02 19 2017 routledge publication

u r ba ni s m

ve r tic a l

Edited by Z hong jie Lin and JosĂŠ L . S . GĂĄm ez

Vertical Urbanism

Suzhou Industrial Park Highspeed Rail Station Business District The first Master of Urban Design summer studio took place in Suzhou, China, in 2012. In collaboration with Suzhou University of Science & Technology College of Architecture & Urban Planning, the joint studio focused on an industrial site in the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) and studied its potential redevelopment as a new business district.

The SIP is a new town located in Suzhou, a historic city in Yangtze River Delta about 100 kilometers from Shanghai.

The state-owned SIP Urban Redevelopment Company was charged to develop this site and had commissioned Nikken Sekkei Ltd. for its design. Our studio provided an opportunity for hypothetical studies and alternative urban design concepts based on the provocative approach of vertical urbanism, which could spark conversation about the future of SIP. One critical aspect of the studio was that it focused on an important topic within the realm of urban design, namely, the relationship between infrastructure - in this case, mass transit systems - and urban form. As a new transit hub, the SIP will necessarily create a three-dimensional spatial network that encourages higher-density development and greater integration of programs; this will also demand increased connectivity and accessibility in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. The transit hub and the resulting vertical urban form also facilitate a more intimate and integrative relationship between public open space and the city. Thus, this studio examined the impact of the transit system on an emerging urban center and explored various formal and spatial expressions of vertical urbanism.

The Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) also represents the largest cooperation project between China and Singapore Governments. SIP itself is located beside Jinji Lake, which lies to the east of Suzhou Old city.

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SIP Rail Station District

ee sp gh Hi d il ra Suzhou

Taihu Lake

85 km

Shanghai 15 km 15 km 30 km 30 km

Hangzhou Bay

10 km

Yangcheng Resort Lake

Canal at Site Edge

gh Hi sp d

ee

SIP

il ra

Natural Preservation Area

Past Development Zone

Historic Core

Jinji Lake CBD

Current Development Focus Area

Canals, Bridges, History

Train Station, view towards site

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Vertical Urbanism

s u zh o u : a g r o w i n g c i t y Suzhou is located in the Jiangsu province of China and it is widely known for its beautiful gardens and traditional waterside architecture. The Suzhou region is located in the center of Yangtze River Delta. The regional Planning of Yangtze River Delta officially approved by the State Council further defines that Yangtze River Delta is a key international gate of the Asia-Pacific Region.

commercial services) are foregrounded in its future development agendas.

Suzhou has become a primary city within China’s Yangtze River Delta economic zone due to its high GDP and overall economic contributions to China as a whole. Recently, it has been a center of the silk trade and a place of gardens and canals. The city has long been a ha ven for scholars, The study area is located in one of the industrial zones artists, and skilled craftsmen. Suzhou has also become a built in the 1990s based on a master plan developed in home to major joint-venture and high-tech manufacturing 1994. In 2010, the Shanghai-Nanjing Regional High- activities. speed Rail Line was completed, further integrating China’s largest megalopolis into a 300 kilometers transit corridor. SIP is currently characterized by a predominantly postThe station in the SIP is built next to the site, which was industrial landscape in which poorly constructed buildings refined in a 2007 master plan as a new business center show signs of abandonment and deterioration (despite for SIP and slated for redevelopment. In the meantime, having been constructed between 2002 and 2004). The site Suzhou has developed a mass transit system for the city includes several existing streets and canals lined with trees with construction beginning on the first metro line that that evoke the potential for a unique character. However, same year. According to the metro system plan, both the streetscape is incomplete and in poor condition and the proposed Line 6 and Line 8 will go through this area canal edges are overgrown with vegetation and littered with adjacent to the SIP with each sharing a station within the waste. In addition, the site’s current land use planning and site. This will undoubtedly bring in greater crowds and physical qualities do not match the proposed vision of a more business opportunities to the area. Created in 1994 mixed use and transit-oriented development. Interestingly, as a joint venture between the Chinese government and Suzhou has an historic urban core (well over 2000 years the Singaporean government, the SIP has served as a old), called Old Town, with a distinctive character. Old high-profile demonstration project featuring Singapore’s Town is immediately adjacent to the SIP site and represents economic development models now translated to mainland a unique opportunity to knit the old and the new together.

