CHINA-NESS METABOLISM

PILOT THESIS 2012 - 2013

CHINA-NESS METABOLISM

中國式 新陳代 謝

MANGYUAN WANG / Darwin College, University of Cambridge / MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design

CHINA-NESS METABOLISM PILOT THESIS (2012-2013)

MANGYUAN WANG Mphil in Architecture and Urban Design Darwin College, University of Cambridge

Studio Tutors: Ingrid Schroder, Joris Fach, Peter Clegg

中國式 新陳代 謝

INTRODUCTION This is a piece of research document consisting of four parts but with the same core theme - urban spatial adaptability.

Each part has its own research focus but strongly connects with other parts.

The first part takes the interest into the existing informal spatial adaptability in an urban context. Through the typological study of two different adaption structures of urban informal settlements in Beijing: the urban squatter settlement of the horizontal adaption structure and urban village of the vertical adaptation structure, this part presents how such bottom-up spontaneous adaption behaviour reshaped and mutated the settlements’ living environment with the cumulation of the time.

The second part essay turns the focus to the design strategy of the Metabolism Japan. In order to respond to the housing crisis as well as the development of the technology in 1960s’ Japan, Metabolists proposed a series of super bold and utopia urban adaption strategies.

In contrast to the informal spatial adaptability, Metabolists’ strategies appear a top-bottom dictatorial adaption pattern. Such pattern will be critically analysed in this part through the examination of several typical Metabolists’ projects. Furthermore, the essay will also explore the relationship between the bottom-up spontaneous adaption behaviour studied in the part one and the top-bottom dictatorial adaption behaviour promoted by Metabolists therefore to figure out the common spatial language pattern existing inside the both adaption behaviours.

The third part attempts to give the answer to the question: Is it possible to create a new type of the urban adaptability which absorbs the positive elements of two extreme spatial adaption types above? This part presents a possibility of experimental design, through which the research hopes to open up more answers and deepen the understanding of urban adaptability.

The last part is an appendix which records the process of design experiments as well as the evolution of my thinking of urban adaptability from the beginning of the research.

5

6

contents PART ONE TYPOLOGICAL STUDY The adaptive structures of the existing informal settlements in Beijing

+ PART TWO HISTORY AND THEORY ESSAY The territorialisation of the artificial land: from the Metabolism in Japan to the urban informal settlements in Beijing

p15

=

PART THREE

PART FOUR

CHINA-NESS METABOLISM The experimental design of the new urban adaptability

APPENDIX The experimental design process

[

]

p219

p167

p147

7

8

DEMOLISHED AREA WITH SURROUNDING URBAN TEXTURE IN BEIJING

9

10

XIN ZHONG JIE SQUATTER SETTLEMENT, BEIJING

11

12 METABOLISM, THE CITY OF THE FUTURE EXHIBITION

METABOLIST MEMBER: KUROKAWA

13

14 PLAN, BY KENZO TANGE TOKYO

[1] TYPOLOGICAL STUDY -

The adaptive structures of the existing informal settlements in Beijing

Chinese cities have been experiencing the unprecedented urbanism process since 1978.

Large number of countryside people flow into big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai for job seeking. However, due to the existing of Hukou system (like city passport), these people receive few of the perks and privileges of full urban citizenship, and have little or no access to health care, educational opportunities, or good housing. These people are called floating populating population.

Therefore, urban informal settlement gradually becomes their urban survival space.

In Beijing, there are two different types of informal settlements existing in urban context in terms of the spatial configuration: one is the squatter settlement with the tendency of horizontal spatial adaptability, another one is the urban village dominated by vertical adaptability tendency contrastively. This typological study is going to examine the adaption process of these two types of spontaneous urban settlement through different periods and reveal the living situation of the floating population inside.

This study is based on the first material collected by author within a two-week fieldwork.

15

16

preface

Floating population and Migration, Beijing and Chai (demolish)

part one part two

Horizontal extensional adaptability, a case study of squatter settlement ‘Xin Zhong Jie’

Vertical extensional adaptability, a case study of urban village ‘Xiao Jia He’

18 28 86

thinking on the last page & conclusion

142

bibliography

144

17

‘Floating population’ (liu dong ren kou), ‘... a broad designation with refers to all people who are not currently registered in the place of their residence.

Although this category includes a wide variety of people, such as tourists or businessmen who are temporarily visiting from elsewhere in China, by far the largest component is made up of rural in-migrants who are seeking new opportunities in the urban economy...’

(Zhang, 1997, p 85) ‘... who receive few of the perks and privileges of full urban citizenship...have little or no access to health care, educational opportunities, or good housing; they are blamed for nearly every social ill and literally live on the margins of society.’ (Campanella, 2008, pp. 20-21)

18

PREFACE: FLOATING POPULATION AND MIGRATION, BEIJING AND CHAI (DEMOLISH)

19

A

s the result of the rapid urbanism, it has been estimated that there are approximate 3.57 million of Beijing floating population in 2005, whereas in 2009 the figure shoots up to 5.09 million(Bao and Zhang, 2012). Such explosive increase in population to large extent leads to the spontaneous growth of the urban vulnerable areas such as squatter settlements, urban villages, underground settlements, and etc as the advantage of living cost and convenience transportation.

Huairou 怀柔

Miyun 密云

Yanqing 延庆

Pingu 平谷 Changping 昌平

Mentougou 门头沟

Shunyi 顺义

Haidian 海淀

Mentougo 门头沟

Chaoyang 朝阳

Shijin石景山

Dongchen Xichen 东城 西城 Xuanwu Chongwen 崇文 宣武

Fentai 丰台

0 - 0.5

Tongzhou 通州 Fangshan 房山

0.5 - 1.5

Daxin 大兴

1.5 - 3.5 3.5 - 5.5 5.5- 7 DENSITY Thousand/mile square

The density distribution of floating population in Beijing (2009) (Bao and Zhang, 2012)

Huairou 怀柔

Miyun 密云

Yanqing 延庆

Pingu 平谷 Changping 昌平

Mentougou 门头沟

Shunyi 顺义

Haidian 海淀

Chaoyang 朝阳

Shijin石景山

Dongchen Xichen 东城 西城 Xuanwu Chongwen 崇文 宣武

Fentai 丰台 Tongzhou 通州 Fangshan 房山

Daxin 大兴

20 - 300 300.01 - 400 400.01 - 500

DISTRIBUTION Thousand

The spatial distribution of floating population in Beijing (2009) (Bao and Zhang, 2012)

20

500.01- 1100

According to the research by Qi (2012), the migration route change of the floating population around the city usually accompanies with the shifting of such settlement distribution. General speaking, the trend of migration route appears a radioactive pattern from city inner ring flowing to outer ring as diagram left showing, and the medium ring (Hai Dian, Chao Yang, Fen Tai, and Shi Jin Shan) concentrates the most population of 2.4 millions in total (source of 2007), which is consistent with the fact that the medium ring is the densest area of informal settlement distribution (Qi, 2012).

Meanwhile, the density study reveals that city inner ring takes the highest density of floating population around 5.5 to 7 thousand per mile square in each inner districts (Xi Chen, Dong Chen, Xuan Wu, Chong Wen), which also explains why the informal settlements such as squatter settlements are still ubiquitous within Beijing inner ring.

Yanqing 延庆

Miyun 密云

Pingu 平谷 Changping 昌平 Shunyi 顺义

ou

Haidian 海淀

The migration flow of the floating population (2008) (Qi, 2012)

Chaoyang 朝阳

Shijingshan 石景山 Xichen 西城

Xuanwu 宣武

Dongchen 东城

Chongwen 崇文

Fentai

Fangshan 房山

丰台 Tongzhou 通州

Huairou Daxin

怀柔

大兴

Yanqing 延庆

Changping 昌平

The migration flow trend of the floating population (Qi, 2012)

Shunyi 顺义

Mentougou 门头沟

Haidian 海淀

Chaoyang 朝阳

Shijingshan 石景山 Xichen 西城 Xuanwu 宣武

Dongchen 东城

Chongwen 崇文

Fentai 丰台 Tongzhou 通州

Fangshan 房山

Daxin 大兴

21

The frequency of mobility with the population (Qi, 2012)

1.4m / 27.41%

4.28m / 16.47%

0.78m / 15.22%

0.73m / 14.39%

0.68m / 13.43%

And above

0.66m / 13.01%

And

However, due to the large scale of old housing redevelopment and demolition, plus the instability nature of jobs and income, the frequency of the floating population mobility becomes outstanding. Qi (2012) indicates that 72.59% of the floating population has one and more house moving experience, while around 660 thousand (13%) of the population experiences five and more times of house moving. The following diagram also shows the general directions and quantities of migration across different districts currently as well as the future tendency.

Hukou ‘...an extraordinary socialcontrol apparatus...by which a ‘blind flow’(mang liu) of rural people into cities could be limited...Urban hukou status became a coveted thing: with it came all kinds of perks and entitlements unavailable to rural folk... access to housing, health care, schooling, pensions and retirement benefits...’(Campanella, 2008, p 175)

流动人口

BEIJING

Temporary residence permit (card) 22

ĺ?Ł

The proportion of the floating population with the mobility between city rings (Qi, 2012)

Furthermore, the government’ demolition policies of the urban informal settlement have a large impact on the tendency of migration route. The dramatic reduction of the inner city informal settlement number pushes the population away from city inner ring even the medium ring. It has been estimated that Chang Ping, Shun Yi, and Tong Zhou are going to be the destinations of the next floating population settlements instead of the districts in medium ring in a near future.

Same Same street areastreet area

39.2%39.2%

Same area but different streets Same district areadistrict but different streets

19.8%19.8%

crossing crossing district areadistrict area

41.0%41.0%

The proportion of the floating population with the distance of mobility (Qi, 2012)

Floating population

Dong Zhi Men

Service centre 23

POLICY EVENT

1949 People’s republic of China founded

1950

1956

1958

1959

1961 1962

Three Years of Great Chinese Famine

Transformation started from resource-hungry consumers to Marxian producers

Great leap forward

Central government took over the ownership of of management, distribution, maintenance, and construction.

The formation of Hukou (urban Hukou & rural Hukou) cities

Urban area

HOUSING

1960

Bejing living space / capita: 3.24 m2

The land ownership: national The situation of land using (housing): The formation of Danwei & Danwei housing

Rural area

The land ownership: Collective The situation of land using (housing): Private New industrial operations -> (shoehorn) urban fringe & city centers -> increase in urban density

CITY

A dramatic reversal of the urban growth spurt of the later 1950s

24

25 million workers were forced to send back to the land between 1959 and 1962.

1964

1966

1967

1

Culture revolution

National economy ca of collapse, the cons housing was heavily halted.

