Thesis: S.M. in Architecture Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2017. ; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. ; Includes bibliographical references (pages 134-135). ; Modern Chinese university campuses have traditionally been planned as walled enclosures, according to the danwei system (Bray, 2005). In 2016, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, jointly with the State Council, passed the "Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Urban and Planning Construction", which states that all existing gated compound units must be gradually planned with open boundaries. Taking this new policy into account, this thesis rethinks urban design strategies for campuses, which are commonly gated due to social, economic, and historical factors in metropolitan areas of China. This thesis investigates the relationship between university campus and city by examining a campus's design principles with the example of South China Normal University. After three decades of rapid urbanization, China has now entered a stage of urbanization where pre-planned walled urban enclosures do not provide adequate amenities within, and are too segregated from one another. Among gated communities, campuses have great potential and obligation to be transformed into open street blocks given their strategic locations, educational and entrepreneurial resources and facilities. This thesis questions the wall in two ways: 1) morphological analysis of walled cities where walls have been transformed and 2) an examination of architectures within the campus that interrogates the boundness. The proposal will utilize the strategy abstracted from these two studies into the setting of South China Normal University. This thesis is a composited research and design study of the policy, comparative examples, campus case study, concepts, tools and synthesis to use them. It begins from the gated community opening up policy as an opportunity to discuss the meaning of danwei mode's walls in the new stage of China's ...