New development of creative industry in traditional Xiaozhou water village : artists in residence

Abstract

In recent years, how to reconstruct the urban village becomes an important issue caused by the rapid urbanization. Most of the villages were planned to be demolished and rebuild as high-rise residential communities. As a consequence, every modern city in China seems to be more and more similar. Concrete, glasses, steels…same construction materials make the city look like the same and lost its characteristics and culture identification. Instead of being replaced by high-rise residential buildings, urban village is struggling to find another way out. In this case, some villages catch the chance when artists appeared. Developing creative industry in traditional village gives another example for village reconstruction, which contributes to preserve the culture and tradition, and further improve the current living conditions based on the local features. The objective of this study is Xiaozhou Village in Guangzhou. The natural and historical assets have been the main raw materials for the regeneration effort, rather than some alien and inappropriate model of contemporary development. The villagers themselves have taken a central role in this redevelopment effort and have marked the new Xiaozhou with unique and culturally significant interventions. This study is mainly divide into four chapters. The first part is the base of the study, introducing the background of the city. According to the research, issues would be found and potential solutions should be proposed. Part two is about the site context that can help to further understand the conditions. On the basis of the research, strategy of developing creative industry and increasing service facilities would be proposed in part three. Lastly, there would be detail design in specific site, showing the result of the study. This study aims at exploring new mode of developing traditional village community, residential community can be transformed to art center, not just what old factories can do.