INDEX
Thanks to Architecture Dept. of Tongii University for the collaboration. Shanghai, China, October 2019
4-5
Introduction
6-13
Housing Crisis
14-19
Critical Question
20-49
Researches | Case Studies
50-55 Shanghai
56-73
Old Town Analysis
74-111 Towards an Hypotesis ... The Eastern Obus
Does architecture still hold any socially transformative potential or is its role one of market conciliation? 4
Shanghai is one of the biggest and fastest growing cities in the world. In its everchanging landscape of new high-rise buildings and British colonial schemes the old way of community life is rapidly disappearing. The rising inequalities within city planning is highlighted through the destruction of old mat-like structures of the traditional li-longs in order to create gentrified neighbourhoods of gated apartment buildings and swanky commercial spaces. This exclusion and displacement is further highlighted in the Shanghai Old City in the Huangpu district. The Old City of Shanghai is the traditional urban core of the modern mega-city. Since 2006 there has been attempts to understand its value through the Protection Plan for the Old City Historical Cultural Scenery Area yet large areas are still under threat of demolition. The low-rise housing schemes - often overcrowded and insanitary - are incapable of responding to the growing pressure of the Chinese housing crisis. The quiet streets are a reminder of the loss of the traditional pluralistic way of life and the deterioration of communities, the neighbouring high-rise buildings showcase a new way of life: a life of introspection. An attempt to explore new ideas of schemes for sociable housing and collaborative living, the themes of the studio are discussed through the thoughts and manifestos of a myriad of theorists, urban planners and architects - the likes of Henri Lefebvre, Hannah Ardent, Rem Koolhaas, Steven Holl and Jan Gehl. Through discussions of theorists and theories there is an attempt to dissect the prevailing issues as well as the potential solutions to prevent further disruption of communities within the Old City.
5
CAN WE INCREASE DENSITY WHILE FOSTERING A COLLECTIVE PLURALISTIC AND SOCIAL WAY OF LIFE? 6
The combined effect of administrative reform and the growth of capital and purchasing power is the increase in real estate demand and the explosion of construction, which, in a short time, lead to the congestion of the urban centre no longer capable of under the pressure of expansion, under the pressure of metropolitan strategies. In order to reduce the enormous demographic pressure of the central city and preserve agricultural land from uncontrolled expansion, it is proposed to replace the old central model with a poly-centric regional network that envisaged the construction of a series of new towns. In practice, the government decides to tear down the run-down buildings of the old town and replace them with larger, more modern buildings and to move the resident population there to new cities and new suburbs. This process of having population move out of city centres was carried out, in many occasions, primarily by developers and entrepreneurial local governments which have embarked on extensive urban housing demolition and redevelopment on profitable locations, featuring largescale forced re-housing of residents. Local governments or developers inform residents that their neighbourhoods are going to be demolished, and residents have to move involuntarily, regardless of their moving intention.
This has resulted in the movement of residents from their original neighbourhoods to other “destination” neighbourhoods. For example, in the city of Shanghai, roughly 1.1 million households were relocated between 1995 and 2012, and 72 million square metres of housing were demolished. The physical improvement in real estate and the consequent rise in prices, if on the one hand lead to processes of “gentrification”, bringing into the historic centre new high-income inhabitants and expelling the old inhabitants who in fact could not more afford to reside there, contribute in fact to the emergence of Shanghai’s historic centre as a thriving international economic, political and cultural centre. The original community, neighbourhood relationship, life pattern and state have been erased, so what reconstruction strategy of the old city is reasonable needs to be considered. These issues of erasure and displacement are emphasised in the Old Town of Shanghai where the traditional urban fabric is rapidly disappearing and the indigenous population are being relocated into satellite cities far from the urban core, as for example Zhongyuan Liangwans city (pag 10-11).
7
In any space certain forms of interaction are encouraged and discouraged, giving form to social structures and ideologies
Lefebvre 8
X
[ society pendolum ] The pendulum of society is changing: people are moving or are forced to move to commodified individual spaces, loosing traditions built over centuries of programmatic coexistence inter-reliance and cooperation, towards a socio spatial seclusion of their inhabitants
9
[ The original state of life ]
10
[ The dilapidated scene before the relocation ]
[ Zhongyuan Liangwan example ] Suzhou Creek in the north centre is a great example of the transformation that has occurred. The riverside site formerly known as Liangwan Yizhai, or “two bays and a residence,” was one of the city’s most famous slums until 1999. It was replaced by Shongyuan Liangwan (Bright City), a high-end commercial residential community that is home to about 30,000 residents. While some people complain about the disappearance of Shanghai’s old neighbourhoods, those who had to live in them are really happy to have more space, privacy and indoor plumbing, but the typical sense of plurality and conviviality got completely lost.
