'WHERE WORLDS CLASH'-URBAN VILLAGE RENEWAL IN MEGA-CITIES

摘要

The phenomenon of ,,villages in the city" presents e a special challenge, but also an opportunity to preserve some of the cultural heritage and the quality of living spaces in the midst of the giant construction boom in Chinese mega cities. The paper reports on a 4-year collaborative effort to develop a ,,model village project" in Zhu Village, one of the 138 so-called ,,villages in the city" of Guangzhou. A team from ETH Zurich, jointly with collaborators from the University of Hong Kong, local universities and Guangzhou city, district, and Zhu village government set out to jointly develop a sustainable improvement concept for the residential neighborhood. Based on a conceptual framework of sustainable development, proposed by the ETH team in Zurich, the project was to address cultural, social/economic, human (individual), biological and chemical/physical aspects of village "systems". Subsequently it was decided to focus on two specific areas of sustainable urban renewal that were to be integrated into the locally developed overall improvement plan: 1) preservation of the historic qualities of the village central area in terms of historic buildings, trees, and public open spaces places; and 2) improving the quality of water bodies in the village through (low-cost) biological and mechanical systems. The paper provides an overview of the processes and outcomes and summarizes the critical reflections on the goals achieved and the reasons for the difficulties encountered.