Roche Cárcel City Territ Archit (2021) 8:7 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40410-021-00136-z RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access The spatialization of time and history in the skyscrapers of the twenty-frst century in Shanghai Juan Antonio Roche Cárcel* Abstract This article aims to fnd out to what extent the skyscrapers erected in the late twentieth and early twenty-frst cen- turies, in Shanghai, follow the modern program promoted by the State and the city and how they play an essential role in the construction of the temporary discourse that this modernization entails. In this sense, it describes how the city seeks modernization and in what concrete way it designs a modern temporal discourse. The work fnds out what type of temporal narrative expresses the concentration of these skyscrapers on the two banks of the Huangpu, that of the Bund and that of the Pudong, and fnally, it analyzes the seven most representative and sig- nifcant skyscrapers built in the city in recent years, in order to reveal whether they opt for tradition or modernity, globalization or the local. The work concludes that the past, present and future of Shanghai have been minimized, that its history has been shortened, that it is a liminal site, as its most outstanding skyscrapers, built on the edge of the river and on the border between past and future. For this reason, the author defends that Shanghai, by defn- ing globalization, by being among the most active cities in the construction of skyscrapers, by building more than New York and by building increasingly technologically advanced tall towers, has the possibility to devise a peculiar Chinese modernity, or even deconstruct or give a substantial boost to the general concept of Western modernity. Keywords: Skyscrapers, Shanghai, Modernity, Time, Globalization Introduction (2) Find out what kind of temporal narrative expresses Tis article tries to fnd out to what extent the skyscrap- the concentration of its skyscrapers on the two ers raised at the end of the twentieth century and the banks of the Huangpu, the Bund and the Pudong. beginning of the twenty-frst in Shanghai follow the (3) Analyze the most representative and signifcant modern program promoted by the State and the city skyscrapers built in the city, to reveal whether they and how they play an essential role in the construction opt for tradition or modernity, globalization or the of the temporary discourse that this modernization local. entails. (4) Compare Western and Shanghai modernisations. In this regard, four general objectives are pursued: With these objectives in mind, we have divided this (1) Describe how the city seeks modernization and in work into two sections, preceded by an introduction what concrete way it designs a modern temporal and fnished by conclusions, (I) the modernizing drive discourse. of China and Shanghai and (II) the skyscrapers of the Pudong contemplate those of the Bund: nostalgia for the past that build the future. In turn, these sections *Correspondence: [email protected] Departamento de Sociología 1, University of Alicante, Apartado 99, have been divided into a series of subsections dedi- 03080 Alicante, Spain cated, respectively, “western modernisation and the © The Author(s) 2021. 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Roche Cárcel City Territ Archit (2021) 8:7 Page 2 of 17 spatio-temporal characteristics of late modernity”, “To the passing of time, the arrival of a new and ultimate modernity and capitalism” and “modernity and the regime, accompanied by an acceleration, a rupture or conception of time in Shanghai” and “skyscrapers, sym- a revolution of time (Koselleck 1993, cp. 12; Habermas bol of western and eastern capitalist modernity” (“the 1998: 266–267; Girola 2007: 64; Latour 2012: 27). futurization of skyscrapers”) and “the skyscrapers of Te second characteristic feature of modernity is its Shanghai, between tradition and modernity, between multidimensionality. Classical sociologists thought that globalization and attachment to the local” (“the geo- society could be described since a single salient ele- graphical space and time of the Shanghai skyscrapers” ment: C. Marx believed that it had to do with the devel- and the analysis of 5 skyscrapers). opment of capitalism, M. Weber that it was linked to Tese skyscrapers have been selected from specialized rationalisation, and E. Durkheim with the division of 1 online pages and from a large architectural literature and have been labour in the industrial order. Today, however, there is sought to be representative