Urban Pixilation_Critical Evaluation of Renovation of Village in the City in Guangzhou and Shenzhen by Pan Jialin

URBAN PIXILATION Critical Evaluation of Renovation of Village in the City in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, China Jialin Pan Registration number: 160197564 MArch Dissertation 2017 Sheffield School of Architecture

CONTENT

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Setting Academic Definition

Urban Village in the Shadow of Metropolis: Shipa Village

Why should the ViCs be renovated?

METHODOLOGY

Aims & Research Questions

Methodology

CASE STUDIES

Brief Introduction of Cases

Liede Village: 'Redevelopment-by-demolition'

Dafen Village: Redevelopment by Architectural Intervention

CROSS-CASE COMPARSION

ALTERNATIVE REDEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL

Hypothesis of an Alternative Approach

A role model of Generic Development: Gangsha Village

CONCLUSION

The Response of the Research Question

Limitation and Further Research

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX

Acknowledgment I would like to thank my supervisor Leo Care for his continual support and guidance, as well as Wang Wei and some villagers, for all agreeing to be interviewed for my research.

Abstract Rapid urbanisation in China causes a thorny phenomenon called Village in the City (hereafter ViC), which means a less-developing region surrounded by the developed metropolis. Guangzhou and Shenzhen as an economic driver in Southern China have various issues brought by ViCs. This investigation aims to explore redevelopment approaches to solve political issues, urban issues and social issues of ViCs. This paper concentrates on analysing four different representative cases with varying patterns of renovation, ranging from no intervention to wholescale redevelopment, namely Shipai village, Liede village, Dafen village and Gangsha village. By understanding their renovation mechanism and describing the present condition, we can critically evaluate what redevelopment proposal can cope with ViCs of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, moreover, whether the findings can be generalised.

Introduction

Figure 1: The map of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. (Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s illustration)

Figure 2: Main Exhibition of Shanghai Urban Space Art Season in 2015 (URL: http://www.urbanus. com.cn/events/main-exhibition-of-shanghai-urban-space-art-season-2015/?lang=en)

Introduction Throughout history, expanding cities, namely urbanisation, have always run over villages, hamlets and estates gardens that constitute the countryside. When urban growth is moderate and rural region is gradually developed, the transition from agricultural to urban should be gentle (Wang, 2011). However, China has a storm of modern urbanisation after the Chinese Economic Reform. Chinese rural area has been turned into city instantly and mercilessly. It forms a peculiar and particular

Wang, S., 2011. From village to metropolis: a case of morphological transformation in Guangzhou, China. International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF).

Chinese phenomenon that a substandard region is surrounded by developed urban blocks (Wang, 2011). As the Special Economic Zone of Pearl River Delta (figure1), city governments of Guangzhou and Shenzhen have enthusiasm for solving various issues brought by those less-developing regions. Architects and urban design

Wang, S., 2011. From village to metropolis: a case of morphological transformation in Guangzhou, China. International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF).

practitioners view Guangzhou and Shenzhen as experimental land to test renovation proposals which can redevelop substandard district (De Meulder et al., 2014).

De Meulder, B., Lin, Y. and Shannon, K. 2014. Village in the city. ZuĚ&#x2C6;rich: Park Books.

I participated in 2015 Main Exhibition of Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (figure 2) in Shanghai during my one-year out. This exhibition aimed to activate architects' inspiration about regenerating less-developing region within Chinese metropolis. Gathered architects and design organisations expected to rethink the contemporary urbanisation in China and investigate innovated approaches to solve the thorny problems about substandard areas. My dissertation will attempt to continue research on this topic firstly through setting an academic background and definition.

Academic Background

-Setting Academic Definition

-Urban village in the shadow of the metropolis: Shipai Village

-Why should the ViCs be renovated?

-Setting Academic Definition When taking an overview of the Google map of Guangzhou and Shenzhen in China, there are some areas with a traditional urban fabric that are obviously distinct. In comparison with the regularity, the grid layout, and the big blocks of city planning, these areas appear to be messy, serried and fragmented, rather like pixilation on the map (Figure 3). Those areas are the so-called “Chengzhongcun” (Village in the City, hereafter ViC). The term can be literally explained as a village encircled by city boundaries. A more scholarly definition of ViC is an undeveloped part of a city that is overshadowed by the more developed areas (Peng & Beak, 2014, p143).

Xue ni Peng and Jin Beak, "From Native To Outlander: Exploring Informal Community In Chengzhongcun Of China", Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis, vol. VI,2, 2014 (2014), 143-160.

There are three direct causes relevant to the appearance of contemporary ViC in Guangzhou: 1) the urban extension; 2) China’s dual land system; 3) and the great tide of migration from rural areas (De Meulder et al., 2014, p22).

De Meulder, B., Lin, Y. and Shannon, K. 2014. Village in the city. Zürich: Park Books Press.

Due to the implementation of economic reform over the past twenty years, Chinese urbanism has faced the dual pressures of substantial growth in the demand for labour and the dramatic expansion of urban space which imposes on the surrounding arable land of the countryside (Li et al., 2014, p299). For instance, as a regional capital city in one of the most developed regions in China, Guangzhou has dramatically increased its urbanised territory from 136km² in 1980 to 7,433 km² in 2016 (Zhou, 2016). Therefore, most of the ViCs in Guangzhou and Shenzhen have undergone a procedure of urban expropriation with a corresponding loss of agricultural land, which transformed these areas into a multifunctional urban quarter. However, remnants of these villages where local peasants reside still exist. This is

Ling hin Li and others, "Redevelopment Of Urban Village In China-A Step Towards An Effective Urban Policy? A Case Study Of Liede Village In Guanghzou", Habitat International, 0197 (2014), 299-308. Zhihua Zhou, "Towards Collaborative Approach? Investigating The Regeneration Of Urban Village In Guangzhou, China", Habitat International, 0197 (2016), 297-305.

a unique phenomenon whereby city developers have taken over the entire village’s farmland, but have left the village dwelling area within the urban territory (Figure 4). The cause of this phenomenon is understood to be the outcome of the Chinese dual land system. The dual urban-rural system of land policy legally divided the land into two ownership systems where urban land became the property of the state, while rural homesteads are owned by village collectives. Hence, the municipal authority is indifferent to providing both public services and legal restrictions to ViCs (Wei & Yan, 2005, p10).

Lihua Wei and Xiaopei Yan, "Transformation Of Urban Village And Feasible Mode", Planning Studies, 1002 (2005), 9-56.

Figure 3.1: The Google Map of Village in the City in Guangzhou

Figure 3.2: The Google Map of Village in the City in Shenzhen.

Figure 4: A diagrammatic representation of the development of ViC. (Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s illustration).

Villagers who lost their farmland are challenged to participate in the formal urban labour market, due to lack of the appropriate work skills (Huang, 2011). Urbanisation and the pressures of supporting families have forced villagers to transform their remaining land into any possible real estate opportunity to meet the needs of the

Huang, Y. 2011. Five Issues of Affordable Housing in Guangzhou. New Express Daily, 25 March. Http://news.xkb.com. cn/guangzhou/2011/0325/126519.html

market economy. Eventually, these informal housing developments became the areas identified earlier on the google maps in Figure 3.1 and 3.2, high-density fragmentary housing with a chaotic arrangement on the site. Before studying the renovation of ViC, it is necessary to understand the present condition of urban villages.

-Urban village in the shadow of the metropolis: Shipai Village Faced with the pressure of rapid urban transformation, what has been happening in the urban villages over the past twenty years? What is the present condition of ViCs in Guangzhou and Shenzhen? As the biggest and oldest urban village in Guangzhou, Shipai Village is located in the bustling city centre without any formal renovation. This village was visited and is used as a typical example to comprehend the present building typology of ViCs. Shipai village is also the origin of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Handshake Buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This term is used to refer to rental housing where the residents living in two opposite buildings can shake hands with each other through the window (Figure 5) (Gao & Dong, 2006, p.21). The villagers developed the small plots into very high structures to maximise rental

Feng Gao and Xiaofeng Dong, "An Overview Of The Studies On City Village In China", China Academic Journal, 1009 (2006), 20-24.

income, without obtaining any form of planning permission. This results in a very high construction density in Shipai.

Figure 5.1: Handshake buildings with a commercial ground floor (Author’s picture). Figure 6.1: Axonometric view of Shipai village and single apartment (Author’s illustration).

Figure 5.2: Construction works everywhere without any protective strategies in Shipai village. As the constructors said, they downloaded the construction drawings from a design institute’s website and adapted them to their private plot, aiming to get more rent (Author’s picture).

Furthermore, a cross-section of buildings in Shipai shows that the main type of rental accommodation in the ViC is multi-storey (Figure 6). Stefan (2011) illustrated that the majority of illegal self-built houses are concrete-frame structures, which allow the villagers to flexibly partition independent zones for different functions (Figure 7). This

Al, S., Shan, P.C.H., Juhre, C., Valin, I. and Wang, C. eds., 2014. Villages in the City: A Guide to South China's Informal Settlements (Vol. 1). Hong Kong University Press.

arrangement is intended to achieve high profits and optimise rents, and the ground floor is generally used for commercial purposes such as retailers, snack bars, barber shops, etc., with the upper levels used for accommodation. The ViC is not merely a place for surviving but performs a specific set of functions for a shifting population to become a more productive labour force (Doug, 2011, p10).

Doug Saunders, Arrival City, 1st edn (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2012).

Figure 6.2: Section of buildings in Shipai shows the common building typology in ViCs (Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s illustration).

Figure 7: Flexible use of buildings in Chinese ViCs. Edited by Author. Reference: Al, S., Shan, P.C.H., Juhre, C., Valin, I. and Wang, C. eds., 2014. Villages in the City: A Guide to South China's Informal Settlements (Vol. 1). Hong Kong University Press pp.156.

