Project type: Professional, consulting for local government

Location: Chaozhou, Guangdong, China

Year: 2023

Scale: Approx. 0.72 sq km

My Role: Responsible for

The Xishanxi area is a long-established ceramics and sanitaryware manufacturing base that emerged through incremental, self-organized industrial growth. Over time, this production-driven spatial pattern became increasingly incompatible with contemporary industrial needs, environmental standards, and urban quality requirements, prompting the local government to initiate an urban regeneration agenda

Unlike conventional industrial renewal projects, this area could not adopt a “clear-and-redevelop” approach. The manufacturing activities were required to remain in place due to their importance as a local tax base, while land ownership was fragmented between collective and state-owned parcels. In addition, the specific spatial and environmental requirements of ceramic production—such as heavy loads, large floorplates, and complex process flows—significantly constrained spatial reconfiguration.

As the special topic lead and lead planner, I developed an urban design framework that treated regeneration as an in-situ industrial upgrading process rather than physical replacement. The strategy combined industrial space typologies (e.g. vertical manufacturing, large-floor modular layouts), phased redevelopment logic, ecological integration, and service clustering, enabling production continuity while gradually improving spatial efficiency, environmental performance, and worker-oriented amenities.

The project demonstrates a planning approach to industrial urban regeneration under institutional, spatial, and technological constraints. It provides a transferable framework for upgrading self-grown manufacturing districts where industry relocation is infeasible, balancing economic continuity with spatial restructuring and long-term urban quality improvement.