Villages in the City: A Guide to South China's Informal Settlements

A good friend gave me this beautiful book with photos and drawings of the villages' narrow alleyways, the "handshake" houses, and migrant residents. In addition to the many evocative visuals, its essays give the reader a deeper understanding of this peculiar form of urbanization. Few countries have captured the popular imagination about urbanization like China has. But few publications have captured China's informal settlements like Villages in the City. Highly recommended!

Perhaps more suited to an academic audience but still accessible to a non-specialist reader. The book is effectively split into two sections. The first has essays about the phenomenon of urban villages and the response of the Chinese government, The second half is a series of case studies of urban villages in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhuhai. There are maps and photos throughout the book which help to illustrate the points the authors make

à condition d'être un peu bilingue, mais globalement cet ouvrage regroupe tout, et la charte graphique est très bien pensée ce qui le rend agréable à consulter, bien documenté, pas mal d'axono qui permettent de vraiment se figuer les différents villages traités, bref, un must have de bibliothèque d'archi ou d'urbaniste

Interesting analysis