-Why should the ViCs be renovated? Yuan9 (2010) proposed three separate groups of issues that prompt the consideration of regenerating ViCs. These are urban issues, social issues and political issues.

Wei Yuan, "A Comparative Study In The Domestic Transformation Modes Of Village In City", east China economic management, 24 (2010), 60-67.

The urban issues relating to ViC concern the low quality of living conditions and the inadequate infrastructure. For instance, in Shipai village, over 50,000 migrants live with roughly 10,000 locals within an area of only 40 hectares6 (Huang, 2011). This terrific high density results in over 170 narrow alleys (average 1.5m width) and only one main road (around 3m). Besides the bad living conditions, this anxious situation with ViC buildings results in difficult emergency evacuation and inaccessibility for rescue operations 9 (Yuan, 2010).

Huang, Y. 2011. Five Issues of Affordable Housing in Guangzhou. New Express Daily, 25 March. URL: http://news.xkb. com.cn/guangzhou/2011/0325/126519. html Wei Yuan, "A Comparative Study In The Domestic Transformation Modes Of Village In City", east China economic management, 24 (2010), 60-67.

Secondly, due to the overall low living costs, the urban village gradually self-built shelters for low-income migrant workers. With loose management, a large population influx can cause tough social issues, especially when the newcomers (migrants) are stereotyped as intruders. The identity of the ViC is situated in an ambivalent position. From a legal perspective, the ViC is not a part of the city nether a place for migrants. The inhabitants of the ViC normally treat the area as a gateway to the city and do not form any attachment or sense of belonging with the place. Political issues provide the third reason to place the renovation of ViCs on the agenda. Since the ViC is the first stop for migrants, it is seen predominantly as a receptacle for the underprivileged. Its chaotic and disordered fabric clashes with the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;well-designedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; metropolitan aesthetics. Thus the ViC is a sensitive political issue for city officials who wish their city to be considered as a high standard world-class metropolis. As result of the above three sets of issues, local authorities in Chinese first-tier cities have scheduled ViCs for demolition and redevelopment. This dissertation focuses on the ViCs in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Methodology

-Aims & Research Questions

-Methodology

-Aims & Research Question At present, more than 700 urban villages were found in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the highly urbanised city areas of China in 2012 (Zhou, 2014). With this background, the questions ‘What kind of proposals can regenerate the villages in the city?’ and ‘How can this work?’ are discussed in the following work. Through the study of representative redevelopment cases, the dissertation critically evaluates two existing renovation modes of Chinese ViCs, the conventional approach (Liede village) and the pioneer approach (Dafen village), and also considers whether alternative solutions exist.

Zhihua Zhou, "Towards Collaborative Approach? Investigating The Regeneration Of Urban Village In Guangzhou, China", Habitat International, 0197 (2014), 297-305.

-Methodology Three sources of information are used in this research. First of all, the analysis of different cases provides an essential approach to the observation during the fieldwork, together with professional assessment from published materials and also the opinions of native users collected through conversation. These viewpoints can be used to describe the renovation approaches in China and provide support to the cross-case comparison. The field visit to Guangzhou and Shenzhen took place in 25th.August to 2nd.September 2017. Secondly, an interview with the former project managers of a redevelopment project in Liede provided valuable information. Wang Wei (27.08.2017) supplied the renovation schedule documentation of Liede redevelopment project. This is a valuable reference to understand the formal procedure of a redevelopment proposal. Interviews were also held with native residents in ViC, and selected information from these conversations is used to represent conditions in the ViC. Transcripts of all the interviews are included in Appendix 2. The third source of data is quantitative. Besides the general data available from the official government website for Guangzhou and Shenzhen, data was also collected from questionnaires distributed in Shipai, Liede and Dafen villages. The aims were 1) to find out how the village structure influenced the residents; 2) to identify the inherent issues with urban villages; and 3) to identify the expectations relating to the village renovation. Fifteen people completed this questionnaire in each village and the questionnaire is presented in Appendix 1. This research utilises interviews where permission was obtained, and published readings with appropriate references. There is no ethical consideration within the research process of this dissertation.

Case Studies

-Brief Introduction of cases

-Liede Village: 'Redevelopment-by-demolition'

-Dafen Village: Redevelopment by Architectural Intervention

-Brief Introduction of cases The following cases are all located in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which are two main driving forces for rapid economic development in China. During the continuous urban expansion process, urban villages are not a negative product of rapid urbanisation, but provide a starting point and a key element in the process of urban change. The selected cases represent diverse degrees of renovation. Shipai and Liede villages represent two extreme conditions; one is a ViC without any formal renovation, and the other is completely demolished and rebuilt as a new urban block. Other selected cases should provide examples with renovation scales in between these two.

-Liede village: Brief Introduction of Liede village Liede has an 800-year-old history and is located in the southern part of Zhujiang New Town in Guangzhou. As a successful case of ViC regeneration, Liede village can be studied to provide an understanding of familiar Chinese redevelopment patterns. During the research into Liede, the author was fortunate enough to interview an officer from the Liede Economic Development Company, and she provided abundant information relating to the Liede redevelopment process (Appendix 2).

Figure 8: North-south axis in Guangzhou (Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diagram). Data source: Guangzhou Urban Development Archive URL: http://www.gzuda.gov.cn/news/view. asp?id=XW20040429094746 6493&fdID=CL200303051534051295&KeyWord= 21

Before redevelopment, the old Liede village was recognised as a dirty and disorderly area (in a similar condition to Shipai village). As result of this, the local authority Information Times, "The Renovation Of Lie De Village Could Change Zhu Jiang New Town Into An Un-Replicable CBD", 2007, p. A8.

Lin, J. 林婕 , 2013. Evaluating the impact of urban redevelopment projects in China: a case study of Liede Village in Guangzhou. HKU Theses Online (HKUTO).

planned to integrate Liede into the urban system (Information Times, 2010, p. A8). Government finalised the design of a north-south axis to promote the city image and the Central Business District (CBD). As Lin’s report (2013) indicated, the axis can be seen as having high real estate value, including historical value, political value and economic value. The axis runs by the Guangzhou Former Present Office, Zhujiang New Town, Guangzhou Opera House (designed by Zaha Hadid) and Canton Tower (designed by IBA) (figure 8). The west part of Liede fortunately lay on this axis, and hence the village became strategically positioned in Guangzhou.

-Liede village: Mechanism of Redevelopment-by-demolition Model The aspiration and official vision of modern metropolitan aesthetics clashes with the disorder of ViCs which is considered to obstruct the formal urban development Li, L.H., Lin, J., Li, X. and Wu, F., 2014. Redevelopment of urban village in China–A step towards an effective urban policy? A case study of Liede village in Guangzhou. Habitat International, 43, pp.299-308.

process. As result of this conflict, but also due to this attitude, 52 ViCs in Guangzhou have been scheduled for demolition and redevelopment (Li et al., 2014). Most of them are to be rebuilt as familiar urban high-rise blocks. The idea of reconstruction after exhaustive demolition becomes the first choice to regenerate urban villages (Figure 9). This model is promoted by strong locally-

Chung, H., 2010. Building an image of villages‐in‐the‐city: A clarification of China's distinct urban spaces. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 34(2), pp.421-437. Li, L.H., Lin, J., Li, X. and Wu, F., 2014. Redevelopment of urban village in China–A step towards an effective urban policy? A case study of Liede village in Guangzhou. Habitat International, 43, pp.299-308.

based coalitions composed of native villagers, developers and governments (Chung, 2010), which can be seen as the three essential stakeholders within redevelopment (Li et al., 2014). Normally, a village collectively organises a shareholding cooperative company to represent the villagers’ interests. The municipal government has the responsibility to provide a blueprint for the redevelopment of ViCs and to select developers by open tendering. The role of the three sides is not fixed, but flexible depending on the different situations. The municipal government usually claims that insufficient financial resources restrict them from investing in the reconstruction of ViCs, especially in the case of outright redevelopment projects such as Liede village. Instead, authorities shift the leading role to developers and shareholding cooperative companies so as to self-finance redevelopment projects. For instance, in Liede’s case, the municipal government become a ‘guider’ rather than a ‘leader’, while the whole redevelopment process is decided by villagers and developers.

Figure 9: The process of redevelopment-by-demolition model (Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diagram).

Figure 10.1: The New Liede community(Author’s picture).

Figure 10.2: The Liede Economic Development Company in New Liede(Author’s picture).

The interviewee, Ms. Wang, provided a brief redevelopment timeline for the Liede project. The village cooperative company was established in 2002 and made direct Wang, S., 2011. From village to metropolis: a case of morphological transformation in Guangzhou, China. International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF).

agreements with developers for the Liede project. Wang (2017) explained how they drafted a construction and compensation scheme through consultation with the Liede villagers. These documents were then submitted to the local authority for approval. Once permission was obtained, the village collective persuaded over 3,000 households to move out of Old Liede in 2007. Based on the Latest Liede

Latest Liede Renovation Report (2011) Guangzhou Municipal Government 关于加快三旧改造工作的意见 [Opinion regarding accelerating the ‘three olds’ redevelopment process], [56].

Renovation Report (2011), the redevelopment plan divides the village into three parts along the Liede Avenue in a north-south direction and the Liede Stream, namely the East Plot, the North-west Plot and the South-west Plot (Figure 11). The East Plot constructed in September 2007 was mainly developed into resettlement housing with 37 buildings providing over 6,000 apartments. Due to compensation agreements, the developers had to increase the FAR (floor area ratio)

Zhou, Z., 2014. Towards collaborative approach? Investigating the regeneration of urban village in Guangzhou, China. Habitat International, 44, pp.297-305. New Express Daily., 2010. ‘The Arrival of Three Old Redevelopment instruction: The Demolition of Linhe village, Pazhou Village, Xian Village and Yangji Village in Guangzhou’ URL: http:// news.gz.soufun. com/2012-12-31/4295285_all.html [accessed 31 December 2010]

to balance costs and profits, with a FAR of 6.18 in New Liede Community (Zhou, 2014). This means that many of the residential buildings have more than thirty floors, leading to the term ‘three-dimensional ViC’ (New Express Daily 2010). An excessive FAR causes many present problems, such as traffic jams, the overload of facilities and insufficient public services. Furthermore, the North-west Plot was successfully bid for by three different developers. The project for an urban commercial plaza and upscale residential apartments was launched. In November 2011, the shops and residential housing were open to the public for pre-sale. Meanwhile, the Southwest Plot’s reconstruction plans were for the building of a luxury hotel and upmarket offices. At present, the new Liede village is obviously transformed into a world-class metropolitan landscape.

