Transforming the "world factory" : designing for a [post]industrial Shenzhen

Abstract

China has been known as the "world factory" ever since it opened up to the global economy. This has led to a vastly sprawled, monotonous industrial urbanism, where urban environment has become a spatial product rather than a living city. However, just as Western post-industrial cities have experienced, some Chinese cities are currently going through a deindustrialization process due to reasons such as rising labor costs, rising land costs and new environment laws. Shenzhen, which is a manufacturing center in South China, currently has a 30-45% factory vacancy because companies are leaving to cheaper areas, either in inland China or other countries. Yet, it's not a declining or shrinking city; it is seeking to transform from a manufacturing center to a more diverse production environment with upgraded industries. As the first Special Economic Zone in China, Shenzhen is a city under the influences of both socialist ideology and capitalist market forces: on the one hand, the city has a centralized planning system that guides the overall structure of urban development; on the other hand, Shenzhen has been rapidly "produced" under dynamic market forces, with a clear priority of economic growth. The consequence of this conflict is the inconsistency between the city's master plan and its actual urban form, especially in the aspect of land use. Since the master plan cannot keep pace with socioeconomic changes, it always fails to guide urban transformations in urban changes. Built on Shenzhen's current urban change and its special political background, this thesis aims at developing a dynamic urban design method for Shenzhen's current deindustrialization and industrial upgrading process in order to guide urban transformation while allowing for flexibility to accommodate uncertainties and changes.