1. Origin of course: Talking about two television works

I have seen a movie titled “Slumdog Millionaire” that I cannot remember its exact content. However, I was deeply moved by a group of scenes: In the beginning, children chased by police are running among short and worn-out “shantytowns” of Mumbai. Despite the overcrowded space with garbage and sewage around, the visual angle in the movie is full of interesting mysteries and surprises under sunlight and within shadow, resembling a paradise in children’s heart.

“Happiness Life of Talkative Zhang Damin”, another Beijing-style blockbuster TV series, narrates the vicissitudes of an old Beijing’s family during the fast urban growth along with China’s reform and opening up to the outside world. In that play, many scenes were shot around the courtyard-style buildings where they lived. As children grew up and formed their own families, such an overcrowded single-story house could hardly sustain their dignity. For this reason, they began with a smart expansion and a creation of space, such as, hanging their TV set on the ceiling and building a house surrounding a tree. Human’s wisdom seemed to be played to the best.

Both stories suggested the implication of seeking joy amid hardship. They brought about laughter while sharply hurting people’s heart. Although they took place respectively in India and China, they described the same heavy topic - those ignored corners and people, in a modern city that seemed glamorous.

I have engaged myself in architectural education and practice for two decades. During that period, I personally underwent the “prime” development stage of China’s fast-changing urbanization. Certainly as an architect, I took part in many projects of urban renewal, including demolition of “urban villages”, transformation of “shantytowns” and planning of residences in conformity with modern life concept... Each time when I enjoy the sense of achievement from these works, I also feel a faint of discomfort - if those old streets and outdated buildings standing for current state were demolished, it not only separated the years’ history context but also broke the social ecology that many people lived on. Moreover, similar feelings came to me when I participated in rural reconstruction and visited typical of famous urbanization projects in Jiangyin. Despite the guide’s enthusiastic explanation about the new community with good planning and complete equipment, what I saw there was old furniture and idle agricultural tools forcibly stuffed in modern residence, as well as hopeless eyesight of the elderly who were glazing those strange high-rise buildings outside the windows. Their hopelessness was not only attributed to the fact that they had lost their land that had came all the way with them, but also losing the sense of belonging concerning the living environment.

Whether in “urban villages” or “shantytowns”, those “spontaneous buildings” seemingly incompatible with modern life are not merely a type of spatial existence, but more importantly is its social significance deep inside. On social ecology, people from the lower classes living there constitute an indispensable part of social life; on the other hand, from the perspective of environmental ecology, the particular spatial form of “spontaneous buildings” can hardly be replaced by simplified modern urban planning. To retrospect, the value of their existence is just a threshold that no country can detour in the urbanization process. It’s with such confusion and consideration that we opened the design course, in hope of re-considering what we’d neglected, from the viewpoint of architects.