A living monument for a rootless city
Name
986241355-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
14.59 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
d835098b86165f22874563562bda98db
Author(s)
Liu, Weiqian, M. Arch Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Advisor(s)
Mark Jarzombek.
Date Issued
2017
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The Chinese city of Shenzhen has transformed from a small village to a megacity in just three decades due to the nation's economic policies. Despite its economic success, the city struggles with a lack of identity. In this thesis, monumentality is used as an analytical and design tool to address the city's rootlessness. Defining Shenzhen as a city of immigrants, this thesis proposes to build an urban monument for the immigrants. In addition to its symbolic meaning, the monument is an excuse for preserving a preeminent Urban Village in the Shenzhen Central Business District. Urban Village is essentially urban slums that accommodate thousands of low-income migrant workers. It carries much of the immigrants' memories about the city and exhibits a strong life vibrancy. By analyzing the prevailing mode of Urban Renewal in Shenzhen, this thesis focuses on how the new building satisfies the different groups of interest. The design contains a strong Janus-faced nature to respond to different parties' requests and the specific site conditions. As a result, a living monument for thousands of migrant workers is made as the city's true memory.
Description
Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2017.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 68).
Subjects
Architecture.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
Terms of Use
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