A Study On Spontaneous Spatial Practice

With the development of industrial structure and the change of industriallayout, Chinese cities are now facing the problem of post-industrial space.And the emerging cultural and creative industries provide the space a newpossibility. After the success of798Art District and Shanghai Xin Tian Di,the industrial-cultural space transformation has been put into practice in manycities. The result however changes from case to case. Different from the caseof798Art District, a large number of industrial-cultural spacetransformations is led by governments instead of by artists.In such background, this thesis chooses the space transformation of798Art District as studying case to analyze the spontaneous spatial practice in thetransformation of post-industrial space to cultural space, in the aim of givesuggestions to similar practice in the future. The study employs Lefebvre’stheory (the production of space) to analyze the process and the interactionbetween spatial practice and its economic basis.The thesis starts from the analysis of798Art District’s transformationprocess, using Lefebvre’s spatial dialects to define the phases and stagesaccording to the predominant production relations, main body and content ofthe practice. On this base, the thesis proposes ‘spontaneous spatial practice’,which is initiated by artists and art institutes. Basing on the new productionrelation (art and exhibitions), the practice tries to regenerate the industrialspace and make it adapted to new economic basis. The basic features of suchpractice are summarized. Besides, requirement of the practice is concluded bystudying how it emerged and declined. Lastly, the thesis puts forward severalsuggestions to future transformation of industrial space to cultural space.Spontaneous spatial practice often results in abundant material spaceforms which is suitable in the post-industrial context, and is usually based onthe needs of users and new functions. The practice is good at dealing with relations between old and new, individual and overall. However, it isvulnerable are could easily fade out because of economic reasons. Thus, thegovernment-led practice and spontaneous spatial practice could beconplementary to each other. The former should focus on overall planning,infrastructure construction, public space (outdoor) construction, while thelater mainly focusing on indoor space and fa ade renovation. Besides, thegovernment is also responsible in protecting the spontaneous spatial practicethrough economic and administrative methods.