Figure 11: Three parts of new Liede Village (Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diagram).

Figure 12: Area and FAR of each plot. From the Latest Liede Renovation Report (2011)

Figure 13: The old Liede village. Source: the Latest Liede Renovation Report (2011) Figure 14: The New Liede community Source: the Latest Liede Renovation Report (2011)

-Liede village: Stakeholder Alliances of the redevelopment Liede Village Side: The members of the Liede shareholding companies are the organisers and coordinators for the demolishment, compensation and resettlement work. Zeng (2016) speculated that the compensation issues are the most complex and sensitive

Zeng, Z., 2016. An Analysis of Power Relations in the Redevelopment of Urban Villages-Three Case Studies in Guangzhou, China.

part of the land requisition process and frequently lead to social conflict. However, with the establishment of shareholding companies, the negotiation of compensation settlements took place smoothly and a satisfactory agreement was reached within a comparatively short time. Ms. Wang, the officer of the Liede shareholding company, said that company members living in Liede had certain family and social relations. She (27th. August. 2017) agreed that the family clan always played a decisive role in the village management and organisation, and it formed an autonomic system of the urban village management. The compensation uses â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;residence-to-residenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; principle. For instance, each family obtains an equal residential area to that demolished by the developers. Averagely, native Liede villagers can gain four apartments for compensation. Based on data collected from the questionnaire, the majority of native villagers and tenants are satisfied with the present condition of Liede village (questionnaire in Appendix 1). The survey (28th. Augues. 2017) showed that the complete municipal infrastructures and public services have transformed Liede village into a high standard residential community, even though migrant workers are no longer involved.

Government Side: Before the Liede case, the village land was expropriated through payment, while the state had a monopoly and an overbearing status over the villagers in the area of the land market and land transactions (Li et al., 2012). This could lead to unfair land expropriation. However, the Liede rural land transfer took place in the absence of government intervention. Although the decision-making power shifted to

Li, S.M., Zhu, Y. and Li, L., 2012. Neighborhood type, gatedness, and residential experiences in Chinese cities: A study of Guangzhou. Urban Geography, 33(2), pp.237-255.

shareholding companies and developers, the government is still the main actor to develop favourable policies.

The government exempted various fees and taxes within its administrative power, to Li, S.M., Zhu, Y. and Li, L., 2012. Neighborhood type, gatedness, and residential experiences in Chinese cities: A study of Guangzhou. Urban Geography, 33(2), pp.237-255.

encourage the construction of public infrastructure in the Liede area (Li et al., 2012). From the perspective of authority, direct conflict with the villagers was avoided. This is a political achievement when a chaotic region with unstable issues is assimilated into urban blocks, and is considered as the process of urbanisation. However,

Information Times, "The Renovation Of Lie De Village Could Change Zhu Jiang New Town Into An Un-Replicable CBD", 2007, p. A8.

Honghong Zhao (Information Times, 2010, p. A8), the vice-president of the South China University of Technology, pointed out this outright reconstruction mode became self-fulfilling and completely disregarded any requirements and solution for the migrants’ needs.

The Developers’ Side The public land auction invited three developers to bid for the plot (Latest Liede Latest Liede Renovation Report (2011) Guangzhou Municipal Government 关于加快三旧改造工作的意见 [Opinion regarding accelerating the ‘three olds’ redevelopment process], [56].

Renovation Report, 2011). Three developers decided to establish a joint-stock company and equally share the project costs and profits. They reached a consensus to each perform in the fields of their strength during the construction stage. The jointstock company mainly played a decisive role in dealing with all the financial issues, including cash flow and financial reporting. Each developer took full responsibility for the appointed sub-project such as planning, engineering, marketing and selling. The developers held the majority of the decision-making power during the redevelopment period, which allowed them to pursue economic profits. It is seen as a ‘win-win’ condition. However, the potential problem is the lack of governance and humanistic concerns, such as the planning of affordable housing, and compensation to low-income migrants.

-Liede village: Reflection of Liede Redevelopment Mode

The ‘redevelopment-by-demolition’ approach aims to ameliorate infrastructure and public services by the outright reconstruction of ViCs from chaotic informal shelters to part of the regular city fabric (Li et al., 2012). The improvement of Liede village brought about by redevelopment is obvious. As mentioned earlier, the renovation of urban villages should solve three kinds of issues, namely urban issues, political

Li, S.M., Zhu, Y. and Li, L., 2012. Neighborhood type, gatedness, and residential experiences in Chinese cities: A study of Guangzhou. Urban Geography, 33(2), pp.237-255.

issues and social issues. The former two problems have been solved. Indeed, the ‘handshake buildings’ and the inaccessibility to emergency vehicles have disappeared. Living conditions are drastically upgraded to formal urban standards. Meanwhile, the migrant workers who were the residents of urban villages are replaced by villagers and middle-class people. This so-called floating population with its unstable factors is forced to relocate to peripheral areas without any supportive policies. However, in recent years, design practitioners especially architects and urban planners have begun to recognise the positive social and economic roles of urban villages within China’s rapid urbanisation process (Kochan, 2015) . To begin with, urban villages can be seen as a transitional space to provide affordable facilities for migrants, who constitute the main labour force for industries in the city (De Meulder et al. 30 , 2014). However, neither the city authorities nor industry are taking care of their housing needs. Through studying the Liede redevelopment process, it is clear that migrants have very limited impact on the spatial development of ViCs. Migrants

Dror Kochan, "Placing The Urban Village: A Spatial Perspective On The Development Process Of Urban Villages In Contemporary China", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 39 (2015), 927-947 <http://dx.doi. org/10.1111/1468-2427.12287>. De Meulder, B., Lin, Y. and Shannon, K. 2014. Village in the city. Zürich: Park Books.

are excluded from the decision-making process, from compensation, or even relocation when their living space is demolished. As migrants do not receive any redwelling rights, outright demolition and redevelopment simply mean the destruction of their housing and livelihood (Lin et al, 2011b) . Secondly, Southern Metropolis Daily (Yang & Wei, 2011, p.A20) proposed that Chinese authorities should use the renovation policies applicable to slums as a reference to deal with ViCs. However, in comparison with slums, Chinese ViCs have considerable potential (Wei and Yan, 2005). Urban villages not only provide cheap accommodation for millions of otherwise homeless migrants but also offer low-cost space for small business and

Lin, Y., De Meulder, B. and Wang, S., 2011. Understanding the ‘village in the city ‘in Guangzhou: Economic integration and development issue and their implications for the urban migrant. Urban Studies, 48(16), pp.3583-3598. Lihua Wei and Xiaopei Yan, "Transformation Of Urban Village And Feasible Mode", Planning Studies, 1002 (2005), 9-56.

The development of labour-intensive industries, some of them called world factories, are promoted through proximity to the city centre and urban developed economies, and ViCs can provide these benefits in urban areas. Once the ‘demolitionredevelopment’ is launched, the organic working framework is removed without any replacement.

This Liede mode should be upgraded by providing social housing systems for low-income citizens and avoiding the victimisation of migrant workers during the De Meulder, B., Lin, Y. and Shannon, K. 2014. Village in the city. Zürich: Park Books.

redevelopment process (De Meulder et al., 2014) . This work suggests that local authorities should not completely shift the decision-making power to developers. The government should supervise the redevelopment scheme to ensure a certain proportion of affordable housing for migrant workers. Meanwhile, the present negotiations for resettlement and compensation are only held between developers and native villagers. Representatives of migrant workers living in the ViC should also be engaged in this process.

To sum up, the renovation of Liede is a successful model of the ‘redevelopmentby-demolition’ proposal. However, it has a crucial prerequisite, namely the strategic location of Liede village. This means that extremely high land value is a dominant stimulant to encourage authorities and developers to redevelop a location even with high input. City officials and urban practitioners should consider whether the ViC can co-exist in harmony with the city, instead of outright demolition? How can VICs in peripheral urban areas be renovated?

-Dafen village: In comparison with Guangzhou which has a long history, Shenzhen is a pioneering nascent city, located in the southern part of China close to Hong Kong. The city is an immigrant city representative of China’s high-speed urbanisation over the past decades. After transforming from an agricultural county into a developed metropolis, Shenzhen had 622 urban villages in 2009, and these played an important role in the rapid urbanisation of the region (Hao, 2011). Shenzhen Municipality (2007) quantified that ViCs occupied 61.7% of the residential area and 66.2% of the industrial area within the whole of Shenzhen city. Thus, given the massive scale of redevelopment by demolition, what would happen if one day Shenzhen no longer had any urban villages? This question was asked in the book Village City, City Village (Urbanus, 2006).

Hao, P., Sliuzas, R. and Geertman, S., 2011. The development and redevelopment of urban villages in Shenzhen. Habitat International, 35(2), pp.214-224. Urban Planning, Land and Resources Commission of Shenzhen Municipality. 2007. A City Wide Survey of Construction Land of Shenzhen in 2006. Shenzhen: UPLRCSM.