China; the new town also serves as a model of sustainable organized Chinese urbanization. It has since become a Given the poor state of the current architectural and urban powerful magnet to attract Foreign Direct Investments, fabric of the site, local governments have solicited ideas for and its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown at an the redevelopment of the SIP site. The currently proposed incredible average rate of over 30% annually. Envisioned as site plan for the study area was prepared by Nikken Sekkei Suzhou’s business urban center complementing its historic of Japan. Preliminary analysis of the Nikken Sekkei plan downtown, the SIP has developed into a city of over suggests a high degree of homogeneity; urban forms are 700,000 residents. Nevertheless, after 18 years of rapid replicated throughout the site, with the commercial center growth, the widely lauded SIP model is facing challenges offering a slight change in pattern (a larger rectangle as the city undergoes economic and social transformations, form, also copied across the site). The scale of both the in which high-end tertiary sector service industries (such architectural structures, urban structure (block sizes, street as scientific research, information technologies and other widths) and the proposed open spaces appear to be too large to be compatible with the scale of human social life.

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SIP Rail Station District

EXPOSED VERTICALITY Ashley Powell, Lucas Shires, Elizabeth Frere, Gui Peng, Zhao Yuan

Exposed verticality embraces the range of complex systems and spatial layering through which contemporary Chinese cities are constructed. Due to extreme density, Chinese cities exist in a multi-planar fashion, inhabiting both the sky and subterranean levels. Suzhou is one such city - a hyper-dense vertical urban center facing on-going change.

The Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) site represents this current state of transformation; it will be home to a regional high-speed rail station and linked by multiple stories of underground transportation, mixed uses and high density development above grade. Planning concepts surrounding the project include ideas about the “accessible city”, “urban archipelagoes”, smart cities, and ecological cities.

Our urban design proposal seeks to build upon this set of conceptual strategies in ways that ensure that the development on the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) site reinforces and amplifies the vision of a 21st century.

Therefore, our concept of exposed verticality suggests that, if carefully articulated, the spatial complexity and hyper-density of contemporary Chinese urban centers can be extremely efficient and dynamic - thereby, creating destination cities with character, fully functional urban rooms and a rich lived experience. At its core, exposed verticality is an augmentation of current development practices allowing otherwise concealed elements of highdensity Chinese cities to be explored and inhabited in new ways. Concept meets physical form via multi-level planes that are both externally visible and inhabitable, an elevated tertiary circulation system of eco-bridges, recessed vehicle and pedestrian systems, transparent facades, way finding technology, and penetrable earth bringing vertical urbanism to the forefront of the experience. Undulating landforms become an essential means of expression of exposure offering the user direct contact with various aspects of urbanism typically isolated from the uni-dimensional ground plane.

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Vertical Urbanism

Green cores

Circulation

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0m

Blue ways

Section A-A

Section C-C 6

Master plan

100m 200m

Students' model

SIP Rail Station District

MELDING

Adam Martin, Amanda Edwards, Dan Robertson, Pan Qihoa and Jing Yan

Melding as a concept, allows otherwise concealed elements of high-density Chinese cities to be explored in ways that enable a rich complexity of systems to be layered into new urban formations. Combined design concepts are necessary in order to meet China’s contemporary urban challenges in this case as represented by the Suzhou Industrial Park redevelopment project.

people will be added to China’s urban population by the year 2025. That is more than the entire US population in less than 30 years. Given this rate of urban expansion, our design team aims to enter into Asia’s complex junction of high-density urbanism, landscape, and verticality; we also aim to engage the struggle for place and meaning in a rapidly changing physical and cultural environment. This can only be done through the melding of landscape and vertical urbanism principals, and by exposing opportunities that vertical urbanity holds.

Years ago (2002), the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) was an agrarian village; today it is a major industrial site already slated for redevelopment. The pending transformation will remake this industrial complex into a major mixed-use urban center. Additionally, our site sits in a strategic location between two lakes with growing residential populations.

When combined with the fact that Suzhou is a gateway to the East, then our site becomes an important location for all of China.

We view MELDing as an urban action that can combine separate and unique elements together; the term refers to the ways that elements can be blended, reformed and carved into a newness that results in a hybrid urban whole. The concept meets its physical form via multi-level planes that are externally visible and inhabitable, elevated circulation systems, systems of ecological repair, recessed vehicle and In this sense, the master plan responds to the rapidly pedestrian systems, transparent facades and landscapes, growing Chinese population and economy: 350 million and way-finding technology.

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Vertical Urbanism

Initial phase

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Phase 1

0m 100m 200m

Master plan

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phasing plan

Students' model 8

SIP Rail Station District

Phasing

Pedestrian pathways

Building height

Network

Connections within blocks

Vehicular circulation

Green networks

Transit nodes

The two concepts are held together through undulating landforms, which form an essential means of direct contact with various aspects of urbanism typically isolated in conventional land-use planning. In addition, a key feature of our proposal is a canal connection that provides an ecological and active catalyst for development. It will not only serve as a regional water connector for biological processes but also a shared public open space. Like the basin of a sculpted valley drawing in water from multiple tributaries, it draws in people for social interaction and cultural activity concentrating them at the water’s edge in a new Central Park Space.

