published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

The emergence of a new type of residential form always accompanies a change in the dominant political ideology. In China, the rise of the work-unit compound resulted from the domination of socialism. After the reform in 1978, capitalism gradually replaced socialist thoughts, and the change in ideology resulted in the boom of the gated community in urban areas. Current studies on the establishment of residential form are conducted in two directions. One is represented by typology and morphology, which focus on the physical structure of residential buildings, whereas the other direction is urban sociology, which considers the social aspects of the urban phenomenon. These two branches are well-developed in their own field, but the relationship between the physical forms and their social bases has not been systematically studied for a long time. The objective of this thesis is to fill the research gap on physical housing and urban social conditions, as well as to explore the relationship between changes in political ideology and the emergence of a residential form. To achieve the research objectives, this study will focus on the following questions: (1) What is the role of political ideology in the establishment of a residential form? and (2) How does the political influence the establishment of a certain residential form? The theoretical framework is based on a parallel literature review on both fields of typology and urban sociology, especially on the space production theory proposed by Marxist urban sociologists. The conceptual framework explains the role of the dominant political ideology in the establishment of a residential form based on the space production theory by Lefebvre. The analytical elements generated by the review of typology and morphology are integrated into the main conceptual framework. Qualitative research methods including case study, interview and documentary research has been used in this research. The leading argument of this research is that the dominant political ideology has a strong influence on the establishment of a residential form, which is a result of the manipulation of political power. Political power can influence the establishment of a residential form through the distribution of spatial resources and by guiding people’s preferences among spatial resources. Meanwhile, a residential form adopts the preferred social relation of the current political power, thus reinforcing the social structure. The work-unit compound in Socialist Beijing is a way for the Communist Party of China (CPC) to exhibit its power and control resource distribution. The gated community also represents the preference of the government because it helps to realize the privatization process. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Staging of mega-events have gradually emerged as large-scale urban projects. Although mega-events are short-lived, the urban impact they leave behind have a tendency to last decades. Urban planning and management have increasingly capitalized on the exceptional environment from mega-events for ambitious urban development projects. Mega-event deadlines permit politicians and projects to be expedited and go around normally required measures. Under the unique environment that mega-events offer, host cities have the power and opportunity to influence their development fate. Every mega-event happens within its own spatial socioeconomic and political context and host city urban developments have become more complex, for these reasons, the interest in the study of mega-event urbanization have significantly increased. This dissertation has researched the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to analyze the China urban development model with playing Games and concepts. The dissertation first examines previous Olympic Games and their urbanization models, methods, impacts, and results. It then investigates on the existing literature on the 2008 Games urbanization and highlights existing research gap. After, the dissertation conducts independent research and data analysis and identifies the Beijing Olympic and China urban development model. The following section compares and contrasts Beijing’s model from both international and national accounts and addresses this dissertation’s theoretical contribution. The concluding section assesses the research findings and offer policy recommendations based on China’s current context. The result of this dissertation provides an account of Beijing and China mega-event urbanization model that can assist future research by enriching the understanding of mega-event urbanization history in China. / published_or_final_version / China Development Studies / Master / Master of Arts in China Development Studies

