Villages in the City : A Guide to South China's Informal Settlements

Al, Stefan (EDT); Shan, Paul Chu Hoi (EDT); Juhre, Claudia (EDT); Valin, Ivan (EDT); Wang, Casey (EDT)

ISBN 10: 0824847563 / ISBN 13: 9780824847562

Published by University of Hawaii Press, 2014

Seller Inventory # 21653002-n

Synopsis:

Countless Chinese villages have been engulfed by modern cities. They no longer consist of picturesque farms and feng shui groves, but of high-rise buildings so close to each other that they create dark claustrophobic alleys - jammed with dripping air-conditioners, hanging clothes, caged balconies and bundles of buzzing electric wires, and crowned with a small strip of daylight, known as “thin line sky.” At times, buildings stand so close to another they are dubbed “kissing buildings” or “handshake houses” - you can literally reach out from one building and shake hands with your neighbor.

Although it is easy to see these villages as slums, a closer look reveals that they provide an important, affordable, and well-located entry point for migrants into the city. They also offer a vital mixed-use, spatially diverse and pedestrian alternative to the prevailing car-oriented modernist-planning paradigm in China. Yet, most of these villages are on the brink of destruction, affecting the homes of millions of people and threatening the eradication of a unique urban fabric.

Villages in the City argues for the value of urban villages as places. To reveal their qualities, a series of drawings and photographs uncover the immense concentration of social life in their dense structures, and provide a peek into residents’ homes and daily lives. Essays by a number of experts give a deeper understanding on the topic, and help imagine how reinstating the focus on the village could lead to a richer, more variegated pathway of urbanization.

About the Author: Stefan Al is a Dutch architect, urban designer, and an associate professor of urban design at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. In an international career to date, he has worked as a practicing architect on renowned projects suchas the 2,000-foot high Canton Tower in Guangzhou, the preservation of world heritage in Latin America at theWorld Heritage Center of UNESCO, and an 11,000-acre new eco-friendly city in India. Al’s research focuses on theevolution of urban form from a global perspective. His articles have been published in the Handbook of ArchitecturalTheory, Urban China, and other publications. He has edited the book Factory Towns of South China and is currentlywriting a book on Las Vegas entitled The Strip.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Villages in the City : A Guide to South ...
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Publication Date: 2014
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: New