The “Casas Clavo” that planted the progress of urban planning in China

Imagine a small house with a couple of floors surrounded by huge blocks of homes. You don’t have to imagine too much, since we have seen it in Pixar’s popular ‘up’ movie, but far from being fiction material, such constructions exist, enduring firm before progress and concrete advance.

They are the so -called “Casa Clavo”. It is a global phenomenon, but in China we find some of the most iconic cases that became a sample of popular resistance.

Dīngzihù. When we talk about “Casa Clavo”, it is literal. The Chinese term “dīngzihù” comes to say precisely that. Dīngzi means “clavo” and hù is “family” or “home.” And it is an expression that refers to the owners who resist evicing their homes so that they are demolished, becoming that building into a nail that is difficult to get. It is a term that became popular with the modernization of the country.

The new urban development projects needed land to build, so they offered economic compensations to the residents of these areas to leave their homes. Those who refused due to personal reasons or economic disagreements, saw how their house was the only one in the neighborhood that was stood, while huge moles of concrete were erected around them.

In China, it is also curious because the phenomenon is relatively recent. Private property did not have much importance until not so ago, but in 2007 approved The first modern law of private property that hindered forced expropriation and empowered the owners. The only way to demolish a home was to justify the “public interest” of the new construction, and that is what originated a series of movements of the population to protect their homes.

Wu ping. These ‘resistance’ movements are very media both for personal history and for the aesthetics of the new street, with small and traditional houses isolated in the midst of the new buildings. Several throughout these years have occurred, but if one perfectly reflects that struggle spirit, it is Chongqing in 2004. Wu Ping and Yang Wu refused to sell their property for the construction of a shopping center.

The rest of the neighborhood was demolished, but his house endured and the photo is shocking: at the top of a mound, surrounded by excavation to start the construction of the complex as soon as possible. The marriage was the only one among 281 families in the area that rejected the moving to another area and declared that it was not “stubborn or rebellious -as they had described in the media.” I only try to protect my personal rights as a citizen, and I will continue until the end. “

Apart from why he did not want, in that house his family had lived for three generations. And do not believe that the contest was peaceful: the real estate developers cut the water and energy when they excavated the pit. For his part, Mr. Yang Wu, champion Marcial Arts, Nunchakus used to create an impromptu ladder to his house and threatened to hit anyone who tried to dislodge it.

He also raised a Chinese flag on the property. After years of legal and media battle, they reached a millionaire agreement with the promoters and an apartment in the city center with a size similar to that of their old house. The house was demolished.

Chinese resistance. Although the photo of the house Wu is, perhaps, the most picturesque, the case of that marriage is not Not much less unique As far as media noise is concerned. In Nanning, a small house was trapped in the center of a great avenue. Around the house, as if it were a roundabout, there was only asphalt and cars circulating. They ended up arriving at an agreement, but also left a photo for the story. Something similar occurred In Zhejiang, when in 2012 a five -story house was standing in the middle of a highway.

Another 450 buildings were demolished, but the owners of this house considered that the compensation was ridiculous and could not buy an equivalent home. After greater compensation and land, they accepted and left their home, which was demolished.

They will end up succumbing or not, something is clear: these examples are just a few of this sample of popular resistance in China, a defense of heritage and individual rights against a modernization that, in the Asian giant, has taken steps.

Edith Macefield. But this of refusing to leave home so that they throw it is not something exclusive to China, and a case that you surely know, but not by this name, is that of Edith Macefield. In the American city of Seattle, the house of this lady caught the attention of half the world when she refused to compensate one million dollars to leave her home. The 84 -year -old lady at that time, received complementary offers, as free domiciliary care for the rest of her life, but did not give in: her house was not going to be demolished to build a shopping center.

It was not for touching the noses: I was advanced and considered tedious to have to move. After several failures, the builders made the decision to raise the complex equally, but in a less hostile way than the cases we have seen in China. Three of the sides of the house with five -story high walls and Mrs. Macefield lived there until she died in 2008. The house is still there, empty, as a sign of that particular heroism.

And why do I say that the house design and history may sound to you? Because it is the one that served as inspiration for Pixar to create the magnificent ‘UP‘. There are more stories on American soil, such as Thirsty Beaveran open bar in 2008 that was built in the middle of a field, but that in 2015 was surrounded by a huge floors building after its refusal to sell. And there it continues.

Inspiration. As we say, there are other similar cases in several cities in the world. ‘UP’ may be the most iconic case for the house with the balloons and the funny refusal of its owner, but we must not forget that, in ‘THE EMPERADOR AND HIS FURNIANCES‘, Cuzco wanted to demolish a village to build an amusement park. And Shrek’s motivation to swing It is to prevent the evil Lord to expropriate his cabin.

Therefore, if you ever walk through a city and see that there is a house that does not fit at all with the constructions around it, the easiest thing is that it is one of these ‘clavo houses’ that its inhabitants have not wanted to get rid of.

And they are those latest nails that resist the hammer of progress.

Images | Tim Wu, Zhou Shuguang, George Alexander Ishida Newman, Payton Chung, N509FZ

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