Songzhuang Micro Community Park, Beijing Commercial Architecture Development, Chinese Retail Complex Images
Songzhuang Micro Community Park in Beijing
6 Sep 2021
Design: Crossboundaries
Location: Tongzhou, Beijing, Northern China

Songzhuang Micro Community Park
Songzhuang Micro Community Park: Urban Rooms for Social Encounter
Location dynamics of art clusters in the Chinese capital

Beijing?s rapid economic transition, unique political atmosphere, and immense urban growth have shaped a trajectory of prominence of art villages in its metropolitan region dating back to the 1900s.

Its origins can be traced back to Yuanmingyuan, the grounds of the Old Summer Palace in the north-east of Beijing, where artists settled from all over China to celebrate a creative community and period of intense artistic exploration. After this movement ended in 1994, many collective groups began to replicate around this urban fringe outside of the third ring, namely Factory 798, Caochandi, and the Songzhuang Art District.
The latter has seen the largest development in recent years, with more than 5,000 artists living within its grounds, and 35 large and medium-sized fine arts galleries, making it one of the largest gatherings of contemporary artists in China, if not in the world. Centered in the village around Xiaopu, in the town of Songzhuang, in the Tongzhou District, major factors influencing the development of this location included escaping the fast-paced city life and the pressures of mod...