1982

1978

1992

1998

The speech of Den Xiaoping’s southern cruises

ame to the edge struction of urban y disrupted and

2011.6.23. Ankang Wenxi Ji Self-immolation - seriously burned Unsatisfied with compensation

Open door policy

2011.11.3. Zhenzhou Liushi Wang Self-immolation - died Unauthorized Building & Non-local Hukou

Increased the step of opening up and marketizaion reform, Private investment especially the foreign capital few of capital injected into real estate industry

Bejing

space / capita:

Bejing living space / capita:

4.55 m2

8.31 m2

jiang Uygur Autonomous Regions living 疆维吾尔族自治区

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions 内蒙古自治区

Bei Jing 北京

Government started to gradually eliminate the public housing system by selling public housing, allowing private purchase of commercial residential house

Qing hai 青海

Tian Jing 天津 He Bei 河北 Shan Xi 山西

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Regions 宁夏回族 自治区

Shan Dong 山东

Gan Su 甘肃

He Nan 河南

Shanan Xi 陕西

Tibet Autonomous Regions 西藏自治区

Jiang S 江苏

Si Chuan 四川

An Hui 安徽

Hu Bei 湖北

Chong Qing 重庆

Zhe J 浙江 Hu Nan 湖南 Jiang Xi 江西

Gui Zhou 贵州

Yun Nan 云南

2009.11.13. Chendu Fuzhen Tang Self-immolation - died Unauthorized Building 2010.4.22. Emeishan Jianzhong Chen Self-immolation seriously burned Unsatisfied with compensation

Guang Xi Autonomous Regions 广西自治区

Hai Nan 海南

Fu Jian 福建

Guang Dong 广东

2010.10.4. Guangzhou Qinglin Zhong Failure of self-immolation Demolished without giving enough perparing time 2009.12.8. Shenzhen Yucai Huang Failure of self-immolation Unsatisfied with compensation / Job lost

2011.4.22. Zhuzhou Jiazhen Wang

25

201 Lin Sel seri Dem noti

POLICY EVENT

1998

1999

A notice of deepening the reform of urban housing system and accelerating housing construction

by State Department

HOUSING

A watershed of Chinese housing system reform From this moment, welfareoriented public housing distribution system was completely abrogated.

2000

2001

2002

The agreement on remising A notice of im state-owned land use rights health of rea by calling biding, auction and developmen listing

by Ministry o

by Ministry of Land and Resources

Guidance on developing personal consumption credit

by People’s bank of China

‘House purchase on loans’ , ‘mortgage’

Making money through land remising by local government

From collective consumption to individual consumption

‘housing consumption will become a hotspot’ - Rongji Zhu

Bejing living space / capita:

Bejing living space / capita:

Bejing living space / capita:

Bejing living space / capita:

Bejing living space / capita:

10.03 m2

10.63 m2

11.15 m2

11.64 m2

11.93 m2

686.0

CITY

542.5 206.3

585.4

628.0

217.0

211.2

205.3

come

ble in eposa

rage d

ve

Pound / m2

Real Estate Mainstay in

Directly leading to the high price of housing

The a

Pound

2003

pita

per ca

847.2

770.3 quare eter s per m ce 2011.11.3. ri p Zhenzhou 2011.6.23. Ankang g sin e hou Liushi Wang verag Wenxi Ji onal a ti a Self-immolation - died Self-immolation seriously n The Building & burned Unauthorized235.9 Non-local Hukou Unsatisfied with compensa225.9 tion

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions 内蒙古自治区

Xin jiang Uygur Autonomous Regions 新疆维吾尔族自治区

H 河 Shan Xi 山西

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Regions 宁夏回族 自治区

Qing hai 青海 Gan Su 甘肃

Shanan Xi 陕西

26

Tibet Autonomous Regions 西藏自治区

Si Chuan 四川

He Nan 河南

Hu Bei 湖北

2004

mproving the al estate market nt

2005

2006

Government intervention to cool the overheating of real estate industry

2008

2007

2009

Government 400 billion

of Construction

1,717.5

e industry - > ndustry

The winter of the real estate industry

1,578.1

469.5 1,378.6

1,175.9

388.5 387.7

1,049.3 942.2 311.9

282.0 271.3

Hei Long Jiang 黑龙江

2009.6.5. Mudan Lixiang Le Self-immolation seriously burned Unsatisfied with compensation

2010.7.30. Weihua Guoli Pan Self-immolation seriously burned Unsatisfied with compensation

2010.10.30. Mishan Dexi Cui Self-immolation seriously burned Unsatisfied with compensation

2010.11.29. Harbin Dequan Huang, Zhiming Huang, Zhixue Huang Self-immolation - seriously burned (Zhixue Huang slightly burned) Unauthorized Building

2009.2.13. Hefeng Na Wang Self-immolation Campanella, T., 2008, The concrete dragon: China's urban evolution and what it means for the world, Princeton seriously Architectural Press, burned, New York inhalation injury withreform in China (网易- 中国房改十二年), Available at < NetEase Unsatisfied - 12-year Housing http://gz.house.163.com/special/gz_fanggai12y_policy/>[Accessed 12 January 2013] compensation * The charts and diagrams in page 10, 11, 12 and 13 are based on the information from following sources:

Ji Lin 吉林

Amnesty International Organization, 2012, Protecting homeland (坚守家园), Amnesty International Ltd, London

Liao Ning 辽宁

Bei Jing 北京

2009.12.14. Haidian Xinzhu Xi Self-immolation seriously burned Job lost

Tian Jing 天津

He Bei 河北

Shan Dong 山东

Jiang Su 江苏

An Hui 安徽

Shang Hai 上海

2009.10.28. Jiaozhou Xia Zhang Self-immolation seriously burned Job lost / Unsatisfied with compensation

2010.4.30. Weifang Yonglai Wang Self-immolation - died Unauthorized Building

2011.8.25. Ruhao Yulong Fan Self-immolation seriously burned Job lost

2011.5.18. Yangzhou Pen Xie Self-immolation suspected died Being violently threaten

2010.2.3. Chaoyang Mr. Zhang Self-immolation Unsatisfied with compensation

2009.2.25.

Wushouer Maimaiti Self-immolation - seriously burned Unsatisfied with relocation

2010.1.26. Yanchen Huan Zeng Self-immolation - died Job lost / Unsatisfied with compensation

2011.5.13. Guanyun Zenluo Lu Beat to die Unauthorized Building

2011.5.9. Xinhua Guihua Zhang Self-immolation seriously burned Job lost

2010.3.27. Lianyungang Huixi Tao, Xinyao Tao Self-immolation - died /seriously burned Unsatisfied with compensation / job lost

27

28

PART ONE: HORIZONTAL EXTENSIONAL ADAPTABILITY, A CASE STUDY OF SQUATTER SETTLEMENT ‘XIN ZHONG JIE’

History. Squatter Settlement The formation of the squatter settlement can be traced back to 1950s when Hukou system had not been intensified. Thousands of people (famers) migrated from countryside and other cities into Beijing and settled down. With the mature of Hukou, these people were given the right of urban residence and their settlements became legal existence (Zhan, 2004). However, after years of unauthorised selfbuilt extensional accumulating, the original legal structures have been hidden far from visible.

Adaptability. Horizontal Based on the array of the original warehouse like buildings, extensional spaces were parasitically generated across the site horizontally. The whole process is continuous but illegible. Here, the ownership of the space turns back to origin and is no longer a legislative term. Empty spaces between gaps stimulate the desire of possessing. Walls, wooden structures, clothes dry ropes, semiopen frames, even stacked trashes embodied into these gaps to form a series of subtle and ambiguous spaces. They are all signs, implying who’s whose space/s.

29

新中街 Xin Zhong Jie ( 新中街 ) Slightly differing from ‘orthodox’ squatter settlement, the original building group was invested and built by Municipal Property Management Bureau (PMB) for temporary relocation of construction workers, farmers and local residents from1953 to 1955 (Zhan, 2004). However, during the 1970s to 1980s, the urban housing crisis emerged because of the returns of educated urban youth from countryside and mountain areas. Moreover, the pressures from the later reform of national company and unemployment, the original temporary status of this building settlement finally became permanent. Meanwhile, people began to self-build unauthorised extension to release the overcrowding issue at the same time let rooms to floating population to increase their incomes.

Like the ‘orthodox’ squatter settlement, nowadays it is not easy to tell the original building fabric from these ‘collage’ spaces. People added, replaced, demolished, distorted and extend structures, materials, spaces to maximize their floor area and living benefit.

Currently, this area is delaminated by floating population as the advantage of location and relatively low rental fee (50-70 pound per month per person); the per capita area to most households is below 10 meters square, below 5 meters square per capital area is also ubiquitous.

30

Location (The ‘schizophrenia’ of Beijing) Ironically, the site is standing shoulder by shoulder with CBD San Li Tun and National worker stadium, where the most expensive apartments are selling. In 2002, government decided to demolish the whole Xin Zhong Jie for redevelopment; however, due to the failure of compensation negotiation, the site has been ‘fortunately’ ‘preserved’.

+

Beijing Rings system

Site

Forbidden City

31

Squatter Settlement, site

Yang Guang Du Shi; Private Residential Building; 26 storeys; 3.0 plot ratio; 37% green ratio

32

Forbidden City dormitory (Dan Wei building); all the flats have been sold to individuals; 6 storeys

Gong Ti Bei Li building (Dan Wei building); all the flats have been sold to individuals; 6 storeys

building construction time

uilding building building building building onstruction timeconstruction time construction time time time ction time construction timeconstruction

building construction time building 1950 construction time

950 1950 1950 1950 19501950

1950

960 1960 1960 1960 19601960

1960

1970

970 1970 1970 1970 19701970

1980

1990 1980

1990

2000

000 2000 2000 2000 20002000

0

1970

1980

990 1990 1990 1990 19901990

5

1960

1970

980 1980 1980 1980 19801980

0

1960 1950

1990

2000

2000 30 30

25

30

25

30

25

30

30 30

25 30

25

25 25

20 20

20

20

25

20

20 20

15

5

15

0

10

15

15

10

10

15 15

15

10 10

10

20 10 15 5

5

5

5

5

10

5

5

ng area per living person area per person aperson per living person area per living person living area area per person per person eter/meter square /meter square uare square/meter /meter square square

living area per person /meter square

living area per person /meter square 5

living area per person /meter square

Dan Wei Building; all the flats have been sold to individuals; 3 storeys

Gong Ti Bei Li building (Dan Wei building); all the flats have been sold to individuals; 6 storeys

Xin Zhong jie Building (Dan Wei building); all the flats have been sold to individuals; 4 storeys

33

34

35

36

37

Stage 1: The basic layout was set up in

1950s, the buildings with legal status

Stage 2: Front wing self-built extension emerged in approximate 1960s Stage 3: Back wing followed mainly used

for kitchen and storage

After the Stage 1, 2 and 3, the basic skeleton of the settlement was formed

1

2

3

38

Stage 4: The further growing of the attached spaces

4

THE PROCESS OF HORIZONTAL EXTENSIONAL ADAPTABILITY IS DIVIDED INTO 7 STAGES IN TERMS OF SPACE CHARACTERISTICS WITH THE TIME FRAME

Stage 6: Individual buildings burgeoned

as the result of over possessing of public space

Stage 5: The invasion of public space by the informal semi-structures

Stage 7: The construction of the stacked second storey based on the original buildings emerged

5 6

7

39

1

40

Each building has approximate 10 bays for average with around 15 meters square for each bay. The building with simple brick and timber roof structure was used for temporary relocation of famers, construction workers and local residents from 1953 to 1955. The original bay distribution followed one household one bay, but now two-three bays spaces connected together and owned by one household is very common.

2.5m

5.5m

3m

41

42

Some buildingsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; terra-cotta roof tiles have been replaced by light materials such as plastic membrane and PC wave board with plywood beneath.

A warming program has been carried out by government since 2011 for improving living situation of residents.

Most of the building walls have been thickened by attaching foam insulation outside with thin concrete finish.

Rain water leakage and no good air tight are the most annoying things in winter.

