EDIBLE CITY - Regenerating the Abandoned Urban Commercial Complex: Huanan Mall in Dongguan'

Abstract

In the recent process of rapid urbanization and economic globalization in China, the urban commercial complex have appeared in large numbers, defining new architectural type. The urban commercial complex is an architecturally integrated space, concentrating multiple urban functions, shortening the distance between the different components of the city, boosting city contacts, and creating urban vitality. Urban commercial complexes are the most representative architectural type of current city development in China and also an important direction for future urban development. Core design goal of urban commercial complexes is the achievement of internal “integration” of functions and spaces, and high accessibility through various transport means. The key design feature of an urban commercial complex is the articulation of in-between spaces that organises the relation between private and public territories of residents and visitors. As many such urban complexes did not succeed, the scope of my thesis is to research the current status of urban commercial complexes in China, studying what constitutes an urban commercial complex and understanding their pre-requirement and general design concepts, summarize the reasons for success and failure. Then looking into the abandoned spaces of a complex and studying public green spaces as synergetic factors of complex designs. The research will identify major issues such as the lack of accessibility, excessive development, over estimation of local consumption, in order to address the aim of my thesis which is to explore a possible solution to regenerate this and other similar complexes. This thesis seeks to look into one such urban complex in the Pearl River Delta region in southern China, namely, the Huanan mall (shopping complex), also known as the world’s largest abandoned shopping mall. The plan is to “rescue and regenerate” this urban commercial complex from architectural and urban design perspectives, summaries the experience of failure, reorganize the community with affordable apartments, institutes, markets and interaction centre etc. The design proposal of the redeveloped urban complex explores integration of urban farming and green architecture with the layout of agricultural patterning, to achieve the concept of an edible city in the re-planning and redevelopment of the world’s largest shopping mall.