The Ordinary Nature of Public Spaces by Mengtong Wang

MENGTONG

WANG

The Ordinary Nature of Public Space Surrounding

the Stations

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ABSTRACT With the development of the city, the urban population is increasing sharply, and the functions provided by the city for the residents are becoming more and more abundant. However, when people get more convenient form the city, the problems of the city have become significantly, such as urban land shortages and traffic congestion. This is also a major reason for the city’s intensification. Urban intensification is an inevitable stage of urban development. The developed the city have a higher degree of intensification, and on the other side, it shows the shortage of urban space resources.

The Ordinary Nature of

Large cities often meet the needs of citizens by building city synthesis. The city synthesis refers to an entity that aggregates multiple urban spaces and architectural spaces and has urbanity. That will means that more space can be used for other purposes, such as landscape. This research paper shows how large-scale transportation buildings and the public spaces around them should adapt to the future development of the city, and provide suggestions and references for future urban planning. Among them, people pay more attention to the large-scale transportation buildings and the public space around them.

Keyword: Public space, The development of the city, Urban intensification, The city synthesis, Transportation buildings, Melbourne, Southern-cross Station

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Public Space

Surrounding

The Stations

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P ubi lu Sp a c e Su r rou nd i ng T he St at i ons

by Mengtong Wang

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1 INTRODUCTION The development and transformation of the transportation hub and its surrounding space have been affected by urban development. The city has formed a different transportation space structure due to geographical location, human culture, the population, and the city scale. These traffic spaces are connected in series to all corners of the city, and the surrounding space also has connection properties to some extent and should provide corresponding services according to the surrounding environment. Integrating railway station complexes with urban public space, that will promote the development of urban transportation and the environment of urban public space together. This research paper shows how large-scale transportation buildings and the public spaces around them should adapt to the future development of the city, and provide suggestions and references for future urban planning.

Compare Dalian Railway station in China with Southern-cross station in Melbourne

FIGURE 1

DALIAN RAILWAY STATION IN CHINA It is located in Zhongshan District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China. It is located in the city center business district, Qingniwa Bridge. Dalian railway station is an important transportation hub in Northeast China and one of Dalian’s landmarks. The traffic conditions around the station are very complicated (FIGURE 1). In the south of the station, there is a large car park, bus terminal and tram station. The light rail station and long-term bus station are located in the north of it. The main building types are apartment, hotels and comprehensive building which include office and shopping mall. The main function of open space which surrounding the station is parking and green space (FIGURE 2).

Looking back at the history of Dalian, the Dalian Railway Station was established and started to use for wartime transportation of goods by the Japanese in 1937.

Dalian has developed around the railway station. Until today, the railway station is still the most important transportation hub in Dalian. With the rapid development of Dalian’s economy, a commercial center has formed around the station gradually.

In particular, the completion of the large underground commercial building in the south, Shengli underground shopping center, has led to a sharp increase in local commercial activities. In addition, because of the high-rise commercial buildings’ over-exploitation around the station has also exacerbated existing urban problems such as traffic congestion, environmental degradation, and out-of-control landscapes. Although there are large squares around the station, it has not alleviated the existing urban problems.

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The Surrounding Environment of Dalian Railway Station

This picture shows the Satellite Imagery of Dalian Railway Station.

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(Google Map, 2019） 6

FIGURE 2

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1, The southern car park 2, One of the way to the southern entrance 3, The northern car park 4, The way which connect Dalian railway station and the Light rail station

