La sfida delle piazze cinesi:l' incontro tra i caratteri cinesi e quelli europei

Are there any differences in the composition of public squares between two deeply distinct culture such as the Chinese and the European one? The subject of squares, conceived as area in which people are free to gather and exchange ideas, moments, emotion and goods, is a quite new topic in China, that is going to be a fixed part of the new planning of Chinese Cities. The aim is the one to understand how designers face this new element in the urban design, not intrinsic in the memory of people. The study explore in particular the relationship between the Chinese introversion and the European extroversion as main actors, and it is interesting to discover which characters are taken from the European traditional square, and instead which ones are translated and transposed from the ancient Chinese culture, and how they are blend together. The research starts with the definition of “square” in three languages, useful to understand the conception of square in the different countries, followed by overview of the evolution of squares in Europe, to discover the extroverted elements that characterise them. I can’t provide a direct comparison with ancient Chinese squares, so then are analyzed other kind of spaces in Chinese ancient times, to find a comparable one that can be thought as “Chinese square”, or at least, as a primordial version of it. Moving on the current situation see the unique status of Chinese contemporary squares as synthesis of their introverted character, together with some other spaces that instead show the extroversion as imported character from the west. A comparative study between an European and a Chinese square, will guide us to the conclusion: the result show that the characters of introversion and extroversion in Chinese squares are not yet blend together, but rather they are almost totally separated. The further step in the urban design is then to combine the two features together, to gain more liveability, to reach a unique design for the Chinese contemporary squares.

La piazza, intesa come spazio in cui le persone sono libere di interagire, scambiare idee,momenti, emozioni e beni è un argomento recente nella pianificazione cinese. Lo studio esplora in particolare la relazione tra introversione cinese ed estroversione europea,ed è interessante capire quali caratteri sono presi rispettivamente da entrambe, ma soprattutto come sono poi miscelati insieme.