Re-Imagined Collectivism, Phased Intensification - Bai Xu

RE-IMAGINED COLLECTIVISM, PHASED INTENSIFICATION A NEW STRATEGY TOWARDS URBAN RENEWAL IN BEIJING’S GROWTH-MACHINE ERA

BAI XU A Design Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MPhil Examination in Architecture & Urban Design (2014-2016)

RE-IMAGINED COLLECTIVISM, PHASED INTENSIFICATION A NEW STRATEGY TOWARDS URBAN RENEWAL IN BEIJING’S GROWTH-MACHINE ERA

BAI XU QUEENS’ COLLEGE 27 MAY 2016 14845 WORDS

A Design Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MPhil Examination in Architecture & Urban Design (2014-2016)

Content

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION 11 2. CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS 13 2.1.

Impact Of Inequalities In Urban Spaces 2.2.

Segregation In Urban Spaces 2.3.

Inequalities In The Housing Sector 2.4.

Neighbourhoods Of Wealth 2.4.1. Villas 2.4.2. Siheyuan 2.4.3. Danwei Compounds 2.4.4. Gated Communities 2.5.

Neighbourhoods Of Poverty 2.5.1. Dilapidated Siheyuan 2.5.2. Urban Villages 2.5.3. Dilapidated Danwei Housing 2.6.

Marginal Living And Gentrification 2.7.

Origins Of Residential Inequality 2.7.1. The Hukou System 2.7.2. Socialist Housing System, Property Rights Reform 2.7.3. Changes In The Urban Governance System 2.8.

Impact Of Neoliberalism On Housing Opportunities 3. CHINA’S MARGINALISED POPULATION 43 3.1.

“Migrant” And Crime 3.2.

The “Ant Tribe” And The “Rat Tribe” 3.3.

A Disillusioned Generation 3.4.

China’s Urban Poor

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4. UPGRADING LIVING CONDITIONS VIA URBAN RENEWAL 4.1.

Urban Redevelopment: The Status Quo 4.2.

Demolition & Forced Evictions 4.3. Domicide 4.4.

An Alternative Form Of Urban Intervention 4.5.

Actors In The Local Growth Machine 4.6.

Experimental Renewal Schemes 4.7.

State Intervention 4.8.

Comparison Between Singapore And South Korea

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5. PHASED INTENSIFICATION, RE-IMAGINED COLLECTIVISM, REFORMED POLITICAL ALLIANCES 5.1.

The Identified Urban Issues 5.2.

Principles Of New Urbanism 5.3.

Opportunities For Intervention 5.4.

Land Acquisition 5.5.

Tenure Insecurity And Community Engagement 5.6.

Housing Co-Operative, Funding & The Role Of The State

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6. CONCLUSION 76

REFERENCES 78 BIBLIOGRAPHY 84 LIST OF FIGURES 96

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed and helped in the making of this thesis. My deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Alex Warnock-Smith, for his invaluable guidance over the duration of this project. I would also like to thank Ingrid Schrรถder who has been a great source of inspiration, and everyone I met during my fieldwork in Beijing and Delft.

I am indebted to Martin Denyer whose meticulous attention to detail in proofreading my work has been most helpful, and for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study.

Thanks also to the students of MAUD studio 2014 for their wonderful company.

This would not have been possible without them.

This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text.

Abstract The economic development and rapid urbanisation in China since the 1978 economic reforms has led to increased affluence, but the positive socioeconomic impacts and newly created wealth have not been equally distributed across Chinese society. The socioeconomic inequality is reflected in the urban landscape of Chinese cities, with the disparities most visible in residential communities.

This thesis seeks to understand the causes of inequalities in the housing system by understanding the political, social, economic and cultural influences, as well as to develop a rational strategy to address the symptoms.

In an era of housing extremes, lower-income neighbourhoods are increasingly threatened by gentrification. This phenomenon is the result of recent strategies to revitalise poverty-stricken neighbourhoods in China. Such methods often have negative consequences for the community, and do not address the needs of a burgeoning migrant population, or the wider issues of sociospatial segregation in Chinese cities.

This thesis uses a rundown danwei neighbourhood in Beijing as the framework to the proposal.

It argues for a new urban renewal approach for upgrading the living conditions of marginalised communities, and as an opportunity to incorporate a greater variety of socioeconomic groups into the same neighbourhood, easing the sociospatial segregation that is prevalent in China.

Based on the findings, this thesis recommends a series of design principles which address the architectural issues in Beijing’s urban planning and housing sector.

1. Mapping the physical expansion of Beijing 1959-2000

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1

Introduction

China’s economic reforms in 1978 and growing prosperity have pulled hundreds of millions of people out of poverty; however, the values of socioeconomic equality and of equal opportunities endorsed by the Communist Party have disappeared. Chinese society is ruthless and competitive, rewarding those already privileged under the previous socialist system, and casting the weak and poor aside. Migrant workers from the countryside face especial hardship. They migrate into the cities to flee from the devastating poverty of a rural lifestyle, in search of the “Chinese Dream”. Their labour is exploited to create the city skylines and factory goods but their social welfare is ignored. They face institutional discrimination from the state, and social exclusion from the rest of the population; their exclusion from the urban housing market remains a long-term barrier to their integration into urban society.

The expanding socioeconomic inequalities are reflected in the built environment, and residential typologies are arguably the epitome of such class and economic disparities. The neighbourhoods for the wealthy are composed of gated compounds, manicured gardens and ostentatious ornaments. Outside these areas of privilege is a different urban realm occupied by the “ant tribes”, migrant workers and the disenfranchised poor.

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This thesis raises four important questions and addresses them by using a dilapidated danwei neighbourhood in Beijing as a case study: 1.How did the socioeconomic inequality manifest itself in the built environment, and what caused the emergence of such disparities in China, a supposedly “socialist” country?

2.What opportunities are there to intervene and address the city-scale issues of sociospatial segregation, housing shortage for migrants and deplorable living conditions of the urban poor?

3.How to improve and densify an existing environment, without the simultaneous destruction of its urban and social fabric?

4.How to design for a mixed-income, multifunctional neighbourhood that incorporates the principles of “new urbanism” and “walkable cities” without succumbing to the physicalist fallacy?

The first chapter in this study identifies the drivers of inequality in the Chinese housing sector and highlights the extent of the disparity in living conditions. It finds that the manifestation of social inequality across urban spaces leads to concentrations of poverty and wealth which intensifies the social divide. Consequently, this thesis argues that the current set-up is unsustainable and could potentially harm Beijing’s long-term growth prospects.

Chapter two examines the burgeoning migrant population from the perspective of local urbanites. It identifies how they are marginalised in the housing sector within a wider context of social and institutional exclusion. The findings reveal that their failure to integrate into the urban housing sector essentially remains the strongest impediment to their acceptance into society. This underlines the urgent need to develop an alternative housing system. Spatial segregation, designed or oth-

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erwise, harms social justice and leads to lesser understanding of and increased prejudice towards the poor.

The emergence of a real estate market transformed Chinese cities into a landscape of neoliberal urbanism. Urban redevelopment has been at the forefront of this shift (He and Wu, 2009). The third chapter finds that current urban redevelopment programmes are fundamentally commercialisation and gentrification projects. They are profit-driven, and the main beneficiaries are local governments and developers, at the expense of the urban poor. The chapter suggests that the state should reassess its attitude towards the urban renewal process, given the influential role it plays. Experimental case studies of urban rehabilitation schemes find that there are alternative strategies. Hence this thesis suggests a strategy involving small scale densification implemented in phases, as opposed to wholesale demolition and displacement, to address Beijing’s emerging socio-spatial issues.

Chapter four examines different housing typologies grounded in Beijing’s history, along with theories from New Urbanists, in order to outline a series of guiding design principles to fill the gap in housing needs for migrants and the urban poor, as well as address the socio-spatial segregation facing the entire urban population, in the context of 21st century China.

This thesis concludes by summarising the key considerations that need challenging in order to resolve the wider urban issues of social stratification in the current housing system. This thesis argues that the challenges cannot be merely resolved through design. A more integrated approach towards urban renewal, that starts to revise and rethink some of the prevailing larger-scale legislative policymaking processes in the current model, is required.

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Contemporary Conditions 2.1 IMPACT OF INEQUALITIES IN URBAN SPACES

China is urbanising at a remarkable rate. The characteristics and scope of inequality in Chinese cities is significant and deserves studying, given the influence it has on the socioeconomic conditions of a significant proportion of the population. There is abundant literature covering the topic of urban inequality.

David Harvey (1973) in Social Justice and the City maintained that urban capitalistic societies produce inequality, whilst Szelenyi (1983) notes that inequality also prevails in socialist societies. China, a nation that is officially communist, has not avoided the fate of urban inequality (Simmons, 2014). Its transition from communism to a partially market-based society has created new forms of inequality. The gap in wages, housing, health, standard of living and urban marginality has widened and is reflected in the built landscape (Wu, 2004).

The sociospatial perspective recognises that social life is made up of social classes and segmentations.

For Friedrich Engels, a German philosopher and social scientist, urban living is a reflection of different social classes acclimatising to the conditions cultivated under a real-estate market and a cash-based society (McLellan, 1974).

According to this line of thinking, Beijing’s urban life can be interpreted as the production of “influences and choices, of structure and agency, as individuals belonging to distinct social classes found ways of living and consuming within their means and within the system of capitalist industrial production” (Gottdiener, Budd and Lehtovuori, 2015, p. 130).

Consistent with Engels’ theory, the rise of neoliberalism in China’s ideology led to increasingly divided spaces, as the commercialisation of land resulted in the privatisation of spaces, and its subsequent transformation into gated urbanism, commercial zones and places of leisure, accessible to consumers

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with money to spend, yet off limits to those who do not. This corresponds to the concept outlined under the sociospatial perspective, a paradigm introduced in the 1990s (Gottdiener, Hutchison and Ryan, 2014), which proposed that the urban build influences societal development.

“Space is not a scientific object removed from ideology and politics; it has always been political and strategic. If space has an air of neutrality and indifference with regard to its contents and thus seems to be “purely” formal, the epitome of rational abstraction, it is precisely because it has been occupied and used, and has already been the focus of past processes whose traces are not always evident on the landscape. Space has been shaped and molded from historical and natural elements, but this has been a political process. Space is political and ideological. It is a product literally filled with ideologies.”

(Lefebvre and Enders, 1976, p. 31) In the context of a capitalist-induced metropolis, Engels observed many social issues are a consequence of economic inequality and still relevant in contemporary urban cultures. One example, according to Pickett and Wilkinson (2010), is that inequality reduces trust between people. Furthermore, the quality of social bonds between citizens is inferior as a consequence of this newfound distrust (Figure 2). Other effects include a rise in crime, obesity, lowered life expectancy, over consumption of resources, and the lack of social mobility (Pickett and Wilkinson, 2010).