43

2

44

During 1960s, settlement residents began to extend the southern side of house personally; interestingly, such extension appears a kind of group behaviour. Each bay was attached 8 meters square space, which was mainly used for the combination of kitchen, storage, dining room and lobby.

3.1m 0.36m

2.7m

45

46

Structurally, not every extensional space in this stage is walled. Some extensions are just left as timber frames for storage and refuge. In most cases of walled extensions, common brick is the main structural material. Plywood and metal sheets as non-structural external wall material can also be found.

Timber framed shelter

Brick walled extension

47

3

48

A further group extension happened in a short time just after the stage 2. Though such extensions are unauthorised either, group behaviour seems to potentially encourage and stimulate residents to increase their benefits. In the stage, the kitchen was separated from the south side and relocated into the new extension. 4 meters square is the common size.

2.3m

2.2m

49

DOOR In many cases, doors are unlocked in daytime even there are no people inside.

Probably there is nothing worth to steal.

50

There are 4 people living in this room, two of them are from He Nan, one is from He Bei, and the last one is from Shan Xi. They are all doing street breakfast vending business in Beijing. Subtracted from the housing rental fee, their monthly income has not so much been left, though Xin Zhong Jie is the cheapest place to stay for them.

51

4

52

In this stage, the extension pattern appears much more unorganized and complicated. Partially because of the increase of the floating population, the housing crisis led to the dramatic increase in rent fee, especially in such a very central space. In order to let conveniently, the extensional spaces are no long spatial connected. Normally, each extensional space takes multiple functions: cooking, laundry, sleeping, dining, and clothes drying. Meanwhile, the spaces around the outside walls are also possessed informally. 6 meters square approximate is for each letting room.

5.2 m

Two ends of building block

2.7 m

3.9 m

4.6 m

Case one:

53

54

WINDOWS AND SECURITY

55

Case two: a further extension based on stage 2

she

She has been living here for 60 years, said she witnessed the process how the site became more and more crowded. Her husband built up the two extensions in the south side, but not for letting. Since her husband passed away

56

2.7 m

3.9 m

4.6 m

2.6 m

2.6 m

57

1.95 m

3m

58

5.2 m

Case three: alleyway privatization

59

TREE, ON ONE SIDE IS TREE, THE OTHER SIDE IS HOME

60

GADGETS ON THE ROOFS

61

5

62

An informal invasion of public space The danger of such extension is about unconscious. The space is gradually privatised from informal to formal, from penetrable to impenetrable. Everything can be a gesture of potential ownership.

INFORMAL EXTENSIONAL ADAPTIBILITY HAPPENS IN FOLLOWING FIVE WAYS:

Between gaps/ streets along X axis

Expanding independently

Between gaps/alleys along Y axis

Mobility

Small spaces

63

A DOOR FRAME, though never locked, has transformed the public alley space to become a more intimate and private space.

ROPES for clothes dry, transform the public space beneath into a periodical semi private space. When clothes are taken down, the space returns back to public.

A SHELTER across two buildings implies that the nature of space beneath has been subtly changed.

Causally PILING UP things outside, in fact potentially increases the size of the personal space, which lays down the foundation for further space possessing.

64

65

6

66

The emergence of single detached building Stage 6 can be seen as a final status of the inform extension in stage 5. Most of these buildings have only one storey with only single space inside without partition wall. Meanwhile, the use of spaces have strong relation with the commercial activities, the latter is estimated the driving force of the existence of such extension.

A diagram shows the process of how such space is generated out under the commercial activities within a time frame

1

2

3

6

5

4

67

The zones in red indicate the densest locations of detached buildings.

Most of the detached buildings are used for groceries, restaurants and other COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES.

68

69

7

70

Most of these two storeys are the result of the failure of the negation with government about site demolition. Therefore, people decided to further increase spaces for improving living condition and letting.

Most of them were built very in a very recent.

TWO WAYS OF VERTICAL ADAPTION, BUT STAIRCASE IS ALWAYS ATTACHED OUTSIDE

71

KITCHEN

STORAGE

RENTED ROOM DININGROOM

MASTER ROOM

RENTED ROOM LOBBY

RENTED ROOM RENTED ROOM

GROUND FLOOR

FIRST FLOOR

RENTED ROOM

RENTED ROOM

RENTED ROOM

72

73

TOILET ECONOMY There are only four public toilets scatted around the site. Two of them have been just refurbished by government. Each toilet has a separated manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s with around 4 squatting pots and womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s with ?? squatting pot/s. As normally no toilet was installed in individual house, toilet became a rare resource. Every morning long queues always happen and around 20 people wait for the toilet. Therefore, distances between toilets and letting rooms are very influential to the room rental fee.

Above radial diagram roughly shows such price fluctuation.

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3 meters wall

1.5 meters Fence

7 meters wide road

14 meters tall Building blocks

BOUNDARY

The squatter settlement is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;skilfullyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; hidden away from public.

Walls separate it from luxury high rise housing buildings; fences separate it from big street; broad road distantiates it from Danwei apartment

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THRESHOLD The gates, seems more likely for the security of outside world rather than inside world

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‘HIGH STREET’ A commercial street has been developed on the south border of the settlement. However, as the existing of the gates, this ‘high street’ is much more open for the inside settlement rather than being an exchange zone for both outside and inside.

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INFORMAL PUBLIC SQUARE Most of such â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;squaresâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; are located closing to the gates, they are some places for having lunch, for parking, for talking, for selling, for advertising also for throwing rubbish.

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FIGURES: The area of the extension in different stages

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History. Urban village Urban villages are the conflict product between explosive expansion of the cities and the constraint of the unique ‘Hukou’ system. They usually exist in a way of fragments scattered around outskirts and the downtown of major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and etc.

During the early period of China’s reforms, once farmlands were compulsorily purchased and converted into urban land for the need of redevelopment, governments usually failed to rearrange farmers’ housing and jobs due to the high social and economic costs. Therefore, the villages were reserved and gradually surrounded by the cities. However, they were still villages, which mean the villagers still shared rural Hukou. Meanwhile the village lands still have the nature of collective rather than national.

Therefore, on one hand, the whole villages are basically outside of the urban planning, infrastructure constriction and administration of the city. On the other hand, because of the prosperity of the neighbouring area, the dramatic increase in the value of the village lands stimulates the economy of village rooms letting.

Farmers began to increase their house storeys to maximize tenancy income.

Finally, the urban villages became a kind of ‘slum’ like urban settlement.

PART TWO: VERTICAL EXTENSIONAL ADAPTABILITY, A CASE STUDY OF URBAN VILLAGE ‘XIAO JIA HE’

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Xiao Jia He ( 肖家河 ) Located closing to the Beijing Ring five, Xiao Jia He village with 2.3 miles square in total was geographically divided into east and west areas by West Yuan Ming Yuan Road. As one of the main settlements of Ant Tribe, it was estimated that there was 11 thousand floating population living here while the local population was only around 4 thousand. In 2012, the demolitions of the west and part of east areas have been completed for urban redevelopment.

+

OP FIVE

WEST YUANMINGYUAN ROAD

CITY LO

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SITE The study site (in red) picked up from the survival part of the East village is made up of around 33 households with approximate population of 1500.

Differing from the previous squatter settlement, though buildings are overcrowded with very high population density, meanwhile the public spaces in-between are dramatically squeezed, the major structure of the area still can be easily told in site.

Buildings are lined up along two crossing â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;streetsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as following diagram showing.

The X-axis street is around 3 meters wide for commercial activities such as restaurants, groceries and barbershops; the wideness of the Y-axis street varies from 1 to 3 meters.

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肖家河

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THE PROCESS OF THE VERTICAL EXTENSIONAL ADAPTABILITY IS CONCLUDED INTO 3 STAGES. The yellow below shows the street side facing of house.

1 The original famer house; two types

2

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The horizontal extension (in red)

3

The vertical extension (in red)

3' Demolition and rebuild

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1

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Due to years of spatial expanding and accumulating, the original site layout is not clear. The following layout diagram is plotted according to the current building layouts, the memory of the interviewed landlords (famers), as well as the reference of the typical layout of Beijing village (right).

95

The original farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s building TYPE ONE: A complex of building groups is usually made up of one main building and two subsidiary wings (east and west) buildings.

The main building facing south normally has 4 bays, of which one is used as living room and other three are for bedrooms.

Other functional spaces such as kitchen, dining room and storage are located into east and west buildings.

Three buildings form a semi-courtyard inside and outside walled for security purpose.

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3m

BEDROOM

DINING & LIVING ROOM

BEDROOM

BEDROOM

BEDROOM

LIVING ROOM

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5m

BEDROOM

KITCHEN

BEDROOM

KITCHEN

BEDROOM

DINING ROOM

STORAGE

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3m

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DINING & LIVING ROOM

BEDROOM

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LIVING ROOM

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KITCHEN

BEDROOM

KITCHEN

BEDROOM

DINING ROOM

The original farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s building TYPE TWO: The layout of the main building is similar to the type one. But the subsidiary building is optional due to the limit of the land; usually kitchen is a simple subsidiary building separated from the main building.

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2

The building extensions during this stage mainly focused on expanding private site area by seizing of surrounding public spaces such as streets, alley ways and etc. Meanwhile, in some cases farmers renovated the spatial configurations of the east & west wing buildings and private courtyard in order to further increase the number of room for letting.

The extension averagely contains 6-9 rooms. Plus the renovated rooms in the original buildings, the total number of the room for letting per household usually reaches to 10-13.

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ROOMS FOR LETTING

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TYPE ONE, developed from the original farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s building type one

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THE EXPANDED ROOMS IN THE COURTYARD

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CORRIDOR SNAPSHOTS

THE EXPANSION IN THE NORTH SIDE OF THE MAIN BUILDING

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SQUEEZED COURTYARD AND FISH TANK

She has been in Beijing for 2 years, last year she moved from Ge Dou Zhuang village to here just because of the demolition, now she said she had to look for place again as this area was already in the demolition list.

In her 2x3 size cubicle, she is living with her boyfriend. Due to the extremely narrow space, cooking, dinning, washing, and laundry have to be done in the corridor outside.

The corridor has become a subtle space for functional transition.

NO. 20, EAST VILLAGE OF XIAO JIA HE

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THE WEST SIDE EXTENSION

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THE INTERACTION BETWEEN STREET AND WEST EXTENSION

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THE ADAPTABILITY OF COMMERCIAL SPACES

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X AXIS .

‘HIGH STREET’

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Aluminium-alloy security doors & brick wall with cement finish

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TYPE TWO, developed from the 2.5m

original farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s building type two

2.8m

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3

Vertical growth and Densification Comparing to the horizontal expansion of the ground floor which still had to take the basic public spaces into consideration, the vertical expansion of the upper floor seems much free of the space restriction. In many cases, the space arrangement of the upper floor does not follow the layout of the floor below, at the same time further extends the walls out to possess the high level space of the public street/alley.

Moreover, demolishing the original building/s to completely rebuild a much more compact multiple-storey (mainly two) in the same site is also prevalent, which directly pushes up the number of room to 40 - 45 per household.

EXTENSIONAL AREAS AND EXTENSIONS REBUILT AREAS AND REBUILTS

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DEMOLISHED AND REBUILDING 115

TYPE ONE, developed from the original

farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s building type one:

The initial squeezed courtyard is preserved for the natural light penetration and roofed by glass and plastic sheets.

