In the last decade, China has carried out extensive infrastructure projects connecting itself through Eurasia under The Belt and Road (B&R) initiative. The policy is geographically structured along 6 corridors and the maritime Silk Road, creating a trans-continental bridge, there by increasing economic interactions between European, Asia-Pacific and the South Asian economic regions.
The construction projects has also facilitated three parallel projects: Western Europe-Western China Transport Corridor—which Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev described in a speech as the “construction of the century”; the Beijing-London freight corridor, which connects the two capitals in 18-days via mainland; and the Yiwu-Madrid freight corridor that is single longest train route in the world.
The six routes of the B&R initiative are: the New Eurasian Land Bridge, running from Western China to Western Russia; the China–Mongolia–Russia Corridor, running from Northern China to Eastern Russia; the China–Central Asia–West Asia Corridor, running from Western China to Turkey; the China–Indochina Peninsula Corridor, running from Southern China to Singapore; the China–Pakistan Corridor, running from South-Western China to Pakistan; and the Maritime Silk Road, running from the Chinese coast over Singapore to the Mediterranean.
In its nascent stage, with only a few phases in use, the project is just a network of railways, but the transforming architecture along this network is a sign of times to come. Since its announcement, three new cities have developed along these trade routes, where five years ago you would only find mountains or barren land.
The Terespol Municipality in Poland that came up on the border for Belarus has seen the creation of free industrial zones and intensive residential development. Twin cities of Horgos and Khorgos have come up on either side of the Kazakhstan-China border, where two years ago there was nothing but an army outpost, a few fields of a nearby village. Both cities witnessed a swift urbanisation and are being built to habituate a quarter million population.
Lanzhou that was inherently just barren mountains saw its terrain being flattened to create an urban centre that would include an international airport, a business district and high rises apartments and aims to create architecture for over half a million people.
Study of vernacular architecture along ancient trade routes has observed that one form of architecture can exist up to a distance of 4,000 metres before it starts showing signs of external influences. While the same presumption can be made of architectural explorations along this new emerging network, the impact of this urbanisation is bipartite. The initial displacement that comes from new urbanisation projects is only exaggerated by migrant population of labourers that architectural firms and real estate developers employ to build this architecture.
Only post the initial phase of development that will be dominated by a modern and globalised styled of architecture along these routes will the local art, culture and architectural influencers have an opportunity to create cultural corridors that run parallel to trade, documenting an unprecedented exchange of art and architecture.
China is one of the largest source of imports to the world, so while the enormity of these projects and its geopolitical consequences make headlines, the impact of the same on urban development and architectural exploration do not. The last significant trade route that influenced art and architecture through Asia, Europe and the Mediterranean was the ancient Silk Route. India was a significant member of this trade corridor. It is notable that India’s participation in China’s Eurasia network is minimal, if not insignificant. China chose to develop the B&R initiative by connecting to the Indian Ocean via the Gwadar Port in Pakistan.
It begs the assumption that aside from trading restrictions with China, India will not be participating in a historic cultural exchange that has facilitated the development of a distinctive architectural style that married practices of the east and west.