Another concept proposed by the sociospatial perspective delineates that spatial experiences shape social activities; in other words, the spatial products of architecture and urban planning are instru-

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2. Correlation between income inequality and social (dis)trust in society

mental in shaping social interactions. This thesis therefore speculates that spatial segregation, found across Beijing, is a three-dimensional manifestation of inequality, and whether the visualisation of such disparities are accompanied with a similar set of negative outcomes.

In a fragmented city such as Beijing, this three dimensional discontinuity has a profound effect on the interactions or disconnections of people with one other, which can be detrimental to its long-term development as an equitable and liveable city.

2.2 SEGREGATION IN URBAN SPACES

“Chinese cities are increasingly becoming sites of discontent and polarisation, as the rising affluence enjoyed by some is achieved by the exploitation of the many.� (Shin, 2013) This thesis suggests why Beijing might be facing increasingly fragmented spatial experiences on the human scale. It argues that the ubiquitous use of cars and residential divisions, based on socioeconomic-statuses, are the two influential factors contributing towards Beijing’s fragmentation.

Spatially, Beijing is becoming more disjointed due to the widespread use of cars. Car ownership alters the way a person interacts with the built environment and the daily trajectories one takes around the city. Its dominance on the city space alters the spatial ordering of Beijing, prioritising the needs of cars over people. This contributes towards a spatially fragmented city given that there are fewer opportunities to interact at the pedestrian level. The wealthy typically own a car and live a separate life to lower-income residents, who rely on public transport and bicycles to get around. This form of automobile-induced spatial separation alongside segregation in the residential sector means that those at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum hardly interact, leading to a disjointed society. Without frequent chance encounters, the urban poor, especially migrants, become further stigmatised and socially excluded, preventing them from integrating into urban society.

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2.3 INEQUALITIES IN THE HOUSING SECTOR

Inequalities in the housing sector lead to social segregation, spatial fragmentation and forms of marginal living. The segregation of the wealthy and poor in their separate settlements has negative consequences to society as a whole. Wang, Li and Chai (2012) state that advantaged urbanites display similar spatiotemporal patterns of urban mobility, while disadvantaged populaces exhibit different spatiotemporal experiences. These parallels and discrepancies expose the “trajectories of segregation” (Atkinson and Flint, 2004).

A study by Wang, Li and Chai (2012) conducted on Beijing’s urbanites revealed that the spatiotemporal patterns of movement of different social groups rarely crossover. Such trajectories of segregation extended beyond the spatial configuration of housing complexes, into the spatiotemporal patterns of daily activities such as employment, education and leisure. Thus it can be reasoned that the concentration of a social group leads to spatiotemporal trajectories of segregations in all facets of life. Consequently this would amplify the social distance between different social classes. Disparities in living conditions and the lack of opportunities where crossclass spatial trajectories occur, reduces the empathy and tolerance for those outside one’s usual social circle. In order to make Beijing a more equitable and socially integrated city to live in, this social stigma against migrant workers deserves attention.

The following section examines the growing inequality between residential enclaves of different population groups, and the corresponding challenges and benefits of each typology. This thesis suggests that the disparity in living conditions is a result of China’s housing and land reforms, change in governance structure and a legacy of the socialist entitlement system(Wang and Logan, 2000; Wu, 2004; Ya Wang et al., 2005) .

This thesis relates the housing inequality to the central role housing provision plays in societal development and living standards.

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“Housing is one of the most important aspects of social development; it is not just a matter of shelter and space, but also affects access to other material and social resources” (Dickens et al. , 1985).

“In most cases, it can influence consumption patterns and household incomes, affecting what people can do and who they can become.” (Park, 1998)

2.4 NEIGHBOURHOODS OF WEALTH

In Beijing four residential typologies have been identified as neighbourhoods of wealth: villas, gated communities, renovated courtyard homes and selected work-unit residential compounds (Wang and Murie, 1999).

2.4.1 VILLAS

3. Distribution of villa compounds in Beijing

4. Photograph depicting a gated villa compound

Villa compounds are the most exclusive type of gated urbanism, catering to the wealthiest sector of society.

In Beijing they are mostly located outside the third ring road. Their selling price can vary from 15,000RMB to 50,000RMB per square meter, depending on its location and the services in the compound (“Beijing Housing Prices�, 2016). In a city where the average salary is at 77,560RMB per year (Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics along with the Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, 2014), these compounds are clearly targeted towards those at the top of the income pyramid.

5. Photograph depicting an exclusive villa in China

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6. Photograph depicting a refurbished high-end courtyard home in central Beijing

2.4.2 SIHEYUAN

In Beijing, the wealthy also live in renovated courtyard homes within the second ring road, deeply implanted in the city core. The siheyuan neighbourhoods are a historical housing typology, beautiful and grounded in local culture. Formerly considered deprived homes for ordinary working families, the announcement in 2001 that Beijing would host the 2008 Olympics drastically shifted that perception.

An increasing rarity of low-rise traditional urban forms, a proliferation of a foreign community with an interest for an authentic Beijing experience, combined with a generation of affluent and trendy urbanites turned the siheyuan from a dilapidated residential form, into a symbol of taste, elegance and affluence. A continued fascination in hutong-living enabled better preservation of hutong districts, but also brought gentrification. With a population shift from local to wealthy and a fall in population density, the streets are drained of life.

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HUTONG DISTRICT

FORBIDDEN CITY

7. Satellite map from 2002 showing the west side of Beijing’s Forbidden city.

HUTONG DISTRICT

FORBIDDEN CITY

8. Satellite map from 2016 showing the west side of Beijing’s Forbidden city; it can clearly be seen that pockets of original hutong neighbouho ods have been demolished since 2002 and have been replaced with new and bigger homes.

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2.4.3 DANWEI COMPOUNDS

9. Map of Caoyang New Village (danwei), Shanghai 1951-1953

“Danwei” is normally translated as “work-unit” in western literature, but the literal translation fails to encompass the richness behind the Chinese concept of this term (Bjorklund, 1986; Bray, 2005). The danwei system was the main apparatus of state control during the socialist period. They were self-contained units incorporating employment, housing and social services (Lu, 2006). The key aspects were the domination of a single enterprise, the intimate connection between work and living and paternalistic policies which extended beyond the requirements of production (Crawford, 1995). Danwei’s spatial qualities and social policies brought about a distinctive model for living. Being part of a danwei equalled permanent employment, provision of housing and medical care.

The availability of a diverse range of amenities and rights to | 20 |

participate in social events organised by the unit contributed towards the establishment of a community.

Those who classify as institutionally-privileged (including government officials and employees of large public institutions) dwell in contemporary danwei compounds. The spatial arrangements of work-unit complexes are strikingly similar to traditional forms of Chinese urbanism, in particular the siheyuan (Campanella, 2008). In contemporary China, universities are one of the few institutions to maintain the traditional urban configuration and model for living of danwei compounds.

10. Women walking together in a socialist danwei. The spatial configurations and proximity between work and living fostered an air of sociability

11. Life in a socialist danwei. The buildings were often centred around a communal yard

12. A danwei compoud in Beijing in the 1990s

13. A danwei compoud in Beijing in the 1990s

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2.4.4 GATED COMMUNITIES

The remaining socioeconomically advantaged population live in new gated communities. The gated community is the principal housing typology in contemporary Chinese cities.

It forms an integral part in the urban, social and cultural composition of Beijing (Pow, 2009). A gated community comprises of a privately enclosed cluster of residential units, surrounded by landscaped communal space. With exception to the renovated siheyuan homes, which are deeply embedded in the urban fabric, the other wealthy neighbourhoods are highly segregated from adjacent suburban communities.

These gated realms of privilege are derided for promoting security and personal segregation at the cost of communality, shared access and use of the city, and for enforcing an ideal of exclusivity to the detriment of social equality. On an urban level, these wealthy, highly exclusive and impermeable neighbourhoods are critiqued for inconveniencing traffic flows because they occupy large pockets of land that seal off routes to the rest of the city, forcing inefficient traffic detours, further contributing towards Beijing’s congestion problems. On a social level the gated communities are scorned for creating unsatisfied residents because much of the outside spaces are underutilised as the mono-functional nature of the compound provides limited opportunities for social interactions, resulting in poor social networks. They have been widely criticised for the negative impact they have on Beijing’s long-term economic integration.

14. Security gate in a gated community

16. Manicured gardens in a gated compound

15. A gated community is highly fortified

17. Surveillance equi pemnts are prevalent in these compounds

18. They are well guarded by security.

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19. The landscapes of Baiziwan, a middle-class gated community in Beijing

20. A high-end gated community in Wuxi.

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2.5 NEIGHBOURHOODS OF POVERTY

At the other end of the spectrum, three groups of residential typologies classify as neighbourhoods of poverty: non-refurbished courtyard houses, urban villages and deteriorated danwei housing compounds (Song et al., 2007).

2.5.1 DILAPIDATED SIHEYUAN

The Chinese population exploded in the 1960s, resulting in a housing shortage. Along with the need to house thousands made homeless as a result of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, Beijing squeezed multiple families into a siheyuan, originally intended for one household. Deprived of space, the courtyard homes were divided up, makeshift extensions were added, and some original structures changed to accommodate additional families. These ad-hoc alterations turned originally spacious and bright quarters into increasingly claustrophobic spaces. Their neglect during years of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution further contributed towards its slum-like image (Wang, 2011). Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Communist Party started to “modernise” Beijing’s image by “restoring” and transforming hutongs into upmarket hotels and luxury houses (Ren, 2011). Thus began the first step of their gentrification.

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21. The corridor leading into a courtyard home in Beijing, A single courtyard is now home to several families.

22. The inner courtyard of a rundown siheyuan. The once spacious court is now occupied by informal structures and rubbish

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2.5.2 URBAN VILLAGES

Urban villages, generally located on Beijing’s outskirts, are informal residential districts. They are former agricultural villages which have been swallowed up by Beijing’s urban expansion (Du and Li, 2010). Thanks to their low rent and living conveniences, urban villages have become a living solution amongst low-income earners.

They provide affordable housing to small business owners, newly graduated university students, low-paid white-collar workers and a large migrant population (Ren, 2013). Their benefits include a sense of community and a fine grained urban fabric. Their open boundaries and human-scaled urban spaces make them dynamic places to live (Li and Wu, 2013), and the diverse range of facilities and varied building facades contribute towards an active street life. Arguably, urban villagers live a richer social life than gated neighbourhood occupants (Zhang, 2005).

