Portfolio yixin ma

Urban Design Project 1: Reflective Portfolio Individual Portfolio | Yixin Ma 2015-2016 MAUD SSoA

/PREFACE/ This is our first project during the master year and it is a remote design project in South Africa which we cannot visit except through google map and social media. Luckily we worked with Local studio who shared much information and data about Joburg and introduced this project at first class via skype.

In this project we will learn to use many different tools and apply them to design process, such as blog which we used to share our work with local people and other students, after that we will get feedback from this blog. It is an interactive way to design and meaningful to us.

The project has 6 weeks and includes 3 briefs: film, manifesto and design strategy which includes 3 versions. For each version we would work in group and do a round design process.

Thanks to Local studio for their support.

Thanks to Beatrice De Carli and Jhono Bennett for their tutorials and review Thanks to my group members for their help.

Thanks to all people who give us feedback and recommendation.

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CONTENT

PART 1 PROJECT BRIEF & TIMELINE

3

Studio Brief Timeline

PART 2 CONTEXT & ANALYSIS

5

PART 3 SPATIAL DESIGN STRATEGY Principles & Strategies & Tactics

7

Strategy 1

9

Strategy 2

10

Strategy 3

11

PART 4 INDIVIDUAL DESIGN STRATEGY

12

PART 5 CRITICAL REFLECTION

13

Group members: Sudeshna Sarkar, Xu Yang, Alexandre Gaiser, Yixin Ma

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PART 1 PROJECT BRIEF & TIMELINE

Brie

Introduction The Project 1 is to engage propositionally with the Braamfontein Urban Design Framework

by Local Studio. Whilst working with Local Studio asyour Agent of Change, you will be asked to develop a ‘critique by design’ of thisframework in-the-pipeline. By the end of the Project you will have collectivelydeveloped a number of spatial propositions that either endorse the framework,expanding on particular aspects of it, or question it by advancing further proposals.

Theme：Ideas of Public Space Locality：Johannesburg Project Site：Braamfontein

Brief 1.2 Public Space & Public Life Part A: Precedents in public space design

Design Response to Braamfontein UDF (Group)

Brief 1.1 Ideas on Film We will prepare a conceptually clear, visual compelling short film, exploring a specific topic relevant to Project 1.

Desig Braam (Indiv

Our grou through t 1, Version Spatial D discussed that will ta and onlin

Part B: Provisional manifesto for inclusive public spaces in Johannesburg

South African Urbanism: The Informal City

10/11

3

17/11

Week 1

24/11

Week 2

Version 1

Week 3

01/12

ef 1.3 Spatial Design Strategy

Final Group Presentation & Feedback

gn Response to mfontein UDF vidual)

Studio Reviews

up’s urban graphics will develop three iterations: Version n 2, and Version 3 of our Design Strategy. These will be d in weekly feedback sessions ake place both in the studio ne, on the Studio blog.

Version 2

Week 4

In the studio, feedback will be provided by our peers, tutors, and external guests. Online, feedback will be provided by the Braamfontein users through social media, and by a few selected stakeholders provided by the Studio.

08/12

Version 3

Week 5

15/12

Week 6

4

PART 2 Context & Analysis

Global Issues Gauteng

• Youth Unemployment • Economic Inequality (GINI index) Johannesburg

South Africa

6 Religions The Capital of Gauteng Produces 10% of Africa's GDP

Top 10 most unequal countries in the world 2nd largest economy in Africa

Local Issues

11 Official language The biggest city in South Africa

• • • • • • • •

Location

•

Legacy of 40 years of disinvestment by the Apartheid government Ethnic segregation of the communities now transformed to economic segregation Population expansion, urbanization and climate change has affected the water and sanitation, waste, energy, electricity, transport and social infrastructure Shadow privatisation of public places The transformation of the natural, historical, social and economic environmentsover time causes the change of identity.

The gated communities are being built out of the fear of crime. This is further resulting in fragmentation of the city.

Multiple ownership and divided responsibilities make the effective management of a public space difficult.

Safety issues around Nelson Mandella bridge.

The site of project 1 is located in Johannesburg which is the largest city in South Africa. It has grown rapidly over the 20th century. Today it remains a major economy in Africa and leads province of Gauteng in producing 10% of the continent's GDP. In this project, we focused on Juta Street, Braamfontein, which would become a walkable street. It sits on the railway border between inner city and the northern suburbs. In this area, there are mixture of residential groups, government officers and education facilities. Also there are many retails and restaurants here.

As we could not situated in Juta Street, we used social media and google map to analyse this area.

