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18. INFORME DE PARTICIPACIÓ SOCIAL I ACTIVITATS REALITZADES
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5.1
Introduction
Located in Alley 210, Taikang Road, Luwan District, Shanghai, Tianzifang（Figure 5-1；Figure 5-2;Figure 5-3） is an area consisted of various alleyway house1 and alleyway factories. This area can be traced back to the 1920s and has distinctive Shanghai characteristics. When the factory spaces had fallen into disuse by the 1990s, it met various threats of dismantlement. Then the artists arrived and reused the abandoned factories and houses as art shops, galleries and studios. After a dynamic changing progress of regeneration, nowadays, over 160 creative companies from about 10 countries and districts aggregate here. In this regeneration and reuse of the decaying factories and living houses, it was participated with the local residents for the first time in China. It shows characteristics of urban renewal from below and community participation by transforming the mixed industrial and residential area into art community and commercial spaces. These particularities make Tianzifang a typical case over the past twenty years and arises much discussion and arguments.
Figure 5-1 The location of Tianzifang area in Shanghai (Source:by author)
1 The Shanghai alleyway house was a rich and vibrant street form，which occupied the ambiguous space between the traditional Chinese courtyard home and the street. It is known by a variety of names, linong being the most common, while longtang is the local Shanghainese name for it. There is also shikumen, a particular type of alleyway house which takes its name from its elaborately carved doorway, a throwback to the paifang or ritualgateways that marked the entry to residential wards in Chines e cities. See more in Gregory Bracken, “The Shanghai Alleyway House : A Threatened Typology,” in Politics and Space in East
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Figure 5-2 The area of Tianzifang area in the year of 2000 (Source:Google earth, edited by author)
Figure 5-3 The area of Tianzifang area in the year of 2010 (Source:Google earth, edited by author)
5.2
Research Method
The aim of this research is to explore that how did a decline historical block mingled with industrial and residential functions gradually become such a popular and vibrant place with community-initiated rehabilitation in the context of huge transform over the past twenty years. The study on its regeneration methodology will play a positive impact on promoting the reuse and preservation of industrial heritage as a catalyst in the rehabilitation of historic districts in China
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Through the literature review and fieldwork, the historical geography of Taikang road area and the transformation of this area are revealed. Then the particularities of Tianzifang’s dramatic regeneration process are identified in the aim of contributing industrial heritage in the rehabilitation of historic districts. The study on the regeneration program, including the site observations and analysis, are conducted to examine the problem emerged in the process from spontaneous transformation to government management and its possible solutions. Finally, this study presents a framework to understand the underlying factors in Tianzifang regeneration pattern combined with two developing approaches between "top to bottom" and "bottom to top".
5.3
Literature Review
Being a peculiar industrial form in Tianzifang, mixed with ecological traces of concession cities, alley factories became an integral part of the history of industrial development in Shanghai and even in China. In the “The Historical Rises and Falls and Neighborhood Revitalization of Shanghai Alley Factories”2, starting with the historical
causes and background of alley factories, the thesis analyzes the heritage value of its buildings and alleyway housing areas. Further, it summarizes and discusses the significance and strategies on revitalization of neighborhood of alleyway factories with the case study of Tianzifang. Regarding the development process of Tianzifang, as a researcher who participated in the regeneration program in 2007-2008, LI Yanning introduces the historical development and present situation of Tianzifang in details in his “A sample of bottom-up regeneration for historical blocks in Shanghai”.3
Through the analysis of methods used in Tianzifang, the thesis “The Protection of Characteristic Streets in Modern City: A Case Study of Shanghai Tianzifang” 4
discusses about the methods to protect unique streets characters, including the discussion of the conflicts between people and use of land, environmental safety problems, the relationship contradiction between new and old. As a trainee in the Luwan District Urban Planning Administration Bureau in 2008, LIANG Dipiao provides abundant materials in his thesis “Study on social risk management on the urban regeneration”.5 JIANG Wei focuses on how to preserve cultural values and
enhance the unique identity of local features through conversion of usages and spatial reconfiguration in her thesis “Residential/Commercial/Industrial Historic Blocks in Germany and China” 6.
Meanwhile, the bottom up Urban renewal of Tianzifang is discussed in the “Narration of Historic Block Renovation in Power and Concept Dimensions: Case of Tianzifang in
2 ZUO Yan, “The Historical Rises and Falls and Neighborhood Revitalization of Shanghai Alley Factories,” Traditional Urban
Industrial Heritage, 02 (2013), 23–28.
3 LI Yanning, “A Sample of Bottom-up Regeneration for Historical Blocks in Shanghai（in Chinese）,” China Cultural Heritage, 2011, 38–47.
4 KE Xiongbin and others, “The Protection of Characteristic Streets in Modern City:A Case Study of Shanghai Tianzifang,”
HUAZHONG ARCHITECTURE, 2011, 184–188.
5 LIANG Dipiao, “Study on Social Risk Management on the Urban Regeneration” (Tongji University, 2009), p. 128.
6 JIANG Wei, “A Comparison of Urban Renewal of Mixed-Use Residential/Commercial/Industrial Historic Blocks in Germany and China——Case Studies of Hackesche H(o)fe in Berlin and Tianzifang in Shanghai,” Modern Urban Research, 2012, 34–46.
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Shanghai”7. Prof.Yu Hai reads the Tianzifang from the eye of a sociologist. He argues
that the conflicts in Tianzifang case are not only the struggles for dominant power within different governmental departments, but also the arguments about the ways of urban renewal and the notions of urban developments. In his another thesis “Tianzifang Experiment: the City Renewal Model Superseding the Binary Opposition of a Place”8, he also points out that the experiences of Tianzifang are caused by
inner-governmental challenges for the dominant ways of urban renewal, as well as the practices of urban context appreciation, creative industry promotion, resident interests and social justice involvements. Furthermore, the attributes and factors that contribute to socially sustainable development in the rehabilitation of historic districts with case study of Tianzifang is examined in the “Sustainable Development and the Rehabilitation of a Historic Urban District - Social Sustainability in the Case of Tianzifang in Shanghai”9. In terms of institutional arrangement and institutional supply
system, the thesis “Research on Urban Renewal From Below: Based on Institutional Vision ——A Case Study of Tianzifang in Shanghai”10 by HUANG Jiang uses the tool of positive analysis and draws support from New Institutional Economics, to analyze the institutional characteristics of urban renewal from below.
7 YU Hai, “Narration of Historic Block Renovation in Power and Concept Dimensions: Case of Tianzifang in Shanghai,” SOCIAL
SCIENCES IN NANJING, 2011, 23–29.
8 YU Hai, “Tianzifang Experiment:the City Renewal Model Superseding the Binary Opposition of a Place,” China Ancient City, 2009, 26–31.
9 Esther Hiu Kwan Yung, Edwin Hon Wan Chan and Ying Xu, “Sustainable Development and the Rehabilitation of a Historic Urban District - Social Sustainability in the Case of Tianzifang in Shanghai,” Sustainable Development, 2011, 01–18 <doi:10.1002/sd.534>.
10 HUANG Jiang, XU Zhigang and HU Xiaoming, “Research on Urban Renewal From Below: Based on Institutional Vision ——A Case Study of Tianzi Fang in Shanghai,” ARCHITECTURE & CULTURE, 2011, 60–61.
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