DISTRIBUTION OF URBAN VILLAGES IN BEIJING

23. Land occupied by urban villages

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24. The primary commercial road in one of Beijing’s urban village

25. Internal corridor space in a dormitory style building in an urban village

26. Corridor in an urban village building

29. An urban village kitchen, shared between all the residents on one corridor

27. Passageways inbetween urban village buildings

28. An urban village kitchen, shared between all the residents on one corridor

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corner shop

restaurant

fruit stall

30. Collage showing the diversity of urban villages

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fashion shops

hotel

shoe shop dress shop

opticians electronics store

s SIM card

shop

car park

food street

leather goods flower shop

classes

fashion store

hotel

salon flower stall

spa

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hotel

pool

bar

shop

ATM

nursery

market

31. Collage illustrating the diverse range of facilities available in an urban village in China

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spa

hotel

hardware store

food

butcher

laundrette

fruit stall

fastfood

fashion store

night food market

bar

club

pool

night food market

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2.5.3 DILAPIDATED DANWEI HOUSING

Former work-unit housing complexes are also considered impoverished neighbourhoods. With the exception of high-end danwei compounds which geared to the politically-privileged, or members of prestigious universities, many danwei are deteriorating buildings of mediocrity; dirty, overcrowded, and lack facilities that are considered essential for modern living.

They were originally built to house employees from the work-unit.

Post-property reforms, the ownership of these complexes can be very unclear and often disputed. The land-use rights belong to the work-unit (which is different from the municipality, but ultimately still falls under the central state). Some employees may have been given the use-rights to their assigned home (shiyuquan), but not the “house book� (fangben) which gives them the right to pass on the property. So an employee could live in the property, but cannot trade it as a commodity. Some employees purchased their house at a heavily subsidised rate and their use-rights to the property allow them to pass it on to their children. Thus the tenure, as well as the group of tenants can be very mixed.

The ambiguity of property rights between the work-unit, its employees, their family members and new tenants means that not one party is willing to shoulder the responsibility for the maintenance or upgrade of the buildings. They provide respite for people in need of cheap accommodation within close vicinity of work, but the physical conditions have left much to be desired. Dormitories often lack basic facilities such as showers and kitchen units. Common spaces such as corridors are poorly lit, badly ventilated and unhygienic, and rooms are small and cramped. Over time, as conditions have worsened, families with the means to leave have left. Consequently the danwei have deteriorated, lingering on as sites of dilapidation, with the residents living in poverty.

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32. Photograph depicting the shared washro om in a danwei dormitory

33. Photograph depicting the shared toilets in a danwei dormitory

34. Photograph depicting the corridor space in a danwei dormitory

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2.6 MARGINAL LIVING AND GENTRIFICATION

Under the general trajectory of gentrification, when a place fails to improve and maintain its houses, the effects accumulate depressing the value of the entire neighbourhood. As the district falls in value, properties are divided up, increasing the living density but depressing the living conditions and the general perception of the neighbourhood. This trajectory of deterioration is applicable to the impoverished courtyard homes and danwei compounds occupied by the urban poor.

which had no working flush, the other half without a door.

The districts of marginal living identified in preceding sections share similar attributes, despite being wholly different in architectural styles and spatial configurations. They nurture strong social networks, established through working in the same danwei for years, and having to live at high density in close quarters to one another. The physical proximity, density of living and shared communal facilities brought about a much more sociable means of living. However, this density means limited privacy for the residents, potentially leading to social tensions.

These districts are situated in highly sought-after locations, within close proximity to employment. The rent is cheap and the location provides conveniences for living such as eateries and shops. They have therefore become targets for capital investment and redevelopment, often resulting in their gentrification (Wu, 2007). Under this process, low-income tenants are displaced to make room for higher income social groups who can afford higher rents and housing prices to generate a profit. The displacements are unpopular amongst the original tenants and gentrification is often confronted with community opposition and political demonstrations.

They also lack many amenities, considered essential for modern living. In the overcrowded urban villages, a survey found that over 90% of units lack toilets, kitchens, heating or air conditioning to cope with Beijing’s extreme climate (Zheng et al., 2009). They also do not adhere to fire-control standards and sorely lack adequate levels of investment in its infrastructure and maintenance (Li and Wu, 2013).

The author of this thesis experienced the living conditions first-hand. A dormitory catering for workers from Beijing’s Academy of Sciences lacked showers, cooking and laundry facilities; hence residents erected makeshift cooking stations in the corridors, encroaching on communal spaces, and in the process transformed corridors into greasy and slimy passageways. Communal toilets were not well-maintained, half of

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These examples demonstrate that the richness of social networks that proliferated under high density, communal living, is achieved at the sacrifice of individual privacy, and what could be considered a basic level of human dignity. Thus these forms of marginal living do not provide a long-term solution for Beijing’s residents.

2.7 ORIGINS OF RESIDENTIAL INEQUALITY

How did such inequality transpire in a country governed by a party supposedly communist in ideology? With gated realms of affluence on one end of the spectrum and slum-like conditions of makeshift rooms on the other, this disparity seems to contradict the very essence of communism.

This thesis suggests that the housing inequality effects are a culmination of four issues: China’s unique household registration system, a socialist housing distribution system, reforms in the land and housing rights and changes in the administration hierarchy.

35. Photograph depicting the corridor space in a danwei dormitory

36. Photograph depicting the bedrrom in a danwei dormitory

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2.7.1. THE HUKOU SYSTEM

Under the rule of Mao Zedong, the population income disparity was less apparent due to the Marxist egalitarianism of the Communist Party, and the economy being centrally planned (Lo and Jiang, 2006). Nevertheless, the nation’s population was divided into a twotier class hierarchy (urban and rural) via a unique system known as the Chinese Household Registration System (hukou).

The Chinese Household Registration System was established in 1958 as way for the state to control internal migration by identifying the location of all individuals in China. Under this system, the population was separated into two categories of citizenship: rural and urban. The rural population was exploited to provide for the urban population under the banner of industrialisation and modernisation (Friedmann, 2005). Yusuf and Saich (2008, p. 69) note that the hukou location “continues to define a person’s life chances and access to resources” and that the “difference between hukou in small cities and towns and a hukou in the city proper of large cities persists and is substantial.”

Under the hukou system, already deprived groups from the past are afforded fewer opportunities to climb the social mobility ladder in the present. Rural-status migrants are lower-class citizens because they do not enjoy the same benefits such as education, healthcare, infrastructural services, pensions and housing provision as their urban-hukou counterparts (Zhang et al., 2014); so they are robbed of even basic welfare provisions that were a component of the basic living during the Mao era. There are no rural-status hukou holders that have purchased former public housing; according to Ren (2013), less than 1% of Chinese city-dwellers with a rural migrant-status own a property.

Rural-status hukou holders and couples whose partner is of rural-status miss out on the public-housing rental market and did not benefit from the housing reforms. Consequently, many reside in impoverished living conditions. The institutional barrier and hukou¬-affiliated distribution of unequal opportunities is polarising Chinese society.

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37. Hukou Hierarchy diagram

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38. Flowchart summarising China’,’” s Housing Reform

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2.7.2. SOCIALIST HOUSING SYSTEM, PROPERTY RIGHTS REFORM

The vast inequality is partially due to the property rights reform and the legacy of the work-unit entitlement system. Prior to the 1978 economic reforms, China operated under a socialist housing system where the housing sector was nationalised, without property rights and a proper housing market. Danwei employees were typically allocated a home as part of their benefits. The rent was heavily-subsidised which ultimately led to a financial shortfall (Wang and Murie 1996; Zhou and Logan 1996; Wu 1996). This underinvestment led to the housing provision system being over-crowded. From 1978 onwards, China’s housing system went through profound changes, by adopting market-orientated reform measures.

also had a direct negative impact on the urban poor, even if affiliated with a danwei, given that the new system demanded a higher proportion of their income to be spent on accommodation. This meant that even if they became homeowners, the housing reforms trapped them in impoverished communities (Wu, 2007).

In 1998 the danwei housing allocation system was terminated. Public houses were privatised, rights of property and homeownership were endorsed (Wu et al., 2013). The housing market flourished and living conditions of urban residents improved. However, the triumphs of the reform policies were accompanied with problems. As described in figure 5, the 1988 and 1991 policy allowed work-unit employees to acquire valuable properties at minimum cost, excluding those outside the danwei-system.

Under the new housing system, fewer benefits reach the people who do not have the social and cultural capital required to profit from the reforms (Lo and Jiang, 2006), increasing inequality as a consequence (Wu et al., 2013). Both Wang (2005) and Wu (2004) maintain that the transition from a socialist system to a market economy has created a poverty trap. Wang (2005) suggests that those who did not benefit from the reforms and were squeezed out of the welfare system are stuck in a system which has persistently reinforced their poverty.

The selling of discounted public housing to its sitting tenants awarded an opportunity to urban work-unit employees (who already lived in privilege in comparison to rural, and non-danwei affiliated members) to translate their past advantages into valuable properties.

At present, the work-unit is still influential in enforcing the job-related housing-entitlement system, including cash subsidies, housing provident funds and access to affordable housing. The poorer organisations were unable to match the housing subsidies distributed by the wealthier and more influential establishments (Wang, Wang, and Bramley 2005).

Wang (2002) suggests that the privatisation of danwei houses

This allocation system also omitted a significant proportion of Chinese people: the migrant workers (Wu, 2002). Since they were not previously public housing occupants, they were not given the opportunity to benefit from the privatisation process.

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2.7.3. CHANGES IN THE URBAN GOVERNANCE SYSTEM

Recent changes in China’s complex bureaucratic system resulted in a power shift from the central state to local governments.

In China all the urban land is owned by the central state. However after the reforms, the control has been decentralised. Responsibility over urban land, housing and infrastructure development shifted from central ministries to territorial establishments and city governments. This included the licence to lease development privileges to the land under their jurisdiction. Regrettably, the decisions engendered by this transfer of power have not profited the local populace. The reforms made local governments responsible for financing infrastructure and public services under their jurisdiction, which was traditionally under the responsibility of the central government. Therefore local governments have a vested interest in inflating land and property values as urban developments have become a tactic for facilitating financial growth, financing local projects and fulfilling their social responsibilities. As such the municipalities are not incentivised to control inflation in the residential sector, since an important share of their revenue is generated through real-estate. Consequently, land is developed to generate revenue and growth, rather than to address urban issues and the needs of Beijing’s citizens.

