Allmetropolis

Allmetropolis explores what Europe can learn from China’s unprecedented urban transformation. Developed by the Go West Project—the think tank founded by architect Daan Roggeveen and journalist Michiel Hulshof—the research compares two regions that began their urban development journeys at the end of the 1970s: Shenzhen’s Special Economic Zone in China and Flevoland in the Netherlands.

Both regions were created on reclaimed delta landscapes, located within the influence of major metropolitan areas: Hong Kong and the Randstad urban region. Yet their trajectories could hardly be more different. Flevoland developed primarily as a suburban extension of the Randstad, while Shenzhen grew into a global metropolis of millions, driven by industrial development, migration and large-scale investment.

Presented during the Shenzhen/Hong Kong Biennale of Architecture, Allmetropolis investigates how different political, economic and spatial systems shape urban growth. Through a comparison of governance models, infrastructure, housing and future ambitions, the project asks what might happen if European regions adopted elements of China’s growth model.

The research does not offer a simple blueprint for copying China, but uses comparison as a tool to question existing assumptions about city-making. At a moment when Europe increasingly engages with China as an economic partner, Allmetropolis explores what can be learned from one of the most ambitious urban experiments in history.

Combining urban research, journalism and architectural thinking, the project continues the Go West Project’s exploration of how cities evolve—and how future urban models are shaped.