Landscape Empowerment

This book discusses essential strategies and approaches to creating mentally restorative environments for highly stressed and depressed workers at sweatshop factories. Drawing on the Foxconn factory in Longhua, China and an adjacent urban village as a sample site for research and design practice, the book employs a bottom-up and participatory process. The content is divided into two main parts, the first of which investigates economic, cultural, human rights, and environmental issues related to the electronic industry and urban village, providing in-depth research on various aspects, especially the working and living conditions for Foxconn workers. Based on these findings, the second part highlights potential landscape designs to address a range of issues, locations, and scales. The book's goals are to provide a set of original methods for research and design practice in a complex social and economic context, and to raise awareness regarding the health, dignity and freedom of millions of workers.

Develops potential design strategies and investigates the conflict between the psychological needs of assembly-line workers and the stressful living and working conditions in industrial parks

Offers an insightful analysis of current issues and provides detailed information on the local environment and society

Employs a bottom-up design process and participatory design: the vulnerable group of workers in Qinghu were intimately involved in the research, site investigation and final design, creating a more relevant and resilient outcome

An approach of gentle design: Light and low-cost design interventions to significantly improve quality of living environments in the extremely difficult sites

Autorentext

Bin Jiang, PhD of University of Illinois (USA); Co-Chair, Research and Methods Track, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (USA); Founding Director, Virtual Reality Lab of Urban Environments and Human Health; Assistant Professor, PhD Advisor, Division of Landscape Architecture, Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong.

Inhalt
Project Introduction.- Background Research.- Design Outcome -- In-Between space of factory and community.- Design Outcome -- Riverfront urban space.- Design Outcome --The Qinghu community.- Acknowledgement.