In contrast to other cities undertaken for this analysis, 20th century Shanghai has exhibited a steady and gradual adoption of the tower-in-the-park as a model for urban development. Yet the intentions, motivations, and execution of this typology in Shanghai differed greatly from its counterparts in other areas of the world. Social, political, and urbanistic forces have combined to shape multi-family residential housing projects, often in conjunction with superblock planning and large-scale industrial production of housing. The typology also had uniquely strong political ambitions behind its development, functioning as an instrument of control for authoritarian regimes and an instrument of profit for contemporary developers.
Ultimately, the tower-in-the-park model of mass housing has proved suitable and successful in Shanghai. Building upon existing models of Chinese urbanity, tower-in-the-park development represents a uniquely palatable combination of density and open space that evolves the traditional Chinese block structure without eradicating its key characteristics. Especially with recent trends towards mixed-income housing and investment in mass transit, this typology offers a promising path forwards for Chinese urban development; however, without aggressive government policies in favor of mass transit and mixed-income living, these types of projects risk the same type of isolation that has doomed similar developments abroad.