Second storey: 13 rooms in total, of which 10 are for letting with average of 7 meters square Pigeon houses stacked on the roofs form the third storeys

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GROUND FLOOR

2.4m

3m

5.1m

FIRST FLOOR

117 4m

2.5m

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SPATIAL TRANSITION THROUGH THE LINE

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UPPER FLOOR TERRACE AND COURTYARD ROOF (STRUCTURE)

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FROM TERRACE TO LANDLORD'S ROOMS (UPPER FLOOR)

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2.5m

3.4m

2.8m

TYPE TWO, developed from the original

farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s building type two:

3.4m

The disconnected wall lines and uneven roofs reveal that the second storey was built part by part in different times rather than one-off.

The external staircase connecting two storeys further narrows down the street upper space.

Second storey: 10 rooms for letting, the roofs of the corridor were framed by aluminium structure with glass panels covered.

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THE BUILDING SEQUENCE OF THE SECOND STOREY AND SOME CONSTRUCTION JOINTS OF TIME

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COAL AND HEATING SYSTEM The boiler heating system of each household is independent and managed by the landlords.

The storage of coal is usually located in the extensional shelter along the street for the convenience of transportation.

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THE LIVING IN THE CORRIDOR

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The emergence of the external cantilevered staircase always accompanies with extremely narrow streets.

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If the width of the street allows, the space below the staircase will be walled for private use

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EXTRUDED BOXES ALONG THE STREETS

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The bridge across over the ‘high street’

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Various advertisements of room letting pasted on the wall

Farmer / Landlord

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Tenant

Tenant / Sewage maintainer

Tenant

Tenant / Chou main Chief / Vendor

Child / Tenant

Farmer / Landlord

Tenant / Vegetable seller

Farmer / Landlord

TYPE THREE, rebuilt in the demolition: In order to pursuit a much more efficient way to increase the number of room, some of the rich farmers demolished the entire original + extensional buildings and rebuilt much more compact hostel like blocks, of which the density shot up to 3.3 meters square (289 m2 / 88 people) compared to the previous TYPE ONE 4.8 meters square (289 m2 / 60 people) based on the same footprint.

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GROUND FLOOR

136

3.1m

KITCHEN

2.9m

3.2m

KITCHEN

FIRST FLOOR

KITCHEN

KITCHEN

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Different from the previous types, rebuilt buildings normally provide some simple rooms for basic use such as cooking and washing similar to the use of roof terrace previously, which to some extent prevent the corridors overcrowded that often happens in other types. However, toilet was still not taken into consideration in such â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;new typeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; buildings.

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THE SKYLINES ACROSS THE STREETS

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STAGE ONE

STREET WIDTH: 8 METERS

STAGE TWO

STREET WIDTH: 3 METERS

STAGE THREE

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STREET WIDTH: 1-2 METERS

0

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total floor area per a typical household (metersquare) living space per person (meter square) the number of person living in a household

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THINKING ON THE LAST PAGE & CONCLUSION Though both two urban settlements were based on preset structural layouts, the final collective extensional behaviours appear spatially different. The inducements leading to such discrepancy are complicated. The original buildings of the squatter settlement have the attribute of collectivity; the internal space of the single block was partitioned into numbers of small bays for different households, which potentially restricts the vertical adapting and expanding due to the limited individual area and restriction from neighbourhoods. In contrast, farmers’ houses in the urban village appear much more individual and independent; such detached layout structure provides room for further adapting vertically.

In terms of the urban texture, urban village has a highly compact and relatively spatially organized structure, to large extent because of the existence of the transition between spaces and profits to farmers, such conscious greatly promotes the idea of space saving during the construction. Whereas in squatter settlement, such transition is not as ubiquitous as urban village as the limit of each household space, meanwhile, the use of space tends to be more temporary and randomly, therefore, the pattern emerges a loose, fragmental and dispersed distribution especially after the stage 3.

However, both settlements demonstrate some species of spaces which are highly adaptable and extensionable. ‘Shadowed space’, the space emptied in between, refers to gaps, alleys, narrow streets, which usually have the human scale and easy to manipulate by individual or small group. ‘Artificial land’, the name first raised

by Maki Fumihiko in his Metabolism theory, can be told in the vertical adaption stage 3. Provide a platform, the space will be generated later. ‘Fringe space’, the space always grows out starting from the fringe, which could be a wall, a column, a tree, even a pile of trashes. Such space possession is also a strategy, which usually happens in a time frame and can be exemplified in the case study of squatter settlement stage 6.

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As the introduction of the preface, the floating population are always the performers during this urban adaption drama. Now the curtain is rolling down.

The urban space is always deliberated designed with the adaptability of degree ‘0’ to cater for upper class’s desire for control, Beijing has no exception. Such non resilient urban space is isolated from democracy, isolated from creativity, isolated from rationality as well as emotionality.

Governor attempts to build a continuous and smooth city by clearance of the urban buffer zones. However, the famous phrase ‘creative destruction’ cited by Campanella (2008) from Joseph Schumpeter, has been ironically and perfectly described the consequence of the urban demolition in Beijing. One day if the buffer zones are completely wrapped out, the city will become surely fragmented.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

IMAGE CREDITS

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Bao, S. and Zhang, B., 2012, The spatial distribution and growing trends of Migrant population in Beijing, Journal of Capital Normal University, Natural Science Edition, No. 2, pp. 74-78.

Campanella, T., 2008, The concrete dragon: China's urban evolution and what it means for the world, Princeton Architectural Press, New York Qi, X, 2012, Study on residential mobility of floating population in Beijing, Journal of Beijing city university , No.4, pp. 17-22.

Qi, X, 2012, Research on the level of residential mobility in Beijing, Journal of Beijing university of technology, Social Sciences Edition, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 6 -12.

Zhang, J., 1997, Informal construction in Beijing's old neighborhoods, Cities, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 85-94.

Zhan, S., 2004, the choice behaviour of low-income resident mobility with the consequence of marginalization - the analytical investigation of the demolition and redevelopment of two communities in Beijing ( 低收入动迁居民的行为选择及其边缘化后果 - 对北京市两社区 拆迁改建的调查分析 ), [online] Available at: < http://www.sociology.cass.cn/shxw/xstl/ default.htm> [Accessed 29 December 2012]

Photo, page 6-7, 2013. [photograph] Available at: <google earth> [Accessed 21 April 2013] Metabolism, the city of the future exhibition, page 10, 2011. [poster image] Available at:< http://www.designboom.com/architecture/rem-koolhaas-project-japan-metabolismtalks/> [Accessed 21 April 2013] Kurokawa, page 11, 2007. [image] Available at :< http://www.bdonline.co.uk/Journals/ Builder_Group/Building_Design/12_October_2007/attachments/Kurakawa-bd1web.jpg> [Accessed 21 April 2013] Tokyo plan model photo, page 12, 2011. [image] Available at: < http:// architecturalmoleskine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/metabolist-movement.html > [Accessed 21 April 2013] Temporary residence permit, page 19, 2010. [photograph] Available at :< http://news. qq.com/a/20100222/001743.htm>[Accessed 12 January 2013] Background image, page 20, 2008. [photograph] Available at :< http://bbs.99wed.com/ content/258755_1.htm>[Accessed 12 January 2013]

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[2] HISTORY AND THEORY ESSAY The territorialisation of the artificial land: from the Metabolism in Japan to the urban informal settlements in Beijing

In this part, the essay is going to explore the design strategy of the Metabolism Japan. In order to respond to the housing crisis as well as the development of the technology in 1960sâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Japan, Metabolists proposed a series of super bold and utopia urban adaption strategies.

In contrast to the informal spatial adaptability, Metabolistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; strategies appear a top-bottom dictatorial adaption pattern. Such pattern will be critically analysed in this part through the examination of several typical Metabolistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; projects. Furthermore, the essay will also explore the relationship between the bottom-up spontaneous adaption behaviour studied in the part one and the top-bottom dictatorial adaption behaviour promoted by Metabolists therefore to figure out the common spatial language pattern existing inside the both adaption behaviours.

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(1958) Sky House, Tokyo

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945)

(1960) Plan for Tokyo

(1949) Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (1959) Tower-shaped City

Japan: Tabula Rasa; US firebombing destroyed 50% of Tokyo (1945)

the US-Japan Security Treaty (1951)

(1942) Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Monumnet

(1964) Yoyogi National Gymnasia, Tokyo (1960) Marine City: Unabara

US-led Korean war (1950 - 53)

(1970) Expo'70 Big roof Japanese Economic Miracle

(1960) Ocean City

(1959) Boston Bay

Japan city population explosion

(1970) Kuwaiti Embassy building

(1965) Tree-shaped Community

Revival of Marxism (1950s); Soviet Urbanists & Disurbanists (1920s); James D.Watson & Francis Crick, the double-helix structure of DNA (1953)

(1960) World health Organization

(1996) Fuji TV Corporation Headquarters Building

Le Corbusier's ideal cities; Rational & Democratic; Unite d'Habitation in Marseille

Japanese culture resurgence

World Design conference (1960 )

MENTOR

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Architect KENZO TANGE (1913 - 2005 )

METABOLISTS (Megastructure)

Architect KIYONORI KIKUTAKE (1928 - )

(1960) Agricultural City, Aichi

(1964) Investigations in Collective Form

(1960) Wall City

(1961) Helix City, Tokyo

(1958) Harumi High-rise apartments, Tokyo

(1960) Shinjuku Station Project with Maki (1969) Hillside Terrace Phase I, tokyo

(1962) Incubation Process, Montage (1967) Sakaide Artificial Ground, Tokyo

(1969) Odakyu Drive-In Restaurant, Otome

(1962) Clusters in the Air, Tokyo

(1968) Destruction of the Future City

(1964) Yoyogi National Gymnasia, Tokyo

(1970) Expo'70: Takara Beautilion and Toshiba IHI pavilion (1968) Electric Labyrinth, Installation for the Triennale in Milan (1972) Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo

METABOLISTS (Megastructure)

Architect KISHO KUROKAWA (1934 - 2007)

(1970) Expo' 70: Festival Plaza and Robots

Critic NOBORU KAWAZOE (1926 - )

METABOLISTS (Group Form)

AFFILICATED METABOLIST

Industrial Designer KENJI EKUAN (1929 - )

Architect FUMIHIKO MAKI

Architect ARATA ISOZAKI

(1928 - )

Architect MASATO OTAKA (1923 - 2010)

(1931 - )

Graphic Designer KIYOSHI AWAZU 149 (1929 - 2009)

In 1960, a manifesto called 'Metabolism: The Proposals for New Urbanism' was published and distributed by a group of Japanese Architects in the World Design Conference. With the coming of this ambitious manifesto, a series of radical concepts emerged such as megastructure, group form, artificial land and marine civilization. In the context of Japan after WW2, the utopian works of the Metabolism are firmly rooted in the notion of the city as an organic process and appear a strong dialogue between individuality and collectivity. Similar to the previous urban informal settlements studies, such revealed dialogue is also based on structural adaptability and extensionality in a time frame. However, the profound difference between them points to the distinctive mechanisms of the embodied structural 'artificial land'.

This essay is going to explore and analyse such difference by intervening of couples of theories by Gilles Deleuze as well as Assemblage Theory developed by Manuel DeLanda.

