Gaolou Village Resettlement, Shanghai

The project, led by the Planning, Construction and Ecological Environment Office of the Shanghai Bay Area Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone Administrative Committee, has been recognized as one of the inaugural Shanghai Rural Revitalization Demonstration Villages. Aligned with China’s Rural Revitalization strategy and Shanghai’s 14th Five-Year Plan for Rural Revitalization, it addresses scattered homesteads, excessive land take, and weak infrastructure in Gaolou Village through centralized resettlement that advances both farmland restoration and quality-of-life improvement. A water-led framework organizes the site into three waterfront clusters; buildings are staggered along canals to create permeable, inviting public edges. A 5-minute service loop integrates a community activity center, day-care, and convenience retail, while municipal utilities are comprehensively upgraded; a slow-mobility network and semi-public “grey spaces” rebuild neighborhood life. A sponge-city toolkit—ecological revetments, rain gardens, and permeable paving—revives the Jiangnan waterside landscape. Housing comprises three-story, north–south-oriented semi-detached blocks with flexible, growth-ready units of approximately 250 and 270 m². The architectural language—whitewashed walls, grey-glazed tiles, and double-pitched roofs—translates local vernacular into a contemporary idiom. Balancing farmland conservation, residential upgrading, governance efficiency, and cultural activation, the project offers a replicable “waterside hamlet” model for rural revitalization.