(Baidu Street Map, 2017) 7

FIGURE 4 The Surrounding Environment of Southern-cross Station

SOUTHERN-CROSS STATION IN MELBOURNE Melbourne has the largest rail transit system in Australia, ranking third in terms of length in the world, and its urban light rail system is 372 km (excluding tram systems) and has 200 stations. It is a hub for intercity, intracity and regional travel. The southern-cross station is one of the major railway stations in Melbourne, Australia. It is located at the western end of Melbourne’s central business district and the junction of Spencer Street, Collins Street, and Bourke Street. (FIGURE 3)The traffic around the station is very diverse. The station is one of the stations on the City Loop, which is surrounded by the central business district. The station of Sky Bus has been set in the southern-cross station. It provides services to Melbourne Airport, Avalon Airport and the town of Victoria towns and other routes to different states. In the north of the station, there is an underground car park. The Marvel Stadium is located in 500 meters northwest of the station. The main building types are an office building, apartment, and commercial building. The open space surrounds the station is a park which services for the residents. There is no public space belong to the station. The open space has been covered in the building of the station to form a synthesis and work together.

The station is dominated by comprehensive high-rise buildings. Because it is in the center of the city, the urban public space is limited, there is almost no public space around it, and the function provided by the green space a little far away is also very simple.

FIGURE 3 The Satellite Imagery of Dalian Railway Station

(Google Street Map, 2019)

Compared Dalian Railway station with Southern-cross station in Melbourne, the main position of those two stations are similar. However, the surrounding public space is different. In Dalian, although there is a large area of urban public space around the station, it does not play a good role in regulating urban problems. In Melbourne, the public space around the Southern-cross station is limited, so it contains a lot of public space into the station, providing not only the role of transportation but also serve other functions for the surrounding environment to some extent, such as supermarket, restaurant and so on.

Modern cities tend to develop around stations, so they are often isolated by different busy ground transportation. The station also lacks the connections with surrounding blocks which caused the city’s connectivity has been fragmented. Nowadays, it is necessary to make full use the three-dimensional traffic and spatial organization form of the hub to adopt the unified planning and design. And use the method of “stratified diversion” in the construction of the station complex, and connect it with various urban traffic systems and walking systems to be a connect to the net. This will improve the connectivity and quality of urban public space and ameliorate the overall traffic environment effectively.

(Google Map, 2019) 8

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2 MELBOURNE INFORMATION Melbourne’s urban population is attaining 4.8 million in 2019, accounting for 19.05% of the national population. The growing rate of Melbourne’s population is ranging from 1.67% to 6.23% during the last eight years. The annual population growth from 70,000 to 280,000 people. Melbourne’s population density is 453 people per square kilometer, which is ranking the most populated state capital city in Australia. The demand for urban resources by a large population is huge, especially urban space resources. Housing, activities for citizens and transportation all require lots of urban space.

FIGURE 0 Aerial view of Southern-cross Station in Melbourne

FIGURE 5: Melbourne residential density in 2011 (Charting Transport, 2019)

We can see the relationship between the city and population density very clear in this scale. The density of the central business district is very high, that is the reason the space resources in the urban central area are more shortage than suburban areas (FIGURE 5). Due to the broader space in the suburbs, the population density and activity density are lower, and the transportation and commuting for residents rely on the automobile. The surplus of urban space in suburbs can accommodate more the constructions of transportation, such as more roads. Compared with urban centers, the density of population and activities is higher, and urban space is extremely limited. Therefore, in order to meet the needs of citizens in the city, we need to find a more appropriate way to plan and manage the space of the city.

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Reffer to: https://www.visitmelbourne.com/

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FIGURE 7: The Public Transport through the Southern-cross Station FIGURE 6: Existing railway through the Southern-cross station

The southern-cross station is one of the transportation hubs of Melbourne’s rail transit system. There are 41 lines through the South-cross Station.  In Melbourne’s metropolitan network, it is the busiest railway station. During 2013 2014 finical year, the passenger movements recorded to 17.091 million.

The social and economic activities in the city are seeking cost savings like saving money and time. Therefore, the expansion of contemporary cities begins around a larger transportation hub and radiates out to connect other smaller traffic nodes around.

From FIGURE 6, it is not hard to see that the railway connect the whole area in Melbourne. The increase of population density radiation from the city center to the suburb. Furthermore, It extends along the railway and expands around the station. In another way, the point of the station and the surrounding environment is the highest density area.