-Dafen village: Brief Introduction of Dafen Village Urbanus founded in 1999 is recognised as one of the most influential architecture practices in China. In 2004, Urbanus initiated a series of ViC research projects to explore alternative design strategies to preserve and redevelop ViCs by applying small-scale architectural interventions to encourage spontaneous development (De Meulder et al., 2014 ). Dafen village is the only project proposed by Urbanus that

De Meulder, B., Lin, Y. and Shannon, K. 2014. Village in the city. Zürich: Park Books.

was actually built in 2005. Instead of a city centre like Liede village, Dafen is located at the urban edge in an area well-known for its oil painting and arts-related business (Figure 15). Currently, the painters’ cluster gathers 10,000 people living and working in Dafen village in an area no more than 0.4 sq. km. Nearly all of these are migrants.

Figure 15: The printing and print-related business in Dafen Village. Reference from Urbanus website: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/projects/ dafen-art-museum/

Figure 16: An axonometric of Dafen village and the paintersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; living conditions (Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diagram).

In fact, unlike Shipai Village with an extremely high-density and chaotic fabric, the situation in Dafen village is relatively comfortable, and its living conditions have improved over the years due to the booming local oil painting industry. Each building in Dafen is built as independent block of a square plot but with reasonable density (Urbanus, 2006) (Figure 16). The main street is nearly 6m wide to accommodate vehicular traffic, and the narrow alleys (about 2m) are used for art exhibitions. Similar

Urbanus, 2006,. Village/City City/Village, 1st edn (Shenzhen: China Power Press).

to other ViCs, the building typology in Dafen can be described as streets for trading, ground floor as art workshops and studios, and the upper floors for accommodation (Figure 18). Its compact spatial quality affords an intimate social relationship between painters, traders and other relative service providers (Hin, 2011). Therefore, how can Urbanus regenerate this industry-led urban village without large-scale demolition?

Hin, L.L. and Xin, L., 2011. Redevelopment of urban villages in Shenzhen, Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;An analysis of power relations and urban coalitions. Habitat International, 35(3), pp.426-434.

Figure 17: A birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye view of Dafen Art Museum. Reference: http:// www.archdaily.com/600527/ an-interview-with-liu-xiaoduurbanus/54e55925e58ecec9510000cd_ an-interview-with-liu-xiaoduurbanus_06-bird-s_eye_view_1-4m-jpg/.

Figure 18: The building typology of Dafen village (Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diagram).

-Dafen village: Exploiting Urban Village Industry

The ‘redevelopment-by-demolition’ approach seems to be unsuitable for a peripheral ViC, especially in the case of Dafen with specific cultural industry. Due to a progressive attitude towards urban villages, the Shenzhen government invited architects and urban planning practitioners to brainstorm alternative renovation proposals (Altrock, 2011). Urbanus as one of participants considered the urban village as an interesting ‘vague area’, which should be preserved and redeveloped by applying small-scale architectural interventions to encourage the spontaneous

Altrock, U. and Schoon, S., 2011. The Governance of Urban Upgrading in Southern China: The Example of Urbanized Villages. disP-The Planning Review, 47(187), pp.37-48.

development of the village. The proposal by Urbanus was to build a Dafen museum as an anchor for the originally fragmented village space and industrial activities. This proposal placed tremendous emphasis on new strategies to mitigate the destruction of the local culture and social network through redeveloping the important nodal spaces and adding public programs. From the designers’ perspective, the museum could host contemporary art exhibitions, as well as display the vernacular pop art, in order to provide an area for the co-existence of traditional art and folk art (Li et al., 2014). The museum extends beyond its traditional role and became a node for the painting market in Dafen. It is not only an urban device with a fixed daily schedule

Li, S.M., Cheng, H.H. and Wang, J., 2014. Making a cultural cluster in China: a study of Dafen oil painting village, Shenzhen. Habitat International, 41, pp.156-164.

but also engages in daily activities in the village, such as vernacular art exhibitions, competitions for local artists and community education classes. The Dafen Museum proposal was described by Bach (Bach, 2010a) as a strategy for constructing an anti-museum because it celebrates the concept of art as a production process instead of as a still object for display. A complete circulation of oil painting

Bach, J., 2011. Shenzhen: city of suspended possibility. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 35(2), pp.414-420.

productions, art exhibitions and art sales could emerge from the finished Dafen Art Museum.

In relation to the building itself, this is designed in multiple layers in terms of its functional divisions. The ground floor contains oil painting markets, lecture rooms, cafes and other facilities, and the upper floors have a separate entrance along the slope with paintings by local artists (Figure 19). The open roof can provide services for both the museum and also its neighbouring communities. The courtyard on the third floor connects with the outside streets, allowing the general public to pass by. Villagers and neighbourhood residents can make short cuts or simply stroll through the relaxing area (Figure 20). The void and solid boxes of the faรงade can be used as windows and form a large-scale fresco. It is a unique exhibition space for Dafen painters and the museum faรงade provides a reflection of Dafen village itself (Figure 21).

Figure 19: The extra entrance for exhibitions on the upper floors, along with paintings by local artists. Reference: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/wp-content/ uploads/2015/08/06-south_ele-11.jpg

Figure 20: The circulation diagram for the third floor courtyard. Reference: http://www.urbanus.com.cn. Edited by Author.

Figure 21: The growth of the Museum elevation. Reference: http://www.urbanus.com.cn. Edited by Author.

-Dafen village: Aftermaths of Architectural Intervention Architects hoped that the Dafen Art Museum, which is specifically designed for Dafen, would provide an anchor for the originally fragmented village space and industrial activities. Therefore, what kind of changes are brought about by this architectural intervention? To begin with, Urbanus expected that the museum would afford more opportunities for vernacular artists to display their products. Indeed, the art museum holds plenty of events aimed at local painters, such as the Shenzhen Painting Vocational Contest, which not only provides prizes but also grants registered permanent resident status to migrant artists. Moreover, the Dafen museum regularly holds the Shenzhen Cultural Industry Fair, to attract visitors and increase the market for local artists. Painters can also be employed by the museum as drawing tutors for teenagers in their spare time. However, the potential problems are obvious. As an official of museum described (30th August), only half of the ground floor is accessible for the public, in order to reduce the daily maintenance costs. The painters cannot make efficient use of the museum facility and the museum management does not provide Liu, Y., He, S., Wu, F. and Webster, C., 2010. Urban villages under China's rapid urbanization: unregulated assets and transitional neighbourhoods. Habitat International, 34(2), pp.135-144.

a sufficient platform (Liu, 2010). This is different from the architects’ original intention for the design.

The engagement of the villagers and the neighbourhood residents expected by the architects does not appear to be taking place. Except during the biannual events, the upper floors are normally closed. To some extent, the museum has increased the local painters’ income by attracting visitors and tourists who usually explore the Dafen village after visiting the museum. However, during an interview with an artist in a Dafen alley (31st August), he acknowledged the increase in income but also complained about the rising rent for shops and housing. Rents in Dafen villages increased rapidly after launching the museum project (Figure 22) The high rents put pressure on local artists and the lack of a display space makes the painters’ situation worse, which is contrary to the architects’ expectations.

Figure 22: Mean rent in Dafen village, 1989-2008. Reference: Zhang et al., 2009 , p.43 Zhang, K., Luo, Y.W., Zhang, Y.Q. and Wang, Y.X., 2009. Research on the living cost of Dafenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s special villager. Observation and examination of land and society landscape sociology case study no. three (pp. 37e64).

-Dafen village: Reflection of Nodal Redevelopment Proposal Unlike the low-income migrant workers living in Shipai village, the migrant painters in Dafen village are mostly well educated. The knowledge of painting, an artistic skill or craft, has established Dafen village as a well-known industry-led village, and led Li, S.M., Cheng, H.H. and Wang, J., 2014. Making a cultural cluster in China: a study of dafen oil painting village, Shenzhen. Habitat International, 41, pp.156-164.

to the formation of a strong identity for resident migrants (Li et al., 2014). So can generic urban villages copy the success story of the Dafen redevelopment? The spontaneous redevelopment of Dafen has not instantly and completely solved

Wei Yuan, "A Comparative Study In The Domestic Transformation Modes Of Village In City", east China economic management, 24 (2010), 60-67.

the three groups of issues (urban, society, and political issues, Yuan 2010). The architects attempted to guide moderate self-regeneration of the urban village through providing some architectural interventions. However, this redevelopment approach largely depends on the ViC itself. Compared with the strong governance of Liede project, typically a ‘Top-Down’ approach, the renovation strategies in Dafen are more of a ‘Bottom-Up’ approach, which is easily impacted by external factors (Bach,

Bach, J., 2011. Shenzhen: city of suspended possibility. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 35(2), pp.414-420.

2011). For instance, due to the management of Dafen Art Museum, the renovation of Dafen Village has not reached the outcomes expected by the architects. Apart from the rather uncontrolled redevelopment process, the renovation pattern of Dafen also has strict prerequisites, such as the peripheral location, the specific industry within the urban village, and the pioneer attitude of the local authorities. All these factors together with the architects’ concepts eventually formed Dafen village in its present condition. The Dafen case demonstrates the outcome of design practitioners’ attempts to renovate a ViC while retaining the original organic fabric and energetic small businesses within the urban village.

Cross-case Comparsion: Shipai & Liede & Dafen

Figure 23: The axis of three cases with different scale of renovation. Author's diagram.

-Cross-case Comparsion: Liede & Dafen

The above three cases, Shipai village, Liede village and Dafen village, can be compared on an axis which represents different renovation scales and approaches (figure 23). Shipai and Liede are two extreme cases; the former represent ViCs without any formal renovation and a free bottom-up redevelopment approach, while the latter is an example of outright demolition-redevelopment with a governable top-down approach. Moreover, the redevelopment pattern of Dafen village stands between Shipai and Liede and can be seen as partial architectural renovation with a bottom-up approach under the architectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; intervention. If ViCs like Shipai village completely lack formal renovation management and regulation, incremental housing like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;hand-shake buildingsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and high population density cause real problems, such as safety issues, problems of inaccessibility and poor public services. Hence, the intervention of authorities and design practitioners is necessary.

