Informal / Formal

Informal / Formal Using the Qualities of Informal Housing when Proposing a City Block in Shenzhen

DAVID SVAHN Chalmers School of Architecture Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering Examiner: Daniel Norell Supervisor: Jonas Lundberg & Kengo Skorick

2017 Informal / Formal Using the Qualities of Informal Housing when Proposing a City Block in Shenzhen Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering David Svahn Chalmers School of Architecture Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering Examiner: Daniel Norell Supervisor: Jonas Lundberg & Kengo Skorick Master’s Program of Architecture & Urban Design

Abstract Today the majority of the people on earth live in urban areas and the number is constantly increasing. Most “Megacities� with over 10 million inhabitants are located in developing countries. The economical growth that comes with globalization of cities is manifested with lavish buildings and public spaces to serve the new elite. Hence the space for the unprivileged in the city is constantly decreasing, leading to hyper-dense building blocks with the sole purpose to store as many people as efficiently as possible. Shenzhen is one of the cities that have grown from an agricultural village to a multi-million city within the last three decades.

The aim is to lift up the positive aspect with the dense and informal blocks and to argue that there are many qualities here, which is missing in the rest of the new cities, stating that the level of informality in the dense city blocks is improving the public spaces and identity.

The objective will be to re-interpret these qualities into a new building typology.

Different levels of informality in building blocks is explored and used as a design tool for creating variation and identity in different scales. In order to find the right threshold between informal and formal a series of studies have been conducted about how to stack units, injecting public spaces and add value to the street scape.

The idea with this thesis is to investigate how you can generate informality in a rational way through a structured design process. Voxel based scripting has been used to control and study how to create variation and informal clustering. By using diagrams to measure the qualities of design studies through collages and model studies rules for stacking and facade treatment have been set up in order to control and generate informality. The design studies are iterative and after new findings through diagrammatic comparison the script is adjusted and the clustering process starts over.

The result is a 100 x 100 x 100 m city block in the East Gangxia District in Shenzhen containing multiple high-rises composed to create a maximum variety of small and large public spaces for its 60.000 inhabitants. Each unit is shifted so every corner creates an informal micro space in between the formal spaces. The units ordered in space are connected with pedestrian walkways that bring the street up in the sky. The high-rises are clustered in order to bring the small-scale pedestrian street up into the sky.

Using rules to base the placing of units in space is an effective way of generating variation and irregularities that is controllable. Using physical modeling and collages are important tools to exemplify and show the 3-dimensional porosity and spatial qualities that it brings.

typologies Chinese Typologies Chinese High-rises The Urban Village Evolution “A Necessary Evil�

p.1 p.3 p.5 p.6 p.7 p.9

02 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10

context Country Scale City Scale District Scale Block Scale Reference - Camillo Sitte Building Scale Flexibility Old Qualities New Qualities Conclusions

p.13 p.15 p.17 p.19 p.21 p.23 p.25 p.27 p.29 p.30 p.31

03 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.3.1 3.3.2 3.3.3 3.3.4 3.3.5 3.4.1 3.5.1

design research Rules Stacking Trying out the Rules Connectivity Streets Public Space Design Studies 1 Design Studies 2 Design Studies 3 Design Studies 4 Reference - Ricardo Bofill Conclusions

p.33 p.35 p.37 p.39 p.43 p.47 p.49 p.51 p.53 p.55 p.57 p.59 p.61

04 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7

proposal Units Neigborhood Reference - OMA Program & System Skyline Structural Concept Vertical Spaces & Porosity

p.63 p.65 p.67 p.73 p.75 p.79 p.81 p.83

05 5.1 5.2

evaluation Sunlight Conclusions

p.105 p.107 P.111

06 6.1 6.2

bibliography Bibliography Architectural References

p.113 p.115 p.117

01 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5

Floor 68 +

Floor 64 +

Floor 60 +

Floor 56 +

Floor 52 +

Floor 48

Floor 44

Floor 40

Floor 36

Floor 32

Floor 28

Floor 24

Floor 20

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Floor 16

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typologies

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1.1 Four Typologies in Shenzhen footprint

DORMITORY BLOCK 12.000 p/km Density: 1.10 FAR: 15 m2 Living space*:

height 1/view

1/private space 1/spacing

footprint

SUBURBAN BLOCK Density: 21.000 p/km FAR: 2.81 Living space*: 27 m2

height 1/view

1/private space 1/spacing

footprint

URBAN VILLAGE Density: 181.000 p/km FAR: 2.47 Living space*: 15 m2

height 1/view

1/private space 1/spacing

footprint

HIGH-RISE Density: 50.000 p/km FAR: 3.68 Living space*: 55 m2

height 1/view

1/private space 1/spacing

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HIGH-RISE Height: 20-40 floors Density: 50.000 p/km2

4

URBAN VILLAGE Height: 8-12 floors Density: 181.000 p/km2

1.2 Chinese High-Rises Privatization & False Density The high-rise is what is replacing every typology in the cities. It is a manifestation of the globalization and a way to show its economic growth. As this development continues the urban blocks is becoming gated communities like the danwei in the communist Era. History has shown that this is an unsuccessful approach compared the traditional mixed-use villages. (Mars, N., 2008) THE EFFICIENT HIGH-RISE: -Economical -Extrusion -Creates walls in the city -No 3-dimensinonal thinking -No public spaces

01. typologies

THE ICONIC HIGH-RISE: -A Manifestation -Monuments in the city -Shape Focused -Inhuman scale -Privatized Spaces 5

1.3 The Urban Village Bridging Social Classes The Urban Villages (chengzhongcun) are the densest typology in Chinese Architecture. Each Village is specialized and have their own characteristics. This is where most of the low end economy are generated in the cities. It is not only the unprivileged that are using this services, but the elite in the proximity are also cutting their hair, having meals etc. in the villages. “Chinese city planners, desperately pondering ways to infuse identity into their newly built homogeneous cities, overlook the urban village. Their unique urbanisms, histories, spatial experiences, culture, and cosmopotalinism could bring a more diverse texture to the future of the city�

-Stefan AI, Architect & Author 6

1.4 Evolution Origin of Urban Village The urban villages in Shenzhen has its origin in the 80s as Shenzhen became a Special Economy Zone (SEZ). As the economy started growing the migration in to Shenzhen sky rocketed. What before was agricultural land with a few farmers as its only inhabitants increased in value as the city grew.

The government started to buy land from the farmers with offers they could not refuse. They teared down the traditional village settlements and relocated the farmers to small squared plots in the new city. The government gave guidelines how much and how high the old farmers where allowed to build and that is what was shaping the overall grid structure of the urban villages.

As the farmers had sold the land, their only income, they had to come up with a new way to make money. Since the growing immigration had made the demand of housing increase most of the farmers started renting out parts of their houses, they became landlords.

