From line to thickness: Strategies and tactics for reviving marginal space

This article examines the edge and the marginal space o f contemporary Chinese cit ies. Through this process, it interrogates the role of geopolitical boundary in the bottom-up process and the production of everyday space. This article considers the urban boundary as everyday livinig space by looking at its blurred and porous internalities, bringing forward a thickened form of boundary for human occupation. Addressing ' thickness' in boundary cultivates a strategy for urban transformation . It is from this perspective that it is possible to envisage an alternative interpretation of boundary that seeks not to separate and exclude but to connect and embrace, one that goes beyond linearity and rigidity to embrace what is considered as the idea of change embedded in everyday places. This article uses a jurisdictional boundary wall between a new university campus and an old village in the city of Xiamen as a case study in further und erstanding the notion of thickness, uncovering grassroots place-making strategies and tactics of transgression. The strategies and tactics utilized by the ordinary may be translated into design tools for reviving marginal spaces in contemporary cities.