Rebuilding from the countryside. The Hakka settlement for the Green City of the future in Pearl River Delta

This paper is based on a research carried out in the framework of the agreement signed in 2008 between Italy (School of Civil Architecture, Politecnico di Milano) and the Guangdong Province (Huizhou Municipality). The research material collected so far had been presented in an exhibitions held at the School of Civil Architecture (5-23 June 2012), and another at the Milan Urban Centre (19-30 April 2013). This research has faced problems of conservation and enhancement of Hakka architectural and landscape heritage in the territory of Huiyang (Huizhou Municipality, Guangdong Province). These problems concern of the future of many Hakka fortified villages – and the resulting “monumental rural settlement” - in the countryside of the Pearl River Delta, one of the largest and fastest growing metropolitan areas in the world. The Guangdong authorities are critically reconsidering development strategies adopted so far in the region, showing a growing interest in the countryside: no longer as a mere land reservoir for future urban development, but as a resource for a better and healthier environmental. This approach could be expressed with the slogan "rebuilding the countryside within the city of the future" as alternative to "the undifferentiated growth of the city in the countryside."