Putting the village back into the urban village: recovering a new commons for Gui Yang, Chengguan Village, China through adaptive re-use and landscape recovery

Abstract

The aim of this project is to discover and probe the challenges that exist in Chengguan Urban Village through interviews and mapping, after initial field work and site reconaissance, I will apply architectural interventions, such as spatial and functional aspects to adress thesis issues and challenges. -Historical interpretive research is the method I used in the research process of this project. Through the study of the historical development of Chengguan Village I will attemp to understand the changes in the lives of the villagers. The Guizhou Aluminium Factory opened a branch in Chengguan Village in 1950, and Chengguan Village has since become a village dominated by both industry and agriculture. Until around 2000, the aluminum plant was abandoned and the villagers' agricultural land was completely expropriated by the government. With the development of more formal cities by the Chinese government, the gap between urban villages and city life is getting wider and wider. The living demands of the villagers have also changed, and more facilities and services should follow suit, such as recreational facilities, garbage sorting facilities, daycare, medical facilities, and agricultural production conditions. -Precedent studies is a way to make investigations more in-depth. After the problem is found, the design strategy of other projects will serve as an effective reference and thinking. I will analyze the key projects designed by Urbanus and Turenscape, to inject new elements and meanings into my project, such as adding new materials to old buildings to create a different atmosphere, and how to transform old buildings to give them new functions. I will distill the lessons learned from these, and add these to my own design project. - Field Work and Site Reconaissance, I have both identified, as well as distill and analyze several challenge and needs which includes the phenomenon of the wet market, garbage challenge and the demand for agricultural land. Wet market is built on the first floor of a residential building, which shares the indoor parking space and outdoor space with the residents. The main challenge of these wet market is hygiene, with residents unable to tolerate the smell of vegetable leaves, chicken feathers, and fish scales which the vendors throw away every day. In addition to the inconvenience of living, poor sanitation poses some health risks to households, traders and villagers - it could even cause massive disease. The problem of waste in the village is also very serious. Although there are several trash bins in the village, the villagers still throw away their garbage at will. There is also a conscious lack of garbage classification and lack of facilities. For these problems, I propose to establish a multi-functional new commons for the establishment of new markets waste management, and even more service and entertainment space. This will form the new self-organized economy for the villagers, which is designed to improve the quality of life of villagers and make them financially self-sufficient.