As the migration grew and the rent prices increased the farmers wanted to make the most of their small plots illegal expansion became more and more common. Gradually the houses expanded close to its maximum and that is where we are today. (Al, S., 2014)

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1980

Traditional Village Settlement

Sale of Agricultural Land/Contact with Urban Area

Beginning of Illegal Development and Leasing

Today 8

Further Expansion/Conflict between City and Urban Village

1.5 “A Necessary Evil�

Different Ways of Dealing with The Urban Village

Decay

Songgang Village, Shenzhen Most Urban villagers earn their money from either low-end services to the surrounding or by renting their apartments to immigrants. If these incomes are non-existent the village decays by itself and the villagers often migrate to other Urban Villages.

The Songgang Village was located too far from the city center to attract customers and the migrant workers preferred to settle in a more central location closer to the work places, (Al, S., 2014)

01. typologies

Fig. 1 (http://www.tate.org.uk)

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Demolition & Relocation

Ganxia West Village, Shenzhen In government many times looks at the Urban Village as “an visual eyesore� in the globalizing city. In Ganxia West the government offered a deal where the villagers would be compensated 1 m2 for every 1m2 they demolished, meaning the villagers would be relocated to the suburbs. All villagers agreed on this and the whole village moved. The problems with this was bigger than expected. The migrant workers could no longer afford to rent apartments in the new complex and had to move away from the city, and the villagers lost their incomes. No diversity was left in the suburban area and a new ghetto was created. (Al, S., 2014) 10

Fig. 2 (http://www.chinafile.com)

Employment

Dafen Village, Shenzhen In Dafen Village the Villagers realized they had to find a new ways to make money as the area was urbanizing. Since there was many oil painting industries in the proximity the village embraced this profession. At first the production was very low-skilled, but as they learned the profession more and more artist stared to move there. Now 10.000 artists live within 0.4 km2 and 60% of the oil paintings in the world are produced here. This is a billion dollar industry and a big art gallery has opened near the village. Even though this is a very successful business it does not solve the appearance of the village. The old buildings are still left and the government still see it as an eye-sore that needs to be redesigned. (Al, S., 2014)

01. typologies

Fig. 3 (http://www.urbanus.com.cn)

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Regeneration

Huanggang Village, Shenzhen The redevelopment in the Huanggang area was a co-operation between the government and the villagers. The villagers realized the sanitation system and public spaces needed to be improved. Together the y decided which buildings that should be kept, like the ancestor hall on the image above, and how to re-accommodate the villagers on the site. So that no relocation should be needed.

Parts of the urban village was kept but improved to accommodate the immigrant workers. (Al, S., 2014)

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Fig. 4 (http://www.chinatealeaves.com)

02

context

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14

2.1 Country Scale Shenzhen, Pearl River Delta

Beijing

Guangdong Province

CHINA & ITS MULTIMILLION CITIES (https://www.theguardian.com)

Shenzhen

Hong Kong

02 context

GUANGDONG PROVINCE (http://www.china-map-guide.com)

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N

High-density urban land Low-density urban land Town

ensity urban land

ensity urban land

1980

1988

2005 16

URBAN GROWTH IN SHENZHEN (http://ascelibrary.org)

2.2 City Scale Shenzhen, Pearl River Delta Shenzhen are a Mega city, meaning that more that 10 million people are living in the city. Today around 61 percent of the inhabitants are living in one of the 320 urban villages.

The majority of the new inhabitants in Shenzhen are either business people or migrant workers. In order to develop a fast growing city the demand of low end services is big. People from the rural areas in China are poor, on an average they live on less than a US dollar a day. Many young people then migrates in to the urban areas to take part of the new economy to provide for their family. The majority chooses to settle down in the urban villages because of the cheap living. Most jobs also provides the possibility of a room in a dormitory block, but most migrants prefer the urban villages because of the sense of community that is lacking in the dormitory block.

(Hin, L. 2011)

CENTRAL URBAN VILLAGES SUB-URBAN VILLAGES URBAN AREAS

02 context

17

0

18

(sciencedirect.com)

2.3 District Scale Central Business District The migrant workers has now become the major settlers in the urban village. The demographic are young and they have a wide knowledge of manufacturing and construction, hence the possibility of constructing a new village block by the local people are great. They also have a past knowledge in agriculture that they have left for more city adapted professions.

This could be a catalyst for a local food production that would benefit the urban villages and improve the low end economy that the villagers are living of today. (Hin, L. 2011)

ers % % 40 Manufacturing 31%

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29%

30 25

23%

27%

20

18%

15 10 5 Construction 21%

4% 16-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

50 +

(age)

Others 13% %

Household Service 11%

40 Manufacturing 31%

Hotel & Catering 6%

30 25 20

Logistics 6%

15 10 4%

5

Sales 12% Construction 21%

02 context

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Migrant Workers Age & Skills (http://www.clb.org.hk)

16-20

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BUILDINGS

C

ity

A

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s

RENTAL PRICES

TRAFFIC

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LAND USE

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(http://map.baidu.com)

2.4 Block Scale Gangxia East Village

The Gangxia Village was established about 680 years ago. The original family harvesting the land was the Wen family, ancestors of Wen Tianxiang, a national hero from the Song dynasty. They found the land suitable for rice production and settled down at this site.

Gangxia Village is the most central Urban Village in Shenzhen. It is right East to the Business District and many white-collar workers lives in the Urban Village, which sets the village apart from other. The density is one of the highest in the Shenzhen area with only 2 m2 for each person. (Al, S., 2014) Total Population: Area: Living Space: Building Height:

02 context

appr. 68.000 16 ha 2.21 m2/pers 6-10 stories

High Street Width:

5-7 m

Lane Width:

3-5 m

Alley Width:

1-2 m

21

Pedestrian Bridge

Bus Stop

Public School

Subway

STREET MARKET

22

Main gate

COMMERCE

FOOD BUSINESS

(openstreetmap.org, city8.com)

NO COMMERCE

2.5 Reference Camillo Sitte “Everyone knows from personal experience that these disruptions in symmetry are not unsightly. On the contrary, they arouse our interest as much as they appear natural, and preserve a picturesque character. Few people, however, understand why irregularity can avoid giving an unpleasant appearance. We must study a map to understand it.”

(Sitte, C., 1945) “These systems accomplish nothing except a standardization of street patterns. They are purely mechanical in conception.

They reduce the street system to a mere traffic utility, never serving the purposes of art. They make no appeal to the sense of perception, for we can see their features only on a map.” (Sitte, C., 1945) The way Camillo Sitte describes the medieval city and how irregular forms improves the city is applicable for pointing out the qualities that the Urban Villages provides to the city. A great quality with many of the medieval cities that is lacking in the urban village is the way the buildings creates and encloses the public spaces. The narrow walkways that Sitte describes in the medieval city is constantly present in the Urban Village, but they do not lead to anything. The quality of the intimate space is only present when it is contrasted with another scale of spaces. Now the other scale is the city surrounding it, and that transition is not carefully treated.

Many of the projects that have been inspired by Sittes writing have a tendency of simply be pastiches of historical cities. The idea is not to copy the historical city, but to be inspired by his ideas about irregular shapes and sequence of spaces.

