Revive of Guiyu
Introduction
Guiyu imports a large number of electronic waste from all over the world, and its classification, dismantling, recycling, and the extraction of precious metals such as gold from the cheap waste have allowed Guiyu’s people to accumulate wealth in a short time. However, the rough treatment process and a large amount of waste residues also caused serious pollution to the local soil and groundwater in Guiyu. The incineration of organic matter releases a large amount of harmful gases, destroys the ozone layer and causes the greenhouse effect.
This case is based on the above background and from the designer’s point of view, combined with Guiyu’s history, geography, location, economic and industrial structure, population structure and other aspects to analyze and think, take the landscape ecological restoration as the starting point, and combine the adjustment and innovation of the industrial structure. 
Information
Location: Guiyu, Fujian, China
Date: 2020.09-2020.10
Typology: town planning
Scale: 2700 ha
Individual Work
Part 1: Regional Research
Part 2: Strategies
Industrial Chain Strategies
In terms of the development driven by landscape, combined the economic industry theory of reverse logistics and the upgrading of personnel skills, I carried out distribution about the surplus labor in the process of transformation, so as to retain the recycling industry and implement pollution purification.
Phasing Strategies
Contamination treatment strategy
Part 3:Site Model
Thoughts
What interests me the most in the landscape is how to heal the wound from social inequality and environmental pollution for the underprivileged. That is what I think landscape designers should do. When visiting Guiyu town in Guangdong province, the largest e-waste collection and distribution center in China, I came across a twelve-year-old girl who lived in a house surrounded by mountains of e-waste. She had no choice but to wash her hair with contaminated waste water. Somehow that sight reminded me of the children running and having fun on the lawn, whom I met at Hyde Park during my academic visit to UCL. That stark contrast makes me thinking about the role the landscape plays in alleviating pollution for the villagers. Indeed, the landscape is not the panacea for all the world’s problems as it has its limitations, but it could serve as an effective starting point to draw more extensive attention to the real point.
References
[1] Global E-waste Recycling Station–Guiyu, Shantou: http://www.rightic.cn/CoreSchool/IndustryNewsDetail/1211
[2] An Anthropological Survey of the Electronic Dismantling Industry in Guiyu, Shantou: https://www.greenpeace.org.cn/china/Global/china/_planet-2/report/2007/11/guiyu-report.pdf
[3] Principles and Resources for Site Remediation and Landscape Design https://sites.google.com/site/bi016banyu4/WEh76liyer2067