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Living on Paraground

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Mutang Bar

Mutang Bar

Hainan, China / urban planing

Para- from ancient Greek παρά ( pará, beside, next to, near, from, against, contrary to ) Paraground, an interface to be attached, connects old and new village life, simultaneously a comprehensive system to increase tenacity.

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Xinxing-Harbour Village, located in Chengmai, Hainan, China, situated between a river and the sea. Through the analysis of the current village, we found that the village is lack of resilience to resist natural disaster with only an embankment. And we also found an interesting linear pattern of village development perpendicular to the coastline, which is formed by the expansion of population and house of the clans. In arrays of houses, there are some aquaculture cooperatives that are the spiritual and industrial hearts of the village.

Facing the climate extremes and population growth, the village had to be more resilient. Following the original relative-based village development pattern, we designed a series of composite infrastructure,“paraground”, using platforms in different scale as intervention, to integrate five systems in the village.

I. Industry system We built new cooperatives based on the mapping of old cooperatives and open spaces in the village. These buildings connect with the big-scale factory and transportation center for goods and passengers through paraground. And three main industries are organized.

1. Aquaculture Marine products can be processed and transported effeciently through the paraground. Oyster industry was inserted to the idle wetland. 2. Livestock raising Reorganized with the mangroves area on the coastline, creating a new ecological loop. 3. Agriculture Organic fertilizer gathered from different industries and STP system can be used at the fields on the eastside. Farm fields are also connected with the paraground.

II. Power system Concerning of the additional families and new industry facilities, we took the 2.5 meter tidal range as an opportunity, and inserted tidal power in offshore boathouse. The boathouses is not only emergency shelter but charging station for boats.

III. Ecological system A new STP(sewage treatment plant) is built to purify polluted water of living and industry. The mangroves cultivated from the northern village are second filter for water, earth and air.

IV. Living system With the local materials, a prototype with modern facilities and sewage system was designed for new development area. The prototype was developed in different size, shape, and connecting type with paraground.

V. Disaster preventing system The main policies to deal with emergency are warning, resisting, and evacuating. The STP on the seashore equips with weather and water sensor. And it alarms villagers when an anomaly is identified. Mangroves and oystershell shoal resist the strikes from the sea, and postpone disaster to the shore. Paragroud is concise connection above ground level from release points(cooperatives) to the transportation center. All the boats are stored in the boathouse and the harbor.

Cooperatives are the cores of the village. People gather, work, communicate, and evacuate through cooperatives. New cooperatives are designed based on the needs of industry, social network, and disaster preventing. And all the materials used could be found in old village.

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