Hong Kong architect documents Shenzhen villages doomed by development

Shenzhen is the face of the new China, a sleepy fishing village transformed into an industrious manufacturing centre and now a gleaming hi-tech and financial hub. At least, that’s the official line.

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The reality is much more complicated. Before it became a special economic zone and a city of 18 million people, Shenzhen was not a single fishing village: it was hundreds of villages. Many of them still exist today, embedded within a landscape of office towers, shopping malls and massive housing estates. Over the years, they have been transformed into jam-packed enclaves of tenement housing where migrant workers can find a cheap apartment in a convenient location.

“The history of the urban villages is the history of Shenzhen,” says Du Juan, a University of Hong Kong architect who has been researching the villages for more than a decade. She is working on a book about them that will be published this year, and she recently unveiled an exhibit about the villages at the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, which runs inside a derelict Shenzhen flour mill until the end of February.

Each village has its own character. In the west, Nantou’s history stretches back nearly 2,000 years, and it still boasts intact Ming dynasty gates. In the east, Dafen has become a hub for oil painters who reproduce famous artworks. In the middle, Baishizhou sprawls across several square kilometres, teeming with restaurants, outdoor billiards halls – even a specialty coffee shop and craft brewery.

When Du speaks about the villages, her voice is tinged with a sense of urgency. Many of them are slated for demolition and redevelopment, including a large portion of Baishizhou, which is home to more than 300,000 people.

“It’s constant tension,” says Du. “Everyone is just waiting for these villages to be demolished. I’m hoping that day comes as late as possible. The city is not ready to lose all of this affordable housing.”

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Du’s exhibit at the biennale, From Villages to City: The Informal History of Shenzhen, takes the perspective of an outsider delving into village life. It opens with panoramic views of the city, where the high-rise landscape is interrupted by dense clusters of walk-up buildings known as “handshake buildings” because of their proximity to each other. “People see them as these monolithic clusters,” says Du. “But everything you see in the villages has a very specific reason behind it, in the policies and politics of the land.”