I spent last summer in the broiling hot metropolitan city of Shanghai, China. As an intern at a design firm, my experience in Shanghai was divided between two very different areas: the Ming Hang district, where I lived, and the Xuhui district, where I worked.

Ming Hang is a southwest suburb known for its expatriate population and the corresponding international schools. Here, the community is centered around small markets and public areas. The district is about 370 square kilometers, or, in Midwest terms — a bit larger than Omaha, Neb.

Until recently, Ming Hang was dominated by single-family homes and farmsteads. Not anymore. Just a 10-minute walk from my apartment complex was a small strip mall that had Starbucks, Papa John’s Pizza and my beloved Cold Stone Creamery.

Sound more like the neighborhoods you know? But unlike the outer-ring suburbs in much of the United States, Ming Hang is building apartment towers which will maintain high density and accommodate the ever-growing Shanghainese population.

From the shuttle to and from work, I had been eyeing the endless silhouettes of a nearby compound of apartment towers. One Sunday afternoon, I decided to get a closer look at the major construction site. Acting as my own tour guide, I walked along dirt roads that created a main axis through the site with side streets reaching out to meet the towers and temporary employee dormitories.

The dorms looked to house about 1,000 workers and the families of those who had them. There were towers in all phases of construction, from lowly foundations to finished buildings with landscapes ready for habitation.

Clearly out of place, I walked along taking photos, making notes and quick sketches. Dump trucks of workers passed uncomfortably close to me on the narrow roads, kicking up an umber dust as they rolled past. With the exception of one security guard incident, I was able to explore the compound freely.

I was overwhelmed by the inhuman scale of the project that would soon house a population many would consider a respectable-sized city. Here and there, a lonely single-family house stood its ground, looking on at what had become of its neighborhood.

When completed, the complex will have nearly 300 14-story buildings and, rumors have it, will provide housing for nearly 500,000 people. In Midwest dialect, this one housing project will have the capacity to shelter nearly the entire population of Des Moines’s five-county metropolitan area, which was ranked the 91st most populous in the U.S.

Yet despite the changed housing typology in Ming Hang, there remains a real sense of neighborhood and community in the area. Informal Saturday morning markets are set up on the street and groups of men are found playing cards and smoking, right in front of Starbucks.

Chelsey Olsen

Graduate student

Architecture