This market-orientated mentality from local municipalities has further increased inequality. The inflation in land value has deterred new entrants from looking in the formal markets, dwelling instead in enclaves of poverty.

It has also evicted existing communities, whether through forced displacement under renewal programmes, or through economic coercion.

From 2005 onwards the central government attempted to suppress the property market. This was unsuccessful, as demonstrated by its continuous growth in value. Average residential property prices in Beijing, between 2001 and 2010, increased by over 300% (Ren, 2013). Governmental failure in curbing the steep rise in property prices can be attributed to the difference in China’s administration hierarchy and its changes in responsibilities in urban land management.

China’s market reforms financially enriched the lives of many urban citizens at the detriment of the rural population. Less than 1% of city-dwellers with a rural migrant-status own a property (Ren, 2013). The overlooked welfare of the migrant population is evident in their living conditions. | 40 |

39. Territiorial Hierarchy of China

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2.8. IMPACT OF NEOLIBERALISM ON HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES

In a study conducted by Forrest and Hirayama (2009), impact of neoliberalism on housing opportunities on Japan’s young generation was studied. One of the consequences they discovered was an increased reliance on family resources to finance the purchase of a new home for the younger population, leading to greater inequality and polarized opportunities. For future generations, their housing situation will increasingly be dependent on the financial ability and housing availability of their parents- on whether the family own a large enough house to shelter them, and whether there is a property they can inherit. In the meantime, those at the lower-end of the income spectrum, with parents who are renters, will face continued marginalisation in a property-based society.

“…intergenerational family reciprocity has become a new component of homeowner societies, implying a trade-off relationship between the decline in socially controlled housing and labour markets, and the increased reliance on family resources…” (Hirayama and Forrest, 2009) This shows that in a society where market forces take precedence over state intervention, access to the housing market increasingly becomes contingent on family resources and hereditary wealth.

In China where the young experience disillusionment with their chances of upward social mobility, this may in due course could lead to social trouble, and a rise in crime. Coupled with other factors, such as the gender imbalance instigated by China’s 1979 One Child Policy (Fong, 2016), this might lead to a generation of “bare branches”: young, single and frustrated men. It is predicted that by 2020, China will have a surplus of 30 to 40 million men (Golley and Tyers, 2014). This can only worsen societal discontent. Therefore state intervention in housing provision over neoliberal policies to address said issues in the housing sector can bring about a more equitable housing system. Housing provision is one facet is the overarching issue of disparate inequality in Chinese society, if that can be somehow dissolved, the sooner the better. Especially since housing plays a role in the formation of families, social mobility and capital accumulation (Hirayama and Forrest, 2009).

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3

China’s Marginalised Population

The scale of China’s rural-to-urban migration over the past decade has been unparalleled. Beijing’s population alone has risen from 9 million in 1980 to 19.6million in 2010, of which 6 million are migrants (Beijing Statistic Bureau, 2011). In the words, of Campanella (2008, p. 180), “the rural migrant workforce…makes up as much as a quarter of the real population of China’s cities today.”

The floating population is an important force in China’s society. Their labour powers the factories, their muscles build the city skylines; they are the backbone of the service industry. In short, they are an invaluable source of labour and skill which sustains the economy and the day-to-day operations of urban life. Despite the critical role they play in China’s manufacturing industry, and the economy as a whole, they face continuing discrimination and are marginalised (Wu, 2009).

“Marginalisation” can be defined as a comprehensive range of social processes which increases inequality between social groups. It denotes the process in which a specific stratum of society is relegated to a lower-status and becomes side-lined. Marginalisation is associated with poverty, but it has more to do with the external and structural forces that affects and triggers a descending social trajectory.

Institutionally, migrant workers are marginalised via the household registration system. In the case of Beijing, having an urban Beijing hukou, whilst living in the capital city, is a requirement for accessing all four types of affordable housing (Kim, 2014). Since the migrants do not hold a local hukou, they do not have access to public housing. Without enough money to purchase or rent privately, they are forced to dwell in neighbourhoods of poverty. They are also not entitled to China’s urban-based “Minimum Livelihood Guarantee Scheme”, known as the dibao. A Chinese rural family survey revealed that approximately 80% of the floating population are ‘lone individuals’, and that the hukou-barrier is significant enough to prevent them from staying in their chosen cities of employment (Hussain and Wang, 2010).

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40. Housing types and availability for migrants in cities

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41. Types of low-income housing in Chinese cities

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3.1 “MIGRANT” AND CRIME

42. Underground units in Beijing, 2012-2013

In the face of broadening economic inequality and wealth distribution, an air of distrust exists among China’s urban population. Alongside a rise in corruption and crime, there is a growing sense of anxiety in cities such as Beijing, a top destination for migration. The floating population1 faces sustained exclusion from local urbanites because they have become scapegoats for emerging problems such as overcrowding, pollution and increased crime (Wang and Messner, 2012; Zhang, 2001).

However this perception is not always a true reflection of the situation on the ground. Zhang (2001) for example found that in Zhejiangcun (a now demolished migrant enclave in Beijing), the majority of Wenzhou migrants were the victims, not the perpetuators of crime. This opinion misrepresents and conceals the larger context of rising crime confronting the

entire urban society, with palpable consequences. Since the migrants are identified as a social group with a high concentration of criminals, they have been subject to random government led social-cleaning campaigns (Zhang, 2001), in the form of neighbourhood demolition and forced evictions.

3.2 THE “ANT TRIBE” AND THE “RAT TRIBE”

“In the eyes of many Chinese capitalists… the migrant labour workforce is an ideal tool for wealth production- easily managed, easily replenished, and essentially disposable.” (Campanella, 2008, p. 184) Contrary to popular belief, migrants are not limited to rural farmers who migrate to the cities for low-skilled labour. They also encompass an educated and young workforce.

1 “Floating population” is a terminology given to a group of migrant workers without a local household registration via the hukou system, essentially making them illegal aliens in their own country (Armstrong, 2013).

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43. Photograph documenting “ant tribe” dwellings

45. Photograph documenting “rat tribe” dwellings

The “ant tribe” describes an emerging group of well-educated graduates and young professionals who live a poverty-level existence in China’s cities. Most of the “ants” originate from disadvantaged rural backgrounds. Without the financial support of a wealthy family, social skills and connections from growing up in a city, they are deprived of basic resources that are offered to their urban counterparts (Wang, 2011).

The “rat tribe” is a group of low-income migrants who dwell in the windowless bomb shelters and basements

44. Photograph documenting “ant tribe” dwellings

46. Photograph documenting “rat tribe” dwellings

beneath Chinese cities (Good, 2014). The average size of such dwellings is documented to be 9.75sqm, with the average rent being 436 RMB (Kim, 2016). Like the “ants”, they are a generation of young workers, escaping the rural drudgery of the countryside, in search of a way up the social mobility ladder. Underground living, whilst illegal, is favoured by the rat tribe because of their central locations and cheap rent, enabling them to save time on commuting, in some cases so that they can hold down more one job (Johnson, 2015).

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3.3 A DISILLUSIONED GENERATION

The “ants” and “rats” are representative of the housing inequalities facing Beijing today. They have no access to low-cost government housing due to a lack of an urban-hukou, and are priced out of the formal housing market. Instead they reside in the squalors of Beijing’s urban villages and forgotten undergrounds for lack of an appropriate alternative (Smith, 2014). It is objectionable to consign this generation with urban marginality, when they provide the skills and labour that are vital to the everyday operations of Beijing.

The “ants” in question are the next generation of talent and leaders, according to Sharma (2014), around a third of this group graduated from China's most prestigious universities. What is more, the “rats” account for a large proportion of the service sector workforce, crucial in making the city function. Failure to retain this workforce would negatively impact the economic development of Beijing.

Beijing’s “ant tribe” population is estimated to be more than 160,000 by the China Youth Development Foundation, and growing fast (Sharma, 2014). The “rat tribe” population is currently estimated at one million in Beijing. In contemporary Chinese culture, homeownership status is an important status symbol and often considered a prerequisite for marriage (Reuters, 2010). If the current housing problem that disregards the needs of such a large social group, is allowed to intensify, social unrest could follow, as the dissatisfaction of a large group in the capital could undermine the central government, leading to political instability (Jennings, 2010).

These issues highlight the urgency in developing an alternative and sustainable housing solution to accommodate the increasing migrant population. The “ant tribe” and the “rat tribe” are flexible groups with no long-term commitment to remain in any particular location (Miller, 2012). These groups can be accommodated in any existing neighbourhood to reverse their social exclusion, thus it is feasible to utilise this fluid social group as a mechanism to break down the segregated compounds and alter the fragmented state of Beijing. Their social integration into existing communities would foster a more equally accessible city.

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3.4 CHINA’S URBAN POOR

“China's workers have driven the explosive growth of its economy in recent decades. Now, with record numbers of strikes across the country, the government views them as an existential threat…”

(Griffiths, 2016) Marginalisation of the urban poor in Chinese cities is not limited to migrants. A substantial number of urbanites who failed to reap any benefits from the market reforms are trapped in poverty, such as the laid-off workers from State-Owned-Enterprises (SOEs). In fact, rural migrant workers make up only one of four social groups classified as the “urban poor” (Wei 2004). The other three groups are those who are unable to work and survive on state subsidies, such as the disabled and the orphaned; unemployed workers, and retirees. The make-up of the urban poor has shifted from primarily the elderly, children and the disabled to rural migrants and an unemployed population (Song, Zhu and Mukhopadhyay, 2009).

The housing reforms led to a new class of urban poor in Chinese cities. China’s astonishing economic progress has been supplemented with an increasing number of impoverished populace (Solinger, 2002). Estimates for the number of urbanites who have plunged into poverty range from 15 to 37 million (Tang, 2003; Solinger 2006, p.179), and this figure excludes migrants (Solinger, 2006).

The problems facing such a diverse and significant group, warrants consideration.

47. Number of worker strikes and protests in China in 2015

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48. Satellite image from 2002 showing the Keyuan Community surrounded by undeveloped land

49. Satellite image from 2016 showing the Keyuan Community surrounded by newly developed land

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4

Upgrading Living Conditions Via Urban Renewal 4.1 URBAN REDEVELOPMENT: THE STATUS QUO

“Disputes over urban development projects are becoming increasingly prevalent in mainland China. Dilapidated neighbourhoods or those standing in the way of infrastructure projects are frequently threatened with eviction and demolition by development-minded local states looking to exploit a booming real-estate economy.” (Shin, 2013) A significant phenomenon aggravating Beijing’s sociospatial inequality is urban redevelopment. The impoverished neighbourhoods identified in the preceding chapters face immense pressure from local governments and the central state to undergo redevelopment, because such programmes can transform deteriorating districts into highly valuable territory (Gaubatz, 2005). These schemes involve the demolition of deteriorating residential neighbourhoods and replacing them with premium apartments, affluent business and retail districts . They have made many developers and private investors rich, at the expense of vulnerable tenants who are evicted without sufficient compensation into the urban periphery (Shin, 2009).