Due to the strategic location of Liede village, the government emphasis is on redeveloping this region through whole-scale demolition and reconstruction. This kind of ‘top-down’ renovation approach fulfils the interests of stakeholder alliances, including the villagers, the developers and the government, but disregards the positive impact of urban villages (Li et al, 2014) . Although the demolitionredevelopment approach can offer a dramatic improvement to villagers’ living conditions which can reach formal urban standards, the active small businesses and

Ling hin Li and others, "Redevelopment Of Urban Village In China-A Step Towards An Effective Urban Policy? A Case Study Of Liede Village In Guanghzou", Habitat International, 0197 (2014), 299-308.

the transitional space for migrants who contribute to urbanization are removed. This redevelopment means the destruction of migrants’ housing and livelihood. Therefore, design practitioners need to rethink alternative approaches to renovate urban villages while preserving their organic fabric. Dafen village is an innovative project which shows how an architect can regenerate an urban village through a small-scale architectural intervention. In comparison with the governable redevelopment process of Liede village, the self-renovation pattern of Dafen is easily impacted by external factors. Although migrant workers can retain their housing and their livelihood in village, generic ViCs without specific characteristics would find it hard to copy the Dafen redevelopment model for renovation. How does an alternative redevelopment approach regenerate generic ViCs while also preserving its original fabric through a more controllable process?

Alternative Redevelopment proposal

-Hypothesis of an alternative renovation approach

-A role model of Generic Development: Gangsha Village

-Hypothesis of an alternative renovation approach

Previous studies criticise the fact that migrants are always victims in the redevelopment of urban villages. However, it can be questioned whether the victimisation of migrant residents is inevitable. Can the redevelopment of urban villages also be beneficial to low-income migrants (Liu, 2010)? Based on the experience of Dafen village, Urbanus (2006) focused on researching an alternative renovation approach aiming to ameliorate generic urban villages and minimise the destruction of migrant living spaces. This approach sets the improvement of the habitation quality as an essential target, and attempts to be more controlled than the Dafen project. Urbanus (2006) considered that the instability and destruction of the migrant workers’ habitation should not be outcomes

Liu, Y., He, S., Wu, F. and Webster, C., 2010. Urban villages under China's rapid urbanization: unregulated assets and transitional neighbourhoods. Habitat International, 34(2), pp.135-144. Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press. Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press.

of the redevelopment of ViCs. However, this is an opportunity to replace the current congested and uninhabitable built environment with better quality dwellings. Moreover, along with the redevelopment of urban villages and the updating of land use, the habitable environment of ViCs with their existing advantages such as proximity and low cost, can benefit the small socio-economic units and attract investment. Migrant residents can increase their income and would be able to afford the newly developed areas. In short, the alternative approach as organic rehabilitation is to encourage spontaneous developments of ViC by upgrading outright original buildings rather than using only one public programme like the Dafen project. Through transforming urban villages to achieve better habitation conditions, a better quality built environment can induce spontaneous renovation, with investment, active small business and incremental public services.

Figure 23: The axis of four cases with different scale of renovation. Author's diagram.

-A Role Model for Generic Development: Gangsha Village

Gangsha Village located in the Futian District is the only urban village within the CBD (Central Business District) of Shenzhen. Due to its location and the demand for affordable housing, Gangsha has an extremely high population density. Over 68,000 residents live within 16 hectares, and most of the residents are white-collar Tian, L.I., 2008. The chengzhongcun land market in China: Boon or bane?— A perspective on property rights. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(2), pp.282-304.

employees working in the surrounding office skyscrapers (Tian, 2008 ). Similar to other typical ViCs, Gangsha has ‘handshake buildings’ with 9 or 12 storeys (Figure 24). The ground floors are for commercial use, like restaurants and food stalls. Due to the affordable prices and tasty food, Gangsha is the first choice for whitecollar workers to have their lunch during the working week. Gangsha has a strategic location similar to Liede and habitation conditions similar to Shipai, but without any specific industry like Dafen.

Figure 24.1: The section of Gangsha Village. Author's picture

Figure 24.2: An axonometric of Gangsha village and the migrantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; living conditions (Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diagram).

In the situation of a generic ViC with a central urban location, the renovation approach for Gangsha is somewhere between the Dafen and Liede projects (Figure 23). The basic principle is to retain most of the original buildings and partly demolish the valueless apartments, in order to satisfy basic living requirements and improve accessibility to emergency vehicles (Figure 25). A report by Urbanus (2006) states that this will allow the remaining residential properties to maintain a comfortable

Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press.

density when the demolition rate reaches 25%. If it rises to 30%, Gangsha can have better a public service and leisure infrastructure. Moreover, the architects’ design is to stitch and fill the gap spaces between original ‘handshake buildings’, aiming to transform the lower two levels into a formal business street. Through the first step of renovation (Figure 26), the architects expect to resolve the issues caused by the existing high-density buildings and fragmented public spaces. They are also attempting to redefine the commercial street areas to improve local business.

Figure25: The alternative renovation approach of Gangsha Village. Reference: Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press. p36. Edited by Author.

After organizing the fragmented spaces to decrease the excessive density, public infrastructure should be added, such as parking, sanitation facilities and leisure spaces. The architects plan to build underground parking and add some green spaces on the demolished housing sites (Figure 26). Due to the insufficient ground area, architects expect to make use of the roof tops as a community activity space. Through adjusting the original buildings to similar heights, new-built bridges could combine the roofs into a linear space used for social and recreational facilities (Figure 27). Meanwhile, some vertical circulation should be added to satisfy fire escape regulations. The typical building typology of ViCs is retained. The ground floor is still used for business, simply transformed from ‘retail-alley-retail’ pattern to a continuous commercial street (Urbanus, 2006 ), while the upper floors are designed as a residential community with upward extension.

Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press.

Figure26: The alternative renovation approach of Gangsha Village. Reference: Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press. p36. Edited by Author.

Figure27: The alternative renovation approach of Gangsha Village. Reference: Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press. p37. Edited by Author.

Urbanus also reformed an innovated compensation scheme for Gangsha village. Instead of ‘residence-to-residence' principle of Liede project, Gangsha village used an equal-area system for compensation. For instance, villagers can get the same area which has been demolished. However, the compensating area is not only URBANUS, M. and Xiao-du WANG Hui, Y.L., 2007. Intervening the City Strategy and Construction of Shenzhen Public Art Plaza [J]. Time Architecture, 4.

residential apartments but also could be shops, chamber etc. (Urbanus, 2007 ). All those compensating space might be dispersed in the additional roof construction (figure 28). Urbanus attempts to relieve the pressure of constructing resettlement buildings through this new compensation scheme, and the land use of Gangsha can be more diverse.

Figure 28: The diagram of compenstation 'equal-area system'. Reference:Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press. p37. Edited by Author.

To sum up, through applying the above renovating strategies, Meng Yan (2008 ) as one of the founders of Urbanus said that they expected to achieve four objectives to

Yan, M., 2008. Urban Villages. Architectural Design, 78(5), pp.56-59.

Gangsha redevelopment project. The first is to have a defined space by upgrading habitation quality and ViCs' density. The renovation of urban villages should not just increase FAR but clean up the existing dense building and fragmented public spaces. Urbanus purposed to turn the high-density houses into reasonable density multilevel residential houses, and arrange better defined and richer commercial streets, service road and courtyard type public spaces. Secondly, a multilevel function can fulfil the needs of business and community activities. The ground level is designed as street shops to make an active pedestrian street. The community activities are located in the courtyard or on the house roof level (figure 29&30). The third target is to gain the highest possible improvement in property value by renovating built environment of Gangsha village. The final purpose is to continue the existing lifestyle, spatial features and historical culture. Meng Yan (2008) summarised that Urbanus provided an alternative renovation approach to optimise the built

Yan, M., 2008. Urban Villages. Architectural Design, 78(5), pp.56-59.

environment of urban villages by preserving original living pattern and ViC's building fabric.

Figure 29: The roof top area will be designed for community activities. Referemce:Yan, M., 2008. Urban Villages. Architectural Design, 78(5), pp.56-59. Figure 30: The ground level will be cleaned up to renovate as a active and comfortable commercial street. Reference: Yan, M., 2008. Urban Villages. Architectural Design, 78(5), pp.56-59.

-Reflection of Gangsha Redevelopment

However, the realistic Gangsha project stands in an embracing position. This renovation project as one of the urban villages for experimental proposal was launched in 2004, and the first demolition was occurred in 2007. Until 2009, the negotiation of compensation and expropriation was still unfinished. Even if army police had a direct conflict with the protester, the demolition schedule was De Meulder, B., Lin, Y. and Shannon, K. 2014. Village in the city. Zürich: Park Books.

protracted until 2013 (De Meulder et al., 2014) . When I visited Gangsha village, the west part was under constructing, but the east part was still on-use (figure 31). The western part of Gangsha will be built as office skyscrapers similar to the adjacent urban blocks, while the redevelopment of the east part just finished the renovation of the main road and rest of plan has been temporarily stopped. The conflict mainly occurred in compensation scheme and partial demolition. The innovated renovation approach seems not to be accepted by villagers. Whereas, they prefer the ‘redevelopment-by-demolition' mode for getting more compensation.

Bach, J., 2011. Shenzhen: city of suspended possibility. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 35(2), pp.414-420.

Brach (2011 ) evaluated the renovation approach of Gangsha village in his published

Chung, H., 2010. Building an image of villages‐in‐the‐city: A clarification of China's distinct urban spaces. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 34(2), pp.421-437.

collectives, developers and governments (Chung, 2010) .

Bach, J., 2011. Shenzhen: city of suspended possibility. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 35(2), pp.414-420.

book. He stated Urbanus over-emphasised original buildings' preservation and migrants' interest but ignored the influence of three key stakeholders, namely villager

Besides architects' participation should be significant, the engagement of other three stakeholders is also necessary for Gangsha village (Bach, 2011 ). For instance, native villagers were unsatisfied about architects' demolition scheme, because they thought it was unfair. The role of village collective is to explain and persuade villagers to sign on the compensation contract. As an example of Liede project, Gangsha village collective also can establish a shareholding company to manage village's estate property. Authorities also could offer favourable policies, like supportive tax exemptions, to attract developers.