Today, China stands at a transition point. It is in the middle of the largest migration of people from agrarian to urban life that the world has ever seen. The Suzhou Industrial Park redevelopment site has the unique opportunity to be a physical manifestation of that shift. Through our concepts of Melding and Exposed Verticality, we combine all the pieces that make Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, and China a unique place without repetition.

Primary (non vehicular pathways) Secondary (non vehicular pathways) Interior block network pathways (see typology)

Pedestrian pathways 9

Vertical Urbanism

TABULA PLEXUS

China presents a special urban context for practicing urban design, one quite different from the Western cities from which many contemporary urban design theories were developed. As such, an understanding of the scale and pace of Chinese urbanizations is important. According to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2010), China is on pace to become an urbanized country within a 30 to 40 year timeframe; by contrast, urbanization in the United States occurred over an approximately 100 year period while the process took about 180 to 200 years in Europe.

Thus, by 2015, China’s urban population will be between 680 and 700 million, at least 2.5 times larger than the urban population of the United States, and is expected to reach 900 million by 2050. Such explosive growth is captured in this striking assessment from the Energy Foundation’s 2011 Annual Report: “China adds 2 billion square meters 10

Allen Davis, Sonal Patel, Liu Ke, Zhu Yifan

of new buildings every year, putting the country on track to build the equivalent of a second China in the next 20 years - a boom that accounts for about half of the new construction in the entire world”.

As a way to address China’s unique urbanization through the specific context of the Suzhou Industrial Park and as a way to bridge between concept and design, our approach combines the American idea of the Garden City and the ancient Chinese “9-square” system (Jiu Gong Ge).

The Garden City approach involves the separation and dispersal of concentrated activity clusters across the site, each having its own unique identity in both form and function. Jiu Gong Ge traditionally involves the orderly division of space in a 3x3 grid yielding nine distinct functional areas (the palace, agriculture, the marketplace, etc.).

SIP Rail Station District

T

T

Placement: Convergence

T

Students’ model

These combined approaches provided a point of departure for our design process. Firstly, our approach of separation or decentralization establishes the site as a reflection the macro-scale urban conditions - of polycentric urban forms exhibited by the contemporary post-metropolis. Secondly, site analysis revealed strong temporal cues spanning past, present, and future: a pre-existing canal in the heart of the site, the existence of insurgent agriculture among industrial land uses, and the site's critical position in global economic operations.

As our design processed developed, we began to see the site is a palimpsest, which compliments the Jui Gong Ge and Garden City models referenced above. The three conceptual frameworks combine to provide ways to “excavate” existing layers and traces of partially erased layers each of which contribute to new surfaces and become part of the overall urban form. The result is a tabula plexus - a non-rigid framework of integrated systems that entwine to form a “net” in which things “cross and intersect, mix and overlap, fuse or imbricate without monumentalizing hierarchy” (Mayne, 406).

Placement: Site Lines

Internal Organization: Finding the Gestalt

Internal Organization: Functional Zones

Decentralization

Placement: Given Block Structure

Palimpsest

Size: Cross-Site Framework

Internal Organization: Program + Form Structure

Tabula Plexus

Rational for Cluster Organization

Core Concepts

Size: Walking Distance

Rational for Cluster Application

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Vertical Urbanism

Cultural Office Residential Recreational Commercial R&D Open space

High Speed Train Station Elevated Expressway Underground Train lined with Retail Connection to Office Building Parking Decks Larger Retail spaces at Tunnel Intersections Subway System (Lines 6 & 4)

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SIP Rail Station District

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Vertical Urbanism

Xiangmen Area Redevelopment, Suzhou The Master of Urban Design group from UNC Charlotte returned to Suzhou for the 2013 summer studio. This time, we focused our lens on the city’s historic center.

Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou has over 2,500 years of urban and cultural history. Even though the city continued to rebuild and expand, its center has remained in its current location, leaving an abundance of historic urban relics and significant sites. Known as “Venice of the East”, Suzhou’s historic center is characterized by canals, stone bridges, and pagodas, as well as numerous meticulously designed gardens that were named collectively as a UNESCO World Heritages Site in 1997. The historic Old City is a rectangular area of about 14 square kilometers that was surrounded by city walls on four sides with a number of gates. Although most parts of the city wall were demolished during the post1949 era of industrialization, the Old City’s moat stayed in place and connects the internal canal system and to the historic Grand Canal linking Beijing to the prosperous cities in the Yangtze River Delta. A unique pattern characteristic of Suzhou downtown’s urban fabric, described by some as a “double-chessboard”, resulted from the overlap of the grid of roads and the grid of canals. Canals parallel roads and run side by side, determining the placement and orientation of buildings and courtyards. The interaction of canals, narrow streets, and vernacular buildings create intimate urban spaces and poetic landscapes.

