Thesis. 1977. M. Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography : leaf 52. / by William Roan Tibbs, Jr. / M.Arch.

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In the last two decades, China's economic reforms in general, and rural reforms in particular, have had an immense effect upon China's urbanization patterns. A large rural surplus labor force has transformed itself into irresistible migration waves sweeping across most of China's big cities. / An essential question is how could Chinese cities avoid going through the same process of trial and error as other Third World cities, or what are the feasible ways to accept and integrate migrants within the existing urban systems. The answer to this question could only be explored to a large degree by examining the current situations in existing migrant communities. / This thesis focuses on the study of the use of domestic space in migrant houses as a means to examine the question from an architectural perspective. A case study of Zhejiang Village, the most influential migrant community in Beijing has been conducted. From 30 survey samples, 15 are analyzed according to the range of economic activities pursued by the migrants. Two other samples from Zhejiang vernacular houses are also examined in order to conduct a comparative study. Detailed drawings and analysis are arranged to show how ingeniously they combine their businesses within their meager domestic space. / The study shows that economic activities and cultural traditions are the vital factors that influence the use of domestic space in migrant houses. It also confirms that the physical integration of migrants must take into account their cultural background and spatial traditions.

The study hypothesizes that the working class have evolved a distinctive life style, in terms of stable and recurring activity and behaviour patterns. It is argues that thorough knowledge and understanding of these patterns can provide meaningful design requirements for the planning of new residential areas or for the redevelopment of the present "grey" areas in central cities. A review of literature pertinent to the working class and low income housing suggested that the housing priorities of the working class revolve first around attaining home ownership and secondly around locating conveniently near basic contacts, that is, work, stores and friends and relatives. Without an adequate supply of low income housing, the possibilities of home ownership are negligible. Thus, the thesis investigated two obstacles hindering increases in the low income housing supply. They are: (1) the hesitancy to accept non-convential construction techniques and (2) the lack of governmental initiative in creating direct increases to low income housing supply. In general terms, it is suggested that large scale industrialized building will provide a promising solution to the problem of high housing costs but also that, in accepting mass system housing, the necessity of thoroughly studying the people for whom the housing is constructed must be recognized. Innovative governmental programs, for example, the turn-key techniques, show possibilities of satisfying the high priority need of the working class, that is, the security of tenure or more simply, home ownership. The literature reviewed also indicated that the locational preferences of the working class were dependent upon transportation availability and costs to work, the nearness to employment opportunities and the convenience to social, commercial and other local facilities. These factors are, therefore, considered important requisites in the location of low income housing. A study of working class activity and behaviour involved an appraisal of their attitudes and preferences. A short over-view of existing literature investigating working class attitudes in the areas of the family, the home, the neighbourhood and consumer behaviour is presented. The primary analysis involved a detailed study of working class activities and behaviour. Basically four studies were used to document the stable and routine activity patters of the working class. The use of information culled from these studies is subject to many limitations. However, it is felt that the material does indicate several spatially significant working class activity patterns. A comparison of activities and existing physical planning criteria is used to suggest the areas of compatability and conflict between the activities and the criteria. The comparison also gives evidence of characteristic working class activities that are not generally considered in terms of the spatial arrangements that the activities suggest. It is suggested that the descriptive evidence provided is sufficient to indicate the distinctiveness of working class activities and behaviour. From a planning point of view, the implications derived from the spatial patterning of their activities suggest distinctive design criteria for the planning of low income working class communities. To conclude, planning which focuses on integrating the surrounding neighbourhood and the local facilities with the home area would accommodate the familiar activity patterns of the working class. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Transition areas located at the fringes of Central Business Districts are, in most cities, one of the important residential location options for the lowest income groups. The dynamics of city growth result in a process of abandonment of those areas by the high income groups and occupation by the poor; most neighborhoods in those areas have a low level of housing maintenance and low rental values. Some housing programs, such as NIP, RRAP, attempt to improve the housing conditions of the poor by upgrading the housing stock in those areas. It is felt that, by subsidizing housing repairs and neighbohood improvement programs, two objectives can be achieved: better housing for the poor and neighborhood stability. At the same time, there is evidence in some North American cities of a reversal of the suburbanization process: some medium-to-high income groups which traditionally tend to locate in suburban areas, now are locating in old-central neighborhoods. The houses are extensively renovated, and some of these areas are gradually becoming new middle-to-high class residential districts. This trend raises some concern with respect to the effects of this process on low-income residential options. Although there is some evidence that the gentrification process may produce dislocation problems for the poor, there seems to be little agreement as to the significance of this problem and the type of housing policies that would be more appropriate to ensure adequate housing for the poor in areas undergoing gentrification. This research has four major objectives: 1) To identify the role of transition areas on low-income residential location. 2) To identify those variables that can explain the gentrification process in central neighborhoods. 3) To assess the effects of gentrification, particularly on low-income residential location options. 4) To assess the effects of housing and neighborhood improvement subsidies on low-income location in gentrifying areas. The method chosen was that of theoretical research. A review of different bodies of location theory was used to derive a conceptual location model which combines economic, socio-ecologic and dynamic components of residential location. The model, in turn, was applied to analyze the four research areas listed in the objectives. As a general conclusion drawn from the analysis, it is suggested that the gentrification process defines a planning situation characterized by conflicting goals and long-term uncertainty. The analysis provided some insight as to the type of uncertainty involved, the nature of the goals conflict, and some indicators that can be useful for housing policy in gentrifying areas. Since the gentrification process appears to be very recent in Canada, most of the evidence presented- in this research is based on US literature. However, the approach taken has attempted to focus on those variables that would appear to be more applicable to the Canadian scene. The model presented in this research can be used for a number of planning purposes, one of which is measuring and understanding the occurrence and significance of gentrification in Canadian cities. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