Despite the unequal distribution of benefits and unjust treatment of the displaced residents in the demolition and eviction process, there is some logic to justify the renewal of old danwei neighbourhoods.

This chapter discusses the current issues they generate, and analyses alternatives to finding a solution to address the problems without forcing eviction on the residents.

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Beijing as a city has experienced many cases of urban redevelopment, for various justifications. One such explanation is traffic planning. Prior to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, Ping’an Avenue, north of the Forbidden City, was expanded from a narrow street into an eight-lane highway as part of the Beijing Environmental Project to lessen traffic jams. In return for resources to implement such a renovation, the city presented the land bordering the road to developers; the occupants, some 20,000 households, were displaced.

Another possible explanation for the urgency in redeveloping entire districts is the new found thirst for profit in a ‘socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics’. The housing and land reforms led to a market-based mentality which changed the focus of urban redevelopment from social change to profit-making. Consequently, real estate developers built new homes that catered to middle- to high-income inhabitants, for they offered the highest profit margins. Such redevelopments can create divisions in society, as new housing is often unaffordable for the original tenants.

Elsewhere, urban redevelopment is a social engineering tool and image upgrading strategy, disguised as city-planning. In preparation for the annual National Day Parade in 1998, numerous thoroughfares in Beijing were widened and had their image upgraded while “unappealing” neighbourhoods were demolished and people were removed by the state. This form of intervention has long been practised in Beijing, with the urban villages frequently affected. After the 2001 announcement that Beijing would be hosting the 2008 Olympics, the city initiated a large-scale slum-upgrade, in preparation for the expected visitors and tourists.

The state is eager to eliminate migrant enclaves and urban villages, partially due to the lack of land in Beijing, and partly because of a desire to modernise into a “global city”.

In the words of Zhang (2001, p. 165), “Beijing is the emblematic heart of Chinese political power, modernity and a popular national and international tourist destination. The crowded living conditions and poor hygiene in migrant enclaves damage the idealised modern image of Beijing and may drain tourism and foreign investment.”

2

In 1991, the Beijing munici pal government released a plan to bulldoze and revive decaying houses, under the program title “Old and Dilapidated Housing Redevelopment Program”, in which demolition and complete redevelopment was the preferred means of transformation (Shin, 2009).

3 Compensation for displaced local residents involved a guaranteed home with existing tenure (before 1998), normally located the suburbs; since 1998 the rule has been to offer monetary compensation, but it is not enough to allow the displaced tenants to purchase their own property due to the inflation in the real-estate market; most commodity housing currently in Beijing is only attainable to high income residents (Wang and Murie 1999a, 1999b).

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Under the current model of urban redevelopment, property owners in urban villages are compensated for their losses and offered an urban hukou in exchange for the rights to their land, but the tenants are evicted without backup alternatives.

Some return to villages in the countryside, despite having little agricultural knowledge, especially if they are a second-generation migrants. Those unwilling to renounce their Chinese Dream have joined the “rat and ant tribes”, turning to almost uninhabitable places to live (Huang and Yi, 2014).

Dilapidated neighbourhoods comprised of Communist-era houses have also undergone extensive destruction, although they have received less attention than hutong neighbourhoods and urban villages. This can be attributed to their lack of perceived cultural, historical and architectural significance.

These complexes constructed in the 1950s and 1960s are lowrise, long, rectangular blocks organised around a shared outdoor space, dotted with trees. The older housing blocks were developed during the Communist era, before the economic reforms and opening up of the People’s Republic of China.

The ones that have managed to survive demolition are crudely built with visually monotonous facades, and lacking in basic modern facilities considered indispensable in the modern age.

Limited by construction techniques of their time, and to evade elevator installation costs, their height is limited to five storeys, which qualifies them as low-density housing, a luxury that is increasingly unaffordable in a rapidly urbanising nation.

Such compounds reveal an intriguing story of “traditional Chinese social patterns and Communist ideas about communal living” in a traditional work-unit (Ouroussoff, 2008).

Comparable to the siheyuan, there is an ordered rationality behind its spatial organisation, delineated along a public to private gradient; the communal gardens serve a similar communal purpose as the courtyards, and the interior consists mostly of small rooms to encourage social interaction outside.

The significance of these compounds therefore arises from the rich social networks cultivated through years of living and working together, as opposed to aesthetics merits. | 53 |

4.2 DEMOLITION & FORCED EVICTIONS

Under current redevelopment schemes, buildings are bulldozed and the communities are dispersed. Gentrified neighbourhoods stand in their place, a wave of monotonous towers in a sea of cars, the spatial configuration wholly ignorant of the original organisation of spaces, governed by a hierarchy of private and public zones.

The relocated residents find it challenging to adjust to an alien neighbourhood (Wu, 2004), but moving back is not a viable option: it involves transferring from subsidised to non-subsidised housing (Li and Siu, 2001b), a transition which prices out all but the privileged urban-status sector of society, further contributing towards the city’s sociospatial fragmentation.

50. Photographs Tiantong Yuan

In 2001, the Nanchizi hutong district of Beijing underwent renewal which affected 1,076 families (Qian, 2008). The evicted residents in this instance, as per the norm in such developments, were presented with three possibilities: agree to a monetary compensation package, purchase a home in the new development at a subsidised rate, or move into a replacement home presented by the developer somewhere else in the city (Wang, 2011)4.

In general, even when discounts are applied, the price of new developments on the original sites is still unaffordable for the original residents, so they choose a new unit offered by the developers. In the interests of profit, the replacement homes are located on city edges, where the land is the cheapest. These new “fringe clusters” are not a viable long-term solution as they only intensify problems regarding segregation and city congestion.

The clusters consist of residential tower-blocks, lacking places of employment, public transport and services, which have generated huge traffic and congestion problems . Furthermore, they lack the same quality of social services, such as schools and hospitals, as exist in central Beijing (Reuters, 2015). This isolation and marginalisation have contributed to Beijing’s segregated and polarised sociospatial structure.

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51. Photograph of bus-stop queues in the new residential clusters

52. Large purpose-built residential clusters in Beijing

Furthermore, redevelopment schemes provide an inadequate housing support during the transition period for relocated families (Wu, 2004). Wu found that merely 18% of displacees were provided with temporary accommodation, and the majority relied on relatives or the market for finding alternative solutions. Additionally, developers did not meet municipal regulations dictating that the length of temporary stay should not exceed twelve months, with the average length being 18.6 months (Gu and Liu, 1997).

4

However, upon closer inspection of their tenure policies one realises that its availability does not extended to rural migrants.

5 The commutes are so time-consuming that elderly parents often queue in bus lines for their working children, so they can catch more sleep before work (South China Morning Post, 2014).

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4.3 DOMICIDE

Over the past twenty years, the changes in the built environment via urban redevelopment has been obvious, but the long-term effects on Beijing’s displaced population are harder to quantify. There has been extensive reporting on the suffering of tens of thousands of people, whereby they are uprooted from their homes, the entire process made worse due to poor treatment by demolition and redevelopment companies, and inadequate support from government officials.

There is a name for this phenomenon: domicide. In the words of Porteous and Smith (2001, p. 12), domicide is “the deliberate destruction of home by human agency in the pursuit of specified goals, which causes suffering to the victims”. It is difficult to predict the long-term effects of forced displacement on relocated households in Beijing. Fried (1963) considered the mental effects of relocation in “Grieving for a Lost Home”.

He suggested that the dispersal of community prompted a “grief response showing most of the characteristics of grief and mourning for a lost person”, that widespread displacement may impose a “potential danger to mental health”, and that “grieving for a lost home is evidently a widespread and serious social phenomenon following in the wake of urban dislocation” (p. 167).

‘Clearly, everyday domicide is as systematic and widespread as the pursuit of economic interest. It has affected and will continue to affect large numbers of mostly powerless people, especially in the developing world. The murder of homes is an intentional act. Domicide violates and terrorizes its victims as bulldozers and cranes reduce their homes to rubble. It severs its victims’ lifetime attachment to homes and community and deprives them of the built environment that has shaped their

6

tradition and identity. It also wounds their sense of dignity.

Everyday domicide, in other words, in many ways cruelly redefines the existence of its victims and severely diminishes, if not destroys, the quality of their lives. Considering all of the immediate and lingering damage it causes, perhaps it is time to think of domicide as something beyond mere “moral evil”.’

(Shao 2013, p. 28) The process of urban displacement creates new housing opportunities for the middle-class, and generates wealth for developers and local governments, but for the majority engenders grief and suffering for a lost home and a lost community.

In the words of Moore (2012), “forced evictions are one of the biggest sources of discontent in China, especially since developers do not need to agree compensation with home owners before they start building”. The current model is so inadequate in addressing the needs of those affected, that some have resorted to extreme measures, such as self-destruction, to seek recognition of their victimisation (Moore, 2012).

“One measure of poor redress mechanisms and the desperation of victims of forced eviction in China is an unprecedented surge in protests by self-immolation. At least 41 individuals resisting eviction have set themselves on fire in protest since 2009.” (Amnesty International, 2012, p. 7) In this context, it is crucial to recognise and identify the true extent of the distress, to deal more effectively with the arising problems. These instances of evictions, protests and self-immolations demonstrate that when intervening in an existing neighbourhood, the uprooting of existing tenants, and the dispersal of an established community should be avoided6.

Displacements also alters their social network. In Chinese culture where social capital (guanxi) forms an integral aspect of modern Chinese life, (Gold and Guthrie, 2002, p. 4), dismantling the neighbourho od would be detrimental. Guanxi is so significant there is even a set of terms associated it, such as guanxixue (the art of using guanxi), guanxiwang (the scope of one’s social network), and la guanxi (the act of using guanxi).

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53. Posters in a hutong neighbourho ods in central Beijing threatening the perpetuators of illegal demolitions

54. Posters in a hutong neighbourho ods in central Beijing protesting and denouncing the perpetuators of illegal demolitions

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4.4 AN ALTERNATIVE FORM OF URBAN INTERVENTION

Urban redevelopments are costly and contentious affairs for the municipality. Compensation costs for appropriating the land are high; negotiating with the inhabitants can be tricky; navigating through their ambiguous property rights can prove difficult and dispute over land regeneration in prime locations can ignite unrest from all kinds of interested parties.

