China Goes Urban: Chinese new towns examined at MAO Torino

The exhibition 'China Goes Urban. La nuova epoca della città' at MAO – Museo d'Arte Orientale in Turin, curated by Michele Bonino, associate professor at Politecnico di Torino, presents research on four Chinese new towns: Tongzhou, Zhaoqing, Zhengdong, and Lanzhou. The show explores urbanization processes, urban fragments, infrastructure, and the urban/rural relationship. Bonino, who also curated 'Eyes of the City' at the 2019 Hong Kong–Shenzhen Biennale, discusses how new towns regulate migration, with 16 million people moving from rural to urban areas annually. Two models are highlighted: satellite cities like Zhengdong, designed by Kishō Kurokawa, offering urban residency near megacities, and 'cities from nothing' like Lanzhou, built on flattened mountains to redirect migration inland. The exhibition notes that Chinese urbanization, while unprecedented in scale, mirrors Western modernization trends. It also emphasizes the role of infrastructure networks (transport, underground, digital) in shaping these cities. The display design by BTTstudio includes sensor-controlled gates that manage visitor flow and deliver additional content to smartphones, a pandemic-era innovation. The research was conducted until the pandemic halted fieldwork, and Bonino anticipates a new urban model under Xi Jinping, focusing on low density and agricultural integration.