Public Realm Usage Patterns Lessons from Shenzhen's
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PUBLIC REALM USAGE PATTERNS LESSONS FROM SHENZHEN’S DISAPPEARING URBAN VILLAGES By Phillip Hu Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in City Planning and Bachelor of Science in Planning and Bachelor of Science in Architecture at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June, 2016 © 2016 Phillip Hu. All Rights Reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Author Department of Urban Studies and Planning May 18, 2016 Certified by Professor Eran Ben-Joseph Department of Urban Studies and Planning Thesis Supervisor Accepted by Associate Professor P. Christopher Zegras Chair, MCP Committee Department of Urban Studies and Planning PUBLIC REALM USAGE PATTERNS LESSONS FROM SHENZHEN’S DISAPPEARING URBAN VILLAGES BY PHILLIP HU Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning on May 19, 2015 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in City Planning and Bachelor of Science in Planning. Thesis Advisor Eran Ben-Joseph Professor of Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning Department Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT Thesis Reader Lawrence Vale Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT 2 ABSTRACT Shenzhen’s villages in the city or urban becomes a potential model for a responsive, typological elements affect usage pattern. The villages are forms of informal settlement that never-obsolete, flexible structure that allows for thesis concludes with design recommendations emerged in the midst of rapid Chinese urban- a pluralistic approach to understanding cities. and possible design interventions that reflect ization. For a period of time, both the city and The thesis looks at the how both informal and the continuing relevance of urban villages. villages mutually benefited from the arrange- formal spaces in the public realm are used and ment where rural-designated urban villages asks: How are informal and formal spaces used used their unrestricted developmental rights differently? How does public life in a flexible, to create an alternative affordable housing adaptable public realm preserve affordability option for low cost workers. Recently, as land and community in urban villages? How does prices have increased, city leaders and devel- informal public life challenge conventional opers have begun redeveloping urban villages understandings of the role of public space? as a new source of land supply. Even when Through design, how can the lessons from these the original village cooperative, now corpo- spaces be translated in contemporary develop- ration, is well compensated, migrant workers ments to foster community and public life? must continuously move further away from The thesis begins with an overview of existing the city to find affordable housing. The cost of public realm design recommendations with erasing urban village cannot only be measured regards to unplanned activities. A field study by figures of relocation costs, rental prices, in January 2016 provides the primary research and potential profits. This thesis acknowledges data, including observations, time-lapse the value of urban villages as a community photography, and informal conversations with and place through its dynamic public realm. public realm users and planning-related profes- The unplanned activities and street life in the sionals. The thesis follows with a mapping and village’s alleys and niches include many social analysis process of building elements, adapta- and recreational uses alongside necessary tions, and activities that reveals how physical economic and domestic uses. The urban village 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my former colleagues, interns, and friends Professor Anne Spirn for five years of good at the Urban Planning and Design Institute of conversation and for sparking my passion for Shenzhen (UPDIS) who shared their perspec- urban planning. tives on urban planning and made me feel like To the generosity of the MIT architecture home in a foreign place. And most of all, for department and the Leon B. Groisser Under- showing me the best things to eat and see, graduate Travel Fellowship for funding my including a tour of urban villages, an inspira- research trip to Shenzhen. And to the gener- tion for the thesis. osity of the Kelly Douglas Fund from the MIT To my friends at MIT who supported me, School of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences exchanged ideas, and offered proofreading help for providing additional funding. and late night snacks. To my wise and encouraging advisor Eran To my relatives in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Ben-Joseph whose advice steered my thesis Bobby Hu, Candice Teng, and Stanley Lau towards quality and completion. for showing me new sights, perspectives, and And most of all, to my parents for always cultures of Taiwan and Hong Kong. supporting, encouraging, and having faith in To my incredible thesis reader Professor Larry me even when things seemed bleak: “It will get Vale who first taught me the basics of urban done!” design and then later allowed me to join his research group in Shenzhen to tour additional villages and meet new contacts. To all my professors in architecture and plan- ning who have been positive, encouraging forces. Especially to my academic advisor 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 THESIS STRUCTURE 11 HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF PUBLIC REALM ANALYSIS 12 SHENZHEN’S URBAN VILLAGES 24 FIELD STUDY 30 Urban Context of Urban Village Belt 31 Documentation, Methodology, Definitions 34 Nanyuan, Nanshan 38 Xinnan 51 Tongxia 68 Other Villages 77 Formal Public Realm 85 FINDINGS 90 Design Recommendations 91 The Case for the Chaotic Public Realm 99 CONCLUSION 116 APPENDICES 118 5 INTRODUCTION1 CHAPTER 1 | INTRODUCTION DISAPPEARING HANDSHAKE Shenzhen’s villages in the city or urban villages are forms of informal settlement that emerged in the midst of rapid Chinese urbanization. Among the commotion of the urban village market, sounds of construction and sights of green scaffolding foreshadow the seemingly inevitable fate of these neighborhoods. Urban villages or village within the city (cheng zhong cun) refer to previously rural towns that became engulfed in the expanding city. For the case of Shenzhen, the reverse is almost true, where the city was ‘plopped’ within the original landscape of townships. During China’s economic reform in the 1980’s, Shen- zhen was established as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to attract foreign investment with Chapter Title Page: Image looking south at Nanyuan Village from an apartment tower a more market friendly and flexible govern- Figure 1-1 ment environment. Around the same time, Urban Villages in Shenzhen and the city landscape (source: Shenzhen Urban Planning Bureau (SUPB) land started becoming privatized through land city first transferred surrounding farm land Villages without agricultural land sought out leases and ‘rights to use’, though ultimately, while preserving the town’s footprint, since new revenue streams for themselves. Many urban land is owned by the state and rural land villagers’ homes were too costly to compensate villagers became landlords, leasing small apart- is owned by collectives. Because Shenzhen’s and relocate. Land leasing for Chinese cities ments in densely packed buildings to migrant land was designated as rural, the government has become an extremely profitable method of workers who work in new factories. With unre- had to transfer rural land to urban land and pay generating income to develop infrastructure stricted or unenforced rights of development, compensation to the village collectives. The and to power rapid urbanization. urban villages thus underwent a parallel but 7 PUBLIC REALM USAGE IN INFORMAL AND FORMAL SHENZHEN different process of urbanization alongside the China’s hub of creativity and technology as a congested, unsafe, and unhealthy neigh- formal ‘urban’ fabric. Using the term ‘village’ industries. The Handbook of Contemporary borhood. The neighborhood was razed, and a to describe ‘urban villages’ is misleading, as China describes redevelopment of villages as a reimagined neighborhood based on best prac- the editor of one of the few English guides to ‘last frontier’ for a city’s ‘economic upgrade’.2 tices replaced it. ‘Rational’ city planning with urban villages, Stefan Al writes.1 ‘Village’ now Because the central government limits the complex codes, zoning, and models legiti- only refers to the land classification of these amount of rural land that can be converted to mized the emerging technical profession. The spaces while ‘urban’ describes what the town urban, the natural course of action is to erase demolition of the West End and historic struc- has actually become. These neighborhoods the urban village to increase land supply in one tures such as Penn. Station in New York were are not old or excluded from the city; rather, of China’s most expensive real estate markets. later seen as mistakes of a planning culture that they are an integral, dynamic part of the city’s Cities have begun working with village collec- did not see value in historic forms and failed to economic machine which responds flexibly to tives and developers to redevelop villages for predict the social costs of displacement. Plan- its context. commodity housing and in situ relocation. ning has responded with historic preservation