Word Account: 7963

Figure31: The new-built main road of Gangsha village. It can allow vehicles to access in. Author's picture.

Figure32: The migrant worker is looking for rental information in Gangsha village. Author's picture.

Conclusion

-The Response of the Research Question

-Limitation and Further Research

-The Response of the Research Question This research has analysed the appearing reason of ViCs (the village in the city) and its present condition. Three direct reasons cause the ViC, namely urbanisation, ambiguous land property and the tide of migration. The dissertation firstly described the existing habitation environment by using Shipai village as a typical example, to express why the urban village should be renovated. Due to high density, substandard dwelling condition and loose management, renovation of the urban villages in Guangzhou and Shenzhen have put on agenda, which encourage architects and urban design practitioners to rethink redevelopment approaches. Hence this dissertation aimed to investigate what kind of proposals can regenerate ViCs. The research started to primarily evaluate two renovation approaches, Liede and Dafen, and understand their redevelopment mechanisms through analysis. Compared with Shipai village without any formal renovation, Liede village is a representative of outright redevelopment by demolition. Dafen project as an in-between renovation project attempted to encourage spontaneous development by a small-scale architectural intervention. In the Liede project, the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;redevelopment-by-demolition' can dramatically improve living condition and transfer chaotic urban villages to familiar urban blocks. However, ViC as a necessary factor in urbanisation can provide transitional space to migrant worker and small business. Thus, architects attempted to present the concern of migrants through adding nodal public building and preserving original fabric in Dafen project. However, because of well-known painting industry, Dafen village as an industry-led village has more comfortable density and dwelling condition. The successful story of Dafen project could not be copied to other generic ViC redevelopment. Therefore, the alternative renovation proposal was explained. The third redevelopment pattern is a hypothesis about renovating Gangsha village referred by Urbanus. This proposal aims to decrease high density, organise fragmented public spaces and add community infrastructure, through partial demolition, stitching handshake buildings and adding community space on the roof area. Architects radically amended habitation quality by upgrading original apartments to increase estate value of Gangsha village. However, this proposal has not been realistically constructed.

Liede pattern, namely â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;redevelopment-by-demolition', is efficient solution to solve problems of urban villages with significant political meaning. However, this mode could obliterate the positive sense and distinction of ViCs. Furthermore, Dafen project is available so far. However, it directs at particular industry-led villages like Dafen village. Dafen pattern could not be generalised to renovate other generic urban villages. Finally, although facing to generic ViCs, Gangsha proposal still has practical issues, such as the negative attitude of three key stakeholders to migrants. Thus, it is necessary to have a more explicit pre-design research of how the wide variety of ViCs develop and function differently, which would help to contextualise redevelopment proposal to the specific features of each urban villages. The dissertation suggests that mass demolition and relocation should be reconsidered because the socio-political dynamic behind urban village redevelopment differs much from decades ago. Stakeholder alliance should not keep their negative attitude, but respect the necessity of rural migrants in urbanisation. Furthermore, as practitioners, architects and urban designers would look for opportunities to turn their role as mere service providers into development mediators. It means that practitioners should renovate urban villages not only programmatically and morphologically, but also intentionally redefine the aftermaths of redevelopment

-Limitation and Further Research This dissertation only analysed four ViCs cases which cannot represent the wide variety of urban village. Even Gangsha village as a representative of the generic urban village still has its characteristics, such as central urban location, aggregation of white-collar employees and so on. Bringing back to the research question about renovation proposal, we would make use of 760 urban villages in Guangzhou and Shenzhen (138 ViCs in Guangzhou and 622 ViCs in Shenzhen in 2009) to explore the alternative aftermaths of urban villages further. Architects and urban design practitioners can engage with authorities to make a collection of redevelopment pattern facing different types of ViCs in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The question â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What new typology of intervention can respond to existing urban village fabrics and adapt to the aftermath of redevelopment?' could be answered.

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-Document: Information Times, "The Renovation Of Lie De Village Could Change Zhu Jiang New Town Into An Un-Replicable CBD", 2007, p. A8. Latest Liede Renovation Report (2011) Guangzhou Municipal Government 关于加快 ‘ 三旧 ’ 改造工作的意见 [Opinion regarding accelerating the ‘three olds’ redevelopment process], 号 [56]. Urban Planning, Land and Resources Commission of Shenzhen Municipality. 2007. A City Wide Survey of Construction Land of Shenzhen in 2006. Shenzhen: UPLRCSM. URBANUS, M. and Xiao-du WANG Hui, Y.L., 2007. Intervening the City Strategy and Construction of Shenzhen Public Art Plaza [J]. Time Architecture, 4. Zhang, K., Luo, Y.W., Zhang, Y.Q. and Wang, Y.X., 2009. Research on the living cost of Dafen’s special villagers. Observation and examination of land and society landscape sociology case study no.3 (pp. 37e64).

-Websites: Huang, Y. 2011. Five Issues of Affordable Housing in Guangzhou. New Express Daily, 25 March. URL: http://news.xkb.com.cn/guangzhou/2011/0325/126519.html New Express Daily., 2010. ‘The Arrival of Three Old Redevelopment instruction: The Demolition of Linhe village, Pazhou Village, Xian Village and Yangji Village in Guangzhou’ URL: http:// news.gz.soufun.com/2012-12-31/4295285_all.html [accessed 31 December 2010] Pier Alessio Rizzardi., 2015. 'An Interview with Liu Xiaodu, Urbanus' ArchDaily News. URL: https://www.archdaily.com/600527/an-interview-with-liu-xiaodu-urbanus [accessed 19 February, 2015] 61

-Interviews and correspondence: Wang Wei,. The former project manager of Liede redevelopment project. Interview 27th. August. 2017 Li Zhongyi,. The stuff of Dafen Art Museum. Interview 30th. August. 2017. He Houming,. The Dafen oil painting artist. Interview 31st. Augest. 2017 Song Qing,. The migrant workers lived in Gangsha Village. Interview 1st. September. 2017

-Figures: Figure 1:

The map of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. (Author’s illustration).

Figure 2:

Main Exhibition of Shanghai Urban Space Art Season in 2015 (URL: http:// www.urbanus. com.cn/events/main-exhibition-of-shanghai-urban-spaceart-season-2015/?lang=en)

Figure 3.1: The Google Map of Village in the City in Guangzhou. Figure 3.2: The Google Map of Village in the City in Shenzhen. Figure 4:

A diagrammatic representation of the development of ViC. (Author’s illustration).

Figure 5.1: Handshake buildings with a commercial ground floor (Author’s picture) Figure 5.2: Construction works everywhere without any protective strategies in Shipai village. As the constructors said, they downloaded the construction drawings from a design institute’s website and adapted them to their private plot, aiming to get more rent (Author’s picture). Figure 6.1: Axonometric view of Shipai village and single apartment (Author’s illustration). Figure 6.2: Section of buildings in Shipai shows the common building typology in ViCs (Author’s illustration).

Figure 7:

Flexible use of buildings in Chinese ViCs. Edited by Author. Reference: Al, S., Shan, P.C.H., Juhre, C., Valin, I. and Wang, C. eds., 2014. Villages in the City: A Guide to South China's Informal Settlements (Vol. 1). Hong Kong University Press pp.156.

Figure 8:

North-south axis in Guangzhou (Author ’s diagram). Data source: Guangzhou Urban Development Archive URL: http://www.gzuda.gov.cn/ news/view. asp?id=XW20040429094746 6493&fdID=CL200303051534051 295&KeyWord=

Figure 9:

The process of redevelopment-by-demolition model (Author’s diagram).

Figure 10.1: The New Liede community(Author’s picture). Figure 10.2: The Liede Economic Development Company in New Liede(Author’s picture). Figure 11:

Three parts of new Liede Village (Author’s diagram).

Figure 12:

Area and FAR of each plot. From the Latest Liede Renovation Report (2011) The Google Map of Village in the City in Guangzhou.

Figure 13:

The old Liede village. Source: the Latest Liede Renovation Report (2011)

Figure 14:

The New Liede community Source: the Latest Liede Renovation Report (2011)

Figure 15:

The printing and print-related business in Dafen Village. Reference from Urbanus website: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/projects/dafen-artmuseum/

Figure 16:

An axonometric of Dafen village and the painters’ living conditions (Author’s diagram)

Figure 17:

A b i rd ’s e ye v i e w o f D a fe n A r t M u s e u m . Refe re n c e : htt p : / / w w w. a r c h d a i l y. c o m / 6 0 0 5 2 7 / a n - i n t e r v i e w - w i t h - l i u - x i a o d u urbanus/54e55925e58ecec9510000cd_ an-interview-with-liu-xiaoduurbanus_06-bird-s_eye_view_1-4m-jpg/.

Figure 18:

The building typology of Dafen village (Author’s diagram).

Figure 19:

The extra entrance for exhibitions on the upper floors, along with paintings by local artists. Reference: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/wp-content/ uploads/2015/08/06-south_ele-11.jpg

Figure 20:

The circulation diagram for the third floor courtyard. Reference: http:// www.urbanus.com.cn. Edited by Author.

Figure 21:

The growth of the Museum elevation. Reference: http://www.urbanus. com.cn. Edited by Author.

Figure 22:

Mean rent in Dafen village, 1989-2008. Reference: Zhang et al., 2009 , p.43 Zhang, K., Luo, Y.W., Zhang, Y.Q. and Wang, Y.X., 2009. Research on the living cost of Dafen’s special villager. Observation and examination of land and society landscape sociology case study no. three (pp. 37e64).

Figure 23:

The axis of three cases with different scale of renovation. Author's diagram.

