Documentation of an urban village : the case of Hubei village in the Luohu District, Shenzhen City

Abstract

Defining heritage value is very important; it is the first approach to heritage protection or treatment. The urban village, with the Chinese character of Chengzhongcun (城中村. Urban Village), is presently not only one of the most dismissed values but also one of the most complicated issues in China due to the rapid urban development.

《深圳地名誌》, published in 1987, indicated that with urban development, the number of villages would fall from 1,500 to less than 200 and that they would eventually disappear in the near future. In recent years, along with urban village renewal plans that have been proposed by the government and developers, hundreds of urban villages have been torn down over the past 30 years because of rapid urban development. Some professionals have recognised that there are still certain values that remain from urban villages and have proposed conservation strategies to revive urban villages or old houses in cities. However, as stated by the Shenzhen Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, urban villages have never been listed as heritage sites. Accordingly, it is difficult to protect Urban Villages from demolition, and it is necessary to evaluate the values of Urban Villages to preserve old houses in appropriate ways.

Shenzhen has been one of the most rapidly developed cities, and it developed from a small village to an international city in only 30 years. Accordingly, Shenzhen is treated as the most representative city in China when addressing Urban Villages. This dissertation will first examine an Urban Village on a city scale and evaluate the particular characteristics of a selected urban village, Hubei Village in Luohu District, Shenzhen. This dissertation also reviews past two case studies of a similar typology and uses the principles of English Heritage to evaluate Hubei Village and to propose relevant recommendations/guidelines.