During its formative years Vancouver appeared to offer unusual; potential for land and home ownership to its blue collar workers. The coincidental growth of the city's streetcar system with that of the early population itself, gave settlers of moderate means greater housing choice than that available to workers in the older cities of central Canada. The large supply of residential land opened up by the streetcar favoured the spread of detached family homes in the suburbs, in contrast to the attached and semi-detached dwellings characteristic of the older pedestrian city, which housed many Canadian urban workers. The study examines the availability of residential land and the extent to which it benefitted Vancouver working men prior to 1914. Vancouver's early real estate market however, was subject to speculative swings which constrained opportunities for blue collar land ownership. Initially, virtually all residential land was in the hands of the C.P.R. and a few B.C. entrepreneurs who together, fostered a speculative land market in the city. The records of early land companies, and after 1900, the real estate pages of Vancouver dailies, record the rapidly rising price of residential land in workingmen's areas as investors and speculators traded blocks and further out, acreage, among themselves. Land prices dropped temporarily during the depression of the mid 1890s but tax sales and auctions mainly benefitted those with the capital to ride out economic malaise. During the massive wave of immigration between 1904 and 1913, rising urban land costs and speculation in suburban land were endemic to Canada's rapidly growing cities. In Vancouver however, land values rose faster than elsewhere, culminating in the real estate boom of 1909-12. During this period, economic security for many workers was precarious. Seasonal as well as cyclical unemployment was a feature of the city's lumber manufacturing and construction industries. A large Asian minority added to the general preponderance of single male migrants in the city produced a labour surplus; and high hourly wages were offset by the high costs of living in the city. As Vancouver's population climbed after 1904, suburban settlement began to take shape. Two residential areas which attracted workingmen--Hillcrest and Grandview, are examined in some detail to determine the nature of the settlement process and, where assessment rolls are available, early land holding patterns. In general, large areas of both suburbs were owned by investors/speculators until 1909. By 1912 almost half the lots in Grandview and Hillcrest still remained undeveloped although rooming houses and small apartment blocks could be found near the streetcar lines. Turnover among Grand-view residents was high and a large minority did not yet own homes, a reflection of the volatile land market in the city. With the exception of a few years during the late 1880s and early 1900s, the struggle for home ownership in Vancouver differed little from the struggle in most Canadian cities. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

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