11
What makes mass society so difficult to bear is not the number of people involved, but the fact that the world between them has lost its power to gather them together
Hanna Arendt 12
[ the hyper-city ] As it expands outward, its collective and pluralistic life, its physical and temporal compaction are replaced by autonomous rings of growth, separated by hours of times
SPRAWLED LAYOUT
COMPACT LAYOUT
13
Who is society? There is no such a thing! There are individual men and women and there are families.
Margaret Thatcher 14
[ A necessity for Co-operation ] Reflections on Andy Stoane Lecture #2 While the cursory idea of the importance of ownership might seem to resonate with the Thatcherite idea of non-statism, the ownership Arendt outlined was a wholly different of private. The strenght of the private was its support to the public, as she stated in ‘‘The Human condition’’: ‘‘ What prevented the polis from violating the private lives of its citizens and made it hold sacred the boundaries surrounding each property was not respect for private property as we understand it, but the fact that without owning a house a man could not participate in the affairs of the world because he had no location in it which was properly his own’’ The Barbican in some ways a fairly appropriate example of the ways that Architecture managed to implement in order to to refuse to give in to the ‘‘privation of privacy’’. The ‘‘Necessity’’ here was not just for housing provision but for drawing together different sub-households, reliant on the corporation of London for the households rules. Barbican doing that, it had found a new way of making the private public, and the ability to provide not just houses for Arendt’s mass society, but to arrange these houses in a way that was part of a discourse on new forms of social organisation. Organisation based on pluralism and collective behaviour
15
The polis, properly speaking, is not the city-state in its physical location; it is the organization of the people as it arises out of acting and speaking together, and its true space lies between people living together for this purpose, no matter where they happen to be. ‘Wherever you go, you will be a polis Hanna Arendt 16
[ the rise of the social ] Reflections on Andy Stoane Lecture #2 In order to tackle mass population growth we are trying to re-discover peculiarities of ‘‘ the social age of architecture’’ investigating into the relationship between architecture and society and how new design methods, such as hybrids, mat-buildings and social condenser can be re-discovered and re-introduced in nowadays society . As Tahl Kaminer reminds us in ‘‘The efficacy of Architecture’’, the discipline of architecture has for decades ‘‘marinated in formal and phenomenological explorations...while the social and political project of the modernist avant-garde has receded from view’’. During post war architecture the way that Arendt’s approach to mass society application tested the connection between public housing and the public world.
# Barbican Centre is a great example on how architecture is now trying to erase or minmize the relationship between public and private.
Hanna Arendt referred to “the rise of the social side” as the modern age within which she was writing. Where the likeness of a family with exceptional powers had folded together the public and private ways of life into a single world called “society”. Where not only the boundaries between private and public aspects contracted endlessly but also where we also acknowledged the cancellation of a reshaped public context within the requirementsof the private sphere.
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RE-DISCOVERING MATS, HYBRIDS AND SOCIAL CONDENSERS IN ORDER TO TACKLE MASS POPULATION GROWTH 18
Researches were based mainly in Postwar London where we saw some of history's most avant-garde housing schemes emerge. One such project was the Barbican, a hybrid constructed in an attempt to encourage the middle class back to London during a period of mass migration to the country. A hybrid was an American capitalist idea, invented to revitalise the city. The functions can be arranged either vertically, horizontally or amalgamated within the confines of the building’s exterior membrane. With the invention of the hybrid we saw a cross fertilisation of programmes emerge, as Steven Holl likes to say, “it holds the gene code of mixed used development”.. Functions which wouldn’t usually mix found themselves sharing spaces, leading to people using them in new ways. Thus a certain level of self-sufficiency is established whilst creating connections rather than segregation within societies. For example; a residential complex may now find itself with a shopping mall beneath it, meaning, creating a demographic who will largely dependant on it, or a school may find it has a theatre next door, allowing for new educational opportunity. This urban typology was successfully utilized within The Barbican Centre. Within this scheme the combination of the Arts Centre, theatres, schools, homes, libraries and restaurants is what emphasizes the vibrancy of the community spirit thus creating a collective way of life and highlighting the importance of the public realm.
