Beyond the Greenways: A People-Centered Urban Planning and Design Approach for Shenzhen, the 'World Factory' in Transition

Greenway as landscaped, linear and multi-purpose component of urban planning has been increasingly used globally, especially in cities experiencing de-industrialization process. It has the potential to restructure city regions, improve spatial quality of places, and at the same time, make them greener and friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists. For creating green cities, there is no doubt that greenway could be seen as a tool of urban planning and design. However, without considering the specific demands of people who are the daily users of these greenways, this tool might not lead to truly green cities that people living in it appreciate. This paper is proposing a people-centered approach for the planning and design of greenway systems, with the aim of transforming industrial areas into livable cities, by reducing the level of pollution and energy consumption, while at the same time, facilitating the creation of citizenship for migrant workers. The context of this paper is Shenzhen (China), known as the 'world factory', which is currently in the transitional period towards becoming a 'world city'. Due to the increasing labour cost, manufactory industries are now gradually moving out of Shenzhen, from industrial districts like Dalang. Unlike the urban districts located inside the special economic zone of Shenzhen that were planned and developed officially since 1980s, Dalang represents those industrial districts located in the peri-urban area of Shenzhen, formed in the rural industrialization process in the past three decades, with mainly spontaneous development led by village collectives. The socio-spatial consequence of such development is a densely built-up urban area with productivity but lacking urbanity, accumulating a population of which 90% is young migrant workers working on the production lines. This paper will examine the daily lives of young migrant workers, their current and future demands on urban public space, cultural facilities and mobility. The results will be used as input for creating an innovative design approach to integrated greenway systems so that urban ecology, urban amenity and social equity could be gradually built up simultaneously.