Danwei Unit: On Residential Space In Modern And Contemporary Beijing

Danwei Dayuan(Unit Compound) has been a unique dwelling mode in Chinese cities since 1949. Its space properties reflect the scarcity, socialist politic and the ambition for modernization in China. This thesis focuses on Beijing, where danwei has been the main living mode. Three levels of spatial issues are studied: spatial order imposed by national political structure, spatial autonomy within danwei and spontaneous modification of space. From the macroscopical perspective, the social and political orders have imposed strong influence on living and public space in dayuan, creating abstract, mechanical and conceptual space. In the middle level, every dayuan becames a self-contained organization, selectively accepting or resisting national orders. From the microscopical perspective, individual members in dayuan spontaneously modify space or build temporary constructions to weaken the control from overall orders. Based on surveys and interviews, this thesis attempts to interpret spatial phenomenon in dayuan under the structure of this spatial triad: order, autonomy, spontaneity and their mutual conflicts, collaborations and transformations. These three pro perties could be traced in historical cities. However, this study holds that the most critical and direct reason for the formation of dayuan is the drastic social reformations since 19 th century. This indicates that dayuan would continue to be a major topi c in urbanization of Beijing for a long time. Using the spatial triad theory, this study further discusses the connection between dayuan and contemporary living neighborhoods. Under the seemingly free appearance, contemporary living neighborhoods contain the gene of spatial order in dayuan. Finally, this thesis makes an anticipation of the possibilities of dayuan’s future development.