Polar opposite to this politically, under the Soviet Union, Social condensers were created by the Russian constructivists, shortly after the Soviet Union came to fruition, in order to combine functions within closed communities such as communal housing, club members, factory workers etc. For example, within a communal housing condenser you would find shared kitchens, living spaces, laundrettes and bathrooms. The only privacy that was afforded was that of your own bedroom. It was very much an ideologically driven political tool to force people towards a collectivist lifestyle. For the Constructivists, social condensation was about filling architecture with a sort of revolutionary political electricity. As theorized, designed, and built, the Social Condenser was to be an architectural device for electrocuting people into a communist way of life.” Where hybrids are very much about profit, the social condenser is very much about control. It has become one of the most powerful architectural concepts which was introduced as a result of the great October Revolution. It became a tool to reconstruct or introduce new kinds of human communities involving work, leisure and residence. By studying and understanding these alternative strategies for dense collective living we were able to build a foundation on which to base our own urban strategies for the old town of Shanghai.
19
‌anonymous collective, where the functions come to enrich the fabric, and the individual gains new freedoms of action through possibilities for growth and change
20
Alison Smithson
1
2
3
4
[ mat-buildings ] The firts characteristic of mat housing is the inherently extendable blanketing of an entire site with a system of repetitious unit types, this idea of compact, social and human orientated enviroments comes directly from old ‘’mat patterns’’ such as Roman Towns, Ancient Chinese city plans and Arabic medinas, a continuos matrix of interconnected public and private spaces. . A continuos matrix of interconnected public and private spaces, creating a clear urban organisation, where the main paths become the real spaces of conviviality.Open-plan layout perfectly epitomised the dynamism and potential of mat-building, a city in miniature. Same as in Old city pattern , in mat buildings, such as Sou Fujimoto’ Children Rehabilitation centre, everithing start from a unit ( fig. 1), produced to answers demand in structure and organized by strategies to establish the mat building, then specific strategies lead to the specific pattern and to the horizontal extension creating a matrix (fig 2). The original space generated from the connecting parts among the units in the mat building is called ’’Gap Space’ (fig 3). Gap spaces trend to maximize the integration, being flexible and variant, they convert the traditional relationship of interior and exterior and deconstructing the clear boundaries of form and figure ground relationship. (fig 4)
21
Mat Housing is not concerned with any particular formal outcome, but rather with spatial relationships and connections between housing, workplaces, shops and comunal area. Alison Smithson 22
23
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[ donnybrook ] Peter Barber Architects, London, 2007
Donnybrook Quarter is a low rise, high density street based city quarter located on a prominent corner site just south of Victoria Park in Hackney. The scheme is laid out around two new tree lined streets which cross the site creating very strong spatial connections with adjacent neighbourhoods and a handy cut through for their residents The streets have an intimate scale being 7.5m wide and bordered on each side by two and three storey buildings. At their intersection, at the heart of the scheme, the two streets broaden out into a delightful tree lined square. Throughout the project public space is heavily overlooked by the residents on either side. Balconies and oriel windows overhang the street, terraces and the numerous front doors create a sense of ownership and the opportunity for personalisation (pots, deck chairs, hanging baskets) The project was commissioned by Circle 33 Housing Trust in 2003, after it was selected as winner of the Architecture Foundations’ high profile ‘Innovations in Housing Competition’ from 150 entries worldwide. It was handed over to residents on January 2006.