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Although the historic urban fabric faced serious challenges in urban redevelopments that catered to modern urban lifestyles (including the introduction of the private automobile, which resulted in the disappearance of many canals), efforts to preserve sites within the Old City were never abandoned. Instead of merely saving landmarks and gardens, a few projects were carried out successfully in recent years to preserve and revitalize the historic districts by initiating new uses and tourist programs through conservation of the canals and old buildings. Pingjiang Road, adjacent to the site for the studio, is an excellent example of one of such preservation and revitalization projects.

Xiangmen Area Redevelopment

T OWAR D S A R E V I TA L I Z AT ION S T RAT E G Y Xiangmen Project occupies two urban blocks with a total area of 10.88 hectares (26.88 acres). It is bordered by the historic moat to the east, Ganjiang Rd (the city’s East-west thoroughfare) to the south, Cangjie Street on the west, and Ouyuan Garden to the north. Pingjiang Road, which is now a popular tourist destination, is just a block away in the west.

The site also enjoys its proximity to important cultural sites in the northeast quarter of downtown including Humble Administrator’s Garden and Lion Grove Garden, as well as a prestigious educational institution Suchow University. A small canal separates the south block and the north block.

A reconstructed city gate, after which the project is named, sits along the moat to the east. Metro Line One Xiangmen Station is located at the southwest corner of the site.

As the largest vacant site in the center city, Xiangmen represents an unparalleled opportunity that could potentially influence historic city center’s further development at large. The studio called for alternative urban design schemes addressing the complex site context and Suzhou’s significant urban legacies. In addition, alternative visions for the site’s development were expected to introduce contemporary urban spaces and programs that would enrich urban life and experience in Suzhou, contributing to the revitalization of the historic downtown. One critical way to achieve these goals would be to take full advantage of the new urban infrastructure, primarily the metro line, to improve accessibility to the site and organize key urban spaces.

Xiangmen Blocks Project is located in Suzhou’s Old City.

It is bordered by the historic moat to the east, Ganjiang Road (the city’s east-west thoroughfare) to the south, and Ouyuan Garden to the north. The popular Pingjiang Road historic district is just one large block away to the west. The site also enjoys its proximity to important cultural destinations in the northeast quarter of Suzhou, including the world cultural heritage sites like the Humble Administrator’s Garden and Lion Grover Garden as well as prestigious educational institutions like Suzhou University,

and represents unparalleled opportunity of development that could have significant impact on the downtown at large.

The project site exists at the end of the Old city, along the moat and a water gate. The site acts as a gateway into Suzhou, which has a history of more than 2500 years. Multiple dynasties have ruled this city and this has been a major city since ancient times. Therefore, history, infrastructure, and ecology represent three important aspects of urban design in this historic setting. Historic landmarks and cultural contexts must be carefully considered when proposing new interventions in order to maintain continuity of the urban area and its identity.

the Zoo East Garden

Couple’s Garden

Pingjiang Historical District

Suzhou University

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Vertical Urbanism

Newly developed canal Ouyuan Garden

Newly developed housing

Residential buildings east of the site

Public Spaces Around Wells

Czangjie street west of the site

Water level retail

N

Historic buildings 0m

Ganjiang road south of site

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50m

100m

Site Plan (provided by Suzhou University)

The historic canals in and around the site also meant that an ecological aspect must be taken into consideration in redeveloping this historic area.

Street character

More importantly, open spaces and the design of the public realm, particularly with regard to existing landscapes and landmarks (including the moat, the city gate, the canal, and the metro station) were to be the connective fabric that would hold together the old and the new.

Local food production

Retail + Housing

Xiangmen Area Redevelopment

LOTUS

William Henry, Charles Kane II, Zhou Miao, Liu Yamei, Zhong Bang

The lotus flower has a profound connection with traditional Chinese culture. Often referred to as the “Gentleman among Flowers,” many Chinese people, over time, have expressed appreciation for the flower, as it “rises from dirt without being polluted.” Known not only for its beauty, the Lotus provides nourishment; every part is usable - the lotus root and seed are considered vegetables, while the lotus leaves are commonly used medicinally. As a cultural symbol, the flower represents cleanliness, history, health, and community. Therefore, our design proposal utilizes the lotus as a bridge between old and new Suzhou. The locus provides a way of connecting traditional typologies with a rapidly globalizing country and a way of preserving Suzhou’s vernacular style while addressing the serious needs of a growing community.