How small and big spaces is relating to each other and the importance of irregularities and enclosure is the key elements that are taken from Sitte’s ideas and used in this project.

02 context

23

24

Fig. 5 The Art of Building Cities (Sitte, C., 1945)

2.6 Unit Scale A Typical Unit

6000

The buildings in the urban villages are basically sleeping pods.

Each tenant rents a few square meters in a sleeping room or a family rents its own room. The ground floor and the street both works as their living room and a place for commerce.

They are either directly connected to the street or raised a few steps. The stores usually expands out on the street during the busy ours.

The whole point with the units is to be as flexible as possible.

If something needs to be renovated they usually wait until the neighbors gets the same problems and then you get together to buy it, as it gets cheaper this way. (foreignpolicy.com) 6000

4000

Sleeping

Shared Space / Commerc

6000

MAIN STREET

4000

LANE

2000

ALLEY

Sleeping

Shared Space / Commerce

4000

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2000

25

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2.7 Building Scale Ways of Creating Density & Flexibility

the dense placement makes the block a village within the city

this is achieved by sacrificing:

Sun Light

WORKSHOP

Public Space

BUILDING TYPOLOGY

RENTAL APT. (SUITE)

STAIRWELL

FLOORS SHOP TYPE 2

GROUND FLOOR

02 context

(Al, S., 2014)

27

ORIGINAL VILLAGE APT.

WORKSHOP

RENTAL APT. (SUITE)

MOTEL

RENTAL APT. (SINGLE ROOM)

WAREHOUSE

RESTAURANT

SHOP HALLWAY BEDROOM BALCONY BATHROOM WAREHOUSE STAIR SHOP TYPE 1

WAREHOUSE

SHOP TYPE 2

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STORE WITH MEZZANINE

SHOP TYPE 3

(Al, S., 2014)

2.8 Old Qualities Concluded Qualities

02 context

THE PROXIMITY The limited space creates a scale well fitted for the human being that is lacking in the city

THE FLEXIBILITY The typical building unit seems to be easily transformed to fit different use

THE COMMUNITY The organic growth within a grid system have created an unique character

THE CHARACTER Each block have specialized in one sales field, this strengthens its identity

29

2.9 New Qualities Qualities to be Added

VISUAL CONNECTIONS A maze-like structure limits visual connections and allows for illegal activities

MONUMENTALITY For the government a centrally located block need to manifest the city’s economical success

30

SUNLIGHT A minimum space between the houses limits the sunlight to reach the public streets

PUBLIC SPACE The Urban Villages have lowest priority from government, public space is kept to minimum

2.10 Conclusion Highrises Within a Highrise From the research about the current area it is concluded that vertical stacking is necessary to in order to inject the missing public space and to still keep the current density. Looking at similar areas where the inhabitants have been relocated it is concluded that this is not a successful option. Moving the unprivileged people to the suburbs leads to increased criminality and is not a viable option for migrant workers. The combination of cheap, dense central living is a necessary resource for the city with the low-end economy services that it can provide.

The flexible building units that most dwellers uses today seems to be a successful system that allows the landlord to divide his own building unit however ts his or hers economy. This system should be incorporated in the new vertical stacking, meaning the same units can be stacked, leaving each landlord with the same living area as they had before.

The ground floor is very important for each building, because this is where the commerce is located and the economy for each block is generated. The idea is that the commercial walking street should be kept throughout the high-rise. The pedestrian street is necessary for commerce and is giving the block its Identity. The ground floor will be a shared market space improved for sales and will incorporate sale spots for the dwellers in the high-rise. This also makes the redesign easy since the current buildings can be kept as the tower is constructed on top of it.

The main concern from the government is the lacking safety in the narrow streets of the block. This is a visual issue that will be studied and improved with the vertical stacked units.

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E O M M E R C C

E

C R E M M O

C 12m

The Dweller The Landlord - Old Villager The Renter - Migrant Workers

The Unit Sleeping Units on Top Commerce / Living Space at Ground Floor

m 2 1

O E

C

R

C

E

m

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M

M

M

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The Dweller The Landlord - Old Villager The Renter - Migrant Workers

The Unit Sleeping Units on Top Commerce / Living Space at Ground Floor

The Dweller The Landlord - Old Villager The Renter - Migrant Workers

THE DWELLER Villager Workers

The The Unit Landlord - Old Sleeping Units The on TopRenter - Migrant Commerce / Living Space at Ground Floor

THE UNIT Sleeping Units o Top Commerce & Living at Ground Floor

The Community Multiple Units Specialized Shops in Highrise Public Space Pockets Shared Market at Ground Floor

The Community Multiple Units Specialized Shops in Highrise Public Space Pockets hared Market at Ground Floor

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The Community Multiple Units Specialized Shops in Highrise Public Space Pockets Shared Market at Ground Floor

THE COMMUNITY Multiple Units Shared Specialized Public Spaces

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3.1.1 Rules Rules of Cluster Units From the context research it was concluded that building vertically is necessary to fit new public space in the area without forcing people to relocate. To avoid creating the same problems as the existing high-rises the idea was to base the stacking of units on a set of rules instead of a floorplan or a shape. These rules were based on keeping the qualities and solve some of the problems the urban village had today. The rules is based on Cellular Automata, the way cells reproduce.

This can be computer generated in a similar way through Conways Game of Life, four rules that decides which units to remove, stay and where to reproduce new cells.

01. AVOID UNDERPOPULATION The first rule is to prevent units without neighbors. One of the important qualities of the urban village is the proximity and the pedestrian scale. This gets lost if you have single units, so all units gets removed.

02. ENCOURAGE CLUSTERING The clustering effect is a good way to keep the small scale throughout the structure. If a unit have two or three neighbors you have the possibility of open and closed sides on every unit. Hence, units where this occurs gets to stay on to next step.

03. AVOID OVERPOPULATION A problem with the Urban Village is the lack of visual connections and sunlight, there are too many dark corners. If a unit gets more than three neighbors they gets removed.

04. REPRODUCTION To prevent the system from stopping you need to add units.

By trying different numbers it showed that adding a unit on a empty plot with exactly three neighbors was the most successful. The structure doesn’t grows too fast, neither stops too easily.

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01. AVOID UNDERPOPULATION

02.ENCOURAGE CLUSTERING

03. AVOID OVERPOPULATION

04. REPRODUCTION

Any unit with fewer than two live neighbours gets removed

Any unit with more than three neighbours gets removed

36

Any unit with two or three neighbours stays to next floor

Any empty square with exactly three neighbours gets a new unit

3.1.2 Stacking How to Implement the Rules The way the stacking works is that you start with a ground condition, a number of units on a plot. These are then divided into a grid. The floor plan on ground floor are then copied to the first floor, and the rules are then applied to one of the floor plans. Since it turned out the reproduction is exponential in most cases, meaning that the floor plans gets bigger and bigger, it was decided that the rules should always be applied on the lower floor plan. This means that the floor plan gets copied to the first floor and the rules is then applied to the ground floor.

The units on first floor are then moved to the second floor and the new ground floor are then copied to the first floor. This procedure is done over and over again for as many floor plans as you need.

