Connective Co-Living: Restructuring Urban Villages in Shenzhen using a Mass Customisable Method

In our increasingly over-connected society, data shows more people are living alone. Despite these trends, social connections are still an important contributing factor to our well-being. It is through these connections that computational design forms a dynamic urbanisation in Connected Co-Living.

China’s urban villages are dense multi-storey collectives that house a poor, floating population. This particular urban example can prove to be a testing ground for a new housing model by eradicating the strict separation of private-public space and fully optimising the vertical to allow a denser urban village that prioritises connections.

The design thesis project aims to create an urban plan that redistributes the housing of Gangxia urban village in Shenzhen to alleviate the grim aspects of the existing living conditions. This is done through the aggregation of new housing units that intensify the dense environment – the most visible quality of urban villages – while introducing greater access to sunlight, shared facilities, and public engagement programmes. Maximum urbanisation was simulated in the resulting aggregation, demonstrating how each colony may ultimately function as its own autonomous urban village. However, as the title of the design thesis suggests, Connected Co-Living seeks to create a connective network between all colonies while maintaining a high level of individual, mass-customisation possibilities.