Designing Nature Based Solutions for Urban Village Regeneration

Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects are particularly pronounced in high-density informal settlements such as urban villages—compact spaces marked by overcrowding, insufficient infrastructure, and limited access to green space. In Shenzhen, China, these conditions intensify thermal discomfort during the summer months and contribute to deteriorating environmental quality and public health. This chapter investigates how Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) can be strategically applied to regenerate such environments and enhance urban liveability. Using the Baishizhou urban village, one of the densest and most typical informal settlements in Shenzhen as a case study. This research employs a multi-stage research-by-design methodology. This approach first involves spatial-climatic mapping to identify critical thermal bottlenecks within the existing urban forms. Secondly, it utilizes iterative design synthesis to translate ecological principles into spatial interventions, culminating in a novel “link-based design” framework. This framework operates across three nested scales: Vertical Forest (building scale), Neighbourhood Forest (neighbourhood scale), and Urban Forest (district scale). This study emphasizes design innovation as a driver of resilience. It demonstrates how ecological thinking can be translated into context-sensitive spatial interventions, especially in highly constrained urban conditions. The resulting scalable design strategies provide a significant toolkit for architects, planners, and policymakers, providing a resilient pathway for sustainable regeneration of urban villages.