From formality to informality: “Sharing Planners’ as a design method in urban development of Tilanqiao Lilong residential area

Abstract

In the aspect of urbanization, megacities in ‘Third World’ are growing rapidly and constantly searching for ways for development, leading to the current situation of numerous informalized areas in these cities. Learning from the informality development is more viable than the previous dichotomy between First World ‘models’ and Third World ‘problems’ for urban research, since the future of cities lies in those of developing countries. The paper focuses on the informality development in the city center of Shanghai, taking the Lilong residence in Tilanqiao area as an example. One hundred years ago, a formal collection of commercial houses called Lilong was established in Tilanqiao due to the dramatic increase in population in Shanghai. During World War II, a large number of Jewish refugees settled here, creating a culturally mixed community and replacing the uniform architectural style. In the present day, the area has become an informal part of the city center due to lagging infrastructure. On the basis of the participatory and action research methods, the paper concludes a new ‘Sharing Planners’ vision for the informality area from three individual aspects of citizens’ basic needs, commercial vitality and de-gentrification. By focusing on individuals, institutions and policies, experiences and lessons learnt from the development of informality in Shanghai, the former dichotomy statement of distinguish ‘informality’ from ‘formality’ is gradually replaced by a collaborative planning notion: The paper concludes informality, instead of unplanned chaos or exception of best practice but as an essential pattern of considerable relevance for the urban planners in China, thus providing reference for similar cases. This paper is subsidized by NSFC project which is named as <Research on Time and Space Elements and Expression System of ‘Sharing Architecture’>, NO.51978468.