Designing Neighborhood for Communal Activities: The Case of Low-Rent Housing for Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China

Abstract

Chinese migrants transfer from their rural settlements to establish city lives, but their sense of identity and family network remain grounded in a village culture. The rich communal activities can be understood as one aspect of the adherence to the village culture and lifestyle of their rural settlements. This study investigates the transitional spaces combined with functions shared among such Chinese migrants in their urban settlements are to allow communal activities to emerge. The sharing of certain functions situated in the transitional spaces, namely, in front of the rental room, in front of the rental house and between the rental houses, always provides opportunities for communal activities to take place. I defend that the role played by the transitional spaces must be joined with functions that residents can share or must share with each other. The shared functions situated in the transitional spaces actually allow communal activities to take root.

Keywords

• Rural-to-urban Chinese migrants (Nongmin gong), the extended family, low-rent housing, communal activities, transitional spaces, shared functions