Parallel Cities

So long as one- third of urban residents are migrants without legal resident rights, urbanisation in China will remain incomplete. Meanwhile, house prices have skyrocketed in cities, with the national average house price increasing by 250% in the decade between 2000 and 2010 and since 2011, more than half of China’s 1.3 billion population are living in cities. Because of severe housing shortages, Village in the City (ViC) provides migrant enclaves for the new move- ins. Politically, ViC is perceived as a time bomb because of high concentration of young migrants, poor sanitation, hidden unlawful activities and fire hazard. Yet, it sustain a well- balanced development by absorbing and accommodating new migrants and act as a close- knit spatial and network within the city fabric. Thought spatial demolition, extrusion, stitching and addition of public facilities on the roof, dynamic rehabilitation should be able to solve dense existing dense buildings and fragmented spaces. According to an article in “China Dialogue”, the goal of government is to cover 20% of urban households with subsidised housing, and low-income households should enjoy at least 13 metres square per capita floor space by 2015. 

Without affordable housing, migrants have to live in illegal housings, such as dorms in basements, mouse tribes, rooftop apartment, containers, etc. Because of ‘hukou’ issue, new migrants are unprotected and are short term residents in the cities. The add- ons residential above the ViC concentrates residents at the city centre and retain traces of indigenous creation. The plug- in infrastructure applies to housings and also for a variety of short term activities on street space through a mechanism on a large playground. Existing technology can already achieve this flexibility of event spaces, such as arduino board and Littlebits, which acts like a grid and plug- in appliance for domestic use. As ViCs remain the most efficient solution today to the housing problems of lower- income communities, hence many approaches, such as Shenzhen’s Ganglia Village and Dafen Oil Village, have been made to let ViC to meet updated regulations and living standards.