25
26
# Apartment configuration | Donnybrook external view
# illustrations by Peter Barber Architects
27
瀀爀漀最爀愀洀洀愀琀椀挀 氀愀礀攀爀椀渀最 甀瀀漀渀 瘀愀挀愀渀琀 琀攀爀爀愀椀渀 琀漀 攀渀挀漀甀爀愀最攀 搀礀渀愀洀椀挀 挀漀攀砀椀猀琀攀渀挀攀 漀昀 愀挀琀椀瘀椀琀椀攀猀 愀渀搀 琀漀 最攀渀攀爀愀琀攀Ⰰ 琀栀爀漀甀最栀 琀栀攀椀爀 椀渀琀攀爀昀攀爀攀渀挀攀Ⰰ 甀渀瀀爀攀挀攀搀攀渀琀攀搀 攀瘀攀渀琀猀ᤠᤠ 愀 猀攀氀昀 猀甀昀昀椀挀攀渀琀 愀渀搀 挀漀洀瀀氀攀琀攀 戀甀椀氀搀椀渀最 琀栀愀琀 椀猀 愀戀氀攀 琀漀 椀猀漀氀愀琀攀 椀琀猀攀氀昀 昀爀漀洀 琀栀攀 挀漀渀瘀攀渀琀椀漀渀愀氀 挀椀琀礀
爀攀洀 欀漀漀氀栀愀愀猀
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䴀漀椀猀攀礀 䜀椀渀稀戀甀爀最
[ social condenser ] The Social Condenser was a proposal for a type of architecture that would serve as a tool for the construction of radical new kinds of human communities: communities of collective residence, work, and public culture, in which the alienation and privation of bourgeois or peasant life would be overcome; and communities of equality and empathy, in which the old hierarchies of class and gender would be designed out of existence. Interestingly, things have recently come full circle in contemporary architecture’s fixation with intensification and the socalled “mixed-use development�, which bears some striking similarities with the social condenser. The fundamental difference is the underlying social reality within which these respective design approaches operate within. Whereas the social condenser was envisioned as a space to realise a new, more emancipated workingclass subject, the modern-day mixeduse development is overwhelmingly targeted young urban professionals. In other words, the former is exclusive of bourgeois ideology and the latter is thoroughly steeped in it.
29
‌ The condenser was the manifesto of an ideology, maybe even an homage to Architecture
Ignati Milinis 30
The idea of the ‘Social Condenser’ promoted by Soviet Constructivist architects during the late 1920s is arguably the most powerful architectural concept produced in the Soviet Union in response to the earth-shattering events of October 1917. Architecture now is seen as a way to forge radical new kinds of human collectivities: collectivities of co-habitation, of co-production, of intellectual work; as well as collectivities of affect, beauty, empathy and passion. Constructivist Architects are completely convinced that the problem of ideal architectural content is resolved most exactly by following the aim to create a new type of architecture capable of condensing new social relationship’’ Described by Moisei Ginzburg as a building designed to transform relationship between members of a closed community: # drawing by Gustav Klutsis, design for a poster entitled The Electrification of the Entire Country, 1920
COMMUNAL HOUSING RESIDENTS CLUB MEMBERS FACTORY WORKERS
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[ gallaratese ] Aymonino & Aldo Rossi, Milan, 1956
As the dust settled following the Second World War much of Europe was left with a crippling shortage of housing. In Milan, a series of plans were drafted in response to the crisis, laying out satellite communities for the northern Italian city, Construction the first of these communities began in 1946, one year after the end of the conflict; ten years later in 1956, the adoption of Il Piano Regolatore Generale—a new master plan—set the stage for the development of the second, known as ‘Gallaratese’. The site of the new community was split into parts 1 and 2, the latter of which was owned by the Monte Amiata Società Mineraria per Azioni. Aymonino and Rossi interest lay not in solitary architecture but in urban communities with all the disparate elements required for a functioning society: residences, commerce, industry, and more. Gallaratese was, then, to be their chance to combine these elements and create a new community from scratch. The format they applied to the project drew its inspiration from a series of experiments conducted in the 1950s by a group of Modernist architects named “Project X.” Starting with Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, Project X added elements like open-air decks and interconnecting bridges to convert the isolated residential blocks into more unified urban districts.
