Rejuvenate the Countryside: An Urbanization Strategy for Rural Hancheng

Abstract

In the process of China’s rural urbanization, each day hundreds of villages are being assimilated by cities and towns nearby. Along with that is the quick vanishing of former prosperous countryside life and rural culture. Meanwhile, the overbuilding of new high-density residential buildings in the rural of China results in a great number of ‘ghost towns’. This thesis examines the current rural area development in China from the urban planning scale to the architecture scale. This thesis proposes an urban planning strategy as well as a village typology which takes consideration of new economic patterns (rapid growing countryside tourism and countryside E-commerce), environmental friendly agriculture, traditional countryside spaces, vernacular materials. The aim of the thesis is to revitalize the rural area in China and make the countryside more like the countryside. This thesis uses south Hancheng (capital of Hanshan county) in Southeast China as a design subject.