Hanzheng Street autonomy chronicle 2.0 : an alternative urbanism model in a Chinese city

Abstract

The contemporary urbanism model is based on the pre-crisis economy mode. During Chinese rapid economic expansion in the last several years, the existing model only needed to consider physical factors. The model requires strong determinism, and it cannot work without strong economic backing. On the other hand, the model of non-stop demand for urban land is yet an unsustainable element. Under this situation, government often seek for chances to demolish lands like urban villages to catch up the pace of real estate and political achievement even if the capital flow of this kind of process is gigantic and dangerous. What if the crisis is coming? The global economic crisis had affected China’s real estate market within the recent 3 years. However, the urban land demolition is a long time process which could beyond 10 years. Local residents’ environment and community has been damaged; developers don’t want to take the risk when market is shrinking; government’s huge investment is in danger. My method of building a post-crisis urbanism model is writing a fictional story based on the research of a real site. The script, which is the structure of the story, begins with an assumption of real estate crisis. The following assumptions are based on the references and investigations of related real world factors. The story aims to discover an alternative way of developing an old urban district without the top-down approach and the dangerous overwhelming capital flow. The site, Hanzheng street is a famous old district in Wuhan, and it was the most important commercial center and distribution center of small commodities in Hankou (downtown area of Wuhan), which has a long tradition of autonomy development and family workshops. During the rapid urbanization process in this typical Chinese mega city, Hanzheng street is under the fate of demolition and reconstruction into typical Megablocks which combining residential and commercial uses. This interesting site is a perfect stage for the story.