Nightlife and public spaces in urban villages: A case study of the Pearl River Delta in China

Abstract

While it is widely acknowledged that urban villages in China are associated with poor housing construction, severe infrastructure deficiencies, serious social disorder and unsanitary living environment, there has not been adequate research on the provision of public spaces for nighttime activities within urban villages. Our study focuses on the characteristics of nightlife in urban villages, and attempts to identify the factors that influence the use of public spaces at nighttime. Firstly, through observations of public spaces and nighttime activities in public spaces in three urban villages in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), we discover seven types of public spaces in urban villages. They are fragmented and with blurred boundaries. There is a severe lack of public facilities and they are not managed in a standardized manner. However, low-end commercial facilities are well-equipped. Residents' nighttime activities are mostly necessary activities and low-expense activities. Secondly, ArcGIS is used to establish the temporal and spatial distribution patterns of public space users' nighttime activities. Thirdly, the analysis of the relationship between the distribution patterns and environment attributes reveals that the factors that influence the temporal and spatial distribution of nighttime activities are commercial facilities, recreational facilities, lighting and the availability and accessibility of public spaces. The interviews with 3 sides of stakeholders reveals the determining role played by local villagers and governments in the provision and use of public spaces at nighttime. Fourthly, according to the importance-performance analysis of residents’ perception of 14 environment attributes, activity needs strongly affect the satisfaction of nighttime experience of public space users and indicate a high priority in intervention for improvement. Consequently, this paper proposes four design strategies for improving the everyday public spaces in urban villages at nighttime.