Tiexi Workers’ Village: shaping collective life in socialist China from the 1950s to the 1970s

Abstract

ABSTRACT Workers’ villages are social housing districts built during the early period of New China for accommodating state-owned factory employees and their families. By borrowing the Soviet collective housing model, workers’ villages triggered significant socialist transformations architecturally and socially – shaping a new collective lifestyle. This article discusses the formation approach and manifestation of collective life in workers’ villages focusing on one case: Tiexi Workers’ Village in Shenyang City during the 1950s–1970s period. The evidence illustrates that through collectivization of living space and coordinating administration structure, a collective life represented by intense organized activities and personal interactions was indeed shaped in this pilot housing project. This paper sheds light on the collectiveness of the spatial pattern on the one hand, and the role it played in moulding everyday life under the socialist political/ideological circumstances of early New China on the other. This article concludes emphasizing the practical significance of this collective living model, which is more than just a historical proof of the past socio-spatiality but is also an important heritage beneficial to contemporary housing and communities.