Figure 24.1: The section of Gangsha Village. (Author's diagram) Figure 24.2 An axonometric of Gangsha village and the migrants’ living conditions (Author’s diagram). Figure 25:

The alternative renovation approach of Gangsha Village. Reference: Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press. p36. Edited by Author.

Figure 26:

The alternative renovation approach of Gangsha Village. Reference: Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press. p36. Edited by Author.

Figure 27:

The alternative renovation approach of Gangsha Village. Reference: Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press. p37. Edited by Author.

Figure 28:

The diagram of compenstation 'equal-area system'. Reference: Urbanus., 2006. 城村 · 村城 (City Village - Village City). Shenzhen: China Electric Power Press Press. p37. Edited by Author.

Figure 29:

The roof top area will be designed for community activities. Referemce:Yan, M., 2008. Urban Villages. Architectural Design, 78(5), pp.56-59.

Figure 30:

The ground level will be cleaned up to renovate as a active and comfortable commercial street. Reference: Yan, M., 2008. Urban Villages. Architectural Design, 78(5), pp.56-59.

Figure 31:

The new-built main road of Gangsha village. It can allow vehicles to access in. Author's picture.

Figure 32:

The migrant worker is looking for rental information in Gangsha village. Author's picture.

Appendix

-Appendix 1: Residents Satisfaction Survey

-Appendix 2: Interviews

-Appendix 3:

-Appendix 1: Questionnaire The University of Sheffield Sheffield School of Architecture Research Participants’ Consent 调研参与者同意书您好，感谢您参与本研究项目的相关调查！项目名称：城市马赛克——辩证地评估广州和深圳中存在的城中村改造方法 Research Project: Urban Pixilation- Critical Evaluation of Renovation of Village in the City in Guangzhou and Shenzhen 我 _____________ 已经阅读了来自英国谢菲尔德大学建筑院的潘佳霖提供的研究资料，并且所有问题都是自愿填写。我同意用于他人分享我的评论、记录和经验。（照片、图片、书面、报告、材料）。个人私人信息除外。 I have read the information about this research project and I hereby give my consent to answer this questionnaire. I agreed with sharing my words, experience and photos except private information.

居民调查问卷： 1. 性别： A. 男 Gender: a. male b. female 2. 年龄段：A.15-20 以上 Age: a. 15-20 f.over50

B. 女

B.21-25

C.26-30

D.31-40

E.41-50

b. 21-25

c.26-30

d.31-40

e.41-50

3. 您的户口性质：A. 农村 Household type: a. rural area

B. 城市 b. city

C. 外地 c. outside

4. 您的教育程度：A. 小学 B. 中学 C. 大学 D. 以上 Educational background: a. primary school b. secondary education d. higher 5. 您在这里居住了多长时间：A. 一年以下 D.20-30 年 E.30-50 年 D.50 年以上 How long have you lived here: a. less than one year e. 30-50 d. over 50 6. 你的收入来源是：A. 固定工作 E. 其他 Source of income: a. a permanent job parent’s e. other

F.50

B.1-10 年 b. 1-10

B. 个体户

C.10-20 年

c.10-20

C. 收租

b. retail trade

c. university

d. 20-30

D. 父母

c. collecting rents

7. 您选择居住在这里的原因是（多选）：A. 这里的房产 B. 交通方便 C. 租金便宜 D. 生活方便 E. 邻里和谐 H. 其他 __________ Reasons why you chose to live here: a. own estate property b. convenient transport system c . low rent d. provision of convenience e. harmonious neighborhood

8. 您认为你居住的社区存在哪些问题（多选）：A. 购物不便 B. 水电供应不足 C. 居住环境差 D. 入学就医困难 E. 治安环境差 F. 缺少绿化 G. 外来人口多 H. 公共设施差 I. 噪音和采光问题大 J. 违章建筑 K. 无停车位 L. 其他 Existing problems in urban villages (multiple choice): a. inconvenience of shopping b. inconvenience of water and electricity services c. poor living conditions d. inconvenience of getting to schools or hospitals e. loose safety management f. lack of green structure n g. complex population h. insufficient public facilities i. impact of noise and lighting problems j. self-built rural buildings k. lack of car parking l. other

9. 您愿意您的社区将来被改造吗？ A. 愿意 B. 不愿意 C. 不关心 Do you support the renovation of community in the future? a. yes b. no c. don't care B. 不满意 C. 与我无关您满意目前的社区改造吗？ A. 满意 Are you satisfied with the renovation so far? A. yeas b. no c. not my business

10. 如果您同意改造，您希望是那种形式的改造（选答）：A. 部分拆迁，增加公共基础设施 B. 整体拆迁，政府以回迁房或者货币方式补偿 If you community need to be renovated, which kind of redevelopment proposal you wished to be applied? A. demolishing part of community and improving public infrastructure b. demolishing and re-planning whole community, government compensates residents with relocated housings or money.

-Appendix 2: Survey results

-Appendix 2: Consent forms

-Appendix 2: Transcripts Interview 1: Location: The office in The Liede Economic Development Co., Ltd. Name of the Interviewee: Wang Wei Gender of the interviewee: Female Age of the interviewee: around 55 Interview language: Chinese Interview time: 27th. August. 2017 Jialin: It is my pressure to interview you about Liede redevelopment. So can I know what your position during Liede redevelopment project? (Initial ‘J’ will stand for ‘Jialin’ in following conversation) Wang Wei: I participated one of sub-projects in the later period of Liede redevelopment and switched to be a manager in Liede shareholding cooperative company after the redevelopment finished. We have complete renovation schedule documents in our archive. I can explain it to you if you want. J: That would be nice. W: Well…Liede is a lucky example… Old Liede village included 7,865 local villagers and around 10,000 migrants. They lived on farming and fishing…you know Liede is next to the Liede Canal…Before the redevelopment, the environment of Liede was horrible. The polluted canal and the poor sanitation system made local villagers escape from Liede. J: But now, Liede villagers are always seemed as rich men… W: Yes! In the dynamic urbanization, Liede villagers had no idea about how important of their village’s location was before starting redevelopment plan. Thanks for the new axle line… J: Did authority expropriate all the land at once or step by step? W: Of course step by step. The first turning point for the transformation is Guangzhou as a host city for undertaking 6th National Games in 1986. In order to improving city’s sight, Liede was firstly put on table to discuss about redevelopment. However, good starting did not equal to good ending. Authority started to expropriate some of farmland in 1992, but some conflicts happened. Guangzhou government was not rich as present. They forced some villagers sold their farmland with a price much lower than market land price. Facing to government, villagers cannot protect their right and interest. Of course, some corruption happened in local authority. As a result of demonstration and protest, the land expropriation was stopped. J: Yes, the expropriation and compensation are always the most sensitive part during the redevelopment process. W: Exactly. So Guangzhou government published a special local policy called ‘Reserved Land Policy’, in order to soften the problem of land conflicts during the expropriation of rural land. For example, authority buys 100% rural from villagers and transform into state-own property. The policy stipulates that a certain percentage of the expropriated land must be returned to the collective… J: Sorry, what does collective mean? W: As I said, villagers established a village collective aimed to protect their interests and rights. And all the members of village collective must be selected from native villagers at the starting period. When the redevelopment plan was put on the agenda, the village collective can be upgraded as a shareholding companies. J: Ok... What will village collective do for the returning expropriated land? W: We collect the ‘Reserved Land’ in the village, and rent it or invite some investor…Have you ever been to Liede Business Street with lots of traditional buildings? That is built on ‘Reserved Land’ and all the profits will be used for maintenance of our company and villagers who entrust land to us also can get a year-end bonus.

J: Back to the initial stage of Liede redevelopment. Now, I have a basic idea that you are the representatives of Liede villagers. How did you negotiate with other stakeholders? And how did you protect villagers’ interest? W: Normally, we firstly negotiate with developers… J: Not with Government? Wow, that is beyond my expectation. W: Yes, as I said before, authority attempted to expropriate Liede rural land but failed, because of conflict. So they shifted this right to developers. Villagers can directly discussed with developers about the redevelopment plan and how to compensate. These two parties have to reach an agreement…in villagers’ side, we need to have more than 80% villagers’ signature otherwise all the plan cannot be reached. After that, developers need to organize all the content as documents and send it to relative authority for getting permission. J: I’m wondering that the expropriated land still become to villagers or state? Because the land is expropriated by developers… W: Actually, after land expropriation, rural land transformed to be state-own. Government shifts the expropriation right to developers but the property should belong to state. But developers can make use of this land once they get permission. Government promise that they will provide some supportive policy, such as lower tax ratio, for increasing attraction of this area to developer. However, developers have to solve the relocation and compensation of villagers. In this way, government avoid the directly conflict with villagers. J: Let’s talk about redevelopment arrangement and timeline of Liede village. Would you please briefly introduce it? W: I can offer you a presentation document that we used for one of report meetings with authority. It shows the exact data of each part redevelopment. Basically, the project was launched in 2007 and I did not participate at that time. In the same year, the demolishment was started. The first construction started in 2008 was resettlement community which was compensated to Liede villagers. And it was located to east side of Liede. By the way, the Liede redevelopment was divided into three parts, including north-west plot, south-west plot and east plot. I participated to later stage of east plot construction. After two years construction, we basically finished the community construction and started to arrange resettlement. In 2010, I was responsible for constructing municipal facility and renovating ancestor temple. Orignally, old Liede had 32 temples but we only preserved 5 of them. It was my pity…They were all traditional Minnan-style buildings. Back to redevelopment, the east plot is provided 37 resettlement buildings affording over 6000 apartment. Moreover, there are 5300 underground parking plots for residents. J: Over 6000 apartments? The floor area ratio should be higher than before. W: Exactly, the existing FAR is 6.18 much higher than before. J: Do you know the New Express Daily claimed the new Liede as a ‘three-dimensional ViC’? What do you think of this term? W: Well, developers have to balance cost and profits. All the resettlement apartments not only uses for compensation, but also should be sold in a formal market price, especially Liede has such good location. Developers are business man, and they have to consider to how to earn money. I knew that some people complained many present problems, like traffic jams, over capacity of community. However, basically, new Liede has much better condition than before. J: Let’s talk about your position of east plot redevelopment. As you mentioned, you have participated to municipal construction of east plot. Let’s talk about this. W: Well, we firstly planned to build some public infrastructure, including Liede primary school, kindergarten, raw food market, and community service center and government office in street-level. These facilities have been turned over to relevant government department for administration after finishing construction. For example, primary schools to education bureau, community service center to Public Health Bureau. We have to say that the infrastructure construction has dramatically facilitated the villagers and other residents’ living in Liede community. Moreover, we renew 5 ancestor temples…I mentioned it before…and made them into a cultural center of Liede. We also used reserved land of village collective to build a business street along Liede stream. All the low-rise retail buildings were built as traditional Minnan-style. We organized the tradition of dragon boat performance and competition in Dragon Boat Festival, aimed to attract people here and activate commercial activities. J: That sounds you have a really successful redevelopment project. I am wondering that if the compensation plan included migrant workers who living in old Liede village? 75

