By Darcy Bender, 1/25/2016. I ended my time in Guangzhou a bit short so that I could attend a discussion led by members of ICI and the Design Center of Shenzhen at the UABB Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. The discussion was a really incredible introduction to urbanism and scholarship in Shenzhen through presentations of projects by the Shenzhen Design Center followed by a question and answer session. One of the presentations that stood out to me was a participatory mapping project in by Fu Na, a researcher at the Design Center. I was honored and excited to be asked by ICI to join them for the next two days on a tour of important places in the region by the Shenzhen urbanist and author of the blog Shenzhen Noted, Mary Ann O’Donnell.
The first place we visited was the district of Dalang on the outskirts of Shenzhen. Recently, the factories and workers that had previously been in the Shenzhen city center have been pushed to outer districts as the city center increasingly becomes a place for office towers and luxury condos. The city of Dalang is hoping to become a center for the fashion industry and is investing in attracting major fashion brands as well as parks and public spaces for their employees.
We also visited the Langkou Church in Dalang built in the late 19th century that is currently being restored and will be an exhibition space and center for local history. Many people consider Shenzhen a city with no history because its incredible growth only began in the 1980s after being declared a Special Economic Zone. However, we learned that just after the First Opium War, a Swedish missionary came to Dalang and set up what is now the Langkou Church. In the years since, the building has been used as a school for girls, an administrative center for various governments and a squatted settlement. Visiting the church was a reminder that every place has a history and that the stories of local people (in this case, the Hakka community) are important to collect, preserve and share.
Next we visited the artist village of Da Fen and wandered the streets talking to artists and watching them paint everything from Van Gough to custom portraits to traditional Chinese landscapes. The breadth of styles and quality of many of the artists’ work was really amazing. Also amazing is that an entire community of people are dedicated to making and supporting the making of one craft. Mary Ann told us this ‘specialization’ is common of urban villages in Shenzhen. More on urban villages in the next post…