Until the turn of the twentieth century, Suzhou's Grand Canal was more than just a showcase for the city's history -it was a major thoroughfare for water-based transportation of people and goods. Today, traffic on China's highways has reached critical mass, and travel alternatives are embraced both by developers and consumers. With the development of the site, and its access to the Grand Canal, its only natural to provide infrastructure for the development of both local and national water-based transportation. The Northern end of the site, mostly residential, will benefit from and intra-city water bus; while the southern end of the site will boast a docking station for a luxurious river cruise line to rival that of Europe. This plan returns mass transit to Suzhou's canal system, and can be applied as far as Beijing, offering diversity to China's economy, tourism, and transit lines.

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Vertical Urbanism

N 0m

50m

100m

Master plan

Students’ model

Water Stage

Canal Museum

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Xiangmen Area Redevelopment

Existing Tourism Chartered Boat From Suzhou to TaiHu From Suzhou to TongLi From Suzhou to ZhouZhuang

Stations Tourist Attractions New Paths Existing Route Existing Night Route

Water bus & Cruise routes

Three Officers' Park serves as the first major east / west threshold into the site. Furthermore, it orients that threshold toward the highly visible historic gate that serves as the axis for the Watergate Theatre. These historic features were preserved to maintain a physical reminder of the past of the site and to entice creative professionals to set up offices in and around these structures.

Enclosed by dense bamboo, our proposal suggests a large shopping plaza separated into several parts with different functions: shopping streets, rest areas, outdoor cafes and city forests. Building upon the importance of the canals to the ancient city, water plays a central role in this area. The water stage is the visual center for people on the plaza and orients itself off of the city wall. Shallow pools separate the two buildings that enclose the shopping plaza to offer another way for people to get close to the water.

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Vertical Urbanism

RIBBONS

Klint Mullis, Logan Creech, Elrica Metayer, Su Yuxuan, Xu Yuchao

Playing off of the inherent linearity of the city wall and redeveloped grand canal greenway, our design proposes a series of linear “ribbons” that traverse the site, introduce a mix of programs and activities, and that connects with existing nodes in the surrounding context. Drawing upon the urban wall, its gates, and openings onto the site, the ribbons are broken down to allow vehicular and pedestrian circulation, which connect a series of public spaces. This, in turn, helps define the new block structure that provides order to the site.

Multiple areas of repose exist on both sides of the canal allowing pedestrians to collect for either informal gatherings or for small formal functions. A canal edge park rises out of the earth to form dynamic areas for occupation. Areas of seating bleed into the water, planters, and the canal strengthening the relationship between the two and bringing pedestrians closer to the water. Each provides shelter for patrons of the park but they also provide points of complexity in an otherwise flat landscape.

The architectural form and material of this project [...] gradually stitch together the old and new areas it rests between. The pedestrian network builds upon patterns found in Old City Suzhou by emphasizing small pathways and alleys that knit the larger urban block fabric. Two interlocking vehicular roadways provide access to the center of the new development and to residential and commercial districts.

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Folding forms engage both the water and ground level providing dynamic areas of respite for pedestrians moving throughout the site; these landscape elements are woven into the space to break up the “hard” edges of the infrastructure and compliment the linear nature of the experience. These public spaces also serve as catchment zones for storm and gray water, which [...] provide a sustainable form of urban infrastructure.

Xiangmen Area Redevelopment

View from Northeast Corner

View from Southeast Corner

View from Southwest Corner

Land Use Residential Mixed-use (Residential over Retail) Commercial - Shopping Commercial - Entertainment Hotel Office over Commercial

N 0m

Master plan

50m

100m

Canal Perspective - Looking North down the residential canal 21

Vertical Urbanism

Existing Canal New Canal

Building-CanalBuilding

Existing Canal

Existing Canal

Existing Street

Existing Street

Building-Canal-SpaceStreet-Building

Primary Street

New Canal

Secondary Street

Public Open Space

Building-Space-CanalSpace-Building

Site Boundary

Pedestrian Path

Vehicular Bridge

Pedestrian Bridge

Vehicular Underground Access

Pedestrian Underground Access

Building-Space-CanalStreet-Building

Canal edges

Vehicular framework

Pedestrian framework

The canal and street landscape interact in various ways to create a variety of spatial interactions between water, land, and building.

There are two main “u-shaped� roadways that provide primary vehicular access to the site. They interlock towards the center of the development providing ample vehicular access to both the commercial and residential districts of the site.