Current urban (re)development strategies cause emotional trauma to the original inhabitants. The new constructions mostly benefit a higher-income group by providing more commercial housing, and further marginalise the urban poor. They do not tackle the housing needs of migrants, nor the sociospatial segregation at a wider cityscale. It also does not provide a transitional period for the affected residents. Demolition and dislocation are implemented without consideration for the wellbeing of existing tenants prior to them receiving the compensation package. They are left to their own devices to find a place to stay. Thus the strategy should be to incorporate this concern during the construction phase. To minimise the impact on the community, the project may be gradually implemented in several phases rather than through a wholesale demolition.

On housing and urban renewal, Mumford advised to “experiment with small measures and small units, until you have the time to prepare better plans and to organise new public agencies to carry out those plans.” (Miller, 2002, p. 498) Nevertheless, this thesis argues that an unconventional system of urban renewal in the form of phased upgrading, densifying and building upon the existing architectural fabric, as opposed to destroying entire communities, is a viable strategy. It has potential to intensify low-density sites, and to introduce more people into existing urban areas (versus the expansion into the city fringe where the poor already congregate). It can provide much needed housing for Beijing’s burgeoning population, diversify the existing mix of tenants and thus facilitate cross-class social integration.

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55. A distraught woman who tried to protect her house from being demolished in Guangzhou

56. Nail houses on a construction site in Guangzhou

57. A “nailhouse in Zhejiang province

4.5. ACTORS IN THE LOCAL GROWTH MACHINE

“The city is, for those who count, a growth machine.” (Molotch, 1976, p. 311) In the field of urban theory, Molotch (1976) alluded that parcels of land were connected with specific interests such as business, remembrance and emotions. He also pointed out that actors who constitute “the local growth machine” are the most influential forces in the manipulation of urban space; these actors usually have a vested interest in the inflation of property values (Gottdiener, Budd and Lehtovuori, 2015).

Taking this argument into consideration, urban space ought to therefore be studied with reference to the administration and organisation implemented by these actors. In the context of Chinese urban renewal, there are three main actors at play: the local municipalities, developers and existing land users.

The tenants benefit the least, despite being affected the most.

58. Distribution of Income from Urban Land Redevelopment

The central state ceased fiscal allocation to local governments, so increasingly they have turned to land development and land-use sales as a source of revenue to fill the gap in funding (Zhang and Fang, 2003). Their “growth-machine” mentality is fuelled by the pressure to find resources for local governance. Hence local municipalities apply a developer-led approach to rehabilitate neighbourhoods (Wu, 2004).

Local state and developers generally share a similar ideology when it comes to transforming land for speculation, and hence economic growth has been the driving force behind such coalitions. Nevertheless, the state shoulders an additional set of responsibilities to the developer which can be a source of tension in their alliance because they are obliged to deliver on welfare and maintain social stability. The state prefers peaceful cooperation from the residents by offering new housing, whereas developers push for cash compensation as this is the shortest path towards use-right acquisition.

The conflicting views, interests, and uneven distribution of power and gains between the three actors means the current system warrants consideration.

To better understand the relationship between these three actors within the context of urban redevelopment, this thesis studies Ju’er Hutong project, an experimental, government-endorsed urban regeneration scheme in central Beijing.

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4.6. EXPERIMENTAL RENEWAL SCHEMES

Ju’er Hutong project was implemented when the country was still transitioning from a planned to a market economy. In this period, the needs of Ju’er residents were prioritised, and the exchange-value arising from urban land was the means, not the objective of its redevelopment. The project was initially considered a success due to its preferential treatment of the original tenants and thoughtful design (Campanella, 2008).

Problems emerged in the later phases, when the government’s role changed from gatekeeper to growth machine operator7, which eventually lead to its suspension. Zhang and Fang (2003) argue that the project stopped because local municipalities built “growth coalitions” that prioritised wealth accumulation over the needs of local residents. Consequently the original tenants affected in the later stages were forced out to the city edge. Ju’er Hutong was commodified, and its original social goals abandoned8.

The ignored needs and continual marginalisation of remaining inhabitants means that they have developed tactics to defend their interests and increase visibility of their victimization, for example by organising mass protests and a stubborn refusal to move, resulting in “nail-houses”. Therefore to navigate through the process successfully, tenants must be incentivised to engage in the redevelopment. This can be resolved by increasing the compensation package.

zhou where the government made a political concession by surrendering revenues and power for the renewal project to go ahead. In this particular example, the authorities incentivised land-users’ engagement by sharing out the profits from land redevelopment, previously dominated by the municipality.

This case study proves that land-use density can be increased in dilapidated neighbourhoods via “de facto local arrangements other than a wholesale privatization” (Lin, 2015).

Unfortunately, at present, civil empowerment and community engagement is perceived by the state and developers as an obstruction to the urban growth machine, rather than as constructive alliances for implementing a more socio-culturally sustainable form of urban redevelopment. For example, representatives from all three actors in the Ju’er Hutong project established a housing cooperative to collect supplementary funds for the construction, maintenance and management of Ju’er Hutong. The cooperative was created by the government and State-Owned-Enterprises rather than the residents, and hence its impact was restricted. It portrayed community engagement but actually held no clout to control the market-mentality which dwarfed the later phases of the project (Zhang and Fang, 2003).

Lin (2015) studies an urban rehabilitation project in Guang-

7

According to Molotch’s growth machine theory, the critical factors that enables the growth machine are the treatment of land as a commodity, a decentralised land-use power, and high financial stakes in real-estate from local elites. Research indicates that all three factors are present in China’s post-reform landscape, so Chinese cities are growth-machines that lobby for policy development and implementation for private interests, Beijing included (Zhu, 1999).

8 The tenants are not immune to market corruption. Ju’er’s original residents partici pated in this commoditisation process by leasing their rehabilitated homes out to the wealthy, while they lived in cheaper locations (Campanella, 2008).

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59. The Changing Role of Government in Ju’er Hutong Project

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60. The Status Quo of Urban Redevelopment Compared with the Guangzhou Case Study

4.7 STATE INTERVENTION

The preceding chapters have highlighted the disparity in housing neighbourhoods, the prevalence of informal settlements and the marginalisation of the urban poor. No single solution can address this issue. Previous proposed recommendations included eliminating the hukou system, to make the labour market and welfare distribution fairer; a more equal education system that does not discriminate against migrants; a better social insurance provision for the deprived, and last but not least, improved housing conditions for the marginalised poor (Song, Zhu and Mukhopadhyay, 2009).

In an era of frenzied urbanisation, high density-liv-

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ing and extreme socioeconomic disparity, should we comply to the status quo as fair and just, and accept it as a tolerable standard of living? Or should we declare the deplorable living conditions as a violation of human dignity, especially when contrasted with the unapologetic display of affluence in gated realms of privilege?

In a city swathed in wealth and opulence, it is arguably not acceptable for people to be living underground in obscure, unventilated spaces, nor for them to be dwelling in high-density dormitories without access to basic amenities like showers and functioning toilets.

4.8 COMPARISON BETWEEN SINGAPORE AND SOUTH KOREA

61. Trends in Housing Supply, 1980-1992

62. Index of Consumer Prices, 1982, 1986, 1990

In Singapore and South Korea, countries with similar forms of governance, the state adopted two different approaches in public housing provision, resulting in major discrepancies in their corresponding housing conditions. These two countries were chosen for comparison because they share the same political attributes as China, which is arguably another “developmental state”. According to Castells, Goh, and Kwok (1990), there is a positive correlation between housing development and capital accumulation in housing programs in Singapore and South Korea and state involvement; they suggest that the state’s intervention promoted “economic growth by lowering housing and labour costs” (Park, 1998). By studying the policies adopted by South Korea and Singapore, China could try to emulate such a path.

While South Korea consistently suffers from housing shortages, Singapore does not (figure 61). The statistics show that the housing supply ratio in South Korea has steadily decreased, whereas Singapore’s housing supply ratio has dramatically increased, with an oversupply in 1989 of 2.91%. South Korea suffers from high increases in housing prices due to land and housing speculation, while Singapore in contrast does not, as shown in figure 62.

The Singapore state has intervened in the housing development to a greater degree than the Korean’s government, as demonstrated by its government’s expenditure on housing (figure 63). According to Goh (1988), Singapore manages the biggest public housing program in terms of the share of inhabitants residing in public housing, with 85% of Singapore’s population lives in public housing at affordable prices (Park, 1998).

Minimal investment in the public housing provision by the South Korean state, and state intervention in landownership and real estate speculation is the reason why housing conditions are inferior to Singapore, where the state heavily invested in the public housing provision and remained the country’s principal landowner.

Strong state intervention in public housing provision policies is beneficial for a nation’s social development, as clearly demonstrated by the housing conditions enjoyed by Singapore’s citizens, when | 63 |

contrasted to those of South Koreans.

Therefore, if China wants to enjoy better housing conditions for its citizens, such as the Singaporean population, the state needs to intercede. When state intervention in the housing sector is reduced and the housing provision is left to market forces, a series of negative social consequences will ensue.

The analysis of contemporary city conditions reveals a serious gap in the housing provision for migrants and low-income workers. If it is desirable to be an equal and liveable city, Beijing needs to provide for, and encourage the social integration of all classes. To achieve this, there is a clear need for politicians, planners and architects to find a way to restructure the existing cityscape. There is clearly an urgent need for the state to fulfil this gap.

The analysis of contemporary city conditions reveals a serious gap in the housing provision for migrants and low-income workers. If it is desirable to be an equal and liveable city, Beijing needs to provide for, and encourage the social integration of all classes. To achieve this, there is a clear need for politicians, planners and architects to find a way to restructure the existing cityscape. Taking everything into consideration, there is clearly an urgent need for the state to fulfil this gap.

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63. Government expenditure on housing, 1986

5

PHASED INTENSIFICATION, RE-IMAGINED COLLECTIVISM, REFORMED POLITICAL ALLIANCES 5.1 THE IDENTIFIED URBAN ISSUES

The conditions outlined in preceding pages have revealed three key issues facing Beijing, within the wider challenges of socioeconomic inequality. These could be addressed through new planning policies, property arrangements and new forms of architectural intervention.

The gap in housing provision for the migrant population, the urban poverty trap, and the segregation between people from different strata of society, preventing human interactions between the different groups, all contribute towards the city-wide sociospatial segregation. These have transformed Beijing into an increasingly inequitable city for living.

By examining the existing conditions in housing typologies, we can establish what the successful characteristics are and apply them to improve on the less successful typologies. The end result will not solve Beijing’s emerging urban inequalities but it seeks to initiate a dialogue on potential possibilities, a step in the right direction towards making Beijing a more egalitarian city.

