Qiyu Qin:
The construction industry and construction itself as a process are essential for the city, yet one of its most crucial factors, the construction site, has long been neglected in formal architectural studies. The recurrent presence of construction sites and the questions they raise in relation to labour, architecture and the urban fabric, have seldom been considered as a formal element of urbanisation and this has resulted in a lack of formal investigation in architectural discourse. Therefore, this dissertation endeavours to investigate these neglected questions by combining global perspectives and the specific context of contemporary China. Moreover, the gap in the literature is further addressed through the exploration of a series of multi-disciplinary studies, theories and design tests on various scales and sites. Specifically focusing on the Chinese context, this dissertation argues that government and state-owned enterprises, developers and contractors must be obliged to protect underprivileged workers. More parallel forms of bottom-up and collaborative mechanisms, collective equipments, in particular, are created to ensure not only the safety and welfare of workers on site but also to empower them with further opportunities and collective resources in terms of their care, skills exchange, education, family support, ability to form communities and productive relationship with the city.
Read the whole dissertation here.