After 1949, the massive urbanization take place in many traditional and new cities in new China, as one of the most unique cities in China, Beijing experiences the unprecedented development in last few decades, the thesis project starts from the general research on urbanization of Beijing to lead to the key phenomenon during the process - resettlement. The research on a series of resettlement housing projects throughout the history of Beijing from 1949 is an essential part to understand the evolution of the resettlement housing strategy in Beijing. Based on the design methodology of different projects and the various analysis of the resettlement housing strategy from different researchers, this thesis project tries to summarize the characteristics of the resettlement projects in different area, and to find out the changing trend of the typical resettlement projects. The research is not only focused on the building design and spacing, but also concentrated on open spaces, public facilities and all elements that impact on the relationships of neighborhoods. On the other hand, the resettlement that spontaneously happened in the traditional residential area is also an important part of resettlement in Beijing. The different between the government conducted resettlement housing project and the spontaneous resettlement phenomenon produce the different way of neighborhood communication, therefore the thesis also focuses on how the traditional building and street shape the neighborhoods communications and its differences with the new resettlement housing. With the constant urbanization, the massive resettlement is still happening in Beijing today, and the government is introducing more large scale resettlement projects in these years, the Dongcheng-Chaoyang cooperative resettlement plan is a large resettlement planning of center-area population evacuation, which plans to evacuate 10,000 people to Chaoyang district per year from 2011 to 2020. The thesis project plan to propose a new strategy in one part of Dingfuzhuang resettlement site in connection with the main issues of previous research, which to restructure a new type of neighborhood experimentally. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This dissertation investigates some literary configurations of Beijing through contemporary Chinese literature and films. These configurations are built upon three specific urban spaces (military compound, siheyuan and some modern constructions) by three significant literary groups. The literary groups discussed in this work are Dayuan wenhua quan (Compound Cultural Group), Dierdai jingweier zuojia (Second-generation Beijing Flavor Writers), and Beipiao diliudai dianyingren (Beijing Floater Sixth-generation Filmmakers).This study adopts a particular methodology. Inspired by Henri Levebvre, it establishes a framework which connecting urban spaces (representations of space), writers and literary productions (representational space). It examines what these urban spaces mean to Chinese writers and filmmakers and how these people thus adopt them to configure particular urban images of Beijing. It argues that these different configurations are actually the projections of those writers and filmmakers' own cultural imaginations, emotional catharsis, and manifest their own cultural positions. "Compound Cultural Group" interprets Beijing as "compound Beijing," which represents revolutionary culture in communist China. Their nostalgia toward the compound in the Cultural Revolution indicates the decline of the once ruling social group. As for "Second-generation Beijing Flavor Writers", Beijing is a traditional and a masculine city. In their novels, siheyuan is considered as the embodiment of Chinese tradition and Beijing girl is portrayed as masculine women. This imagination fulfills their own cultural appeal to reconstruct traditional values in the "Cultural Fever" in the 1980s. In the eyes of "Beijing Floater Sixth-generation filmmakers," Beijing is a cosmopolitan metropolis. In their films, this globalized modern city is an urban dream for migrants.

This dissertation is concerned with the dynamics of housing delivery in Beijing, the capital city of China. Over the past four decades, perceptions of housing problems in Beijing and historical conditions have changed. Housing shortages, run-down housing in inner city areas, affordability of commodity housing, and informal housing developments are some examples of housing problems that have developed over the years. However, during the current transition towards a "socialist market system", developing and formulating effective organizational and institutional arrangements to address these substantive housing problems have become the more challenging tasks. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the dynamic changes of organizational and institutional arrangements in housing delivery in Beijing and to identify factors contributing to their performances. Based on the "housing delivery analytical framework" derived from the literature review, the dissertation identifies five housing delivery systems in Beijing: (1) work-unit housing, (2) commodity housing, (3) inner city housing, (4) the "Comfortable Home" housing programme and (5) informal housing. Based on extensive interviews and field research, the dissertation analyzes the unique combination of actors in each housing delivery system, their goals and how they fulfil their role in the process of producing, distributing, and consuming housing. The changes among these arrangements and the reasons for these changes are also discussed. The findings of this study suggest that outcomes of housing delivery systems do not correspond well with the stated objectives or general goals of availability, adequacy, affordability, accessibility, and viability. The dissertation discovers several major reasons for this imperfect correspondence: (1) policy objectives overstress quantitative requirements; (2) policy objectives represent compromises between conflicting values; (3) key interests within the implementation structure are different from policy objectives; and (4) underlying forces beyond housing delivery influence the behaviour of actors In light of the findings, the chief pragmatic implication of the study is that improving housing accessibility should be the key in future housing reforms in Beijing. Housing policies should focus more on managing land, transforming the role of work-units, integrating informal developments, linking comprehensive planning with housing development, forming new community organizations, building housing finance systems, and coordinating housing administration.

Rehabilitation and reconstruction of dilapidated houses in the Old City is now the central issue of urban development of Beijing. On the one hand, it relates to the life of 800,000 people who live in old and dilapidated houses in the old residential quarters; on the other hand, it directly deals with the issue of preservation of the image of the old city. Starting with three pilot projects in 1988, 37 Stage One projects have been completed and some projects of further Stages are in the process of being built within the urban renewal program. However, the result is not so satisfactory in fulfilling its ends. / This study is conducted in two main stages: first it attempts to demonstrate the rather complex circumstances which the urban renewal program is encountering. The redevelopment process is examined from the perspectives of political intention, economic limitation, professional dedication as well as concerns of the powers-that-be at different levels. Second, through the in-depth study on the process, preservation of the old city and re-accommodation of the original residents are raised to be the two key issues to evaluate the performance of the program. Detailed discussions are thus held around these two topics. / Efforts have also been made to find where the problems lie in order to direct the change of the political intention and consequently result in the adjustment of the policies and practice. Only then is it possible for the redevelopment program not to deviate from its main goals, which are to improve the living conditions of people and to preserve the image of the ancient capital.