'RHIZOME' AND ASSEMBLAGE The 'Rhizome', a plant structure that 'can bifurcate and send out a new shoot at any point1', is borrowed by Deleuze to describe the particular decentralized network structure in his book 'A Thousand Plateaus'2. Such structure is further explained by the example of the group relationship between the wasp and the orchid: both two are attracted each other, which finally lead to co-evolute. When thousands upon thousands groups are rhizomatic connected together, the crowd appears open, infinite, dynamic and pluralistic. At the same time, the conscious and identity of the crowd emerges, which may differ from any of the individuals in the crowd. This idea of rhizome structure to large extent also can be connected to his concept of nomadic thought, which "wanders across the 'earth', by making deterritorilaizations from territorialization and finding new reterritorializations3, and the idea of assemblages which implies 'a component part of an assemblage may be detached from it and plugged it on different assemblage in which its interactions are different... 4' In the book 'A New Philosophy of Society', the philosopher Manuel DeLanda further explores the assemblage theory in terms of the city context. He argues that 'the metropolis is an assemblage of assemblage...is a combination of stabilized and destabilized elements, and it is constantly in a double process of transformation and destruction, reconstruction and decay... 5'. At the same time, an assemblage can be stabilized by some components, also be forced to change, or even transformed into a different assemblage by other components6.

1 Ballantyne, A., 2007, Deleuze and Guattari for architects, Routledge, New York, pp.25-26 2 Deleuze, G., and Guattari, F., 2004, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Continuum, London 3 Ballantyne, A., 2007, Deleuze and Guattari for architects, Routledge, New York, p.38 4 DeLanda, M., 2006, A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity, Continuum, London, pp.10 5 Farias, L. and Bender, T. eds., 2010, Urban Assemblages: How Actor-network Theory Changes Urban Studies, Routledge, London, p.316 6 DeLanda, M., 2006, A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity, Continuum, London, p.12

Adaption models: GROUP ONE

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METABOLISM AND THE STRUCTURAL ADAPTABILITY As Lin argues that the philosophy of the Metabolism is rooted in the notion of city as process, which advocates that two metabolic cycles exist in the city organism: persistent structure and ephemeral individual7. Metabolists attempted to seek the subtle boundary between these two cycles at the same time constructed a set of 'visionary' architectural language to accommodate it. Therefore, most of the Metabolists' projects have a strong sense of duality, i.e. order/chaos, permanence/transience, collective/individual, and planning/spontaneity, which is also reflected in their design methodology in a way of 'symbolic' structural adaptability and extensionality.

Generally speaking, Metabolism projects can be concluded into four groups in terms of the adaptable spatial conditions and typological connections.

The characteristic of the first group restrictively follows the rule of the tree structure which is fundamentally different from Deleuze's 'rhizome structure' and emphases the distinction between primary and secondary. The primary structure as the main circulation space and load bearing element provides artificial spaces for (semi) uniform unit adapting, for instance the famous Nakagin Capsule by Kisho Kurokawa in 1972, Tower-shaped Community in 1958 by Kiyonori Kikutake, and City in the Air by Arata Isozaki in 1961. These projects were designed to large extent ignoring the urban texture (on purpose) and being plugged into the city seemingly in a way of arbitrary. Therefore, they are in the status of 'deteritorialization' in terms of Deleuze terminology.

The danger of the deteritorialization is the blurring of identity, without the reference by surrounding relations, form is still ambiguous. Furthermore, in the aspect of adaptability, though capsule units and plugging system provides the potential for building metabolism and adaption, however, unlike the rhizome structure with the decentralised system as well as the principle of inter-adapting and co-evolution, the main structures indicated in the projects are lack of the mechanism of reactive updatable adaptability, which significantly reduces and potentially obstructs the flexibility of the entire system in the further development. Moreover, monumentality, absolutism - the gestures the main structures posing ironically betrays the initial motifs the metabolists believe in about the democracy and desire for identity and individuality.

7ă&#x20AC;&#x20AC; Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York

Adaption models: GROUP TWO

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1.4 Kago

1.1 Nakagin Capsule Tower (Kurokawa, 1972)

1.2 Nakagin Capsule Tower (Kurokawa, 1972)

1.5 Nakagin Capsule Tower (Kurokawa, 1972)

152

1.3 Expo Tower (Kikutake, 1970)

1.6 Wall City (Kurokawa, 1959)

1.7 Tsukiji Plan (Tange, 1964)

1.10 Move-net for Sky House (Kikutake , 1962)

1.8 Tsukiji Plan (Tange, 1964)

1.11 Pumpkin House (Ekuan, 1964)

1.9 Incubation Process (Isozaki, 1962)

1.12 Capsule Summer House K (Kurokawa, 1972)

153

If saying the first group is about the adaptability of single structure itself, then the second group is concerned on 'an assemblage of assemblage' - the proliferation of the single structure, which can be exemplified in the projects such as Tsukiji Plan (1964) and Yamanashi Press and Broadcasting Center (1964) by Kenzo Tange, City in the Air (1960) and Clusters in the Air (1962) by Arata Isozaki. In this group, single structures as standard units are spatially connected to form a much larger 'assemblage' (vertical city complex). Similar to the first group, in essence such spatial configuration provides a series of megastructural platforms for individual adapting and expanding, but in a larger scale. In theses architects' utopian schemes, the adaptability could be reflected in three ways: one is plugging capsule (space) system into a single structure, another one is (infinitely) duplicating and expanding the single structure into the urban context, which potentially tackles the future urban space needs. Moreover, built project Yamanashi Press and Broadcasting Center reveals the third way of adaptability thinking. The vertical and horizontal structures construct a three dimensional 'street system' as called providing necessary spatial circulation and infrastructure, and then various types of functional spaces were placed within in terms of the requirements. Meanwhile, according to Kenzo, '...unoccupied voids remain here and there. These will provide the extra space needed for expansion...We made it possible for people to have the spaces they require within a multidimensional composition...

Though it seemed incomplete, the building had an organic unity...8' To some extent, the experiment of Kenzo's none-main structural adaptability and extensionality was successful, some office spaces were expanded and a few of customized infill constructions were done within the preset structure. However, the initial idea of main structure expansion which was implied through the 'sprouting from the stubs of joint cores deliberately left unfinished in phase one 9' was unrealized. Lin argues that the reason behind partially because of the conventional reinforced concrete as well as insite construction. Other historians further points out that the practical impossibility was led to by the monolithic statue of the building also 'being treated as subordinate to such an urban gesture'10. In fact, the failure of structural expansion could be understood as the destabilization of the assemblage in the light of DeLanda'.

Components such as the restriction of the materials and technical and the skepticism of the humanist aspects constantly destabilize the identity of the assemblage, which finally obstacles the development of the assemblage.

8 Tange, K., 1967, from Architecture to Urban Design, Japan Architect, May, 1967, p. 26 9 AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.363 10 Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York, p.188

2.1 Tree-shaped Community (Kikutake, 1968)

2.3 Helix City (Kurokawa, 1961)

2.2 Ocean City (Kikutake, 1968)

154

2.4 Clusters in the Air (Isozaki, 1962)

The concept of 'Linear city', initiated by the Spanish engineer Soria y Mata in 1882(Lin, 2011), was adopted and developed by Metabolists for their futuristic urban vision. As a response of the explosive population and urban sprawl, the model of linear city was considered as an effective tool of urban decentralization.

One of the relative Metabolism schemes is Kurokawa's Neo-Tokyo Plan in 1960. Instead of the single linear structure, he proposed a megastructural cruciform pattern with a series of the 'Bamboo-shaped Cities' standing along to decentralize Tokyo city center. However, the most famous scheme based on such concept must be the Tokyo Bay by Kenzo Tange in 1960. Through this scheme, Tange expressed all his ambitions regarding to urban adaptability and extensionality, metabolic feasibility, openness, mobility and political demonstration. The entire project mainly consists of four parts, the first part is called central spine framed by circulation loops, which starts from city center of Tokyo, moves across Tokyo bay and lands on the opposite shore in Chiba; the second part is a series of the gigantic service towers between the central spin and bridged by habitable trusses. The third part is a number of secondary structures extending out from both side of the spine perpendicularly. The last part is the clusters of tent-like 'artificial lands' for resident adapting. Tange arises that the essence of this scheme is the structural thinking of the adaptable city, i.e. external growth and internal regeneration11. The former refers to a systematic evolution of city organization, while the latter is about the process of local components self-renewal. Moreover, he further argues the necessary of the transportation-oriented spatial structure as the domination of the communication network in the postindustrial age. In fact, the Tokyo Bay project / the linear city could be understood as the horizontal version of the first group's structural mechanism. The system strictly follows a structural hierarchy from the primary central spine to the secondary adaptable 'artificial lands', which corresponds to the first group's vertical core and adaptable plugging capsule. The criticism of Tange's urban metabolic cycle mechanism mainly concentrates on the overemphasis of the gigantic hierarchic system as well as the symbolic biological analogy. Based on the contemporary city with unpredictability, Maki questions the assumption of Tange that transportation system has the nature of long cycle of change comparing to the adaptable branches. To Maki, Tange's long metabolic cycle is approaching fixed, which means '...if the megaform becomes rapidly obsolete, as well it might, especially in those schemes which do not allow for two kinds of change cycle, it will be a great weight about the neck of urban society...'12To large extent, the unrealization of Tange's urban adaptable strategy is the result of the conflict between the over domination and inflexibility of hierarchical system and the unpredictability of the contemporary city change. In fact, his utopia bay was an expressive gesture of monumentalizing infrastructure as a means to control the urban process rather than a plausible proposal13.

11ă&#x20AC;&#x20AC; Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York, p.161 12ă&#x20AC;&#x20AC; Maki, F., 1964, Investigations in Collective Form, Washington University Press, St.Louis, MO, pp. 11 13ă&#x20AC;&#x20AC; Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York, p.165

Adaption models: GROUP THREE

155

3.1 Tokyo Bay (Tange, 1960) 3.4

3.1 Tokyo Bay (Tange, 1960)

3.2 Tokyo Bay (Tange, 1960)

3.3 Tokyo Bay (Tange, 1960)

156

3.5 Tokyo Bay (Tange, 1960)

3.6 Steps in the development of Tokyo Bay

3.7 Process of Growth of Organic Life

3.8 / 3.9 / 3.10 Yamanashi Press and Broadcasting (Tange, 1964)

3.11 Kuwaiti Embassy, Tokyo (Tange, 1970)

3.12 Sky House (Kikutake, 1958)

3.13 Sky House (Kikutake, 1958)

157

From the first group to the third group, the schemes of Metabolists appear the great enthusiasm to the hierarchical structure based urban adaptability. By contrast, the philosophy of the metabolism in the last group abandons the 'grand narrative' of the megastructure and turns to embrace the individual leading structural mechanism - 'Group Form', which to some extent shows the nature of the post structuralism emerging in the early 1970s. In his book Investigations in Collective Form, Fumihiko Maki criticises the 'certain static nature' inherent in the megastructure while 'master form (Group Form) can move into ever new states of equilibrium and yet maintain visual consistency and a sense of containing order in the long run...14' He advocates that the linkages (physical linkage, implied linkage, social linkage) are the foundation of the metabolism of group form which as the keys or visual grammars maintain the transformation and expansion of the dynamic group structure rather than the monumental concrete structure. As the manifestation of Maki's group form, project Hillside Terrace used for residential, commercial, and cultural was designed and built through seven phases starting from 1967 to 1992. Each phase of the development honestly reflects different age's building technology, regulation and surrounding urban context, which demonstrates the morphological dialogue set up by the spontaneous and organic construction of individuals.