33
The project is well known in the international architecture community, and regarded as one of those that better represent Aymonino’s vision of the city as a turbulent, intricate, and varied texture, a paradigm that is known as “fragmentism”. The complex comprises five red buildings: two eight-stories slabs, a long three-stories building, another three-stories slab, and an interconnecting structure; these are grouped around a central area with a yellow, open-air theater, and two smaller triangular plazas. The complexity of the skyline is enriched by a number of passages, decks, elevators, balconies, terraces and bridges connecting the buildings with each other and providing for a great variety of pedestrian walking paths. The complex was conceived as an utopian micro-city within the city, and based on Aymonino and Rossi’s vision, emphasizing the interplay between housing blocks and their urban context. Aymonino and Rossi explicitly mentioned the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille as one of their main sources of inspiration, although their intent was to improve on Le Corbusier’s model. Rossi also took inspiration from Giorgio de Chirico’s paintings when designing one of the five buildings, the smaller slab. 34
# drawings by Aldo Rossi
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[ narkomfin ] Mosei Ginzburg, Moscow, 1930
Moscow’s Narkomfin Building was once a potent expression of the social condenser, an approach to building which sought to engineer a new, more socialist community. Narkomfin is a block of flats located at 25 Novinsky Boulevard, in Moscow. Designed by Moisei Ginzburg and intended for high ranking members of the Commissariat of Finance (shortened to Narkomfin), the building’s most striking feature is that none of its 54 housing units had a dedicated kitchen. Instead, the building was built with communal kitchen, laundry and creche facilities, a move which was intended to socialise the kind of reproductive labour that was traditionally carried out by women in the home. Meanwhile, in a bid to stimulate an ethos of self-improvement and a new more socially engaged lifestyle, the building also featured a library and a gymnasium. This project was not only a progressive step toward a new architecture, but it tried to shape the inhabitants manners and values by instilling a collective and communal behavior, in an attempt to alter social norms. 37
The Narkomfin Apartments were built during the Constructivist movement in Russia under the control of the USSR. The project pushed a progressive change in housing, moving from family housing to collective communal housing. This avant-garde type of architecture wanted to promote a socialist way a living, by emphasizing people to occupy public places rather than being withheld to their individual households. The intent of the design was to reduce the size of an individual apartment unit and promote a communal style of living. The building is a slab raised off the ground by pilotis, both the top and ground floors of the apartment were used for communal living, while the floors in between contained long corridors and two level apartments. The long interior corridor connected another block building to the apartment, which was also used for the public, containing kitchen, dining hall, and library. The apartment complex consists of two different types of living spaces, “type K” and “type “F”. Each living space was designed for different styles of living. The first, type “K” were for families, allowing more room for a larger amount of people and ample space to cook. The second type, type “F” were better suited for single or smaller groups of people, who wanted to embrace a greater communal living style. 38
# drawing by Matthew Weber
39
‘‘ a building that turns against the combination of the usual programs and bases its whole raison d’etre on the unexpected mixing of functions’’
steven holl 40
[ hybrid buildings ] A hybrid was an American capitalist idea, invented to revitalise the city. It turns against the combination of the usual programs and bases its whole raison d’etre on the unexpected mixing of functions. The hybrid is the consequence of a rant against tradition, giving typology the one finger salute. It is an opportunist building, which makes the most out of its multiple skills, a key player which revitalises the urban scene and saves space. The hybrid scheme proposes crossed fertilisation environments, where known genotypes are mixed and new genetic alliances are created. This way the personality of the hybrid emerges , as a celebration of complexity. Hybridisation is associated with a certain form of grandeur, of gigantism, as mixing imposes grandesse. The hybrid surpasses the domains of architecture and settles into the urban scale. It is an artefact able to exercise centripetal force, a colossus counteracting the evil forces of dispersion. The intimacy of private life and the sociability of public life dwell within the hybrid and produce constant activity, making it a building working full-time.
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[ barbican ] Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, London, 1982
Barbican, a hybrid constructed in an attempt to encourage the middle class back to London during a period of mass migration to the country. The functions can be arranged either vertically, horizontally or amalgamated within the confines of the building’s exterior membrane. With the invention of the hybrid we saw a cross fertilisation of programmes emerge, as Steven Holl likes to say, “it holds the gene code of mixed used development”.. Functions which wouldn’t usually mix found themselves sharing spaces, leading to people using them in new ways. Thus a certain level of self-sufficiency is established whilst creating connections rather than segregation within societies. For example; a residential complex may now find itself with a shopping mall beneath it, meaning, creating a demographic who will largely dependant on it, or a school may find it has a theatre next door, allowing for new educational opportunity. This urban typology was successfully utilized within The Barbican Centre. Within this scheme the combination of the Arts Center, theatres, schools, homes, libraries and restaurants is what emphasizes the vibrancy of the community spirit thus creating a collective way of life and highlighting the importance of the public realm.
43
[ North-South section ] Section through concert hall: 1 Concert Hall 2 Orchestra Platform 3 Control Room 4 Foyer 5 Access Road 6 Car Parking 7 Stage 8 Administration & Workshop 9 Sculpture
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10 Residential Terrace Block 11 Cromwell Tower residential block 12 Service Shafts 13 Art Gallery 14 Librery 17 Plantroom 18 Underground Railway 19 Lakeside Terrace
[ East-West section ] Section through Royal Shakespeare theatre 1 Foyer 2 Cinema 3 Control Room 4 Theatre Administration 5 Conservatory 6 Flytower
# drawing by Richard Dawking
7 Stage 8 Auditorium 9 ‘‘The Pit’’ 10 Dressing Room 11 Access Road
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[ alexandra Rd ] Neave Brown, London, 1968
Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road is the most architecturally celebrated housing scheme built in Britain in the past half century, ’a brilliant architectural setpiece’ that was ‘the last great social housing project’. With its 518 dwellings, the project is often described as a housing scheme, there was also a wide range of non-residential uses, including public park, shops, public house, light industry, special school, play centre, youth club and community centre as well as an existing London County Council estate that had to be incorporated in the design. The main principles of the housing types were already established at Fleet Rd project. The dwellings were in continuous terraces fronting onto pedestrian streets, with front doors accessed from the streets. Every dwelling had its own open to the sky external space of at least 9 square metres, opening from the living room. All the maisonettes followed the ‘upside down’ principle, with the living room and kitchen on the upper floor and bedrooms on the floor below, so nobody would have the living room or kitchen of their neighbours immediately above their bedroom.