The pedestrian network stays true to the Old City Suzhou system of smaller pathways and alleyways through a system of larger blocks. Various public open spaces string along the pathways as one moves through the site on foot.

1. Elevated Landscape

Context + Constraints

Ribbons of development

Block formation

Contextual weaving

Identifying existing site conditions such as existing nodes of activity, the presence of mass transit, and historic constraints to shape the conceptual direction.

Playing off of the inherent linearity of the site and the re-emergence of the old city wall and redeveloped grand canal greenway, the site is imagined as a series of linear "ribbons" that traverse the site connecting existing contextual nodes.

Drawing from the breaks in the existing urban wall to the west of the site, and the gates, and openings in the city wall to the east, we broke down the "ribbons" by introducing vehicular and pedestrian circulatory routes as well as a string of public spaces.

This provided the neccessary infrastructural framework with which to develop the site.

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Xiangmen Area Redevelopment

Students’ model

Site sections - Looking North

Residential Park and Central Plaza

0m

25m

50m

100m

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Vertical Urbanism

Sub Level Entry Plaza

Neighborhood Park

Hardscaped Sub Plaza

The Sub Level Entry Plaza is a multi-level space with entrances from both ground and underground levels.

It is handicap accessible via ramp and elevator. It has space for outdoor seating and a water feature.

The residential neighborhood park is located typically in residential areas. It has a range of soft and hardscaped features. It offers separate spaces for recreation activities. It also has functional land form features.

Sub level plazas are bordered on at least two edges by retail frontages. The canal bisects the space with multiple rows of tiered planter beds to further define the distinct areas.

Focus Area 1 Section

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Wuyuan Bay Redevelopment

Redevelopment plan for Wuyuan Bay, Xiamen The 2014 summer studio was carried out in Xiamen, a scenic coastal city in Fujian province in southeastern China and just across a strait from Taiwan. Considered the center of the “Min-nan” (south Fujian) region and its culture, Xiamen and the surrounding southern Fujian countryside are the ancestral home to large communities of overseas Chinese in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The city was a treaty port in the 19th century and one of four original Special Economic Zones (SEZ) opened to foreign investment and trade when China began economic reforms in the early 1980s. The city’s urban area includes six districts centered at the old urban island area, and has a total urban population of 1,861,289 based on the 2010 Census. Xiamen is one of China’s most popular tourist destinations and endowed with educational and cultural institutions supported by the overseas Chinese diaspora.

The recent urban growth and population surge have provided Xiamen opportunities to expand its infrastructure system and redevelop and densify its suburbs. The new metro lines reach areas like Wuyuan Bay and stimulate redevelopments based on the TOD principles. Accommodating the growth while preserving local cultures and vernacular forms represents a primary challenge in this new wave of city building.

The studio aimed to explore alternative urban design for waterfront Transit-Oriented Development based on the concept of Vertical Urbanism. We called for provocative concepts of urban design responding to the complex site context at Wuyuan Bay, as well as Xiamen’s urban culture and economic future. These concepts should address new urban infrastructure, primarily the metro lines, and use it to improve accessibility to the site while organizing programs and urban spaces to enrich urban living and culture in the Wuyuan Bay area. The waterfront site also invited ideas of ecological landscape planning and sustainable development strategies to develop optimal urban patterns suitable for Xiamen.

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Vertical Urbanism

P.R. of China

Major Road Infrastructure 26

Fujian Province

Proposed Bicycle Lanes

Xiamen Island

Wuyuan Bay Site Location

Metro Infrastructure

Wuyuan Bay Redevelopment

w u y u a n b ay D E V E L O P M E N T Wuyuan Bay is an oceanfront area in the northeast of Xiamen’s main island surrounding a manmade bay. The bay was named after five arched bridges over the bay and also features a large wetland park. Original residents in this area include a minority tribe of She in the village of Zhongzhai.

Zhongzhai has gradually turned into a village-in-thecity with a continuing influx of migrant workers seeking cheap apartments in Xiamen. In the meantime, high-end developments around the bay have been going on for several years, especially following the decision to relocate Xiamen’s airport to Xiang’an District, making Wuyuan Bay an important node between the downtown and the growing new districts outside the island. The recent plan to expand Xiamen’s metro system with the addition of two new metro lines (Line 2 and 3) connecting at Wuyuan Bay, would make the area even more desirable for development.

The site chosen for the summer studio includes three parcels along the western bank of Wuyuan Bay and bordered by 401 County Rd on the other side. Open space was a critical component in this development.

