Village in the City: China
| Urban Design | Study Abroad: China |
This group project was completed while studying abroad in Shanghai, China. The group consisted of 3 students from the U.S. and 2 students from Tongji University in Shanghai. China is facing a unique growth pattern named here as the Village in the City (ViC), where houses and paths were established organically. People built to occupy any available space: paths occurred wherever people walked around existing structures. The trend is opposite of most cities where blocks of parcels usually dictate building locations and streets. This ViC trend is leading to several issues including overcrowding and property rights disputes.
Each group studied one area in the city, with each group member selecting one organization method. The goal was to negotiate the existing framework with the rules of the one selected. My selected framework was the 'block-based development approach'. For brevity, I have only included images of my contribution to the project.