Taking the analysis into consideration, this section of the thesis speculates what the characteristics that are recommended in a residential compound in the context of Beijing’s neoliberal urbanisation might be, and outlines a procurement strategy for the realisation of the project. In

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particular this project focuses on the rehabilitation of dilapidated work-unit housing, in the rundown danwei residential compound known as the Keyuan Community, located in the Haidian district of Beijing. The Keyuan Community encompasses all the physical and technical issues found across the city’s former work-unit neighbourhoods. It is equally useful in providing a legislative framework, as the issues of disputed property rights, market-orientated incentives, political alliances and social engagement are present and can thus be discussed.

This thesis considers it more important to address the urban renewal process for danwei neighbourhoods rather than urban villages, due to the extra difficulties in negotiation and a difference in compensation packages received by its respective residents.

Redeveloping properties, formerly owned by a work-unit, can be a highly contentious process. The ambiguous property rights act as a layer of legal protection against forced displacement. The work-unit is unwilling to upset residents in the compound due to the web of personal relationships forged over the years. What is more, the residents are unwilling to co-operate because their compensation outcome is uncertain without a clear set of rights. Therefore, problems related to forced demolition, unfair compensation and social injustice could transpire in this context of ambiguity.

5.2. PRINCIPLES OF NEW URBANISM

For Mumford (1963), the city acted as a place where interactions could weld into meaningful relationships. His interpretation of urban life shaped a cohort of Urbanists, such as William H. Whyte, and Jane Jacobs (1961) who advocated walkable cities and an active street life. Jacobs (1961), a prominent advocate for the “neighbourhood” ideology argued that human activities on the street level are the backbone to a healthy city.

The design principles of the New Urbanism approach encom-

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pass the following characteristics: •A sensible mix of functions and activities within walking distance such as residential, commercial, employment, educational and recreational spaces.

•The formation of small communities situated along mass transit links (Katz, 2014).

•A neighbourhood ought to have a “centre” and an “edge”, and these should be less than a quarter of a mile apart (LeGates and Stout, 2003).

•The neighbourhood should have a network of well-connected streets to promote a pedestrian culture to encourage social encounters, and make travelling a more efficient and pleasant experience.

•The design ought to provide public spaces for the gathering of people.

•The design needs to be high in density, to make the resources more efficient; density means a more compact organisation of different functions, making walking more convenient, decreasing reliance on the use of cars, and more emphasis on walking/pedestrian activity.

•Residential design needs to be a mixture of different housing typologies geared towards a spectrum of income groups.

These principles essentially argue for a return to a human-scale urban landscape, by promoting a more compact, pedestrian-orientated style of living, where daily necessities are within walking distance that offers an abundant array of shared spaces: all these factors accumulate to foster a culture of sociability.

5.3. OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTERVENTION

Given the identified issues of Beijing’s sociospatial segregation, housing shortage for an overlooked migrant population, and poor living conditions for a large sector of its society, this thesis argues that the principles of New Urbanism are a reasonable response to the city’s emerging problems. This thesis finds an opportunity in former danwei compounds such as the Keyuan Community as a fertile site for intervention. The living conditions are in disrepair and in need of upgrading; they are conveniently situated, close to everyday conveniences and have excellent transport connections to the rest of the city.

Research shows that the proximity to nearby transport links attenuates the mobility restrictions of groups who do not have access to cars. It is important for migrants to easily reach their place of work. Kim (2016) in her study shows that low-income migrant workers prioritise rent price and location over living conditions because it allows them to accumulate savings and save on commuting time. Therefore the success of any proposed housing strategy for migrants, and the retention of this group, is contingent on the proximity to their employment.

The tenants are composed of a marginalised sector of society, they are almost continuously threatened by demolition and evictions; and given their contentious use-rights and insecure tenure, they are often treated unfairly in the process of redevelopment. Thus any proposed changes to such neighbourhoods that attempt to redistribute the benefits of urban upgrading would be an improvement on the status quo.

The key issue in a neighbourhood like Keyuan Community from the perspective of its sitting tenants are its deplorable living conditions. At present, the site is made up of buildings constructed between 1950s and 1980s, all in varying stages of decay. Living conditions need to be improved as a matter of urgency – a minimum area for an individual, access to essential services which allow for mundane daily activities to take place, and a private space, however compact, without sacrific-

ing human dignity.

Any proposal to alter the site would of course affect the residents of the neighbourhood, and the issue of how to improve and densify an existing environment, without the simultaneous destruction of its urban and social fabric needs to be addressed.

This thesis recognises the problems that emerge as a result of wholesale demolition and displacement in the normal models of redevelopment in danwei compounds. Previous analyses have highlighted the negative consequences born out of the destruction of the sociospatial fabric of a neighbourhood.

For that reason the proposal recommends small-scale interventions, implemented in phases so as not to affect the entire community at the same time. Within the Keyuan Community, the project focuses on a series of single storey buildings which occupy valuable land and, which if densified, could contribute towards the housing stock. Therefore this paper proposes the removal of single storey buildings as the initial phase of the proposal, to allow for the construction of higher-density homes to shelter the displaced tenants in the subsequent phases. This allows for the complete preservation of the Keyuan Community’s social fabric, as none of the people have to be evicted.

The demolished bungalows are mostly small businesses such as convenience shops and small eateries. As part of phase one, the scheme suggests the design of a series of modules to act as pop-up stores as a space for the displaced shop-owners to move into. This way the community gets to keep their local conveniences without sacrificing land density.

To encourage a greater social diversity to alleviate segregation, the proposal recommends a mix of different income groups for the densified neighbourhood. The success of the proposed strategy hinges on the introduction of a higher-income population, the provision for an often overlooked migrant popu| 67 |

64. Congregations around an outdo or gym in Keyuan Community

65. Congregations around open spaces in Keyuan Community

66. Bungalows marked for demolition

68. Three-storey flats in Keyuan Community

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67. Bungalows used as shops

69. Four-storey dormitories in Keyuan Community

70. Six-storey flat

71. Chinese Society In Terms Of Income

lation, and the retention of the original receiving community.

Mixed-income houses within the same compound engenders cross-class alliances, something which does not currently happen in residential sectors in Beijing, as different socioeconomic groups hide away in their respective dwellings. In reforming this trend, this project seeks to nurture an atmosphere of geniality between disparate socioeconomic groups, and create opportunities for the assimilation of an urban poor, especially the migrant population who presently face multifaceted exclusion.

To address the shortage of affordable housing for the overlooked migrants, this project proposes intensifying the original site via the addition of compact dwellings. The compact nature of the space would be compensated for by the provision of shared living spaces. The analysis of the migrants’ shared micro-residences in urban villages and basement shelters shows that, although not ideal, we can expect willingness of people to live communally in compact accommodation if such ideologies can be implemented in a more sustainable manner than the status quo.

“Urban compaction, or intensification is acceptable, in fact desirable, in order to help urban economic regeneration, make cities more lively, induce less use of the car…” (Hall and Ward, 2014, p. 183) Alongside the addition of compact dwellings geared towards the migrant population, this scheme also proposes the incorporation of a broader range of mixed housing for middle- and high-income groups. However it should be acknowledged that the introduction of a wealthier populace could lead to gentrification, in which the original lower-income group is displaced. To prevent this from happening, a housing co-operative ought to be established as a stopping mechanism. The housing co-operative would have the responsibility of recruiting the new residents and would also exist to ensure the tenant make-up adheres to a certain quota. This thesis proposes that the community should be composed of 40% middle- to upper-middle income, 35% lower-middle income and 25% low-income and migrant workers. This proposed structure is based on the existing composition of Chinese society in terms of income (Lü et al., 2001).

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The integration of disparate social classes, and the process of knowing one’s neighbours would engender greater neighbourhood safety. A study by Bellair (1997) found that neighbourly gatherings at a frequency of over once a year, reduced burglary, car theft and robbery rates in the area.

“Residents of communities where a large proportion of residents know and interact with neighbors appear to be more likely to engage in surveillance, develop movement-governing rules, and intervene in local disturbances regardless of how frequently they interact.” (Bellair, 1997) In contemporary privileged compounds, there is a tendency towards fewer neighbourly interactions, thus reducing the likeliness of social monitoring, and increased reliance on hired guards and surveillance equipment. But in hutong districts and former danwei compounds, where a sense of community existed, safety comes from social monitoring and knowing one’s neighbours, decreasing the likeliness of crime.

To establish a well-functioning community, communal spaces and mixed-use facilities are needed in the compound within the vicinity of the neighbourhoods’ residents to allow for a spatial-temporal crossover to occur. Design-wise, this humanistic urbanism can foster communication between the new residents and the receiving population, thus promoting social integration. Therefore the strategy proposed in this thesis combines a range of facilities such as convenience stores and eateries.

Another facet of building, site and neighbourhood safety refers to the structural integrity of the buildings and whether they meet safety regulations such as fire-control and ventilation. In rundown neighbourhoods such as the Keyuan Community, high-density living, coupled with no maintenance of the buildings means that it is unlikely that they adhere to contemporary safety regulations. This reinforces the idea that they should be upgraded. | 70 |

Jacobs’ idealistic neighbourhood encompasses mixed residencies and commercial enterprises that are active at all times.

Jacobs’ point of reference was Greenwich Village in Manhattan, a neighbourhood with a mixed population. She found that the diverse range of residents, coupled with customers from local businesses led to a continuous flow of pedestrian traffic on the streets. Interestingly, the crime rate in the neighbourhood was unexpectedly low, and violent crimes were rare.

Jacobs reasoned that this was a result of an active street life throughout the day and night; therefore populated neighbourhoods discourage crime and project an image of a healthy city. “…a city exists, not for the constant passage of motorcars, but for the care and culture of men.” (Mumford, 1963) The spatial configuration of Beijing’s developing landscapes is increasingly geared towards the car. It has come to dominate the streetscapes and thoroughfares of Beijing. The impact of car-ownership cannot be underestimated. To be in possession of one in a Chinese city, essentially changes one’s routine; where a person eats, shops, works and spends their time of leisure is effectively transformed, given that a car hinders access to certain parts of the city, while facilitating access to others.

For example, car users will often avoid the downtown areas due to congestion, and a shortage of parking spaces, however they are much more willing to drive to the outskirts for leisure which can be inaccessible to those without a car.