It was expected that at least 20% of land be devoted to open spaces and landscapes. Designs should create and optimize waterfront views and foster accessibility through orchestration of buildings, landscapes, and circulations, as well as through ecological infrastructural strategies. The metro stations were considered pivotal points in organizing circulations and programs above and below grade. Station entries, plazas, and other open spaces were to be designed in conjunction with shopping, services, and landscape.

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Vertical Urbanism

BRIDGE THE GAP

Xiamen continues to experience both economic and population growth, which is shifting the city’s planning focus from the developed western coastline to the underdeveloped eastern coast. Wuyuan Bay and its surrounding infrastructure make this development site an ideal new urban gateway that could symbolize a connection between the western and eastern coasts of the island. With the island of Xiamen under rapid urbanization, as with all of China, the issue of urban verticality has become an important debate. The urban renewal process is erasing traditional urban villages and shaping vertical urban centers. Thus, the exploration of verticality is critical to development of not only a sustainable ecological system but also sustainable social and economic systems as well.

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David Perry, Rachel Safren, Will Penland, Yin Qiuyi, Lin Jing, Li Wei

Our concept, Bridge the Gap, is a direct response to this need to build in sustainable ways that ensure social, economic and ecological stability. In this sense, our concept aims to bridge between these development impacts and to bridge between existing areas surrounding the site. In an effort to meet these goals, this proposal focuses on two topics: compact urban form in an urban center, and organization of infrastructure, programs, and public spaces in a threedimensional framework.

A focus upon these topics ensures social connectivity between the adjacent local urban fabric of Zhongzhai village and the site; the concept evolved to minimize gentrification, and connect with a cultural vertical village by promoting the importance of the ability to Age in Place; Live, Work, and Play; and the sense of a Cultural Identity within a modern development.

Wuyuan Bay Redevelopment

1. We intend to connect the two metro stations in a continuous way to invite more people into our site.

2. The entrances of the Zhongzhai village have existed for a long time and will not be removed. We intend to connect the village and surroundings area.

3. In response to the yacht club and the wetland and on the other side of the bay, we create public space along the beach to connect villagers and the people come from the bay.

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2

3 4

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7. The footprint of buildings in our site should respond to the surroundings. The central part will be like a continuation of Zhongzhai village.

6. The public space along the beach connecting the bay and the village are open and will be museum, amphitheatre, open market, forest, iconic building and dock which create the interaction between insiders and outsiders.

5. The bridge climbs up and down in order to create shade and path for people and the earth also climbs up and down to create tunnels for people.

4. The form of the bridge connects both villagers and new residents. It is a continuous green belt and winds along the beach. Meanwhile, the connection across the road will be sunken plazas and skybridges in order to separate the flow of people and vehicles.

Story line

Green belt

Bridge the Gap’s intent is to enable the site to become Xiamen’s second city center and provide a new gateway to the island from the north. With the development site situated between two proposed metro stations, heavy pedestrian activity and traffic, a dense mixed-use set of districts must be developed. While there is a great incentive to provide a large entertainment core for this population, which will be mainly composed of commuters and young professionals and families that want access to housing and work in the Torch High-Tech Industrial Park, consideration must be paid to the neighboring Zhongzhai Village. The village may not be redeveloped for another 10-20 years and its residents provide a great deal of cultural value to Xiamen’s north Huli District. In accordance with program requirements for vertical urbanism, our answer addressed a comprehensive approach – in other words a responsibility towards social inclusivity in a place and time where new development usually comes at the expense of disrupting existing social networks.

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Vertical Urbanism

Bird's Eye View of Site from Across Wuyuan Bay

Bird's Eye View of Site from Wuyuan Bay Wetland Park

Circulation system Bird's Eye View looking into the North Ecological Business Center

Perspective from Sky Bridge into Commercial Center 30

Perspective from Sky Bridge into Commercial Center

Wuyuan Bay Redevelopment

SPORTSGATE

Fiona Cahill, Saeed Oloonabadi, Fang Taiyu, Zhang Zhe, Zhu Dunhuang

The site for our proposed SportsGate Masterplan is located on the northeast coast of Xiamen Island. The proposed development area consists of three parcels of land totaling 18.03 hectares located on the east side of Wuyuan Bay, with two proposed Metro stops along the Roundabout Main Road bounding the western side of the site. These two stops are the catalyst the area needs for redevelopment and our project aims to create a vision for the area, incorporating the Metro stations, the waterfront along the Wuyuan Bay, and the surrounding site opportunities of the bay area.

lifestyle of the area. For example, our design incorporates sports and outdoor activities into the public spaces of the site that build upon existing traditions within the city at large. Xiamen currently has an international marathon that takes place each year, as well as a growing populating of cyclists (both professional as well as casual). There is also a culture of plaza dancing each night throughout China that this plan helps to continue, as well as areas to introduce sports and activities that might not be well known or widely played (like beach volleyball or soccer). These activities provide the present springboard that will launch future social environments.

