Menxi: The Last Part of Laochengnan 88

Existing research recognizes the critical role of Urban Labs in promoting multi-stakeholders’ participation and tackling wicked problems in the real-world context. Meanwhile, the Living Lab concept has been a hot topic for technology-enabled and innovative urban development in the European context since 2006. One of the most well-known tools for assessing the value of the topic is a literature review. There is a growing body of literature that indicates that Living Labs can help build locality and, thus, increase the attractiveness of tourism destinations. However, the further categorization of the connection between Urban Living Labs and Cultural Tourism-led Urban regeneration revealed how the literature concerning the Chinese is still scarce. The mechanisms underpinning Living Labs in China are not fully understood, and their spatial design remains unguided.

Based on a thorough literature review, the following hypothesis is proposed: design-driven co-creation and social innovation interventions like Living Lab can be the innovation engines for tourism destinations in helping co-create creative and tourism products. Driven by this hypothesis, this thesis attempts to answer the following questions:

1. What is an Urban Living Lab (ULL) as a design and planning method? And why is it important in the Chinese cultural-tourism-led urban regeneration?

2. What are the current cases of Living Labs in China? And what are the spatial, systematic, and social changes they bring to the local community?

3. How can the ULL work as a new mechanism for cultural tourism-led urban regeneration? And what is a potential action guide?

Since the Living Lab in China is still in its infancy phase, a case-study approach was used to examine what types of spaces a Living Lab would need in the Chinese context and its subsequent impact on urban regeneration. On-site interviews or participant observation were conducted in four different Living Labs: the DesignUniverse, NICE2035(a certified Living Lab organization), Digua community, and Box community. For instance, stakeholders of the NICE2035 project were tracked from concept to implementation through participant observation over three months. The analysis focused on localized regeneration explorations of resident empowerment. Qualitative data was collected from two sources: on-site activity preparation, and participation and structured interviews with professors, doctoral students, and local hosts. Through these two methods, the participation motivations, co-creation modes, and reorganization of the community’s stock resources for business prototype testing were investigated. However, since there is only one certified Living Lab organization in China, which is NICE2035, the cases taken are based on the defining characteristics from the western literature. Admittedly, there will be some biases.

Given that this project is both research and design-driven, the Nanjing Menxi area was used as a case study to conceive a social innovation intervention based on the Living Labs method. The Menxi area of Nanjing is frequently referred to as the last part of Laochengnan. In an era when the Chinese government is pursuing new methods of community self-governance and working towards building smart cities, the Living Lab has great potential to facilitate these transformations. The extensive participation of the stakeholder framework is applied to tourism practices and policies to help the Menxi residents better express their visions and help with cultural tourism product creation. This dissertation attempts to use this case to demonstrate how to adapt and localize the Living Lab concept in China, and the best way to learn from it.

One limitation in designing the research is that the proposal is suspended over the physical site, and therefore, not in real practice. Thus, multiple sources and methods were used to gain deeper insight into stakeholders’ collaboration methods, motivations, and applications of such a design project. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 actors. Of these, six were policymakers or managers who were employed at the site or worked for the local government and were regularly involved in the site. This included the Minister of municipal-level departments for culture and tourism and the Minister of district-level departments for culture and tourism. Among the other interviewees, two were students from the Southeast University Design Team of the region, four were students from the Nanjing University Place-making Team of the area, one was from the Nanjing Design and Innovation Center organization, and five were from the Menxi Watchman Group. In existing studies, many researchers have utilized Action Research to measure and assess the implementation and impact of a living lab. This dissertation originally intended to initiate activities with LanD Studio, a Nanjing University-based studio, to measure the possibility of the lab. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the scheduled activities were postponed. This made it challenging for the researcher to observe the local people’s responses towards the lab.

This dissertation is organized into seven chapters, beginning with a literature review. The relevant literature is mainly related to two fields: one is to examine the history and development of cultural tourism-led urban regeneration in China, indicating that a mechanism of innovation was highly needed in order to provide new blood into the culture and tourism industries(Chapter one); and the other is to observe the birth and practices of the ULL across the world, and to highlight the near absence of this discussion in the Chinese context(Chapter two).

Chapter three begins by laying out the theoretical dimensions of the associations between Living Labs and cultural tourism development, and then looks at new trends in China that take place in destinations capable of cultivating a living lab’s development.

Chapter four analyzes the findings from the interviews and the observations conducted during the researcher’s fieldwork. Four important cases

were used in an empirical study to make sense of the spatial interventions behind Living Labs by analyzing their physical, social, and media influence on the local area. It is found that although those ULLs are geographically, culturally, and structurally different, they have in common an aim to foster urban sustainability with a focus on social innovation.

Conclusions from the dissertation are further discussed through a design proposal in the context of Nanjing’s Menxi area in chapters five, six, and seven. Chapter five provides a background study of urban regeneration in Nanjing and the current situation in the Menxi area. Chapter six showcases data gathered via interviews with 15 stakeholders and from in-field drawing and multiple rounds of mapping in the Menxi Area. Chapter seven is a potential design action proposal that includes an Urban Lab for regenerative destination development.

The originality of this dissertation lies in that it investigated and analyzed the emerging Living Labs practices in China, which have been widely understudied. This dissertation’s design activities and conclusions also provide guidance for the novel application of Living Lab practices for cultural tourism-led urban regeneration. The findings from this dissertation also contribute to the field of urban regeneration, and it furthers the understanding of processes of cultural tourism-led urban regeneration by providing a contextual paradigm. Finally, this research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of not only Living Labs, but also the concepts of smart cities and sustainable tourism destination development in China.