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[ circulation ]
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[ types of dwellings ]
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SHANG 50
GHAI 51
POPULATION LIVING IN THE CITY
1960 | 38%
2008 | 52%
2050 | 70%
16 m2
Space/person
YEAR | BUILDINGS OVER 8 STOREYS
26,000
People/Km2 1980 | 121
2000 | 3529
2005 | 10,045
DENSITY
6,340.5 Km2 Area of Shanghai
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23,019,148 Population
8x
Population increase since 1920
[ location map ]
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[ growth map ]
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[ residential density ] the avarage density in the central area of shanghai is around 24,673 people/km2 , and the highest gross residential density peak is reached in certain areas of the city centre , with over 90000 people/km2
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[ old-town ] The circular area of a 2km diameter, enclosed by Renmin Road and Zhonghua Road, houses 180,000 people. Located in the heart of Shanghai, the Old Town is the origin of Shanghai’s development from a seaside fishing port to a modern city.
The Old Town is characterised by its pluralistic way of life. The dense, low-rise typology of the area can be considered a mat. Quoting architect Alison Smithson, “mat-building can be said to epitomize the anonymous collective� without a concern on achieving a physical form. However, there are shared qualities among this configuration: large-scale, high-density and the formation of a matrix based on the repetition of a unit among a grid. Even though the Old Town is not configured by the repetition of a unit, due to its continuous urban fabric within an enclave, it allows for communities to engage in a collaborative setup. The streets become living rooms, the limitation of space in the houses results in people extending their lives into the streets. When walking around the different districts we could find a mix between the private and the public activities. People cooking in the streets, playing cards, even showering. The whole area is like a big house which insinuates social freedom within the old town. We also distinguished a strong sense of community as the streets become the community centre which is the core of the collective way of life.
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[ 1948 old town fabric ] The main roads are horizontal, which still retain traces of historical waterways.
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1940’s old town picture
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[ 2019 old town fabric ]
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one of the many typical narrow but vibrant streets
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[ development intensity ] The average plot ratio of the site is about 2.1, among which the plot ratios of quadrant 2 and 4 are relatively high, and quadrant 1 and 3 are relatively low, but they are far lower than the surrounding areas.
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one of the many ‘soon to be demolished Laoximen building
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[ house price spatial distribution ] According to the traffic conditions, infrastructure conditions, environmental conditions and prosperity level, the housing prices in the Old City are different from each other.
120000
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50000
old town properties for sale
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[ buildings height distribution ] High-rise buildings are mostly concentrated at the intersection of the two main roads dividing the old town in four separate areas.
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# map
by Tonjii University Students
old town fabric separation
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[ buildings density distribution ] There is a negative correlation between building density and building height.
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# map
by Tonjii University Students
aerial view of the dense mat- typology Laoximen Old Town district
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[ distribution historical areas ] most of the protection scopes in the old town remain intact, whilst some blocks have been redeveloped.
Yu Garden
core protection scope
fangbang mid Rd- Dajing Rd
core protection scope
Xiao-Tao-Yuan
core protection scope
confucian temple
core protection scope
Quiajoia
core protection scope
Longmen Village
core protection scope
protected historical buildings
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Confucian Temple protected scope
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[ traffic system ] the Old Town area, the three subway stations and a large number of bus stations make it very convenient for residents to enter and leave, bringing great convenience to the residents.
