Integrity and Transformation of Vernacular Urbanity: historic urban landscapes in Guangzhou metropolis

Ref.: 144
Key theme: 02 Functional integrity of historic urban landscapes
Date of reception: 16/11/2008

AUTHORS (*Main author)

FRASSOLDATI, Francesca * (China) - South China University of Technology
JIANG, Feng (China) - South China University of Technology

ABSTRACT

The ageless foggy atmosphere beside a canal lined by dark-bricks buildings, steamers at doors steps, and animated by bike trailers in the narrow lanes, suddenly shifts to a contrasting image as we turn a corner. We are now in a chaotic commercial streets, in which new high- rise buildings echo the noise of a busy traffic intersection. This is Geshan, a chengzhongcun (villages within the city) of Guangzhou metropolis, in China. This puzzling experience multiplies in hundreds historic urbanized compounds, which were former rural villages and are now trapped into the urban growth. Because of a different administrative status related with farmland management, chengzhongcun are neglected by standard urban planning, and increase social and urban concerns. The paper conceptualises the role of these historic landscapes as incubator of urban identity in current memory-less city horizon. Evidences and outlines are supported by a three years research of Chinese and Italian master students and tutors.
Vernacular urban patterns were the milestones of a former rural world. They are now miniature cities within Guangzhou, offering spaces for work and convenient neighbourhood life to original villagers and newcomers. These survival historic compounds have partially adapted their built environment to the current urban stage; but they preserve a functional landscape of mediators in inurbation processes. To define these common urban patterns as historic urban landscapes of Guangzhou obviously leads to a broaden connotation of heritage.
Three interpretative issues rise up:
- the historic significance of vernacular urban patterns refers to Braduel's idea of a long term comprehensive history, that conflicts here with a dramatically changed geography;
- the urban function of rural centres is defined with reference to Southern China villages, that Freedman identifies as incubator of urban culture, and not uniformly peasants home;
- the integrity of these urbanity halls also calls for a physical memory that overcome the users (locals, migrants, displaced people and citizens in general).
Thus it is important to understand how urban landscapes morphology can be "preserved" and how the daily life of local inhabitants can pragmatically up-date. Within these framework, since 2006 SCUT (PRC) and UniFe (IT) organize intensive workshops for students of architecture and urban planning. The international teams first collected general information and documented relevant historic buildings, public functions and open spaces in Xiaozhou and Geshan villages; than a step by step strategy matched new needs, existing buildings and flexible spaces. The elaboration of possible scenarios has explored dialogue possibilities between past and present in the contemporary city. These projects have stimulate the debate among scholars, local inhabitants, and villagers representatives, enhancing local communities awareness of their places.
It is a crucial issue in Guangzhou urban policy. A chaotic merging of different urban fragments in a dense city has imposed isolated monuments, questionable shopping areas, displacement of original inhabitants, artificial landscapes rebuilding or risky government's impasses, facing villages self-managed densification. Through a different inhabitants and morphology concern, we support the idea of historic urban landscapes as discontinuities that shape and explain our current urban life.

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