1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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step 1

step 2

step 20

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STACKING STUDIES 1

INFINITE GROTWH

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INFINITE GROTWH

INFINITE GROTWH

INFINITE GROTWH

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STACKING STUDIES 2

INFINITE GROTWH

40

INFINITE GROTWH

INFINITE GROTWH

PULSAR

3.1.3 Design Studies Trying Out the Rules When testing to apply the rules to the floor plans it turns out many of the plan stops growing after a few steps and stays in that condition.

The second most commonly occurring outcome was a infinite growth of units. These structures was very different in appearance and possible qualities from each other. Some of them seemed to have potential to create a great variation in public spaces as you move vertically through the structure.

After reading up on Conways Game of Life a bit more it was found out that it was possible to create a pulsating system of units, meaning that the floor plans could go back to its original stage after a number of iterations. This was possible for a very limited amount of floor plans. If you would find a fitting floor plan the outcome would be optimal since you could control the stacking, and still get a great variety that full fills the ground conditions. A version with eight different floor plans, a pulse of 8 steps until it goes back to its original stage, was chosen to progress with. Eight steps was a fitting amount for still looking random enough to have a unique identity and provide enough units to house all the 60.000 inhabitants.

The benefits with using rule-based stacking through Conways Game of Life is that you can get a great variation in floor plans that you know full fills the specified requirements. When you are drawing a plan or a shape of a buildings it is almost impossible to only focus on a few conditions. Aesthetics are always in the back of you head and can often limit your work flow.

From this research this is a powerful way of getting a base of stacked units that you can evaluate by hand after. However there seems to be a danger in trying to solve everything with the scripting. That is very time consuming and can hardly be as precise as editing each floor and section by hand after.

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01.

03.

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02.

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3.2.1 Connectivity The Street in the Sky The modern highrise most often have a central core where the elevator is the mean of transportation in focus. This is an already frequently brought up discourse where many top architects have had a say.

Rem Kolhaas is questioning the role of the elevator in many of his project, like the proposed Hyperbuilding in Bangkok or The Whitney Museum Extension where the elevator transcends from a vertical to a diagonal transportation system. He is also questioning the horizontal floorplan in his proposed Two Libraries in the Jussieu Campus where the floors are interlaced and tied together until it is impossible to separate floor plan and vertical connections. This was the initial inspiration to look at vertical connections in a different way.

Junya Ishigami brings in the psychological aspect of moving vertically in his book Another Scale of Architecture. He discusses the increasing demand of building vertically and how this movement can change how you perceive the surrounding as you move up into the sky. At a certain point you are no longer in the city, you are in the sky among the clouds.

In MVRDV’s Mirador project in Madrid you can see how they have followed up in the dream about the “street in the sky”.

This is a good example how an intricate and well developed connection system can add something to the building.

The idea with the vertical connectivity concept here is to connect to this discourse and develop it further. The use of four cores instead of one encloses the space and creates a shared inside. Then using stairs to tie the cores together diagonally. The stairs are also connecting the public spaces within the structure so you get a continuous flow throughout the building. This way you can use the elevators for goods transportation or if the distance is too farm and then use the stairs to move within the community.

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01. CENTERED CORE - Extrovert - No sense of community - Verticality - No human scale of public space

03. CONNECTIVITY - Introvert and Extrovert - Sense of Community - Diagonality - Human scale - Floors not connected

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02. FOUR CORES - Introvert and Extrovert - Sense of Community - Verticality - No human scale of public space

04. PUBLIC SPACES - Introvert and Extrovert - Sense of Community - Diagonality - Human scale - Floors connected with public spaces

intimate

building ratio closed

open

1.6

public

street ratio x 3

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

open

1.3

building ratio closed

open

1.8

building ratio closed

sky ratio x 3

open

1.7

public

open

street ratio x 3

sky ratio x 3

public

building ratio closed

street ratio x 3

building ratio closed

intimate

sky ratio x 3

groundfloor facade / total facade

1.7

intimate

intimate

groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

sky ratio x 3

groundfloor facade / total facade

sky ratio x 3

groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

building ratio closed building ratio closed

sky ratio x 3 open

sky ratio x 3

open

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

public

open 1.2

street ratio x 3

intimate

THE HIGHWAY STREET

open

public

building ratio closed sky ratio x 3

street ratio x 3

groundfloor facade / total facade

1.4

public

intimate

building ratio closed

street ratio x 3

groundfloor facade / total facade

THE EDGE STREET

1.1

public

sky ratio x 3

street ratio x 3

THE SKY STREET

open

public

public

street ratio x 3

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public

street ratio x 3

building ratio closed

public

street ratio x 3

1.7

public

1.7

street ratio x 3

2.5 sky ratio x 3

street ratio x 3

1.3

public

THE INTIMATE STREET

1.1

street ratio x 3

THE PASSAGE STREET

REFERENCE SITE

sky ratio x 3

open

building ratio closed

sky ratio x 3 open

building ratio closed

sky ratio x 3

open

building ratio closed

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intimate

intimate

2.7

building ratio closed

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2.9

building ratio closed

intimate

building ratio closed

sky ratio x 3

open

sky ratio x 3 open

building ratio closed

public

street ratio x 3

building ratio closed

building ratio closed

sky ratio x 3 open

sky ratio x 3

open

building ratio closed

building ratio closed

sky ratio x 3

open

sky ratio x 3

open

building ratio closed

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

public

2.8

building ratio closed

street ratio x 3

open

public

sky ratio x 3

street ratio x 3

open

public

sky ratio x 3

street ratio x 3

building ratio closed

public

open

groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

building ratio closed

street ratio x 3

open

public

sky ratio x 3

street ratio x 3

sky ratio x 3

groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

open

groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate

groundfloor facade / total facade

building ratio closed

public

street ratio x 3

public

street ratio x 3

building ratio closed

public

street ratio x 3

2.3 2.4

public

sky ratio x 3

street ratio x 3

2.6

intimate

sky ratio x 3

groundfloor facade / total facade

intimate groundfloor facade / total facade

open

public

intimate

sky ratio x 3

street ratio x 3

2.5

public

street ratio x 3

groundfloor facade / total facade 2.2

public

street ratio x 3

intimate

2.1

public

street ratio x 3

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groundfloor facade / total facade

PROPOSAL COMPARISON sky ratio x 3

open

3.2.2 Streets How to Design the Street The streets have been divided into five different categories with different conditions. This streets should have different widths and shapes according to the space it is trying to achieve.

The threshold have been found where width is big enough for the ramp being perceived as a street or a boulevard. If the shape of the street is irregular you perceive a thinner ramp as a street than if it is straight.

The irregular edge on one side and the one on both sides creates very different street. Somewhere at 4 meters the diagonally oriented walkway goes from being a ramp to a street.

The resolution and design of the street space will have a big effect of the perception of the street.

The straight street works good on passages where the end of the street is the goal. You focus you vision on the end of the street.

