Address Urban Regeneration Challenge with Temporary Creative Uses: The Case of Beijing’s Dashilar Area

Abstract

Temporary and pop-up uses of vacant urban spaces as artistic and cultural sites have been adopted by city governments for urban regeneration. Existing studies of temporary creative uses are predominantly based on Western cases, and so far, there is limited understanding of how they may be adopted and function in cities beyond the Northern ‘core’. Employing temporary/pop-up creative uses of vacant urban space for urban regeneration in Western cities is usually situated in specific political-economic contexts—austerity and financial crisis—and the effects of using culture and art for urban regeneration are shaped by socio-cultural dynamics; it is therefore necessary to contextualise the choice and use of such urban strategies when they are implemented in non-Western and/or Global South situations. This chapter examines temporary creative uses for urban regeneration in the Dashilar area of Beijing, China. It highlights how the local district government’s choice of engaging with temporary creative uses of vacant space for urban regeneration is shaped by and in response to changes introduced through urban conservation planning and policies that came into effect in the early 2000s in Beijing. Building on this case, this chapter ends with a reflection on the potential diversity of temporary urbanism practices.