Cheng-Hsuan Kao
Print version
Contact details
Research
Mobility of Expertise, the Construction of Identity, Place Making: on the Case of the Regeneration of the Urban Villages in the PRD, China
Supervisor: Rob Imrie
By using discursive analyses and in-depth interviews with key practitioners and actors in the regeneration process of the urban villages in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), China, this research describes and evaluates the interrelationship social/political construction of discourses and the transformation of urban form. The objective of this thesis considers three specific relationships and/or processes:
(a) Rural-urban transition and the urban village
In what social and political context, with what values, and in what ways, the discourses of the urban villages are articulated and performed, and become pre-eminent in the public perceptions of the urban form of the villages in Guangzhou city?
(b) Regeneration and policy making
How, and in what way, the public perceptions of the urban village are deployed and used to mould the concrete policies in the government’s regeneration policy making? How are these perceptions endowed with authority, legitimacy, and power to enter into regeneration policy making and influence patterns and processes of urban changes in the PRD? With what actual planning, and in what way, with what values and agendas, the government implements its regeneration policies?
(c) Social meaning of urban form and urban form shaping
How local villagers and migrants react to the government’s regeneration policies and negotiate with city officials and village cadres? And how, and in what way, local villagers and migrants develop their strategies to safeguard their own interests and influence the policy and politics to reshape the landscape of their villages?
This research explores the role of built form as cultural products and in the dynamics of the social context, i.e. the social use of the cultural meaning attached to elements of built form, and, suggests additional and/or alternative mechanisms or instruments for social intervention and engagement, and proposes some practical possibilities for emancipatory forms of urban renewal and change.
Supervisor: Rob Imrie
By using discursive analyses and in-depth interviews with key practitioners and actors in the regeneration process of the urban villages in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), China, this research describes and evaluates the interrelationship social/political construction of discourses and the transformation of urban form. The objective of this thesis considers three specific relationships and/or processes:
(a) Rural-urban transition and the urban village
In what social and political context, with what values, and in what ways, the discourses of the urban villages are articulated and performed, and become pre-eminent in the public perceptions of the urban form of the villages in Guangzhou city?
(b) Regeneration and policy making
How, and in what way, the public perceptions of the urban village are deployed and used to mould the concrete policies in the government’s regeneration policy making? How are these perceptions endowed with authority, legitimacy, and power to enter into regeneration policy making and influence patterns and processes of urban changes in the PRD? With what actual planning, and in what way, with what values and agendas, the government implements its regeneration policies?
(c) Social meaning of urban form and urban form shaping
How local villagers and migrants react to the government’s regeneration policies and negotiate with city officials and village cadres? And how, and in what way, local villagers and migrants develop their strategies to safeguard their own interests and influence the policy and politics to reshape the landscape of their villages?
This research explores the role of built form as cultural products and in the dynamics of the social context, i.e. the social use of the cultural meaning attached to elements of built form, and, suggests additional and/or alternative mechanisms or instruments for social intervention and engagement, and proposes some practical possibilities for emancipatory forms of urban renewal and change.
Biography
Cheng was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1975. He gained a Bachelor of Architecture in 1998 in the Department of Architecture, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), and completed in 2002 in the Department of Architecture, Tong-Hai University (THU) a master thesis titled “The Dwelling and Construction of Modern Architecture: on the Anti-Materiality of Mies van der Rohe”.
His master thesis was also awarded “Award of Master Thesis”, Archi-Life Research Foundation (2001); “S-An Aesthetic Dissertation Award”, S-An Cultural Foundation (2002); “Architectural Award of Master Thesis”, Architectural Institute of the Republic of China (2002); and “S-An Aesthetic Critique Award”, S-An Cultural Foundation (2003).
After serving for two years in Army General Headquarter R. O. C. as an engineering architect, he completed in 2005 in Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Post Graduate Center Human Settlement (PGCHS), an advanced master thesis titled “Ideology, Materiality, Fetish: On the Betel Nut Booth in Tiawan after 1990s”.
At present, Cheng is doing his PhD research funded by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan, about the mobility of expertise, the construction of identity, and place making, concerning the regeneration of the urban villages in Guangzhou, China, with professor Rob Imrie in King's.