The irregular side attracts the eye, meaning thats a thing you can use to attract attention either if you want it to be on a storefront or on the surrounding Irregularity on both sides works well in the intimate streets. It slows down the speed, still keeps an eye on the target but is still just not a passage.

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NARROW STRAIGT

IRREGULAR SYMMETRY

IRREGULAR BORDER

IRREGULAR BUILDINGS

WIDE STRAIGHT

WIDTH

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3.3.1 Public Spaces In Chinese Society MARKET

An ordered space. The dwellers can rent a spot in the market to sell vegetables, seafood, meat, clothes etc.

RESTAURANT The streets most often spills out on the streets in these areas.

The seating arrangements are very informal and enhances the vivid street character.

STREET DINING The street dining takes place on any leftover space. Barbecuing right next to the street is very common.

COURTYARD

The new generation in China are not commonly religious. Meditation spaces are demanded in the new society to act as replacement of religious spaces. The courtyard could fill that hole.

INFORMAL MARKET Takes place on leftover space by mobile selling carts. The space should be expandable and fill other function when no sales takes place.

POCKET PARK This is a meeting place for all age and genders. Boardgames are usually played here in the shadows by the trees.

OUTDOOR GYM This is an important part of everyday life in China. It is commonly used by the elderlies.

PUBLIC PARK A community meeting place. The greenery serves as a mental break from the city life. A place for exercise.

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MARKET

RESTAURANT

STREET DINING

COURTYARD

INFORMAL MARKET

POCKET PARK

OUTDOOR GYM

PUBLIC PARK

3.3.2 Design Studies 1 Public Space vs. Density These studies focuses on how injecting public spaces affects the height in order to house all the residents in the area. This Study is computer generated in such a way that as you make a void in the cube if fills the leftover space with units until it has made enough units to house 60.000 inhabitant with the same living space as they have today.

This research was mostly to get an general idea on how much public space is possible to add and how to the shape and height affects the required height. The study is way too general to make any more decisions.

The experience was not about finding a shape, more about visually understanding how density is relating to space. The findings from later studies clearly shows that the bigger spaces also requires a taller ceiling hight, meaning that these spaces have a greater effect on the density.

The public spaces that are desired to fit in the block differs in size and since the bigger voids have a bigger effect it is important to find a good placement of them in the beginning in order to get a sense how tall the building must be.

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3.3.3 Design Studies 2 Large Spaces The vertical structure will house a number of larger public spaces like markets, public parks etc. In these spaces the focus should be on the room and not the units. The square is a strong geometrical form that attracts the eye. This study has experimented how much you would need to rotate , move or skew the square to dissolve the formal grid enough to make the room be in focus. The maximum distortion is set to 2000 mm since after that the units gets too much merged into each other.

The skewed square and the skewed node is the two options that succeeds the best to dissolve the edge between object and space. When you start to skew them randomly up to 2000 mm the grid is also becoming dissolved, but still its not complete chaos. Since only skewing one node instead of the whole square also does the trick, that could be a more rational way of creating the sought after effect.

OBJECT GRID

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SKEW NODE

SKEW SQUARE

ROTATE SQUARE

MOVE SIDE AMOUNT

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3.3.4 Design Studies 3 Medium Spaces This study seeks for the threshold where formal and informal meets in terms of window placement and facade treatment.

Facade treatment is important when it comes to defining the space. The facade could be use to highlight a specific building or to define the room. Looking at the left column in the diagram notice that if the window placement follows a grid your eye start to look at the alignments and line throughout the room and the perspective becomes the main attractor point. When the window placement and sizes have a more random appearance the grid dissolves and you start to notice the room instead of alignments and lines. This is a useful tool when you want to define a space. But, if the facades becomes too random you loose the sense of scale, and the big scale becomes apparent.

By shifting the walls you can improve the push and pull to enclose the spaces even more carefully. You can find the threshold between ordered and chaotic with much smaller means than by parallel walls.

The vertical shifting does not deal with the human scale in a good way but can define the big space. A facade should only be tilted once in order to keep it from being to messy and chaotic.

OBJECT GRID SMALL

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VERTICAL SHIFT AMOUNT

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HORIZONTAL SHIFT

PUSH & PULL

PUSH & PULL

3.3.5 Design Studies 4 Small Spaces The idea is that the shifting between units creates “micro public spaces” in between the large public spaces. The study is about how to most effectively create such a small space with the smallest means possible. Since the streets already is quite narrow the shift needs to be quite small to create a difference.

If you angle or push back parts of the wall it requires much smaller offset to create a visual “micro public space” than if you push the whole wall or tilt the wall vertically. By doing it this way you have two non co-planar surfaces to compare.

By comparing the difference becomes more apparent and a space within another space is created. The Vertical shift is on the other hand efficient to enclose the larger space. Similar to pushing back a part of the wall you can compare the vertical shift to the surrounding straight walls and the difference creates the sense of enclosure.

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TILT VERTICAL

TILT HORIZONTAL

PUSH & PULL

PUSH & PULL

500 mm

58 1000 mm 1500 mm

3.4.1 Reference Ricardo Bofill “the whole world is being urbanized at an incredible speed and new mega cities are popping up everywhere. But the qualities we need to be concerned with are what we like our old cities for: being compact, pedestrian, sustainable, ecological, efficient as far as waste management, and so on. But all of these should be local solutions. There should be no global solutions.” (Belogolovsky, 2016) “But it is clear that people prefer to live in historical centers, not in new cities. I try to find alternatives to simplistic Modernism by bringing back the spirit of the Mediterranean town.” (Belogolovsky, 2016) Ricardo Bofill have been a great inspiration when it comes to merging large and small scale architecture, such as the stacking of smaller volumes or the creations of interstitial spaces.

The process of working with a system of units in three dimensional space as a way of creating internal public spaces has had a great influence to the way this thesis argues to work with the urban villages. The second layer is to use walkways and balconies to bring down the project to a human scale. Details and ornamentations that works with a local context are used to enhance rooms and orient visitors. This process of working could be very useful when working with the urban village.

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Fig. 5 Walden 7, Ricardo Bofill (salvalopez.com)

3.5.1 Conclusion Summary of Used plans and Sections In order to use the units as space creators their shape had to be able to create some specific space conditions. The conditions they had to achieve was listed and simplified to its core function in plans and sections.

MICRO SPACES By pulling the upper floors back you break down the scale and you enable vertically divided micro spaces with visual connection to the street.

ROOM WITHIN ROOM By pulling the ground floor back you focus the view to the smaller space The vertical space becomes secondary.

ENCLOSE By having a bigger space between the units on the the bottom than the top you enclose the space between the units.

WALK ALONG By angling the walls the opposite way the facade itself comes into play, intriguing you to lean against or walk along.

MAIN STREET The wide and straight street takes the scale of the city into the block. A public street shared by delivery vehicles and carts.

PASSAGE STREET The narrow and straight street focus the view on the goal.

Effective where you don’t want people to stay and chat, EDGE STREET

By Rotating one facade you attract the attention and a space is created.

INTIMATE STREET By rotating both sides of a narrow street you change the pace and enable meetings to take place.