However, Koolhass15 argues that 'Maki was concerned with organic urban growth and linkage more than master planning, he is in the outside world more than in (only) improving the conditions of Japan...' In fact, Maki's group form was the rethinking of the Metabolism which had been drifting away from the urban context and staying in the status of 'deterritorilaization' for long time. Moreover, due to the implicit structure is defined by the individual units, the group form is much more responsive to the fluctuation and unpredictable conditions of contemporary cities, which to some extent reflects the mechanism of Deleuze's rhizomatic network at the same time could be understood as the embryo of the prevalent concepts of the 'swarm intelligence' and 'emergence' by Steven Johnson16. However, though 'group form' is fundamentally different from his other colleagues' 'megastructure' , the idea have been partially absorbed and evident in theirs later projects, for instance the Takara Beautillion and Toshiba IHI pavilion in Expo'70 by Kisho Kurokawa, despite in a superficial way.

14ă&#x20AC;&#x20AC; Maki, F., 1964, Investigations in Collective Form, Washington University Press, St.Louis, MO, pp.11 15ă&#x20AC;&#x20AC; AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, pp.295 16ă&#x20AC;&#x20AC; Leach, N., 2009, Swarm Urbanism, Architectural design: Digital City, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Volume 79, Issue4, pp. 56-63.

Adaption models: GROUP FOUR

158

4.1 Hillside Terrace (Maki, 1969 - 92) 4.2 Compositional Form / Mega Form / Group Form

4.3 Hillside Terrace (Maki, 1969 - 92)

4.4 Sakaide Artificial Ground (Otaka, 1968)

4.5 Box-Type Apartments (Kurokawa, 1962)

4.6 Takara Beautillion, Expoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;70 (Kurokawa, 1970)

4.7 Mina (Muna) Pilgrim City, Mecca (Tange with Ekuan, 1974)

159

ARTIFICIAL LAND, SQUATTER SETTLEMENT AND URBAN VILLAGE 'Artificial land' is the concept that Metabolists raises to describe the structural platform for urban adaption. In Metabolists' practices, the 'artificial land' can be categorized into two different properties: one is the physical platform, which can be demonstrated by the idea of 'megastructure' in group one, two and three. Another one is the linkage structure; such virtual platform is triggered by a set of grammar or subtle and micro elements such as visual, spatial, social and historical aspects, for instance the 'group form' in group four. Interestingly, the typology studies of the Beijing informal settlements reveal that the spontaneous adaption in urban settlements is based on the combination of the two distinctive 'artificial lands'.

How to understand the Beijing informal settlements in terms of the 'artificial land'? Differing from the infinite spontaneous structure of the vernacular village which was fascinated by Maki, the original urban informal settlement before adapted should be considered in a whole as a preset the physical platform of the 'artificial land' by the restriction of the limited urban land. However, comparing to the 'megastructure' of Metabolism, the adaptable structure of the settlement is much more discrete, decentralized and clustered but with a consistent visual grammar. Such characteristic satisfies the condition of the 'group form' Maki defines: the form and structure are defined by a group of individuals rather than bold concrete structure. Therefore, the linkage platform of the 'artificial land' is also integrated into the original settlement.

When adaptable structure possesses the both natures of solid and virtual artificial lands, the behaviour of the spontaneous adaption will follow a hybrid trajectory of these two characteristics.

On the one hand, the physical platform to large extent determines what space can be adapted. In the case study of the squatter settlement -Xin Zhong Jie, because of the spacious intervals among the original warehouse-like building layout the direction of adaption process generally appears horizontally, though the vertical extensions also emerge in the last stage. While in the case of urban village - Xiao Jia He, the relatively limited public spaces and compact village texture force the extensions going vertically after the second stage when the unoccupied ground spaces were almost taken.

On the other hand, linkage (virtual) platform influences how to occupy and adapt space. That is the reason why the order of the settlements 160

could reside in the 'seemingly' chaotic scenes. General speaking, similar to the traditional villages, the spontaneous extensions of the informal settlements reveal a kind of group conscious which is reflected on the relative consistency of building size, construction method and materials use. For instance, 5 to 10 meters square is a standard extensional room size in squatter settlement while 12- 15 meters square in urban villages. The extensions in both settlements are mainly built in brick with cement finish. Moreover, the extension forms of households in stage 2 and 3 of the squatter settlement appear remarkable group similarity, which also happens on the group cantilevers of the second storeys in stage 3 of the urban village adaption process in order to occupy more upper level spaces of the streets. What is more, the linkage platform is reflected on the 'Radial Pattern' of the spatial relationship between the households (original structure) and their extensions. Such 'Radial Pattern' means that the original structures are always at the center of the satellite extensions, which to large extent is determined by the primary-secondary relations of space uses (master rooms - letting rooms, kitchen dining room). Furthermore, in some cases the linkage is much more subtle and invisible, for example the independent extensions in stage 6 of the squatter settlement: the process of spatial transition and evolution broke the physical connections by the increase of the commercial activities. Additionally, density demanding is also the key linkage to maintain the quality of the extensional space. In the urban village, due to the stimulating of the room letting economy, the spatial arrangement of extensions is much more compact, organized, and space saving, whereas in the squatter settlement it appears relatively loose, random and disorganized because such density demanding linkage is not so strong.

In fact, if the entire settlement system is seen as the assemblage body, then the both physical and virtual 'artificial lands' can be reinterpreted as the components which stabilized the identity of the assemblage, i.e. territorialization as DeLanda defines. Meanwhile, different from the physical platform of the 'megastructure' which rejects joining the 'medieval' urban context of Tokyo, the initial physical structures of Beijing informal settlements grow out of the urban context surrounded. Therefore, the whole process of the adaption as an assemblage is contextualized.

161

GROUP FORM

+

ARTIFICIAL LAND

MEGASTRUCTURE

STRUCTURE DECONSTRUCTION

VIRTUAL PLATFORM (LINKAGES)

HYBRID PARADIGM

162

ADAPTABLE ELEMENT

PHYSICAL PLATFORM

ARTIFICIAL LAND, THE RESILIENCE OF URBAN SPACE No matter the 'Megastructure' or 'Group form' or the informal settlements, the essence of the adaptable 'artificial land' could be understood as a series of resilient spaces which are 'deliberately' designed for relieving the pressure from the explosive growth of the urban population. However, nowadays the urban informal settlements have been gradually wrapped away as the demolition and redevelopment of areas in Beijing, which to large extent causes lots of social problems. The resilience of urban space should be re increased, but how, in a way of Metabolism or ... China-ness Metabolism?

163

IMAGE CREDITS

1.1 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.57 1.2 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.72 1.3 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.56 1.4 - Kurokawa, K., 1977, Metabolism in Architecture, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, p.78 1.5 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.57 1.6 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.340 1.7 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.34 1.8 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.35 1.9 - Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York, p.122 1.10 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p. 140 1.11 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.338 1.12 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.339 2.1 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.368 2.2 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.31 2.3 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.380 2.4 - Available at :< http://www.aainter3.net/akis/2007/03/clusters_in_the_air_project_19.html>[Accessed 12 January 2013] 3.1 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.25 3.2 - Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York, p.164 3.3 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.34 3.4 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.24 3.5 - Available at: < http://www.flickriver.com/photos/glenhsparky/4502309416/>[Accessed 12 January 2013] 3.6 / 3.7 - Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York, p.160 3.8 - Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York, p.182 3.9 - Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York, p.184 3.10 - Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York, p.185 3.11 - Available at: <http://iviicb.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/kuwait-embassy-and-chancellery.html>[Accessed 12 January 2013] 3.12 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.138 3.13 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.142 4.1 - Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.119 4.2 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.304 4.3 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.308 4.4 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.249 4.5 - Kurokawa, K., 1977, Metabolism in Architecture, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, p.92 4.6 - Available at: <http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/kisho%20kurokawa>[Accessed 12 January 2013] 4.7 - AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln, p.351

164

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AMO Ota,K. and Westcott, J. eds., 2011, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Taschen, Koln Ballantyne, A., 2007, Deleuze and Guattari for architects, Routledge, New York DeLanda, M., 2006, A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity, Continuum, London Deleuze, G., and Guattari, F., 2004, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Continuum, London Farias, L. and Bender, T. eds., 2010, Urban Assemblages: How Actor-network Theory Changes Urban Studies, Routledge, London Kurokawa, K., 1977, Metabolism in Architecture, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado Leach, N., 2009, Swarm Urbanism, Architectural design: Digital City, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Volume 79, Issue4, pp. 56-63.

Lin, Z., 2010, Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Routledge, New York Maki, F., 1964, Investigations in Collective Form, Washington University Press, St.Louis, MO Ross, M.F., 1978, Beyond Metabolism: The new Japanese Architecture, McGrawHill, New York Tange, K., 1967, from Architecture to Urban Design, Japan Architect, May, 1967, p. 26

165

166

[3] CHINA-NESS METABOLISM

The experimental design of the new urban adaptability

In this part, the experimental design attempts to give the answer to the question mentioned in beginning of this piolt thesis: Is it possible to create a new type of the urban adaptability which absorbs the positive elements of two following extreme spatial adaption types?

One is the bottom-top spontaneous spatial adaption examined through the informal settlement typological study in the part one of the document.

Another one is the top-bottom dictatorial spatial adaption analysed in the part two through Metabolism projects.

This part is divided into five chapters (the story, the infrastructure, the house, the process of the adaption and urban vision) to detailed explain the proposed project ambition from a small scale expanding to a urban scale.

The background of the design project is based on the early investigation of the living situation of the floating population in Beijing confronting governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban demolition plan.

167

chapter one: the story

169

chapter two: the infrastructure

175

chapter three: the house

189

chapter four: the process of the adaption

197

chapter five: urban vision

215

afterword

218

168

CHAPTER ONE

THE STORY

169

The start point of this design project grew out of the social conflict existing between Chinese urban floating population and governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s demolition / redevelopment plans of the urban informal settlement.

Squatter settlement: horizontal expansion

Urban village: vertical expansion

Chinese cities have been experiencing the process of explosive urbanism since 1978. Large number of countryside people flow into big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai for job seeking. However, due to the existing of Hukou system (like city passport), these people receive few of the perks and privileges of full urban citizenship, and have little or no access to health care, educational opportunities, or good housing. These people are called floating populating population.

Therefore, urban informal settlement gradually becomes their urban survival space.

With the more and more floating population flowing into cities, the informal settlements begin to grow, expand, transform and mutate.

170

In order to maintain the good city appearance and consider the security problem, walls are usually built up around the settlements by government.

ć&#x2039;&#x2020;

Due to the requirement of the urban development, many informal settlements in Beijing especially around the city centre are waiting to be demolished.

However, in the most of the cases, floating population as tenant rather than house owner has to be forced to move out without compensation.

Because of the expansive rent fee for a proper living space in city centre, they are pushed far away to the city boundary in a very short time, which further brings a series of social problems.

171

Apparently, the story above has not a happy ending.

Now have a look my story, and see how my proposed urban intervention helps the floating population to adapt to governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s demolition policy in a much healthier way.

Firstly, the area around the original site needs some buffer space for the floating population temporary living.

If the space is impossible on the ground, then think about the space above, between buildings.

But how?

