Spillage Village
Andy Chen
Design
Cornell Architecture ARC4101
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Project Introduction This project attempts to layer and overlap dynamic ground and roof planes that can create multiground programmatic and daylighting conditions. Drawing planar and sectional logics from existing language in Chongqing, specifically from the immediate site context, new spatial experiences are synthesized. The idea of ‘Spillage’ refer to the prominence of and daily use of public and semi-public spaces to eat, chat, or play mah-jong that spill out of buildings. Larger commercial plazas like Jiefangbei are urban collectors that gather and redistribute pedestrians. Smaller scale storefronts spill their program onto the street in the form of colorful plastic stools and tables to eat at, small carts for street vendors, or in certain residential buildings like White Elephant where activities break out in the hallways that doubles as circulation and a communal space. This spillage of program occurs predominantly in plan in these cases. Ground conditions that are flat or only slightly articulated with a few steps are more supportive of this condition, however there are moments where sectional spillage occurs and that is what this project attempts to investigate further. Staircases in Chongqing are necessary to negotiate the often extreme topography of the city, and become an urbanistic element that is deeply embedded in a person‘s daily routine and the city’s character. Along some of these staircases, street vendors and small stores find their homes and offer pedestrians a brief respite from their route. These stairs can become lively indoor/outdoor markets with Bang Bang men navigating around while people shop for groceries. However these spaces are often afterthoughts of larger infrastructural systems in the city and because of this are not designed to offer adequate daylighting. The goal of this project is to focus on creating, and improving upon these spatial conditions unique to Chongqing with a larger eye on the preservation of such places with how rapidly China is developing.
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Chongqing Closeup
A Photographic Investigaiton The studio began with a series of site mappings and analysis that attempted to dig beneath the surface of satellite images to uncover a more nuanced understanding of the city’s character. This provided a road map of where to look during our week visiting Chongqing. Both in the site mappings and photography on site found an interest in the streetscape, and more specifically the street activity, and the people that spilled out from the city’s densely packed housing towers. A short folio of street photography was created with the help of photographer Bill Staffeld. This folio accompanied the studio project and provided a closeup look at Chongqing, it’s residents, and its spaces devoid of its touristy facade. The studio project and the photography folio both attempt to capture a sense of the real Chongqing, one that creates the city’s unique character. Qualities that are being erased as development favors the standardized and the efficient over the local and the personality of Chongqing.
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Chongqing Closeup Andy Chen
Photos
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Bang Bang Man (left)
Markets (right)
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Photos
Infrastructure
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Dentist Office from the Street
Typical Stairs and Alleys
Movement of Goods
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Site Mappings
Site Mappings
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Key Sketches
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Ground Circulation Hierarchy
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Ground Floor Stairs, Courtyards, and Plazas
Design Diagrams Upper Level Planar Circulation
Arch Organization and Clusters
The Multi-level Village Capturing a sense of the older village clusters that are quickly dissapearing in Chongqing is one of the primary goals for the project. To do so required an intensely close look at how circulation and massing was generated to create spaces that reflected those of an older Chongqing while also providing better daylighting and hierarchy to the organization of streets, plazas, courtyards, and clusters. Modeling a new ground plane that successfully negotiated the height difference from the two streets that border the site on its northern and south
ern edges became the foundation for the design of the housing. A cascading waterfall of staircases provides this lower level circulation which begin to inject a degree of hierarchy to the village plan. As all residential occurs above a shared upper level, this elevated communal floor was important to introduce as a shortcut for residents who wish to access their apartments from the higher street. Bridges of varying sizes connect across buildings and rooftops to allow for this dynamic circulation network.
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Compiled Program
Offices
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Program Diagrams
Retail
Markets
Residential
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Study Models
Site Massing Form Studies Both the sectional conditions and the various ground / roof planes were critical in how they related to and are composed together to bring a better sense of daylighting into the lower levels of the clusters and streets. Foam models became the medium through which this iterative process occurred. Points of contact between an upper layer as well as perforations became the primary variables that were manipulated in these studies. By increasing the moments of contact between the two layers, there became more opportuni
ties for moments of compression and release - more opportunities to manipulate light and shadow. Versus having a few large structural masses connect the two planes which created a more open massing that would provide a less nuanced framework with which to design in.
