After Displacement and Demolition: Cultural Planning for Artist Communities in Beijing

Beijing arts districts were protected after 2006 by a cultural planning strategy fostering the development of cultural creative industries. But under a new city plan in effect since the winter of 2016, the urban periphery of Beijing has been facing demolitions. Also affected were emerging artist communities that were located there. This qualitative study centers on the recently demolished Black Bridge (Heiqiao) artist community. To prove my hypothesis that citywide cultural planning is not serving independent artists and to explore what tools might help them thrive, as individuals and as a spatial community, I conducted twenty semi-structured interviews conducted with artists, local inhabitants, local alternative spaces owners and local government officials. By identifying interest alignments between artists, planners and local community members, this thesis aims to provide strategic planning for future artist communities in Beijing affected by the new city plan.