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aerial view of Fuxing Road,. the main road splitting the old town in two
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TOWARDS AN HYPOTESIS 74
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The old city of Shanghai was constructed as a sort of “labyrinth” of small streets with a mixture of small local shops and family dwellings with a chaotic aspect. Chaotic yes but at first glance only. In reality the layout present a clear organization of the urban spaces with an internal road network in a hierarchical organization in which there is a progressive passage from the main arteries to the secondary ones down to simple allies that resemble more than anything else the extension of the single households. The main “arteries” are actual areas of public exchange and contact with a sequences of shops, artisan and commercial, lining both sides. More articulate appears to be the sequence of secondary roads and alleys that link the residential quarters and, at the same time, create a social-spatial separation between public and private. These present themselves as “domestic” spaces, non private, where more homes focus on, spaces of visit and exchange, a real and space of conviviality. Studying the peculiarities and the fabric of the Old Town Shanghai across various time periods, we noticed that the site we were surveying , the main road dividing and separating the fabric into 4 different areas actually used to be a river . A river that instead of separating people was actually connecting in various ways all the different parts of Old Shanghai. Our team’s aim is that of bringing back the connection concept of the old fabric by following the old river’s path reconnecting the 4 areas of the Old Town of Shanghai. All this while maintaining traditions and existing fabric. Maintaining, that is, the traditions that were built over centuries of pluralism as well as collective life style, increasing affordable housing, improving the quality of life of the inhabitants and creating facilities that were not possible to build in the dense Old Town.
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[ maps and river overlap ] East fuxing road through time.
1948
1980
River and Fuxing rd overlap
1948 -2019 Old town Map overlap
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[ contiguity ]
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[ occupants along E Fuxing Rd ]
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[ connectivity ] mantaining the actual walk paths flows on ground level of proposal in order to create continuity between existing fabric
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[ from nodes to squares ] convert the nodes in main gathering points and access to the proposal
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[ views and orientation ] I
view of Shanghai finantial distict over Yu Garden core listed area
II view of Quiaoja òisted area III possible integration’’ with green area of Xiaotaoyuan listed area
IV view over confucian temple V possible integration of confucian area with cultural programs?
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[ programmatic island creation] creation of programmatic areas, programs will be placed where specific activities are needed along the three different typologies / zones of the proposal.
eldelry health medical services hospital green / sport areas cultural educational
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[ re-discovering water paths] using part of the waters that are flowing under our site and to bring them to the surface so as to make use of said interesting feature in various ways (i.e. irrigation for green area, specific water features and fountains in the two main nodes) and, as a consequence, the site can be more liveable and attractive to people and becoming an ideal meeting point in the urban fabric.
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Bringing back the ground to the public the ground will become an area of public action and display, a continuous parade of personalities and bodies, a stage for a cyclical dialectic between exhibitionism and spectatorship, sellers and buyers. Our proposal will connect differents parts of old city and new commercial buildings with elevaterd public ground, maximizing social interaction through unexpected mixing of functions. Working as a social condenser our proposal would transform and maximise relationship beetween residents of this closed’’ community. Our proposal is to try and implement a sort of equilibrium between the desires of maintaining the “historical” social fabric whilst implementing a modernization strategy via commercial private enterprise. In short our aim is to try and give a new quality of life to the area by creating a multilayer layout where there will be a connection between different parts of the old city and new commercial buildings with an elevated public ground. The aim here is to maximize social integration through an unexpected mix of various functions, incorporating a sort of “awe-inspiring surface” over which you can find public parks. Under these there is a plan for public spaces linking service structures.
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[ strategies ]
䈀刀䤀一䜀䤀一䜀 䈀䄀䌀䬀 䜀刀伀唀一䐀 吀伀 倀唀䈀䰀䤀䌀
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[ concept development ]
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[ initial conceptual collage ] The project consist in the creation of a hybrid building complex multi-level arrangement separated by an open-air central public space. The main ambition being that of ensuring the conservation, uniting the fabric of the old town instead of alienating it. As the Guardian defined the Barbican Centre, the aim of this hybrid structure will be that of creating a place where there will always be something new and interesting occurring.
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[concept development]
Permeability of an area affects the degree to which transportation networks such as streets, walking and cycling paths, connect people to their destinations. There are different levels of connectivity which could be provided, a good set of permeability in an area actively seeks to discourage the use of car by making local trips easier and more pleasant by foot. The old town although has a rich network of narrow streets linking the place together, the lack of diversity in facilities makes the town lose the opportunity of utilizing this set of networks at a macro level. Hence, to create meaningful connectivity, the Fu Xing road was divided into three zones. Each zone being 667-meter-wide at a walkable rate of 10 minutes. The diagram below shows the pedestrian catchment in an area with a connected street network, which works with the existing urban fabric and increases permeability of old town in three aspects; light, air and human. As you move up the Obus, the public, semipublic and private space are permeable on all levels by creating a set of bridges which links to the existing fabric of old town.