While studying, Cheng has also experienced a range of roles that extend his PhD research, e.g. designer of different types of competition such as Ceuta Strategic Planning (2005), Active Citizen’s Regeneration of the Taipei Detention Center (2006), and China Pavilion, Shanghai Epxo 2010 (2007), and lecturer in the Department of Architecture, South China University of Technology and Enginnering, assistant curator of the Gallery-75 Urban Photograhy Exhibition, housing project manager of the Urban Village Studio in Guangzhou, consultant of the “China-UK Copmarative Study on Housing Provision for Low Income Urban Residents” held by VANKE Enterprise and British Council Guangzhou, project manager of “CUBE180: International Competition of Strategic Design of Shenzhen Urbanity” held by Shenzhen City Government and Guangshanyua Museum.
All these provide Cheng with stimulus to consider the role inbetween different professions as the trajectory of future career.
His master thesis was also awarded “Award of Master Thesis”, Archi-Life Research Foundation (2001); “S-An Aesthetic Dissertation Award”, S-An Cultural Foundation (2002); “Architectural Award of Master Thesis”, Architectural Institute of the Republic of China (2002); and “S-An Aesthetic Critique Award”, S-An Cultural Foundation (2003).
After serving for two years in Army General Headquarter R. O. C. as an engineering architect, he completed in 2005 in Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Post Graduate Center Human Settlement (PGCHS), an advanced master thesis titled “Ideology, Materiality, Fetish: On the Betel Nut Booth in Tiawan after 1990s”.
At present, Cheng is doing his PhD research funded by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan, about the mobility of expertise, the construction of identity, and place making, concerning the regeneration of the urban villages in Guangzhou, China, with professor Rob Imrie in King's.
While studying, Cheng has also experienced a range of roles that extend his PhD research, e.g. designer of different types of competition such as Ceuta Strategic Planning (2005), Active Citizen’s Regeneration of the Taipei Detention Center (2006), and China Pavilion, Shanghai Epxo 2010 (2007), and lecturer in the Department of Architecture, South China University of Technology and Enginnering, assistant curator of the Gallery-75 Urban Photograhy Exhibition, housing project manager of the Urban Village Studio in Guangzhou, consultant of the “China-UK Copmarative Study on Housing Provision for Low Income Urban Residents” held by VANKE Enterprise and British Council Guangzhou, project manager of “CUBE180: International Competition of Strategic Design of Shenzhen Urbanity” held by Shenzhen City Government and Guangshanyua Museum.
All these provide Cheng with stimulus to consider the role inbetween different professions as the trajectory of future career.
Publications
2009, 06 “Yellow Architecture and Displacement of Modernity?” in Architecture and Modernity (Chinese version), Hilde Heynen, trans. Cheng-Hsuan Kao, Garden City Publisher, Taipei, pp. 5-15 (processing).
2009, 02 “Brush the Strong Discourses of Urbanization against the Grain,” in CUBE180: International Competition of Strategic Design of Shenzhen Urbanity, Guangshanyua Museum, Shenzhen, pp. 91-110.
2008, 08 "Or an Uncanny Double of High Modern in the Narcissistic Mirror?" in Dark City: Taiwan Pavilion, Venice Architectural Biennale, National Taichung Museum published, Taipei, pp.86-105.
2008, 04 “City Palimpsest: From Canton to Guangzhou,” in Life Magazine, Guangzhou, pp. 10-20.
2007, 11 “An Absent Meta Urban Village,” in City Pictorial, Guangzhou, pp. 88-94.
2007, 07 “City Heteroptics: Bleiben will ich, wo ich nie gewesen bin,” in Man-gazine, Guangzhou, pp. 130-137.
2004 “The Moral Rhetoric in the Aesthetic Criticism of Modern Architecture,” in Word Flash, S-An Cultural Foundation Aesthetic Theses 2001-2003, UwinChen Publisher, pp. 152-180.
2009, 02 “Brush the Strong Discourses of Urbanization against the Grain,” in CUBE180: International Competition of Strategic Design of Shenzhen Urbanity, Guangshanyua Museum, Shenzhen, pp. 91-110.
2008, 08 "Or an Uncanny Double of High Modern in the Narcissistic Mirror?" in Dark City: Taiwan Pavilion, Venice Architectural Biennale, National Taichung Museum published, Taipei, pp.86-105.
2008, 04 “City Palimpsest: From Canton to Guangzhou,” in Life Magazine, Guangzhou, pp. 10-20.
2007, 11 “An Absent Meta Urban Village,” in City Pictorial, Guangzhou, pp. 88-94.
2007, 07 “City Heteroptics: Bleiben will ich, wo ich nie gewesen bin,” in Man-gazine, Guangzhou, pp. 130-137.
2004 “The Moral Rhetoric in the Aesthetic Criticism of Modern Architecture,” in Word Flash, S-An Cultural Foundation Aesthetic Theses 2001-2003, UwinChen Publisher, pp. 152-180.