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MICRO SPACES

ROOM WITHIN ROOM

ENCLOSE

WALK ALONG

MAIN STREET

PASSAGE STREET

EDGE STREET

INTIMATE STREET

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4.1 Units & Stacking Allowed Stacking Options The block consists out of six different units. The first three are based out of three different node placements and the last three are simply the first three but horizontally and vertically rotated 180 degrees. By these 6 units you can create all the preferred shifting conditions. The can also angle the street by its horizontal angling and enclose spaces by its vertical tilt.

There are 144 possible ways of stacking these six units.

Through studies through physical modeling it is concluded that eighteen of theses stacking options fulfills the visual preferable conditions. Each unit have three units it is allowed to be stacked on, the three with a 180 degree rotation difference from itself. These are the only stacking options where you always have two nodes connected, two nodes shifted and no co-planar surfaces. By using only these stacking option you get the biggest difference in appearance between each stacked units with the smallest means possible. All preferred street and space characters can be created with these units.

By using a limited number of units and stacking options you can still see the order, and the stacking is not just looking like complete anarchy. A successful way of finding the threshold between formal and informal.

The facades are based on the tilted walls. The straight facades is the formal ones and gets a more formal facade. The tilted facade is the informal where the streets goes along. This facade is more covered and more informal since you want to enhance the room and not the units.

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right

right

right

right

5.

left

4.

front

back left

3.

front

back left

2.

1.

front

back left

left

left

right

back right

back

back

6.

front

front

front

180

1.

RIGHT

RIGHT

RIGHT

RIGHT

RIGHT

back

back

back

back

back

back

STACKING OPTIONS

RIGHT

2.

right

BACK

right

RIGHT RIGHT

FRONT LEFT

RIGHT FRONT LEFT

RIGHT FRONT LEFT

right

BACK

right

right

BACK

right

RIGHT FRONT LEFT

RIGHT

front

RIGHT

FACADES

front

left

RIGHT

front

FACADES

RIGHT

left

front

left

front

FACADES

RIGHT

FACADES

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left

front

left

left

BACK

3.

4.2 The Neighbourhood Shared Spaces The old landlords in the urban village gets a new unit in the block with the same floor area. The units are basically just a shell with a stair and a supporting column for the landlord to use however he wants. Floor plans for different functions have been mapped from the urban villages and the window placement have been adjusted accordingly.

Since the living space inside the units are very limited the public space is used as the living room for the villagers. In between the units you have the secondary vertical circulation, small pockets for informal meetings and a rack to hang you laundry. The roofs of the units are used as meeting spaces and sale spaces for the dwellers. One stair down you have the formal meeting space where people from the whole block is interacting.

SHOP

HALLWAY

MOTEL

BEDROOM

WAREHOUSE

WORKSHOP

STORAGE SHOP BATHROOM SINGLE ROOM

LIVING ROOM

SHOP

FOUR STORES SHOP

HALLWAY

SHOP RESTAURANT

SUITE

vel

ne le

zani

mez

HALLWAY

BEDROOM

MOTEL

SHOP

HALLWAY

BEDROOM

STORAGEMOTEL

TWO STORES HALLWAY

BEDROOM

ONE MOTEL STORE STORAGE

BATHROOM

LIVING ROOM WAREHOUSE

SHOP

HALLWAY

BEDROOM

SHOP MOTEL STORAGE

BATHROOM

HALLWAY

BEDROOM

STORAGEMOTEL

HALLWAY BATHROOM

LIVING ROOM WAREHOUSE

BEDROOM

STORAGEMOTEL

BATHROOM

WAREHOUSE BEDROOM LIVING ROOM

LIVING ROOM

SINGLE ROOM STORAGE

WAREHOUSE

WAREHOUSE SINGLE ROOM

SINGLE ROOM

SINGLE ROOM MOTEL

W

WORKSHOP SUITE

WORKSHOP SUITE WAREHOUSE

WORKSHOP

R W

FOUR STORES STORAGE

BATHROOM

SUITE FOUR STORES

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BATHROOM

LIVING ROOM

SINGLE ROOM

BATHROOM

SUITE FOUR STORES

LIVING ROOM

SINGLE ROOM

SUITE LIVING ROOM FOUR STORES

SINGLE ROOM vel

ne le

zani

mez

vel

ne le

zani

mez

RESTAURANT

TWO STORES

TWO STORES SUITE

vel

ne le

zani

mez

RESTAURANT

vel

ne le

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mez

RESTAURANT

TWO STORES

67 ONE STORE

O

R vel

ne le

zani

mez

FOUR STORES

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TWO STORES

ONE STORE

SECTION A-A The block meets the surrounding high-rises with 8 m distance on ground floor. The public pockets above is interlinked with the high-rise with walkways to enable a vertical connectivity. The Straight facades matches the strict facades of the high-rises.

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~~~Fry-King~~~

SECTION B-B The block is placed right into the intricate and narrow street system of the urban villages. The ground floor is working as a shared living room with connection to the urban villages. The narrow street makes the transition into the block seamless.

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VIEW FROM NEIGHBORING HIGH-RISE WHEN NEWLY BUILT The facades and ornamentation are initially treated as a single author project.

By time the dwellers are to leave their trace.

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VIEW FROM NEIGHBORING HIGH-RISE AFTER 50 YEARS Over time the facades are changing and the character of each neighborhood will be even stronger when formed by its residents.

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4.3 Reference OMA - Agadir Convention Centre The Agadir Convention Centre was a competition entry by OMA that was never realized. The project is a great example of how OMA are using strong geometrical shapes to create public spaces and a contrast in an intricate urban fabric. This is very much in line with what Camillo Sitte describes as the qualities of the medieval city, but interpreted in new way.

The approach with using public spaces as attractor point in an urban environment is a successful way of contrasting the narrow walkway in the urban village an to help visitors navigate in the area.

The fabric of the urban layout in the proposed block is much more varied than in the Agadir Convention Centre, so the clear cuts that OMA makes with he use of alien forms would not have such a great impact on the block. The fabric is never so monotone that you can make a big difference by using another shape. However, the idea of using opposites as a mean for orientation is still applicable. Instead the idea is that the main walkways differs from the rest iin terms of material and color.

Some of the units gets merged together into bigger volumes and these volumes are also differing from the rest by using other material, colors and facade treatment. By making this distinction you can orient in the block more easily.

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Fig. 6 Agadir Convention Centre, OMA (http://arquitecturamashistoria.blogspot.se)

4.4 Program & System Allowed Stacking Options The block can be divided into four main parts; the Market, the Mall, the Community and the Park. Since this block is the main low end economy generator surrounding food sales in the city, both raw and cooked, the market and the mall is essential to house these activities. The Community and the Park is what is missing today for the residents. Bigger indoor spaces to house all the functions that is necessary for a small village like a schools, a dentist, a swimming pool etc. Each part is interlocking and residential units are surrounding them all. The thing that differs them the most is the way they create public space. The Market and the Park are enclosing a bigger public space and have smaller spaces in-between while the Mall and the Community are clustered together and created medium sized public spaces around them.

