“Urban villages” are the result of the rapid urbanization of cities, which in their expansions, engulfed all surrounding fishing and agricultural villages. In the Guangdong Province, both the provincial capital Guangzhou and economic hub Shenzhen (also a Special Economic Zone or SEZ), have a great number of these “villages in the city.” With regards to Guangzhou, there are about 138 “urban villages.”

Typical urban village in Shenzhen

In compensation to the occupation and construction on all surrounding agricultural land, the government allowed the farmers and fisherman living in the different villages to develop multi-story buildings. With the government turning a blind eye to the uncontrolled urbanization, buildings were developed following the original footprints of houses, thus growing only inches from each other. In their majority, urban villages are overcrowded, composed of densely packed buildings, with extremely high FARs, ranging from one story to 6 or 8 story constructions. The circulation consists of narrow winding alleys, that due to their width and sharp turns, remain primarily for pedestrians and bikes; even so, they are sometimes difficult to negotiate with the large amount of people and commerce spilling onto them.

Above: Facade of Xiancun Urban Village in Guangzhou- instead of housing, we now see 6 to 8 story high buildings.

Most of these urban villages began to grow vertically in the 1990s as some original villagers took advantage of the high migration and increased demand for housing in the city, and literally extruded the footprint of their house. Today, these villagers and house owners have turned into wealthy absentee landlords. As far as residents go, they are either migrants, dispossessed farmers or belong to other low-income groups. If migrants, village inhabitants are regarded as Read More…