Mar 2007
By Scott Norton
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
While this book is packaged in some degree of sensationalism, such as mentioning that the most prolific architect in Dongguan city is a gambler, and highlighting the negative externalities of foreign direct investment in the region in question, it is the most stunning and compelling analysis I have seen of the PRD. This book is a fascinating introduction to Chinese economic policy and history, and a recommended read for anyone who doesn't know that 1/3 of everything you own that's "Made in China" came from the factories made possible by the topic of this book.
It's the next best thing to actually visiting the place, which I also recommend.
It's the next best thing to actually visiting the place, which I also recommend.
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3.2 out of 5 stars
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