The Market have residential units in a variety of heights that is surrounding a bigger space. To this space people from all over Shenzhen are coming to buy groceries and to have meals all around the clock. Each high-rise have access both to the market and to the smaller pockets in-between. This is where the restaurants are mainly located.

The Mall there is a four floor high indoor space fitting for other types of sales. On top there is informal market spaces for the dwellers to sell products, mostly within the community.

The Community are the Place where most of the functions for the residents are located. Primary School, Dentist, Police Department etc. Have a unique shape to fit for their purpose.

In The Park the units are surrounding a big space in the middle, This is the main outdoor meeting space for the residents with trees and lawns to take the minds away from city life and sport fields for exercise.

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THE PARK

THE COMMUNITY

THE MALL

THE MARKET

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ELEVATOR CORES The public elevators are centrally located and connects the public spaces. The residential elevators are located in the corner of the big public spaces and is accessible for all units.

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PEDESTRIAN WALKWAYS The public walkways connects the residential elevators cores. This enables an easy access between neighborhoods and ties the block together.

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4.5 Skyline An Average High-Rise The block is a 100 m tall, an average in the Shenzhen skyline as you can see in the comparison below. This is the most common height of a high-rise in China since its the tallest building you can build without being labeled as a “Ultra HighRise�. For a building taller than a 100 m the safety requirements are increased. For example you need an evacuation floor that should be able to house all dweller in the even of an emergency. (Ma, J. & Song, W.G., 2012).

100 m

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With this in mind this height seemed like an appropriate height for the block. The idea was not to create an ultra high-rise but to bring the qualities of the urban village to a level equal with the rest of the city. The block is situated right next to a highrise on one side and the remaining of the urban village on the other. The block is communicating with both typologies and lands well in the city skyline. As the top floors are surrounded by buildings it becomes “a park in-between high-rises�

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4.6 Structural Concept A Hybrid Load-Bearing System In order to choose a fitting structural system the possible load-bearing elements were mapped. Since the tilted walls have different angles it seemed like a irrational way to bring the load down through. The straight walls, the connected floor plates and the cores for internal stairways was the chosen elements.

The structure is a hybrid system. At the floors with large-span cantilevers the floors and straight walls are used as virendeel trusses working as transfer floors for the load. These transfer floor is where the mall and the community is located. At these floor all walls are straights and you can easily have trusses crossing the whole floor plates.

The stairwell cores inside the units are used to bring the load down vertically. In between the public floors the units are ordered in such a way that there are a number of continuous vertical connections.

On the edges at the block there are eight units that are supposed to be seemingly floating in the air. Since the force from the self-load of these units are very small compared to the force the truss needs to be able to handle from the large-span in the center they can be hanged from the truss without extra reinforcement.

The large trusses that is needed on the public floors makes the structure quite expensive if looking at similar constructions like many of OMA’s project where large-span cantilevers are commonly used. On the other hand you can easily fit standard trusses on these floors, and the cores within the units are also a very simple construction.

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4.7 Vertical Spaces Spaces & Porosity Looking at the block from far away it seems very dense and the square shape make the appearance even more compact.

But, when coming closer you realize the block is actually quite porous. The scripted rules have made each main floor unique and as a result each space in-between is different.

Many of the public spaces also have a protecting roof. This is a benefit in such a sunny place as Shenzhen. Depending on how much shade you prefer, you can find a fitting space within the block.

In the center of the block the speedy vertical circulation are located. Eight large public elevators can take people and goods to all public spaces and functions.

The Market space on the ground floor are the largest void. A large open space also requires a large ceiling height. Much like MVRDV’s Markthall in Rotterdam the dwellings and circulation are surrounding and enclosing the space with small public pockets visually connected with the bigger space. By doing this the units and the space are working together and benefits from each other.

Mall is located on top of the Market. The mall has an important role in modern Chinese society. This is the main meeting spot and a common weekend activity. Many of the highest rated restaurants are unlike in Europe often located in the Mall giving it a higher status.

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GROUND FLOOR The market space is centered. Four public elevators are located in the center and four public stairs , one along each cluster.

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THE ENTRANCE The entrance to the block is large and formal leading you into the market and the walkways can visually guide you,

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FLOOR 4 As you come up each stair four elevated platforms allows the restaurants to extend out to the public spaces.

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THE MARKET The walkways taking you up the block is in the beginning surrounding the market space. you can start to hint the mall on top through the centered void.

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FLOOR 8 One more small pocket of restaurants with elevated platforms appears to your right before you cross through the ceiling of the market

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THE TRANSITION As you are reaching the level of the mall you transition into a tight space slowing down the pace with a small string of sky to guide you.

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FLOOR 12 The mall is centered Around it four small courtyards appears. The space is enclosed by residential units on each side.

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THE COURTYARD You have now entered a more intimate space where the level differences are smaller. You are now about to enter the external spaces.

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FLOOR 14 On top of the mall and a short stair from the courtyards there are four connected public spaces fitted for market stands.

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THE INFORMAL MARKET You are now in-between the high-rises. A space to serve the restaurant spaces in the mall and local sales persons within the block.

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FLOOR 18 This is a mainly residential floor with small pocket parks for gambling and discussions.

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THE STREET IN THE SKY The walkways are now breaking free from the units and are floating in the air.

The end of the road becomes the focus point.

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FLOOR 22 In the central parts all communal functions are located. The surrounding parks can be fitted for each function.

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THE INTIMATE SPACE In-between the community buildings you can start to see the end of the road.

The narrow street slows down the pace.

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FLOOR 26 At this stage the unit constellation have gone back to its original state. The difference is the public space with a big centered park

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THE PARK The top of the block is the space for leisure. The trees and the sky makes you forget about the hectic city life.

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MODEL PHOTO - POROSITY

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MODEL PHOTO - COURTYARD

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MODEL PHOTO - INFORMAL MARKET

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MODEL PHOTO - COMMUNITY

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5.1 Sunlight Studies Summer, Spring & Winter The Shenzhen climate is with wet and scorching summers, mild and sunny winters. Shenzhen has plentiful sunshine and rainfall all year round. The yearly average temperature is 22 °C, located on about the same latitude as Egypt. Within the block the sun angle makes the biggest difference between summer (86°) and winter (45°). This is a positive thing for the block since most sunlight are being let in on the sides and according to this the internal spaces can stay chilled in the hot summer and the sunlight can heat it up in the winter.

The market space is quite dark. Markets mostly need artificial light and this could be enhanced by the light shafts. The restaurant spaces are covered from direct light. That is a big benefit when sunny. Also the courtyards spaces are covered from direct sunlight most of the day, which is wanted, while the agricultural spaces are fully exposed.

The informal market spaces are covered from direct sun while they have a good view over the neighborhood. The pocket parks are nicely shaded from direct sunlight and it is fitting for playing games etc. The public park and the sport fields are the most exposed, trees can shade in the summertime.