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Study Models
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Sectional Spillage Programmatic spillage in Chongqing’s streets and upper residential walkways and its distinct spatial conditions are easier to analyze and extrapolate from in plan, but a challenge for the project began with how this spillage could also be created sectionally. Methods began with different structural systems like column and beam with considerations involving vaulting, and domes. These systems utilized a mixture of these systems to differentiate between retail, residential, circulation, and underground spaces. It was determined that one singular system whose parameters were altered was a better approach to organize the section and create the concept of spillage desired. A system of archways found in Toyo Ito’s Tama Art University Library became the precedent for the project’s structural system. At the larger site scale, these archyways lineup to snake pathways on the ground floor through buildings that delineate circulation for Bang Bang people and also pedestrians to both move goods and reach markets creating hopefully a more orderly sense of everyday life in the streets and clusters of the city.
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Section Sketches
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Section Model
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Model Photos
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Section Iteration
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Final Section
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Plans
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Preserving Place An important aspect of the project was preserving a sense of Chongqing’s unique character that is found in its textures, its spaces, and its people. This initially began with the project’s site mappings as well as the photography folio. These considerations bled into the project’s renderings. No stock images were used in any of the renders. Only images, textures, and people from photos taken on the site visit to Chongqing were used to populate and create these renderings. Hopefully by doing this, a realistic depiction of how these spaces could be used, populated, and lived in can be created. A truly accurate depiction of the city is not without its iconic Bang Bang people carrying huge packaged goods on their shoulders amongst a dense vertical array of buildings and Escher-esque vertical spaces. In these clusters light streaks through facades, alleyways, and from above to fill apartments and courtyards with a more adequate sense of daylight not presently found in many of the spaces in the city.
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Renders
Cluster Organization
GATES Ruleset: Double / Triple Height
Each cluster in the project is defined by a shared ground floor courtyard that program like markets, stores, and offices spill into with outdoor seating as well as small steps that double as fixed benches. These clusters also all have a communal upper floor that allows for residents coming from the higher street to circulate more efficiently to the markets or to their apartments. At this upper level, more open floor plans allow for shared social activities like mahjong and tea drinking. At the lower levels, the structural arch system begins to organize circulation via differently sized gates that distinguish between different modes of circulation. Larger gates allow for Bang Bang people carrying loads or pushing carts to reach the markets that utilize ramps to allow for an easier movement of goods from transportation to the vendors. Higher up on the residential floors, these archways begin to define communal kitchens and dining spaces. These vertical atriums are defined by housing units where the face adjacent to the communal space becomes an arch. By removing and combining the cluster’s kitchen spaces into communal ones, a greater sense of community may be created that is similar to the spillage of residential activities in the hallways of the neighboring White Elephant housing blocks.
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Touches Ground Floor Can Connect Across Clusters
Spills: Light
Circulation
Program
Sound
Smells
Service Spaces
Bang Bang Service Gates Pedestrian Circulation Gates
kitchens Ruleset: Connects Adjacent Housing Units One Face of Unit Faces Kitchen / Dining Ceiling Elevated from Surrounding
Spills: Light
Cooking
Eating
Sound
Smells
Socializing
cutouts Ruleset: Residual from Floor Cantilever or Arch Ground Floor Cutouts are One Story UndeďŹ ned Covered Space
Spills: Light
Circulation
Street
Sound
Retail
Service Spaces
Cluster Diagrams
cluster Roofs used frequently as spaces to socialize, eat, play mahjong
Communal Kitchen and Dining Space Connecting Units Vertically
Housing begins above Upper Level Walkway
Upper Level Walkway Connected to Street Level Allow Quicker Access to Homes for Residents
Staircases surrounding Cluster Negotiate Topography
Central outdoor courtyard Market with Ramps and Atrium for Bang Bang Service Circulation
Alleyways inbetween Cluster Buildings
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Ground Floor Courtyard Plan 44
Cluster Plans
DIVA Daylighting Analysis 45
Upper Level Plan 46
Cluster Plans
DIVA Daylighting Analysis 47
Residential Plan
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Cluster Plans
DIVA Daylighting Analysis
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Cluster Sections & Axon
Cross Section
Long Section 50