Image © SOM
The scope and pace of China’s urbanization are staggering. The country has increased its urban population by about half a billion since 1980, and experts predict that the world’s most populous nation will add as many as 300 million people, most of them rural migrants, to its cities by 2030. As a result, a billion people — nearly 1 of every 8 on Earth — could live in Chinese cities. Some of the most visible symbols of this urbanization were conceived in Chicago.