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SUMMER

MARKET

RESTAURANTS

STREET DINING

COURTYARD

INFORMAL MARKET

POCKET PARKS

COMMUNITY

PARK

Hours 10.00< 9.00 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00

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1.00 <0.00

Hours

<0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

10.00<

SPRING

MARKET

RESTAURANTS

STREET DINING

COURTYARD

INFORMAL MARKET

POCKET PARKS

COMMUNITY

PARK

Hours 10.00< 9.00 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00

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Hours

<0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

10.00<

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WINTER

MARKET

RESTAURANTS

STREET DINING

COURTYARD

INFORMAL MARKET

POCKET PARKS

COMMUNITY

PARK

Hours 10.00< 9.00 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00

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1.00 <0.00

Hours

<0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

10.00<

5.2 Conclusions Informal / Formal Ever since I was working and living in China I felt like I had a lot of information and thoughts that I have not had an outlet for. It was pleasing to combine these thoughts with other subjects that have been of interest, like vertical and dense living.

This is a super dense block which means you have to sacrifice a few qualities in favor for others. Like proximity in favor for sunlight in certain spots, arguing that sunlight is not so important along facades you are only using as a sleeping pod or short stay apartments.

The strength of working like this is the most clear when doing model studies, seeing the porosity and variety of spaces it is creating. For me, the good thing about using rules to generate floor plans is that you can choose what to focus on and what to ignore. When you are drawing by hand aesthetics are always present in the back of your mind. This Leads to very obvious conclusions, that people before already have come up with.

I made some early decisions in this project, related to how to look at density and proximity and kept quite structured to this idea in order to take is as far as possible. This may have lead to that I have missed other tracks. I have gotten many comments along the way on my units and how the scale and the resolution of these blocks are not really fitting. However, I believed in the simplicity to only using a limited number of units in order to keep the sense of some kind of formality and rationality within the block, and on the human scale the residents are to form their neighborhood.

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7.1 Bibliography

PRINTED: Al, S. (2014). Villages in the City: A Guide to South Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Informal Settlements. University of Hawaii Press.

Boyd, A. (1962). Chinese Architecture and Town Planning. London: Alec Tiranti.

Burgess, R. & Jenks, M. (2000). Compact Cities: Sustainable Urban Forms for Developing Countries. London: Spon Press.

Huang, T-Y.M. (2014). Walking Between Slums and Skyscraper: Illusions of Open Space in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Mars, N & Hornsby, A.. (2008). The Chinese Dream: A Society Under Construction. 010 Publishers Schittich, C. (2004). High Density Housing: Concept, Planning, Construction. Munich: Redaktion DETAIL. Meyer, H. & Zandbelt, D. (2012). High-Rise and the Sustainable City. Amsterdam: Techne Press.

Rossi, A. (1984). The Architecture of the City (2nd Ed.). Boston: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sitte, C. (1945). The Art of Building Cities: City Building According to Its Artistic Fundamentals (2nd Ed.). New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation.

VIDEO: Jet Tone Production Ltd. (1994). Chungking Express [Movie]. Hong Kong: Ocean Shores Video.

Recorded Picture. Company. Film 4. British Film Institute. HanWay Films. Northern Ireland Screen. Ingenious Media. (2015). High-Rise [Movie]. United Kingdom: StudioCanal.

PICTURES: FIGURE 1. Urbanus (2007). Dafen Art Museum [Electronic Image]. Source: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/projects/dafen-art-museum/?lang=en FIGURE 2. Tate (2017). LOOK/17:ARCHITECTURES OF DISPLACEMENT: PLANETARY GENTRIFICATION [Electronic Image]. Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/tate-exchange/talk/look17-1

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FIGURE 3. ChinaFile (2013). Poor Accommodations: The Struggle for Affordable Housing in Shanghai and Shenzhen [Electronic Image]. Source: http://www.chinafile.com/multimedia/photo-gallery/poor-accommodations FIGURE 4. China Tea Leaves (2014). Exploring Villages in our Shenzhen Backyard [Electronic Image]. Source: http://www.chinatealeaves.com/2014/04/14/exploring-villages-in-our-shenzhen-backyard/ FIGURE 5. Andrea Gibbons (2016). Camillo Sitte: the Art of Building Cities [Electronic Image]. Source: http:// writingcities.com/2016/10/01/camillo-sitte-art-building-cities/ FIGURE 6. Salva Lopez (2011). Walden 7 [Electronic Image]. Source: http://salvalopez.com/exhibit/walden-7/ FIGURE 7. Arch + His (2012). Walden 7 [Electronic Image]. Source: http://arquitecturamashistoria.blogspot. se/2012/01/delicia-pre-digital-koolhaas-y-el.html WEB: ASCE Library, 2010. Rapid Urbanization and Implications for River Ecological Services Restoration: Case Study in Shenzhen, China. Source: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000051?src=recsys Cerini, M. (2016). Could this smog-eating tower solve Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pollution problem?.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/29/design/smog-eating-tower/ China Labour Bulletin. Migrant workers and their children [Electronic Image]. Source: http://www.clb.org.hk/ content/migrant-workers-and-their-children China Map Guide, 2014. Guangdong Province Map [Electronic Image]. Source: http://www.china-map-guide. com/province/guangdong/ Foreign Policy (2016). The Twilight of Shenzhenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Great Urban Village [Electronic Image]. Source: http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/16/china-demolition-economy-the-twilight-of-shenzhens-great-urban-village-baishizhou/ Information Service Department (2016). Per Capita Area of Public Open Space.

Source: http://www.socialindicators.org.hk/en/indicators/environmental_quality/23.13 SienceDirect (2011). The development and redevelopment of urban villages in Shenzhen Source: https://www. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397510000603 The Guradian, 2017. More than 100 Chinese cities now above 1 million people. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/mar/20/china-100-cities-populations-bigger-liverpool Untapped Cities (2014). A Look Inside Baishizhou and the Urban Villages of Shenzhen, China]. Source: https:// untappedcities.com/2014/08/01/a-look-inside-baishizhou-and-the-urban-villages-of-shenzhen-china/ Willmott, D. (2015). Smog-Eating Buildings Battle Air Pollution.

Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/smog-eating-buildings-battle-air-pollution-180954781/

7.2 Architectural References

Walden 7, Ricardo Bofill (1975) Kanagawa Institute of Technology Workshop, Junya Ishigami (2008) Clusters in the Air, Arata Izosaki (1962) Mirador, MVRDV (2005) Markthal, MVRDV (2014) Agadir Convention Centre, OMA (1990) Library in Jussieu, OMA (1990) Hyperbuilding, OMA (1996) High-rise of Homes, SITE (1981) Tokyo City Plan, Kenzo Tange (1960)

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DAVID SVAHN svahndavid@gmail.com +4673 - 0477281 MASTER STUDIOS On Site: Design Research in Context (TU Delft) Dwelling Studio: Living With Water (TU Delft) Matter, Space, Structure (Chalmers) CHALMERS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Program of Architecture & Urban Design Examiner: Daniel Norell Supervisor: Jonas Lundberg & Kengo Skorick 2017

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