Communal urban-scape revisited: redeveloping urban spaces for communities living in the historical district in Beijing, China

Abstract

The practicum is an urban strategy proposal aiming at promoting communal spaces for people living in a historic district of Beijing, the capital city of China. The practicum explores and applies landscape and urban planning theories regarding urban spontaneity and community building for enhancing environment under an urban context with rich history and culture. Research including literature review, background investigations and field studies were conducted to fully understand the unique historical, cultural and social characteristics of the site. The proposal includes urban strategies on a neighbourhood scale and human-scaled design of infrastructure. The major concern of the proposal is to explore the possibilities of people living in the highly-dense community with limited daily-based resources while maintaining the vitality of the unique living style inherited from history.