Urban Village: Evaluating an Alternative Future for China's Cities

Abstract

Urban villages are a cultural and geographical phenomenon found in Shenzhen, China, born out of the region’s transformation in the 1980s from rural farmland into a megacity of 18 million people. Traditionally inhabited by migrant workers, the locally-constructed apartment buildings are increasingly under threat of demolition in favor of modern high-rise developments. Several studies have investigated the social and political context surrounding the development of urban villages, while few explore the opportunity they provide for a more sustainable direction in city planning from a scientific or engineering standpoint. The research presented in this thesis aims to fill this gap in knowledge, using methods of environmental analysis to provide quantitative data towards an understanding of the urban village within the framework of sustainable planning principles. Six designs for the urban village block are analyzed and compared using the 3D modeling software Rhinoceros, graphical algorithm editor Grasshopper, and environmental design plug-in Ladybug. Results suggest that improved environmental performance can be achieved through minimally invasive variations in building typology, orientation, and spatial organization, preserving the vernacular form of the urban village and the role it plays in providing affordable, human-scale, and mixed-use neighborhoods in Shenzhen.