and signifcant of the set of buildings built in a tendency to consider the multiple dimensionalities the city in the last years of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-frst. of modernity. Tus, after the failure of the hegemonic abstract universalism, a more concrete (Joas 2016) and The modernizing momentum of China and the city polyphonic universality dominates today, in which, of Shanghai alongside the global, the local also plays a decisive role. Western modernisation and the spatio‑temporal It is therefore not surprising that modernity is declining characteristics of late‑modernity in the plural, that “multiple modernities” (S.N. Eisen- From the beginning, the concept of modernity has been stadt 2017), “postcolonial modernities” (S. Randeria marked by a certain indecision (Martuccelli, 1999: 9), 1999) or the “variety of modernities” (W. Schmidt 2007) ambivalence, contradiction (Bauman and Tester 2002), are proliferating. complexity (Tiebaut, 1996: 312 f), polysignifcation Tirdly, modernity is the result of a series of paral- (Latour 2012: 27) and multivoicedness. In fact, modern- lel social transformations (Busquet et al. 2015: 115). At isation has been identifed, simultaneously, as a typical- least this is what one of its most prominent researchers, ideal construction, as a specifc type of social structure, Jürgen Habermas, argues in Te Philosophical Discourse as an idea or ideology, as a vital experience, as an unre- of Modernity (1989: 12), for whom “the concept of mod- peatable temporal specifcity, as a historical epoch and ernisation refers to a sheaf of cumulative and mutually as a socio-cultural or historical project. In this sense, it reinforcing processes: to the formation of capital and is considered to have brought about the shift towards the mobilisation of resources; to the development of modern societies of a “complex character” and to have productive forces and the increase in labour productiv- entailed a break with traditional ways of life (Koselleck ity; to the establishment of centralised political powers 1993, cp. 12; Habermas 1985: 28; Habermas 1998: 266– and the development of national identities; to the spread 267; Girola and Olvera 2007: 7; Girola 2007: 64). of rights of political participation, forms of urban life However, despite the difculty of making it concrete, and formal education; and to the secularisation of val- it is possible to establish some clarifying lines of thought ues and norms”. Modernity therefore afects institutions about what modernity represents. Te frst very often and the way in which each of these factors identifed by associates modernity with the identifcation of contem- the classics plays its role (Giddens 1993: 24). porary society and the present (Martuccelli 1999: 9), so In terms of its temporality, it has unfolded in two that it almost always designates, in one way or another, sequential phases—modernity and post-modernity— but they are deeply connected, although at frst, they were considered diferent. Modernity proper runs from 1 Skyscrapers list: https:// www. google. es/ search? sxsrf= ALeKk 036Vi nd3XD 1890 to 1930 (Bell 1992: 117), although it lasts until xwzsK krDzi c96Yg XqcA: 15940 28185 802&q= skysc raper+ list& sa= X& ved= 2ahUK EwiSg pveqb jqAhW StHEK HbHtD EYQ1Q IoB3o ECAsQ CA. 1973, and involves, on the one hand, the overthrow of Skyscrapers word: https:// www. google. es/ search? sxsrf= ALeKk 036Vi the “rational cosmology” of Western thought and the nd3XD xwzsK krDzi c96Yg XqcA: 15940 28185 802&q= skysc raper+ world transformation of its ideas about the subject, the object, & sa= X& ved= 2ahUK EwiSg pveqb jqAhW StHEK HbHtD EYQ1Q IoAXo ECAsQ Ag. space, and time. But on the other hand, modernity Skyscraperspage: https:// www. google. es/ url? sa= t& rct= j&q= & esrc= s& maintains the desire for order and the logic of struc- source= web& cd= & cad= rja& uact= 8& ved= 2ahUK EwiSg pveqb jqAhW tures (Lash 2007: 13–29), which manifests itself in state StHEK HbHtD EYQFj ABegQ IARAB & url http% 3A% 2F% 2Fsky scrap = bureaucracy, in the Fordist factory, in the pact between erpage. com% 2F& usg= AOvVa w3JWg 7Ff akzWg QozK3__g. Skyscrapers center: https:// www. skysc raper center. com/. capital and labour and, politically, in National Social- Te emporis skyscrapers: https:// www. google. es/ url? sa= i& url= https% ism, Fascism and the October Revolution (Debord 2003: 3A% 2F% 2Fwww. empor is. com% 2Fawa rds& psig AOvVa w15QW zjDZG = 104). ve426M- GcnTJ e& ust= 15941 15522 19100 0& source= image s& cd= vfe& ved= 2ahUK EwjUh Nycrb jqAhV H0RoK HQogB KgQr4 kDegU IARCR AQ.