Power as Resource: The Dao, Architecture and Alleviating the Crisis of Urbanity

Abstract

This dissertation looks at some concepts and strategies from Daoist texts to see whether they can apply to alleviating the crisis of urbanity stemming from architectural space–making and spatial organizations. It studies four sites in the cities of Shanghai and New York to see how these concepts and strategies are manifested. These Daoist concepts and strategies point to ‘power as resource’ in the practice of space making and spatial organization. While ‘power as control’ is more evident in urban planning and design from the top down perspective (of policies and authorities), power as resource is more subtle and can be appropriated by doing planning and architecture from the bottom up perspective (of users and usage) of open urban public spaces. The four sites constitute The People’s Park and Xintiandi in Shanghai, and Washington Square Park and the High Line in New York City. This auto-ethnographic study shows all four sites to manifest, to a large extent, the Daoist concepts and strategies discussed in this dissertation.