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Melbourne is the commercial, administrative, cultural and entertainment center of Victoria. Melbourne has more than one million international visitors each year, an average of 854,000 people use the city every day, the numbers of living in the city is 98 thousand and the working population is 4.3 million.

There are large numbers of people use the railway as a method of transportation to commuting in the central business district. So, the southern-cross station plays an important role in the development of the city for the future. Because of the population of working in the CBD area of Melbourne is much larger than the resident population that decided the traffic conditions in the city center are more complicated than in the suburb area.

The demand for the method of transportation in the city center is complex, and the suburbs tend to be simpler (FIGURE 7). The increasing of personnel mobility leads to intensive traffic flow in the urban central area. Railway he distributes more widely than other transport methods in Melbourne and it is faster and can carry more passengers. So people living in the suburbs use the railway as the main method of transportation to the central business district of Melbourne. After arriving, change to another short-distance expressway to reach the destination. Therefore, in the CBD area, there are running a variety of modes of transportation at the same time, such as a private car, cycle, bus, tram, subways, light rail, and railway. so the central area of the city is more intensive.

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LOW

LOW

HIGH

FIGURE 8: The office density surrounding the Southern-cross Station in 3km buffer

HIGH

FIGURE 10: The accommodate density surrounding the Southern-cross Station in 3km buffer

The character of Melbourne also affects the structure of the city to some extent.

In the central business district, the density of office buildings is higher than other types of building. In FIGURE 8, take the southern-cross station as the central point to make a 3km buffer. It shows the density of office building is much higher in the central business district than the suburb area, especially the space around the station.

LOW

The commercial buildings include a shopping mall, wholesale market, retail shop, the entertainment, and recreation building, storage place and workshop. The distribution of commercial buildings revolves around the central business district.

The highest density area is located between the city center and the suburbs. Although the density of commercial buildings in the suburbs is not high, it is widely distributed (Figure 9).

HIGH BUFFER ZONE

FIGURE 9: The commercial density surrounding the Southern-cross Station in 3km buffer

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There may be three reasons for the formation of this phenomenon. First of all, due to the historical reason, the city of Melbourne was developing from the central business district, and extend through the railway. In the past, the citizens worked in the center of the city, so many historical companies had been set in the CBD area. The commercial building had been build next to the office building. Secondly, commercial building always needs a large and broad space. However, Melbourne’s city center is dominated by high-rise buildings, with only the bottom 3 floors can be used for commercial purposes and the upper floors usual be used for office and a small number of apartments. Finally, more than one million international visitors come to Melbourne every year. There are three main transport modes which they can choose, the travel bus, taxi, and Sky bus city express. The Sky bus city station is located in the southern-cross station. A large number of tourist also promoted economic prosperity around the city center.

FIGURE 10 provides the data of accommodate density in the city of Melbourne.

Accommodate building include house, townhouse, residential apartment, The high-density area is surrounding the central business district and the highest area even out of the 3km buffer. That condition is different from the city in China.

In China, the density of the living population in the urban center is much larger than that of the suburbs. The reason for that might be related to the difference of city characteristics. The working characteristics of the people in Melbourne city are that citizens are living in the suburb area and working in the CBD area, commuting with different modes of transportation based on rail transportation. In addition, there is a certain degree of overlap between the accommodate area and the economical area. This should be because of the economical building is closely related to people’s daily lives, such as the shopping mall and market.

FIGURE 11: The open space surrounding the Southern-cross Station in 3km buffer

From FIGURE 11, There are four main open spaces near to the center of the Melbourne city, the landscape along the Yarra River, Flemington Racecourse, Royal Park with Prince Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens with Melbourne Park. So, the large scale open spaces all located out of the center area. This is caused by the development of the city which leads to limited urban space.

Southern-cross station developed a multi-mode integrated transportation system which led by rail transit The railway has been used as binders to link urban blocks in the surrounding areas and then improving the accessibility of the journey areas.

