Leveraging Rural Urbanisms: Design at the Intersection of Formality and Informality in Xixinan, China

Abstract

Lensed through the design of public space, this chapter investigates the ways in which planners and designers can learn from observing informal urbanism, as opposed to the more rigid practices of top-down urban design. It examines how the informal practices of everyday urbanism might begin to inform more tactical design strategies—situated at the interstitial—where informal urbanism informs the formal. These provocations are interrogated through the findings of an architecture and urban design studio in Xixinan, Anhui Province, China. Based in a rural village, a series of student design projects investigated the potential for distilling the lessons of informality as strategies and tactics for the recovery of the public realm. This pedagogy sought an alternative urbanization model for China that gains insight from the informal rural urbanisms of its countryside. Situated through strategic design interventions, this academic studio sought to improve the quality of life of villagers through the enhancement, not erasure, of everyday spaces.