Urban complex : between institutions and space

Abstract

This research studies hyper-dense, non-planned, informally repurposed, and mix-use buildings in contemporary Chinese cities. Growing population density and a booming urban economy in the past decades have created an incentive to re-utilize more lucratively mid- and large-scale, mix-use buildings that occupy prime locations in cities. In these buildings where the current usage exceeds the allowed occupancy and differs from planned and designed purpose, individual actors and relevant stakeholders establish self-organized institutions, along with formal governance, to manage the common-pool resources inside these buildings. The research describes such buildings as an urban complex because of not just the mix-use quality, but also the intertwined, transforming structure of social institutions. As formal and informal institutional setups interact to invent dynamic structures for collective action and governance to address the limited common-pool resources inside the informally repurposed, mix-use buildings, a unique urbanism in the inside begins to emerge. To analyze such an environment, I propose to study such an environment through a holistic lens that takes into account the interaction of spatial organization and existing social networks. Seeing such a unique environment as a lesson for addressing urban informality and commoning in cities at large, I aim to speculate potential guiding principles for improvements or reinvention.