A variety of modes of transportation are concentrated at one point to easy passenger transfer and reduce the travel time. That also accelerate the development of urban economic regions and promote the expansion and extension of the entire city ‘s spatial structure. It also provides space for the surrounding environment and becomes part of the urban public space (FIGURE 12). Develop other urban functions surrounding by the traffic function and at the same time developing with the surrounding industries, it becomes a city synthesis.

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FIGURE 12: The building information and open space surrounding the Southern-cross Station in 1km buffer

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LINEAGE Time

Projects

Region

Garden Cities Movement

Events

Britain

1914 1931

1961 1950

CLAM

Electric Energy The secondary Industrial Revolution

Athens Charter

Jane Jacob

<The Death and Life of Great American Cities>

America

Le Corbusier

Ville Radieuse

France

Kalamazoo CBD

1980 1994

Peter Connolly

RMIT

Landscape Urbanism

1998

<"The Big Trends" and the Ten Trends of Architecture>

John Naisbitt

America

Australia

Roppongi Hills

1998 1999 2002 2003

Japan

America

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

JR Central Towers

Japan

Foreign Office Architects

Yokohama Passenger Terminal

Japan

Osaka rooftop Namba Parks

Japan

The Jerde Partnership

GMP（Von Gerkan Marg & Partner）

2006 2014 2015 2016 Nowdays

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Sir Ebenezer Howard Sir Leder Osbourne

1933

In the 1980s, the theory of landscape urbanization has been proposed, that provides another strategy and method for the development and future planning of modern cities. Landscape urbanism is to understand the city as an ecological system. Through the construction and improvement of the landscape infrastructure, combined with the functional, social and cultural needs of the city together, so that the contemporary cities can be built and extended. This theory is the methodology of contemporary urban construction, and the central idea is to emphasize that landscape is the carrier of all natural processes and human processes.

Theory/Books

Steam Engine The first Industrial Revolution

1898

In 1950, Le Corbusier proposed the idea of Ville Radieuse to deal with urban and social issues at that time. He divided the city in accordance with the function strictly and connected the areas by elevated highways, ground railways and underground railways. This idea has also had a huge impact on the development of modern urban planning.

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The scale and structure of the city have been changing with the progress of the industrial revolution constantly. In 1898, Sir Ebenezer Howard proposed the concept of a garden city in the United Kingdom. and aims to regulate the relationship between the city environment and the countryside environment, and foster strengths and circumvent weaknesses. He put the human community surrounding by the fields and gardens, balancing the proportion of residential, industrial and agricultural areas. Although modern urban planning has deviated far from this theory because of the different content between modern urban and the past, this theory also can be said to be the beginning of modern urban planning.

Institutions

1760 - 1860

1870

LINEAGE

Key Thinkers

James Corner

Berlin Central Station

The High Line

Jianyu Kong

Sponge city

WOHA

Germany

America

China

The Oasia Hotel Downtown

America Net Work The third Industrial Revolution

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4 PRECEDENTS ANAlYSIS 1, The High Line Park, New York, American

FIGURE 13

The High Line Park is a classic example of the reuse of abandoned facilities in the city. The original site was a 30-foot-high elevated railway built in 1930. It used to be a dedicated freight line connecting the meat processing area to the 34th Street Hudson Port. In 1980, after stopping the service, the railway was planned to be demolished, but it had been retained and transformed into a unique sky garden finally. Since the High Line Park was opened to the public in 2009, it has developed into one of New York City’s most important tourist attractions, making an outstanding contribution to the revitalization of Manhattan’s western area.

The green space in the park not only reduces the heat island effect but also provides living space for wildlife, insects, and birds. Many wild flowers and plants that are grown on the rails naturally have been preserved and become one part of the park landscape in order to keep the historical sense of the railway due to its long-term abandonment.

Many cities have linear urban parks, such as the Imperial City Park in Beijing and the Datong Park in Sapporo. However, such linear parks spanning multiple blocks are often interrupted by urban traffic; even if there are viaducts or underpass connections, the continuity of the park will be interrupted.