Some have disputed the use of terms such as “community” and “neighbourhood” in the contemporary context of the internet age and cars. They argue that today’s generation has access to social ties that are more spread-out than the generation Jane Jacobs was writing for, with the internet and increased availability of cars at their disposal. Social contact no longer needs neighbourhood propinquity, nor a physical presence (Graham, 2004). On the other hand, this argument does not recognise the requirements of a marginalised group; they have been found to have a greater need for localised space than the

well-off.

In the context of this thesis, the urban poor identified in Chinese cities, including the disabled, the elderly, the retired and those who do not own a car, are disadvantaged in a motor-orientated city. They also face the greatest need for social contact and neighbourly help. New developments do not encourage this community formation. These groups of people face restricted mobility so a localised neighbourhood is more appropriate. Therefore a spatial design at a human scale promotes neighbourly relations and mixed use functions is important to all, especially a large sector of society identified as the urban poor.

The principles of New Urbanism is a sensible response to the issues of fragmentation and sociospatial segregation in contemporary large cities like Beijing. However the supporters of such movement are captivated by its ideology that they have forgotten the “physicallist fallacy” (Gottdiener, Budd and Lehtovuori, 2015, p. 99), a critique of planners being only concerned with the technical and physical modification of built spaces. Critics state that planners wrongfully take the assumption that “social and cultural patterns of interaction can be successfully manipulated merely by proper design of the phys-

ical environment” (Pipkin, Gory and Blau, 1983). Architectural proposals for transforming urban space, and societal development are not enough; an understanding of the political, cultural and economic influences that shape the society is crucial. This thesis recognises and stresses the key considerations that might need confronting to resolve the wider urban issues of social stratification in the current housing system and finds that the challenges cannot be resolved merely through design.

5.4 LAND ACQUISITION

The issue of land acquisition, a major obstacle under the current land governance system, needs to be tackled in order to explore the project proposal on the Keyuan Community. Under current legislation, the land within urban areas is owned by the state. In 1986, the Land Administration Act legalised the transfer of land-use right transfer between urban land-users. In addition, Article 4 decrees that any person or company can transfer or let their land-use right as long as it is within the usage period. It can then safely be assumed that the use-rights in the Keyuan Community are transferable on condition that the land-users are willing to engage.

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5.5. TENURE INSECURITY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

The risk of development and gentrification is a constant threat hanging over neighbourhoods such as the Keyuan Community. To achieve security and safety from displacement, the community has to rally together and engage with the upgrade and maintenance of their own neighbourhood. The state and developer’s attitudes need to be challenged., Neighbourhoods need to be viewed as sites that require social improvement, and a vehicle for reducing sociospatial inequality, rather than as profit-generating assets.

Under the current system, redeveloping a former state-owned compound involves land transfer, whereby the local government appropriates the land, reimburses an expropriation fee to the affected residents and trades the use-rights to the land for a fee to account for the expropriation, administration and land conveyance. The land conveyance fee is the profit produced, which is swallowed up by the local municipality. Thus the main objection from the community has been the legal and institutional structure which permitted the local state to swallow all the profits at the sacrifice of the existing community (Lin, 2015).

Any sort of alteration to the site will require co-operation from the tenants; they must be incentivised to engage in the redevelopment through fairer compensation, as shown in a case study in Guangzhou (Lin, 2015). This thesis recommends that tenants be offered a share of the land conveyance fee to incentivise their engagement and pacify any potential discontent. This policy however is somewhat limited by the prevailing profit-driven attitudes of the local state and developers, which could be tackled by establishing a housing co-operative to provide the community with a negotiating platform.

72. Application Process for Using Existing Land

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5.6. HOUSING CO-OPERATIVE, FUNDING & THE ROLE OF THE STATE

“If any change is to occur, this may come from the increasing pressure to involve homeowners, whose numbers have grown substantially in the reform era.” (Shin, 2008) This thesis recommends the establishment of a housing co-operative to safeguard the interests of the danwei residents. Experience from the Ju’er Hutong tells us that their influence may be limited when it is formed as a coalition with developers and state officials. Therefore under this proposal the housing co-operative ought to be run by the residents themselves to guarantee that community members’ voices are heard. The composition of the housing co-operative should consist of those who live in, and are a part of, the community, including migrant renters without official use-rights. They deserve a right to participate because they too would be affected, and their continued marginalisation could lead to social discontent. The migrants’ participation in the compensation negotiations could be one of many steps in encouraging their integration into urban society.

To gain negotiating power the co-operative could shoulder financial responsibility, by being responsible for the recruitment of new residents whose purchases of commodity housing would finance the neighbourhood upgrades.

At present, the principal source of funding in the Chinese urban development model has privileged alternative methods (from the sale of land-use rights, and private investment), so other funding methods need to be considered, like the earning power of the introduced new residents. The proposal may implement strategies from the Ju’er Hutong project, in which money was generated by selling commercial units at market price. In the more successful phases of Ju’er’s execution, forty-six units were constructed, sixteen of which were sold at market rate (35% of new units) which managed to cover the project’s overall development costs.

The state should also intervene in the current model of housing provision, but recalibrate their motives and role to the gate-keeper from growth machine operator in the upgrade process. Their engagement is important because, as discussed in the comparison case between Singapore and South Korea, state mediation poses significant repercussions on the quality and state of housing enjoyed by its countrymen, and if left to market forces, severe inequality would ensue.

The state needs to re-evaluate its stance on housing provision, and take into account the needs of the migrant group. They especially need to alter their attitude towards the urban poor in the face of redevelopment projects whereby the developers evict the original residents through forced relocation under the complete demolition of a neighbourhood, or via the gentrification of an organically-grown community.

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73. Redevelopment Programmes: The Status Quo

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74. Outline of New Proposed Strategy

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6

Conclusion

Housing conditions vary greatly across the Chinese cityscape. Villas, gated compounds, realms of privilege secluded in a world of transported fantasy sit on one end of the spectrum, and an alternative world of ad-hoc extensions, windowless basements and rundown dormitories reside on the other end. The disparity in the current housing system is a reflection of the nation’s widening socioeconomic gap, stemming from China’s institutional system, economic reforms and recent changes to its land and housing policies. China’s unique Household Registration system, whereby the country’s population is classified as belonging to a hierarchy of urban or rural citizens is accompanied by distinctive levels of welfare entitlements. This status-based discrimination means that the benefits of the previous socialist housing system were reaped by urban citizens.

Institutional reform changed the attitudes of local states, as they were made responsible for procuring the funds to provide social welfare for citizens under their jurisdiction. The land and housing restructuring allowed land-use rights to be traded as a commodity and housing to be commercialised. These reforms triggered a shift in attitude by the local state; the reforms transformed their role from welfare-providers to growth machine operators. Along the way, urbanisation developed into a profit-making process.

The market-driven sociospatial transformations have been investigated on the national level, with particular reference to Beijing, the cultural and political heart of China. Neoliberal urbanisation has been on the rise in Beijing, with urban redevelopment at the forefront, both as a strategy to tackle economic stagnancy and to upgrade the appearance of rundown neighbourhoods (He and Wu, 2009). Urban redevelopment in China is a value-laden process where power is unfairly (re) distributed. Recent housing and land reforms have corrupted the social agenda behind renewal schemes into a speculative form of growth, coherent with Molotch’s growth machine theory.

The housing system and urban redevelopment have been most unjust to the urban poor, particularly the migrant workers who constitute a significant component of this social group. The migrants face multifaceted marginalisation in an era of frenzied urbanisation, and a sustained exclusion from the housing market. A proliferation of market-driven urban renewals has only worsened their circumstances. Demolition of the sociospatial fabric and forced eviction generated discontent amongst the urban poor, and destroyed one of the few housing options available to the migrants. These evictions are a source of discontent, sometimes leading to extreme acts of defiance. | 76 |

The absence of an adequate housing scheme in the city remains the principal barrier to migrants’ integration into urban society. Their labour and skills have proven to be vital for the development of the economy and the city, so there is an urgent need to include this disenfranchised population into urban society, for the economic development of the city. Furthermore, a large group of marginalised migrants and discontented displacees could cause social problems such as rises in crime, social unrest and protests that challenge the government.

the outset of the development to negotiate terms on behalf of the affected community. The housing co-operative’s negotiating power would come from their accountability to procure funding, the responsibility of determining the future resident make-up, and from playing an active role in the planning permit application process.

The civil empowerment of the normally marginalised group gives them a voice to engender changes that may turn their site into a more sustainable and integrated form of social and mixed-tenure housing.

Through an examination of experimental renewal projects, this thesis finds effective mechanisms to prevent the erosion of rights and displacement of the urban poor. This thesis proposes phased densification and upgrading of existing buildings in a neighbourhood, as part of the solution to addressing the housing needs of the migrants. The proposal is different from the current renewal system which flattens the existing city, obliterates land-rights and changes the community composition. It seeks to densify the existing housing stock, introduce a higher-income population, and a migrant population into dilapidated housing compounds as a way to create social integration between different socioeconomic groups. The strategy may help alleviate sociospatial fragmentation, improve living conditions for the sitting tenants in the designated site and simultaneously increase the housing stock and bridge the gap in migrant housing provision.

The principles of New Urbanism are recommended as part of the design framework outlined in this project. These ideologies can be traced back to older Chinese typologies- in the density of hutong neighbourhoods, the spatial configuration of danwei housing, and in the mixed use facilities in the miniature city of the work-unit.

Using the Keyuan Community as a test-bed for ideologies, this thesis finds that small-scale interventions are more likely to succeed as they avoid the wholesale destruction of a neighbourhood’s original urban and social fabric and assimilate a new population group.

This thesis recognises the challenge of proposing any alterations to existing neighbourhoods, in the context of Beijing’s neoliberal urbanisation, and the limitations imposed by the ambiguous landuse rights and tenure of existing residents. The principal difficulty lies in the incentives and market-driven mentality of both the municipality and the developer, the two most influential actors in any development process. This thesis outlines how this proposal might take place at a strategic level, under a new structure of political alliances and procurement of funding, with reference to the Keyuan Community.

In the proposed project, the developer and local municipality take on a more passive role, and a housing co-operative is established at

This thesis recognises and stresses the key considerations that might need confronting in order to resolve the wider urban issues of social stratification in the current housing system and finds that the challenges cannot be resolved through design alone, but architecture can facilitate that process by enabling the implementation of more inclusive policies. A more holistic approach towards densification and upgrading that starts to revise and rethink some of the prevailing larger-scale legislative policymaking processes in the current model is required.

Whilst this project does not provide a complete solution, in highlighting the existing cultural, political and economic conditions and its respective limitations, this thesis initiates a discourse on the possible planning policies and implementation strategies that can engender a more nuanced and just form of change. My continued design research will seek to advance on building a sustainable model of urban development to create a more inclusive Beijing.

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