50 species-towns
By: Charles Waldheim with Office for Urbanization, Charles Gaillard, Mariano Gomez-Luque, Mercedes Peralta, Seok Min Yeo, Boya Zhang
Contributors: Gómez Luque, Mariano, contributor; Xu, Xiaoxiao, 1984- photographer; Sabrié, Gilles, photographer; Morandi, Tuul, photographer; Morandi, Bruno, photographer; Teh, Ian, photographer; Olivier, Raphael, photographer; Steele-Perkins, Chris, photographer; Li, Junhui, 1976- photographer; Harvard University. Graduate School of Design. Office for Urbanization
Publisher: Harvard University School of Design
Published: 2021
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 726
ISBN-13: 9781734048032
Subjects: Rural development; City planning; Urbanization; Agricultural development projects; Rural development projects; Agrobiodiversity conservation; Agriculture and state; Local foods
Other titles: Fifty species-towns.
Description: "In response to these failures [of American modernization of agriculture], many experiments with smaller, slower, and more local agricultural production are currently underway. These alternative models of ecologically informed farming tend to focus on smaller-scale local producers working with interplanted crop mixtures and the rotation of livestock across the land. While these remain limited in scope compared to the dominant mode of agricultural production in the US, they hold profound potential in helping Chinese agriculture avoid the failures of the twentieth century. Toward that end, this publication presents an alternative model for agricultural modernization and new-town planning in China. This model is derived from a close reading of Chinese agricultural history and village life in support of the vital economic, environmental, and societal reforms currently underway. The project is informed by the extraordinary wealth of culinary diversity and heritage crops found across China, The most significant of these, the fifty most cherished and most vulnerable to loss, shape our proposal. Building upon the 'one town, one crop' model of economic integration, our proposal imagines fifty small-scale agricultural new-towns across China. Each of these towns is conceived in relation to a single, specific heritage crop and associated agroecological system deemed to be of great culinary and cultural value. The lived experience, landscape identity, and economic viability of each new-town are defined by the specific cultural meaning of these heritage crops. These crops also shape the spatial structure of the town's urban order and that of the surrounding agricultural landscape. This mode of the 'species-town' is deeply indebted to the innovative work of Dr. Kongjian Yu...".--P. ix-x.
Notes: On the verso of the title page: "Copyright ©2021 the President and Fellows of Harvard College. ... Printed and bound by Booxs, Almkerk, the Netherlands."

Colophon: "Book design by 2 x 4. Printed and bound by Booxs. Composed in Adobe Garamond Pro, Monument Grotesk, Noto Sans SC, and Prestige Elite Std. Printed on Munken Lynx, Fedgrigoni Symbol Freelife Gloss, and Clairefontaine trophee #4100. Bound in Almkerk, the Netherlands."

The 50 species that organize the urban models appear in small caps in one column at the outside edge of every page with the specific symbol of that species to the left of its name on its corresponding pages.

Each section of groups of species is followed by a group of photographs by the named photographers.

"This publication presents a research project carried out at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design Office for Urbanization between 2018 and 2020."--"Acknowledgments," p. xi.

Photographs from People's Daily are from the Chinese newspaper Ren min ri bao.

Contains bibliographical references and index.

Gift; Richard Plunz; 2022

Titles accompanied by Chinese characters.
Table of contents: title: Species-town life: urban imaginaries in the post-pandemic era / Kongjian Yu; title: Agricultural modernization and collective memory / Charles Waldheim; title: Acknowledgments; title: Introduction; title: Apple pear to ginseng; title: Xiaoxiao Xu; title: Nanguo pear to ma walnut; title: Gilles Sabrié; title: Wild jujube to scallion; title: Tuul and Bruno Morandi; title: Kushui rose to angelica; title: Zhang Kechun; title: Highland barley to ginkgo; title: Ian Teh; title: Soybean to ginger; title: People's Daily; title: Mulberry to goldthread; title: Raphael Olivier; title: Bayberry to mandarin orange; title: Chris Steele-Perkins; title: Lotus to Walnut; title: Li Junhui; title: Pomelo to shanlan rice; title: Coda.