172

CONCEPT TRANSFORMATION DIAGRAM

This is a typical Metabolism Megastructure organization structure, black is the structural core, red is the habitable module

1 Lift it between two existing buildings

5

Now separate them

2 Make it elastic

6

Rotate the structural core

3

Hang the habitable module back to the transformed ‘structure core’

7

4

In this new light weight ‘structural core’, spatial adaption is still carrying on. This light weight ‘structural core’ is the cable web system

8

Thinner it

NOW LET US RESTART OUR PREVIOUS STORY

A series of the cable web structures are set up around the informal settlement before the demolition action of the government

Government decides to demolish the informal settlement in the city centre

ć&#x2039;&#x2020;

People move out and adapt their module houses which are rented from government on to the web infrastructure surrounding.

After they prepare to move out of the city centre, the web infrastructure in the city centre will be uninstalled and people re adapt their module houses to other web structures surrounding the city centre.

174 The proposal aims to help people to gradually adapt to the new environment within a time frame.

AND THIS COULD BE A HAPPY ENDING...

CHAPTER TWO

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

175

THE SITE, XIN ZHONG JIE BLOCK, BEIJING

+

The potential adaptable zone

176

Xin Zhong Jie squatter settlement (to be cleared and demolished soon)

Target buildings for project explanation (red outline)

The potential adaptable zone (black)

Xin Zhong Jie squatter settlement (to be cleared and demolished soon)

Floating population transfer directions

177

THE WEB SYSTEM ANCHOR POINT

Connecting to the truss structure

A detachable node for web connection

web interface

The internal of the truss structure also provide walking space, which allows the possibility of the formation of the future larger area (urban scale) airwalk circulation.

STAGE 1: SUPPORTING BELT SYSTEM Loop truss structure system like belt should be built up surrounding existing buildings at the initial stage for supporting web structure. Truss structure also provides the potential 178 adaptable platform.

Vertical flexible â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;sheathâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for web anchoring

web interface

web interface

The fin web connectors

The column is also used as the vertical circulation to access the web platform.

STAGE 2: WEB SUPPORTING COLUMN The column is mainly designed for supporting large spanned web system of which the width is normally above 25 m. Meanwhile, the truss structure also provides the potential platform for future adaption happening.

179

The detachable joint between truss belt and web anchor

The detachable joints between truss column and web anchors

STAGE 3: THE WEBS After the settling down of the supporting structure such as truss belt and column, webs finally can be attached to the structures. Due to the initial idea of the flexibility, all the joints between webs and external structures are detachable as the drawings above show, which makes the webs to be taken down 180 easily for the future.

WEB DEFORMATION TEST by the parametric script Grasshopper and live physics engine Kangaroo in Rhino platform Kangaroo is used to simulate the gravity field and membrane elasticity therefore to seek the accurate web form.

Web No.1

Web No.2

181 Web No.3

NEGATIVE FORCE LOADING TEST

Value _0

Value _-20

Value _-40

182

Value _-60

Value _-80

Value _-100

Grasshopper/Kangaroo programming diagram

183

Adaptable artificial land type one: truss belt

ARTIFICIAL LAND 1, 2, 3 184

Adaptable artificial land type two: truss column

The main adaptable artificial land type three: the web

THE FINAL PLAN OF THE WEB SYSTEM IN THE SITE: THE POTENTIAL ADAPTABLE POPULATION: 2000

185

web section

THE WEB TYPE ELABORATION 5 TYPES IN TERMS OF THE SUPPORTING COLUMN NUMBER AND WEBS SPATIAL CONFIGURATION

web distribution

1

10 - 25 m 10 - 25 m

type number

10 - 25 m

45 - 70 m

25 - 44 m 25 - 44 m

25 - 44 m

2

45 - 65 m

45 - 70 m 44 - 60 m 44 - 60 m

45 - 65 m

45 - 70 m

186

44 - 60 m

3

4

5

webplans list

the average number of potential adaptable grids (household per level)

15

30

48

90

59

187

188

CHAPTER THREE

THE HOUSE

189

Spatial relationship

Spatial adaption vocabulary Extracted from previous typologcial study

Growth

Spatial condition Open

Semi-closed

Closed

Caped closed 190

Internal occupation

Attachment

Suspension

Extension

Insertion

Invisible link

Temporary informal occupation

191

THE TRANSLATION OF THE PREVIOUS ADAPTION VOCABULARY INTO THE DESIGN ARCHITECTURE LANGUAGE

The following lists the typical spatial qualities emerge starting from the basic modules

Basic module A Spatial condition examples Spatial adaption/ composition examples

Basic module B Spatial condition examples Spatial adaption/ composition examples

Basic module C Spatial condition examples Spatial adaption/ composition examples

192

193

8 STEPS TEACH YOU HOW TO SETTLE DOWN YOUR HOME

WSF

2

Level adjustment Customize your home in node WHW (Webhome Workshop)

(webspace finder)

The truck

cable lift node

cable lift node

I want to have a big long window I want to have a big long window And a skylight !

WSF WSF

(webspace finder)

And a skylight !

(webspace finder)

water & electricity inlets

Folded external deck

Folded external deck

The truck

piping rolls

1

LOCATE A FREE SPACE FOR YOUR FUTURE HOME VIA WSF

6

CONNCET THE PIPING SYSTEM

Level adjustment node

pipe switches pipes connecting

Level adjustment node

water & electricity inlets Lift pulley system

7

The truck

UNFOLD YOUR HOME TO The LAND truck CREATE THE EXTERNAL

Level adjustment node

piping rolls

water & electricity inlets

pipe switches pipes connecting

water & electricity inlets

piping rolls

piping rolls

pipe switches pipes connecting

foldable external deck pipe switches

Lift pulley sy

pipes connecting

Lift p

Level adjustm

8 194

WANT TO EXPAND YOUR HOME ? NO PROBLEM !

CONNECTORS ARE READY FOR YOU

Level

space connector/stablizer

foldable external deck

cable lift node

cable lift node

WSF

I want to have a big long window

I want to have a big long window

(webspace finder)

And a skylight !

And a skylight !

piping rolls

Folded external deck

3 pipe switches

TRANSPORT YOUR HOME Folded external deck

cable lift node pipes connecting

I want to have a big long window

Lift pulley system

And a skylight !

Level adjustment node

Level adjustment node

The truck

Level adjustment node

Folded external deck

water & electricity inlets

Level adjustment node

piping rolls

foldable external deck

4 pipe switches

HANG YOUR HOME USING CABLE SYSTEM

pipes connecting

Lift pulley syste

5

ADJUST YOUR HOME LEVEL

Level adjustmen

space connector/stablizer

Lift pulley system

Level adjustment node

Lift pulley system

F

WAIT, YOU ALSO CAN EXPAND OUR HOME UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, ETC. PLEASE CHECK THE PRIVIOUS INSTRUCTION

foldable external deck

Level adjustment node

195

Inspired by same pioneer 3D building structure print such as some works done by Foster and Partner, the project proposes recyclable and used HDPE pallets which could be collected from industry docks as the module structural skeleton because of its properties of light weight and heavily loaded.

High Density Polyurethane (HDPE) Pallet Static load 6T 1200 mm

150 mm

Rack load 1.2T

Dynamic load 2T

MODULE STRUCTURAL MATERIAL STUDY

1200 mm

+

+ Spray polyurethane foam (SPF)

HDPE pallet

Steel bar connector

Steel connector

196

Aluminium finish Metal mesh finish Fabric finish etc.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE PROCESS OF THE ADAPTION

197

Vertical access module (for noncolumn web zone)

STAGE 1: The preset of the basic functional modules trigger the next habitable adaption. The number and types of the functional modules depend on the web zone adaptable areas198 as well as the potential population. Modules can be further added as the habitable areas expand.

Public toilet

Public kitchen

Public shower room Public open space

199

For single

STAGE 2: The habitable modules start to pop out around the functional modules. The design of the habitable modules can be customized by residents. The drawings above only show three examples of combination. (More 200 combinations can be found in the previous chapter)

For double

Adaption behaviour: Horizontal expansion (main) In this stage, the habitable module expansion appears radial pattern starting from the access and other functional modules to surrounding unoccupied areas. Due to the nature of the web structure, the difference of the height will be formed between different settlement groups even in the same web structure.

For family

201

Type one

STAGE 3: The intervention of the public open space modules.

When the size of the settlement modules comes to a certain number, some open space modules will be hung up to202 resolve the height difference of the groups in the same web system.

Type two

A stripe of public space will be formed for both two sides of residents meeting together. Meanwhile, the intervention of open space modules also provides the tendency of the next stageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vertical adaption.

Type three

203

Type one: roof semi-closed adaption

STAGE 4: Vertical adaption dominates in this stage. The population and number of the 204 must be controlled once the modules adaption size comes to a certain number.

Type two: independent module suspension (internal staircase)

Adaption behaviour: vertical expansion (main)

Type three: a new lower artificial layer formed

Though the vertical adaption is always companying with the process of horizontal expansion, however, once the horizontal artificial land is formed in a big area and the vertical platform is prepared such as the open public staircase modules in stage 3, the personal vertical adaption will be much easier to carry out and the phenomenon of the vertical adaption will be much more outstanding.

205

Community clinic

Bridge & staircase module

STAGE 5 Further connection to form a larger community, urban airwalk 206 network will be formed.

In this stage, the belt system artificial land will be activated.

Firstly, the bridge modules will bridge the gaps between web system and belt system.

Secondly, periphery community functions will be adapted onto the belt such as kindergarten, community clinic, elder common room etc.

Finally, due to the accessibility of the belt truss, a larger cross-web community network will be formed.

......

Community common space

Community kindergarten

Others

207

PIPING SYSTEM DIAGRAM

Electricity

CIRCULATION 208 DIAGRAM

Water

Sewage pipe

All the water, electricity and sewage pipes come up from the street ground beneath through the supporting web columns / access modules. And then through pipe plugging system, the water and electricity will be distributed to other modules.

CIRCULATION IN THREE WAYS

The vertical access staircases

The walking deck land formed by modules

The belt walkway which realizes the possibility of the cross-web communication

209

VIEW FROM WINDOW

210

211

Pulley system to adjust the staircase level

LONG SECTIONAL STUDY CHINA-NESS METABOLISM

Small kindergarten formed to take care of the kids after parents go to work

Detachable web suspension joint

Open square for public event

Detachable web suspension joint

Semi-closed modules providing small resting area

Web market area formed along with the open space

Roof adaption constructed by resident is used as private storage and garden

Roof green area The Belt truss system / belt walkway

Potential artiďŹ cial land for modules adapting in the future

Bridge module bridges the gap between belt system and web system Staircase module is used for the main vertical circulation Soft staircase for billboard maintaining Public shower room

Public kitchen Public toilet

Advertisements A new billboard is being lifted up

Other facilities channel Primary electricity channel Primary water pipe

Primary sewage pipe

Other facilities channel

Piping system transports water, electricity and sewage up to the web, at the same time is used as staircase structural element.

Primary electricity channel

Truss column is used as web supporting structure as well as vertical circulation

Primary water pipe

Primary sewage pipe

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CHAPTER FIVE

URBAN VISION TWO STROY ENDINGS

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RING 5 12495.9m

RING 4 7387.3m

RING 3 5912.1m

RING 2 2968.3m

Floating population migration route

THE FORBIDDEN CITY 0m

DIAGRAM OF THE EXISTING NONE-STOP FLOATING POPULATION MIGRATION ROUTE

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The informal settlement site chosen in this project (Xin Zhong Jie squatter settlement) The first diagram indicates the existing migration phenomenon that floating people is normally directly pushed away from their original living site after the informal settlement is demolished. In the most cases these people has to take a quite long time to get used of the outskirt less developed area due to the inconvenience transportation, job lost as well as children education issues, which makes their urban livings even more tough.