The main objective of the project is to use Vertical Urbanism as a way to create a vibrant Transit Oriented Development along the waterfront, as well as create a vibrant neighborhood for residents and a destination for visitors through well-designed public spaces. Additionally, our design for SportsGate focuses on old and new Chinese culture, pulling from the philosophies if the Chinese Garden and providing a framework for the growing activity-driven

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Vertical Urbanism

Building Plaza Green Trackway

Building Plaza Green Trackway

Level 1+ Plan

Level 0 Plan

South looking view of recrecation plaza

Recreation Plaza

Model 32

Parking Sunken Soccer Field

Level 1- Plan

Relating to the Wetland Park across the bay, the surrounding residential developments, and the Zhonghai Village to the west through physical connections, infrastructural connects and providing activity areas, SportsGate strives to use the past to move towards the future. The design is divided into three nodes, with a cultural (and some sports) activity node in the north, a business node in the center, and a recreational activity node in the south. The development is fully mixeduse, with a higher concentration of residential units in the south, office space in the middle, and cultural/office in the north. Throughout the site is a trackway connecting the different types of public spaces (recreational, cultural) and introducing residents and visitors alike to the potential of the outdoors. In a sense, the overall site is a contemporary interpretation of the Chinese garden typology, which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens (public recreation spaces) built for pleasure and to impress, and the more intimate gardens intended for reflection and escape from the outside world. Combined, they enable the overall site to become an idealized landscape, which is meant to express the harmony that should exist between humans and nature.

Wuyuan Bay Redevelopment

Cultural Activity Node Sports Activity Node Entertainment Activity Node

Phase I

Residential Activity Node

Program Activity Nodes

View from Buildings

Connection of Activities

Phase II

Series of perfectly composed and framed glimpses of scenery

Phase III

Concealment and Surprise

No single view from which all the beauty can be seen Borrowed scenery

Final Build-out

Anti-Symmetry

Chinese Garden

View Derived Building Placement

Wind Direction

Building Playground Elevated Concourse Connected Islands Green Plaza Trackway

T2 Rural Zone T5 Urban Center Zone 0m

Civic space regulating plan

50m

100m

T6 Urban Core Zone

0m

50m

100m

Transects plan 33

Vertical Urbanism

LIFE BETWEEN BLOCKS

Cultural Museum and Plaza

Plaza under the Bridge 34

Evan Weaver, Evan Mills, Meng Bixuan, Cai Yimin, Luo Xunyi, Zhang Yunlong

In the midst of the one of the most intense urbanization movements in history, Xiamen is confronted with an onslaught of mega-development projects that will challenge the city’s abilities to maintain strong and active public spaces. One key area of Xiamen that is currently underutilized is located along the waterfront on one side and an urban village on the other and has become the focus of development pressures. The proposed Xiamen Metro Line 2, currently under construction, [...] will encourage new development; therefore, it is important to propose solutions for this site, which address the need for new development.

Using the design theory collective form, our design proposal focuses on modular forms and human scaled pedestrian environments. The theory of collective form, promoted by the Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, emphasizes three different types formal design strategies: compositional form, mega form, and group form. We used group form to create a spatial structure for the design of our masterplan.

Wuyuan Bay Redevelopment

Precedents Office buildings Waterfront Sunken garden

Museum & galleries

Underground plaza

Metro station

Plaza under bridge

Hotel Entertainment

Residential zone

Economic & technical index: Land area: 179600 m2 Build-up area: 381901 FAR: 2.126 Green space: 20.6% 0m

125m

N

250m

Explosion Diagram

Master plan

Cluster analysis

Path

Connection

Path

Open space

Open space

Landscape architecture

Path

Path

Entrance

Height adjustment

Access to beach

Green land

Surroundings

Access to beach

Nodes

Connection

Model pictures

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Vertical Urbanism

Open space for pedestrian Major walkways Paths between buildings

Pedestrian Accessibility

Space under the bridge Plaza Open space along the bay Open space in the site Open space in the village

Pedestrian Accessibility

Sidewalk

Metro station

Shopping mall

Current Open Space

Shopping mall Courtyard

Footstep

Pedestrian Circulation

Sandbeach

Bay plaza

Section A-A Plaza under bridge

Section C-C 36

Mall

Courtyard

Open roof

Metrostation

Dock

Wuyuan Bay Redevelopment

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Master of Urban Design School of Architecture University of North Carolina at Charlotte 38