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[ permeability ]
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[concept development]
There is a growing nostalgia among the residents of this sprawling old town for the townscapes, lifestyles and breakfasts of the old days. The old towns dense and diverse nature allows it to be a social hub for the locals. The narrow ground room forces the people to occupy the streets and bring out their furniture, invariable making the street part of their living space. Not only does it become a place for socializing, cooking, but also many commercial and handicraft activities take place. Nowadays this sense of community feel is being overrun by vehicular traffic. Keeping this dying nature in mind, one of the design strategies of Obus is to enhance the social factor that engulfs the old town by introducing the street culture. The activities that have been carried out on the streets of old town for decades could still very much be alive on different street level inside Obus. This helps in continuing the nature of old town and building a space that fits the needs of the existing and new locals.
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The Obus would be a continuous linear form running from east to west. There will be distribution of services, each zone would have a set of programmes which would accommodate facilities missing from the fabric around it and two similar programmes would not be more than 5-7 minutes apart from each other. The Obus would be hybrid in nature, containing mixed use facilities and communal spaces, with the ground floor being public and the other levels semi-public and private. These dense residential living and large-scale public programmes such as health care, education, sports facilities and enterprising centres. There will be a commercial shops as well and informal markets running the length o the Obus.
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[ impact on site ] As we are dealing with trying to integrate a new and quite large multi level hybrid building on an existing community, we have developed a 3D model of our project and superimposed it on the exiting fabric to verify what impact, if any, the new structure would have on the existing. The result of our investigation actually resulted in the new structure, even though a mega-structure, actually helping in uniting the existing social fabric rather than a subdivision on what already existing. The new structure will actually greatly improve the local quality of life for the local population of the “old town”.
AREA DETERMINATION
VOLUME DETERMINATION
NATURAL LIGHT
FUNCTIONS DETERMINATION
Additionally the new structure will house a whole range of activities, programs not presently there and from which the population will greatly benefit from. CONNECTING WITH ENVIROMENT
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[ taxonomi ]
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I volume definition 2 inner connectivity creation 3 connection w exhisting High rise buildings 4 maximising sun light in northern block 5 terracing residential part 6 movemnt of facades to maximise best views 7 keep connectivity between existing fabrics 8 public connectivity along the proposal 9 residents connectivity alng the proposal 10 expansion / agglomeration of high rise buildings
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[ volume creation ]
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[ connection between existing high-rise ] Analysing the existing site, the project will link the high rise buildings that line both sides of the site creating a virtual bridge between the existing and the new with the aim of preserving the site peculiar atmosphere. This will be via a multilevel and multipurpose structure that will “flow� within the project site.
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[ iso view | connectivity ]
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[ transect ]
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[ transect along the fabric ] The aerial view and the transect section shows how the eastern obus will impact on the general surrounding fabric, in this case the section is taken in Zone III of the site where the fabric around is mainly low rise mixed residential-commercial.
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[ perspective section ] Division of the Obus was done through the study of existing fabric around the Fu xing Road. Zone 01, on the far west side, has mid rise to low rise buildings surrounding it, which meant that the connection to existing fabric through connection bridges would not be feasible as it would make the space look congested. However, introducing residential units early on into the Obus formed a continuity of the fabric. Zone 02 is engulfed in high rise buildings, which meant more physical connections with the existing fabric. “Living bridges� are then introduced into the obus, which connect the north and south side of Obus and then trails onto connecting with the existing high-rise buildings. Only selected area, which is the south side, in Obus contain residential units, as that is the only area surrounded by residential towers. The last zone, which is zone 03, is surrounded by low rise buildings. So to not compensate for the shadows or views provided to the Obus, the level of programs facing the south side is dropped down into a stepped typology.
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[ zones subdivision ] Zones to be tested out at architectural scale during second semester.
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[ zone I ]
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[ scenario I ]
diagrammatic section on zone 1, where the proposal will face old town fabric both in norther and southern side
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[ zone II ]
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[ scenario II ] diagrammatic section showing residential and public programs in zone II, where the proposal will connect both with high rise residential buildings and commercial buildings
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[ zone III ]
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[ scenario III ] diagrammatic section showing residential and public programs in zone III, where public promenade will connect with exhisting commercial high rise buildings .
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[ transect sectional model ]
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