W: Who? Migrant workers? They don’t have property of course they can’t be included into compensation. J: Do you think they can afford an apartment in Liede community? W: The well-educated migrants…I mean some middle-class migrants can rent a house in Liede village. I don’t know what kind of migrants do you mean? If you talk about the down-class of labor force, I don’t think they can afford it. J: So after launching the redevelopment project, villagers living in Liede…some of villagers even had escaped to other urban area…and migrants moved out of old Liede. After constructing, only villagers moved back to community, didn’t it? Do you know where they are? W: I have no idea. J: What do you think of an opinion that ‘migrant workers are victims of urban village redevelopment programme’? W: Well, how to settle the migrant works, that is the issues what administrators should concern. We cannot only concern a minority group but give up improving villagers’ living condition. Guangzhou is a first-tier city and has the same position with Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The city needs development, and the urban villages are the blocks of urban development. It is a realistic condition. J: At least, Liede villagers have a better live than before and the north-south axis has a good sight. I agree with you that local authority should consider about migrants’ settlement. Migrant issue should not be the reason that block the progress of regenerating ViCs. W: Exactly. J: Really thanks for your cooperation. I have really helpful information through our interview. Thanks a lot. W: You’re welcome.

Interview 2: Location: The ground floor in Dafen Art Museum. Name of the Interviewee: Li Zhongyi Gender of the interviewee: Male Age of the interviewee: 29 Interview language: Chinese Interview time: 30th. August. 2017 Jialin: Sorry, can I bother you for a while? I’m a student of Sheffield University in UK. I’m doing my final dissertation research. May I have a short interview? (Initial ‘J’ would stand for first name in following conversation) Li Zhongyi: Ok…Hope it will not take long time. J: Yes! Are you full-time stuff of Dafen Art Museum? How long have you worked here? L: Yes, I have been here for one year. J: Wow, may I know your position? L: I’m usual responsible for arranging exhibition and managing display items. J: Would you please briefly introduce Dafen Museum?

L: Well, this museum was built in 2007……Because of the famous painting industry in Dafen, administrative department thought it would be better if Dafen village had a specific museum. What sectors of Dafen museum you want to know? J: Well……What about the schedule of Dafen museum? Does it use frequently? L: Dafen village would be completely open when some big events hold in Dafen village, like Shenzhen Cultural Industry Fair and Shenzhen Painting Vocational Contest. The vocational contest is regularly held for local painters and gives them professional certification. These two events are so popular, not only because artists can gain appreciable competition prize, but also some favorable policies for Shenzhen registered residence. But most of them are biennials, regularly holding once or twice a year. Last year, we totally had fifteen big events holding in Dafen village. For example, we invited art student of Shenzhen University to hold their final year exhibition in Dafen village Last month. J: What about some small events facing to local painters? And I found that only ground and first floor was open to public. Would the upper floors be accessible during the events? L: We defiantly has some events aiming to local painters, for example we sometime exhibits some paintings by local artists and also employed them as drawing tutors to teach children in summer holidays. Of course, all the education classes are free to Dafen residents. Only one quarter of ground floor is on-used for displaying some painting for sales. The first floor will be open depending on the scale of events. Generally, the upper floors are not accessible to public. The second floor is rented for Shenzhen Oil Painting Institute. The third level recently is vacant, but used as workshops of Shenzhen Cultural Industry Fair. J: Is there any influence that Dafen Museum bring to village? Is it positive or negative? L: Definitely positive. Much more people come to Dafen village for visiting museum. As I know, they usually will buy some souvenir in Dafen village. In other words, our museum improve Dafen painters’ income. J: What about incremental rents in Dafen village? Are you living in Dafen village? L: No, I live in accommodation of Dafen museum. But the rents of Dafen village seems not to be increased so much. It’s still cheap than other urban villages in Shenzhen. In addition, Dafen painters can have regular allowance every month from local government. Authorities also provide some affording houses for Dafen artists. J: That’s all my questions. Really appreciate your cooperation. Thank you! L: You’re welcome.

Interview 3: Location: A painting workshop in an alley of Dafen village. Name of the Interviewee: He Houming Gender of the interviewee: Male Age of the interviewee: Around 40 Interview language: Chinese Interview time: 31st. August. 2017

Jialin: Sorry… Can I trouble you for a minute? (Hereafter ‘J’) He Houming is drawing in the alley: I’m afraid not. I need to finish this painting today. (Hereafter ’H’) J: I see you are teaching painting. Would you teach me? How much is it? H: 100 yuan per hour. I select one drawing for you, you can sit here and draw it. I will teach you how to draw it J: Can we have a conversation during teaching?

H: If you want. J: I find lots of painter prefer drawing outside rather than in their workshop. Why? H: To save the electricity fee. And the outside environment is much better inside, like ventilation and lighting. I also can chat with neighborhood. J: Sounds good! I don’t have painting stuff like bushes something... Would you provide? H: Yes, take this. J: have you ever professionally trained before? H: Sort of. I graduated from Sichuan Music and Art College. I worked as a designer in the advertising industry few years ago. J: Wow! So why are you here? H: I started to feel bored, so I sold my business and moved to Dafen village. You know, sometime people want to make his dream come true when he is old. J: haha. When did you move to Dafen? H: Two years age. Firstly, I could not find a job and relied on my family to support me. I felt so ashamed of having make the decision to move to Dafen village. Eventually, I worked in a painting workshop as an assistants, at same time, I found a job in electronics factory in my spare time. J: That sounds so hard. What about income? Was is enough of your daily cost? H: I got monthly salary of 900RMB, one third of my original income…Here is pigment, and you can use it. J: Thanks! So are you still working in factory? H: No, I just worked for several months. When I saved enough money, I rented a room on the second floor for painting, only 2sqm but 500rmb per month. J: When was it? H: About 2010. J: The present rent must be rapidly increased. H: Yes it is. I rent two level, ground floor for painting sale, the upper floor is for living. It’s about 50sqm, 2500rmb per month. The rent is dramatically increasing. It makes us feel stressed. J: After Dafen village built? H: Yes. Even our income is improved but still slower that rents’ increase. J: The officers of museum said government built some affordable housings for the local painters. H: Do you know how many painters in Dafen village? Those housings are obviously insufficient. J: So have ever considered to come back to Sichuan? H: Maybe, but not now. My wife and son come to Shenzhen, and we plan to let my son enter school in Shenzhen. The education quality of Shenzhen is much better than Sichuan. But the first thing is to get the Shenzhen resident permit. Otherwise, my son cannot enter the education in Shenzhen. J: The school in Dafen village?

H: No, but close to Dafen. J: What do you think about Dafen museum? H: I don’t have much feeling about Dafen museum. They might have some festival for our local painters, but only once to twice a year. Dafen painters need more platform to show their productions and sale them. But…you see, the museum is always closed. J: Really thank you. I finished my drawing! H: Show it to me. Well…the color you used…..

Interview 4: Location: A restaurant along main road of Gangsha village. Name of the Interviewee: Song Qing Gender of the interviewee: Male Age of the interviewee: Around 35 Interview language: Chinese Interview time: 1st. September. 2017 Jialin: Ok…Really thanks for your cooperation. Shall we start the interview? (Hereafter J) Song Qing: are you sure that I can be referred in your research? I have never seen what oversea looks like…Well, started it. (Hereafter S) J: Well……how long have you live here? (Hereafter J) S: Not quite long time. But I have been Shenzhen for a long time. I moved to Shenzhen with my sister. J: why did you move to Gangsha? S: I lived in Huanggang village before, but it is rebuilt as entertainment centre. So I was forced to move out. And I still want to live in the city centre, thus I moved to Gangsha. J: In previous urban village, did you work on restaurant as well? S: Yes, I rented a ground floor with my sister and we made a food stall selling fried food. J: How was it? S: Well…. The previous business was good Huanggang is near to the market with Hong Kong. But Gangsha…the west plot is under constructing, the business definitely is not good as before. Thus, besides selling fried food I also do some delivery jobs.

J: Where is your sister? S: She is married to a local guy. So she moved out to Gangsha and found a new job. The male migrant is difficult to get married. J: The main road is seems as new-built. S: Yes just finished last two months. They demolished some buildings and make the road broader. Hhh, my restaurant was behind the blocks before, but now it is facing to main road. I think the business will be better. J: Do you have plans to come back to your hometown? S: Of course I have. I am trying to save 50,000rmb. Then I will go back to my hometown and open a small restaurant, importantly, find someone to get married. J: How do you feel living in urban village? S: Hard to say. Life is not that desirable here, but it is ashamed if coming back. J: Thanks for your cooperation! I finished my interview. S: You are welcome!

-Appendix 3: Photos of interview