The interesting point is that when the “High Line” was used as an elevated railway, the purpose of elevated form is used to alleviate the traffic pressure and to protect the safety of the citizens. Later, with the development of automobile transportation, the elevated railway was abandoned. Now, people can walk on the high line.

Because people don’t need to think about the car during crossing the road, wait for the traffic lights, the surprise and pleasantness which it brings to the tourists is not comparable to any other streets or parks. Therefore, walking in the high-line park is really a brand new experience in New York. In order to strengthen the relationship between people and the city, there are numerous entrances and exits along the high-line park. Each entrance is an activation port for visitors to enjoy the time and explore the park.

FIGURE 14

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Figure 13-14 refer to: https://nickkahler.tumblr.com/post/3218590432

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2, Namba Park, Osaka, Japan

3, Lawrence Halprin, Freeway Park, Seattle, Oregon, American

Namba is located in the old downtown area of Osaka City. It is the convergence point to a number of railway lines and it is also one of the representative transportation hubs in the Kansai region of Japan.

The average daily traffic volume reaches approximately 1 million passengers. Namba Parks was built in 2003. It is a comprehensive building which combines shopping centers, office buildings, restaurants, entertainment centers and parks together.

The Freeway Park opened to the public on July 4, 1976. The park crosses the No. 5 interstate highway and a large city car park. It is successful to utilize and reconnect the landscape over the existing freeway. The park is a good example to show the land use beside the highway and shows how to connect the space which separated by the road.

The wastewater in the building can be used for irrigation of plants directly, which can achieve the recycling of water and reduce the management burden of plants greatly. The large area of the roof garden also reduces the urban heat island effect sharply. There are more than 10,000 square meters of the roof garden. The plant extends from the ground to the top of the building, and then with the overall architectural entity resembling a valley, people and nature, the city integrated well.

Urban landscapes have a better way to coexist with other elements of the city. With the rapid development of urbanization, the use of urban land become tenser, and urban landscapes tend to be more stereoscopic or combined with architecture or other urban elements. Connecting multiple small-sized landscapes can form the landscape net. The landscape ecological network links the independent ecological space into one, and extends the ecological space to the living, production and living space to a greater extent, while improving the ecological impact range, and effectively improving the ecological quality of the living environment. It is maintaining the universality and enthusiasm of urban ecological processes; promoting biodiversity and development of landscape diversity.

FIGURE 15

FIGURE 16 Aerial view of Freeway Park at night.

Refer to: http://www.ohnologo.com/?p=1382 22

Refer to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_Park 23

5 STRATEGY The street is not only a space for transportation, but it is also an important part of the public domain, or as a background for peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interactions and activities, it should be regarded as a way of enjoying itself, people can sit down and watch the street scene and countless street activities.

Creating a three-dimensional street garden that is unaffected by traffic can provide a different perspective for people to see the city.

Use the station as a node to establish a green space landscape along the railway. Form a connection with the existing landscape around it to form a landscape network. That will benefit the conservation of biodiversity and strengthen the ecosystems in urban areas.

Connect direction Porposed green space

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CONCLUSION In the typical traditional mode of the city, the architectural functional group in the city is based on the building as a basic unit. On the two-dimensional plane, the building elements are closed and self-contained with traffic elements such as streets and squares. However, in a comprehensive and intensive city, in order to realize the combination of humanized concept and comprehensive development of urban space and land intensive use, a combination of urban public space, public building space and major urban traffic elements is used. Open functional unit. In today’s rapid urbanization, facing the status quo and existing problems of urban public space environment in the development of urban space, the city is in the process of gradually developing from traditional to comprehensive intensive, the link between people’s life and communication--- The urban public space is also bound to undergo revolutionary changes. The railway is like a framework and platform for urban planning or urban activities. On this framework and platform, the landscape design around the station should avoid the traffic contradiction in the block and provide the leisure garden space for the citizens. This use of the railway can solve the problems of modern urban traffic and public space in a three-dimensional way.

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