RING 5 12495.9m

3

RING 4 7387.3m

2

RING 3 5912.1m

1 RING 2 2968.3m

Floating population migration route

THE FORBIDDEN CITY 0m

Adaptable web structure belt

The informal settlement site chosen in this project (Xin Zhong Jie squatter settlement)

DIAGRAM OF THE PROPOSED MULTI-STOP FLOATING POPULATION MIGRATION ROUTE

The proposed urban strategy divides the existing migration route into several steps therefore to provide people with enough time to adapt new environment little by little. Meanwhile, due to the flexibility and light weight structure, the web system can be uninstalled relatively easier after finish of each step.

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AFTERDESIGN Creating a new type of urban adaptability, in fact is to define a new urban living ecological system. Differing from the traditional ecological rule, such system should have its own linguistic grammars and behaviours. It should be parasitic, customized, contextualized and flowing to meet the rapid rhythm of our digital era. It should have the internal logic of bottom-top spatial generating mechanism but within a frame of top-down linguistic system. It should be an architecture but with a certain quality of urban design thinking.

The web system project to some extent has met the characteristics of new urban adaptability.

However, as a utopia experiment, the project is perhaps unable to be realized due to the limitation of the technology and huge cost.

Nevertheless, it confirms the possibility of the new adaptability, which will open up more potential to approach the question.

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[4] APPENDIX Design Experiment Process This appendix witnesses a several of effort I did to test the possibility of new type of urban adaptability which combines metabolismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top-bottom controllable urban adaptability and the spontaneous self-configured and self-adjusted spatial structure presented by urban informal settlements as the typological study I did previously.

The experiment process contains four stages: In the first stage I proposed an adaptable/ parasitic urban strategy/network of temporary living style.

In the second stage I attempted to explore the concept of the linear city initially proposed

by Metabolists and applied it to the parasitic urban strategy in the first stage based on the Flyover host body.

In the third stage I shifted my interest to the decentralised urban adaptability pattern and started to explore the light weight â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;artificial landâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (web structure) instead of the heavy concrete core promoted by Metabolists. The experiment environment was still based on flyover host body.

In the fourth stage, I further explored the web structure adaptation mechanism and tested it within the environment between buildings.

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DESIGN EXPERIMENT STAGE NO. 1 MIGRATABLE ARCHITECTURE The start point of this proposal grew out of the conflict between the floating population and the urban informal settlements demolition/redevelopment by government in Beijing.

The design concept is about reforming temporary community through designing a series of urban adaptable systems and infrastructures (artificial land) within ‘urban gaps’ to trigger and help the floating population to readapt urban space in a much healthier way during the Beijing urban transition.

The urban adaptable system contains individual debatable habitable modules, none parasitical community parent structure and a series of parasitical community infrastructures scattered around the city.

THE DIAGRAM OF THE URBAN NETWORK BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARASITICAL COMMUNITIES AND NONE PARASITICAL COMMUNITIES WITH THE DISTRIBUTION Individual detachable habitable modules can be moved around the city and attached to any preset community structures CITY : BEIJING

220

Parasitical community structure

CCTV community

Flyover community

High rise gap community Individual debatable habitable modules

Wall community

Alley community

None parasitical community parent structure

221

DESIGN EXPERIMENT STAGE NO. 2 Continuing the strategy proposed in No.1 experiment, this project attempted to explore the parasitic/adaptable architectural language mainly based on the host body flyover.

Linear City, initially proposed by Metobolists, was dominated in this experiment.

Early sectional study to explore the spatial composition based on the existing flyover structure

Sectional study No.1

222Sectional study No.2

Model one

Model two

Model three

The possible module adaption behaviour

PHYSICAL MODEL STUDY OF THE ADAPTABLE/ PARASITIC LINEAR COMMUNITY STRUCTURE BASED ON THE FLYOVER HOST BODY

3D VIEW OF THE LINEAR COMMUNITY BENEATH EXISTING FLYOVER

Bridge pier

Suspended community takes advantage of the useless space beneath the flyover and also makes sure the traffic below the flyover is not affected.

Flyover Bridge provide structural support

Suspension structural element

Functional modules (such as kitchen, toilet, common room, etc) attaching to the core

Vertical access core

Adaptable habitable modules attaching to the horizontal artificial land

Linear spine creating a linear adaptable artificial land (also used as internal circulation space)

Bridge pier

The drawing of the plan witnesses my experimental thinking of the adaptable spatial structure in different period as this dot line indicates:

Vertical access core

Functional modules (such as kitchen, toilet, common room, etc) attaching to the core

LHS is dominated by the concept ‘linear city’ proposed initially Metabolists

DETAILED PLAN STUDY OF THE LINEAR COMMUNITY BENEATH EXISTING FLYOVER

RHS is my experiment drawing to explore the possibility of decentralized adaptable spatial quality influenced by Deleuze’s theories.

Suspended community takes advantage of the useless space beneath the flyover and also makes sure the traffic below the flyover is not affected.

This is not a proper design, rather, it is a collection of drawings which potentially contains the architectural language for next stage's development;

MANGYUAN WANG, DARWIN COLLAGE

Adaptable space should provide the possibility of the spatial transformation and behaviour patterns

idea about the imagination of the spatial configuration. My early concept is dominated by 'linear city' as Metabolists calls. However, such idea is deconstructed soon after I criticized the concept of 'linear city' in my typological and history studies.

And the new hybrid paradigm I found in the informal settlement is adopted and reflected in my late part of the drawings including the 'elevation/section' drawings.

This is my first drawing of 6 drawings for architectural language seeking.

CHINA-NESS METABOLISM

Linear spine creating a linear adaptable artificial land (also used as internal circulation space) The 'plan' study starting from left to right collages the entire shifting process of my The drawings attempt to experiment the hidden hybrid paradigm spatial form (Artificial Land) as I indicates in my history and theory essay in terms of physical platform and virtual linkage.

The drawings above consist of one 'plan' and two short 'elevation/section' studies based on one of my initial scenarios (flyover)

Adaptable habitable modules attaching to the horizontal artificial land Unlike the Metabolism’s uniform, each module in this project has its own adaptable characteristic, which corresponds to each resident’s living style.

Suspension structural element

Flyover Bridge provide structural support

226

SUSPENDED LINEAR COMMUNITY EXPERIMENTED BETWEEN BUILDINGS

Street facade

Adaptable habitable modules attaching to the horizontal artificial land Suspension structural element

Vertical core for functional modules adapting

Bridge for accessing the staircase which is inside the street building

Functional modules (such as kitchen, toilet, common room, etc) attaching to the core

Horizontal linear spine creating a linear adaptable artificial land (also used as internal circulation space)

227

DESIGN EXPERIMENT STAGE NO. 3 My interest in urban adaptability was shifted from early linear community concept to explore the possibility of nonelinear decentralized adaptable pattern.

Meanwhile, the project also experimented the light weight artificial land instead of heavy concrete infrastructure.

Suspended parasitical web structure which potentially can provide platform for adapting became the key of the project.

In this stage, the experiment environment is still based on flyover host body.

A metaphoric analytical diagram to explain the relationship between web structure, individual module and host body

Movable unit Program: en-suit unit; kindergarten; cinema; library; kitchen; game room; etc

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Adaptation behaviour

Adaptable platform

Host body

Transportation system

High rise building

Web structure/platform

Conceptual plan one, parasitical web structure in high dense high rise buildings urban context

Individual adaptable modules Web structure/platform

Individual adaptable modules Flyover infrastructure Conceptual plan two, parasitical in urban flyover node

229

EXPLORATION OF THE WEB STRUCTURE

Physical model of the suspended web structure beneath the flyover

TYPE ONE

The draft plan

230

EXPLORATION OF THE WEB STRUCTURE

TYPE TWO

Elevation one

Bird view one

Personal Unit Kitchen Unit Green Unit Toilet Unit Shower Unit Stair case Unit Living space Unit Kindergarten Unit

Elevation two

The draft plan

Bird view two

231 Bird view three

Flyover

Elevation study

Track system layer

Web structure layer

The structure of the web is a double layer system: the first layer web provides loadbearing function, while the second layer is the track system which allows the individual module to move around the web like cable cart.

Individual module

EXPLORATION OF THE WEB STRUCTURE

For further expansion

Creating a highly informal adaptable / extendable potential

TYPE THREE

DAY ONE:

Staircase access to walkways

Spatial adaption happens when people settle down in a place, the drawings below show the process of the predicted adaption through the time.

DAY TWO:

INFRASTRUCTURE

electricity, gas, water piping system

walkway on the net

decking connector with piping system beneath

electricity, gas, water distributor node

net structure - cable net with track system hanging below

external decking

sub net structure with docking point

existing flyover

movable habitable cart habitable cart connector

232

movable kindergarten cart

movable kindergarten cart

movable staircase cart

movable staircase cart

movable commons cart

movable commons cart

connector

connector

movable commons cart

movable commons cart

HOUSE AGGREGATION

Flyover

web walkway

Track system layer

DAY THREE: ADAPTAION

3d bird view

DAY FOUR:

MELTING INTO THE LANDSCAPE

semi-closed structure frame

solid decking borad

Floating fields for landscape and agriculture with membrane foundation

metal decking board information receiver

informal external extensive spaces (shelter, shelf, semi-structure, etc informal planting field for vegetation growing informal water pool for fish raising, fresh water collecting, etc movable habitable cart habitable cart connector movable kindergarten cart

movable staircase cart

movable staircase cart

movable commons cart connector movable commons cart

233

DESIGN EXPERIMENT STAGE NO. 4 In this stage, I turned my interest to the urban context and saw how the urban high rise buildings could create the opportunity for web structure adaption. Meanwhile, the design focus was shifted from module mobility to how the community grows in the web through the time.

However, the physical behaviour of the web structure still need to be further explored.

Stage 1 Stage 4

THE ADAPTION PROCESS OF THE 234 COMMUNITY

Stage 2

Stage 3

THE MODULE DESIGN WITH DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS

personal living module

public square / green module

functional infrastructure module

staircase core module

staircare, core module

perso

publi

funct

stairc

personal living module

public square / green module personal living module

functional infrastructure module public square / green module

kitchen module

public space / mini square module staircase core module functional infrastructure module

staircase core module

personal living module

public square / green module

functional infrastructure module

shower module staircase core module

personal living module

public square / green module

functional infrastructure module

female toilet module staircase core module

personal living module

public square / green module personal living module

functional infrastructure module public square / green module

male toilet module

public space / mini square combinations staircase core module functional infrastructure module

staircase core module

personal living module

single living module public square / green module

functional infrastructure module

staircase core module

personal living module

couple living module public square / green module

functional infrastructure module

staircase core module

personal living module

family living module public square / green module

functional infrastructure module

235

3D VIEW OF THE WEB SYSTEM IN URBAN SCALE

SECTION OF THE WEB SYSTEM 236 IN URBAN SCALE

The application of the parasitical web system both on the existing building structures and motor way nodes

PLAN OF THE WEB SYSTEM IN URBAN SCALE

237

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MANGYUAN WANG. CAMBRIDGE. 2013