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JUTA Street

Types of Spaces and social groups analysis

Street Sidewalk Parkinglot Leftover Space

Night

1 2 3 4

Morning

$

LEFT-OVER SPACES Leftover Building Leftover Space

$

$

$

$

4

Parking lot

3

Sidewalk Road Parking

2 $ $

Evening

CAR -PARK AREAS

Parking on the sidewalk $

1

$

TRAFFIC NETWORK

Afternoon

$

Road Dead end

$

Crossings Cycle Lane Taxi stands

Workers

Resident Higher income residents

$

Outdoor ‘formal’ worker

LANDUSE PLAN Residential

Lower income residents Homeless residents

$

‘Informal’ street worker Coffe shop worker

Retail Restaurant School Commercial Industrial Parking

Office worker

Students University student

Lower income retailer

Visitors

High school learner

Tourist

Primary school learner

Regular visitor

FIGURE-GROUND MAP

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PART 3 SPATIAL DESIGN STRATEGY Adaptability

Sustainability Principles

• •

Viable and meaningful spatial connections within the city’s open spaces.

Retaining the key elements of the cultural and natural heritage.

•

Protect and enhancing the environmental resources.

1 Strategies

• •

Integration

Proposing easily changable place by minimalist approach Proposing spaces to be able to accomodate different

• •

needs of people considering their complexity.

Transformation to a Walkable street in Phases

•

By using the minimal resources and small investment, producing an to produce diverse walkability

•

Promoting adaptable walkability in different time frame.

2 •

Designing the public spaces by clustering and integrating the collective elements of the city Combining different projects and promoting social integration through participatory design process.

Comfortable sidewalks

We decided to create attractive points on the sidewalk to engage people to share and enjoy the sidewalk, using urban furniture and green elements to make sidewalk more walkable and flexible.

PHASE 2B

Peace pathlet

Tactics

Guided sidewalk

PHASE 2B

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PHASE 1B

Phase 1: Improving walkability within the existing urban fabric by short term interventions Phase 2: Transforming the street ends to public plaza by middle term interventions Phase 3: Promoting green public space by long term interventions

PHASE 1B

Artsline

Proposal of two stoLively sidewalk

PHAS

• • •

Promoting sense of permanence, strategic location, “capital web” (David Crane), Designing spaces as multi-use destinations, “human-scale” interventions, flexibility and connecitions With a aim to get a common ground for social and economic interaction and promote a positive environment.

3 • •

• •

Promoting equivalent respect among all communities, individuals and cultures Accommodating and balancing both homogeneity (sameness) and heterogeneity (diversity) in the public spaces.

We define as a strategy to “occupy” parts of the streets that are nowadays used by cars, transforming it to pedestrian public spaces, focusing on the interventions in the parking lots of the street.

The tactics involved in this strategies are divided into two type of actions: institutionalized actions, in which the local authorities shall be involved, and “subversive” actions, which should made by different groups of people

• •

(artists, retailers, students etc), to call attention about the topic.

PHASE 1A

SE 3

Parklets

Lower Ground Parkings

Integrating Economic activity (both formal and informal) to integrative different communities, ethnics, age, gender and income groups in the public spaces.

• •

Understanding the role and potential of each stakeholder and involving them in the management of the maintenance.

Promoting social cohesion and inclusion to benefit small to large scale public spaces.

On Juta Street there are many leftover spaces, like deserted green land, pocket parks, small open spaces and some gaps between buildings.

With the development of urbanism, these spaces are more and more precious. As Juta Street is becoming a walkable street, there is a great request to re-use the leftover space on the street to attract more residents and tourists to this place.

PHASE 2A

Green Informal Markets

•

Multidisciplinary Management

4Re-using the leftover spaces

Occupying Parking Lots

PHASE 3

Economic Significance

Equity

Identity, context and place making

Underground

Containers of Activities

PHASE 1A

Market place under the flyover

Social facilities

Roof Garden & Restaurants

Place for homeless people under the flyover

PHASE 2A

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Strategy 1: Transformation to a Walkable Street in Phases ------ Sudeshna Sarkar

Tactic 1: Improving walkability within the existing urban fabric by short term interventions • By using the minimal resources and small investment, producing an immidiate impact in a shorter time span.

• This will allow prototyping and experimentation with the existing potential public spaces and different stakeholders in terms of their commitment and relationship.

• Engaging the community in participative design and execution process will improve the quality of life and the neighborhood’s image as well.

• These interventions will need minimal commitment, but will allow relationships to be built that could support further long term interventions.

Tactic 3: Promoting green public space by long term interventions

Bertha Street

Section 1

Public Participation

local area tours to the artists and architects from the local people

• To built public spaces, more established in the local area and for communities and begin to grow around them connecting to the other important parts of the city.

• Strong commitment and support from the different stakeholders are needed to execute and maintain these inclusive long term plannings

Section 1

A real-time

Give the nearby

an incentive + architecture + owners competition to develop the

space before people get used to the land

Short term interventions in parking, sideways,and left-over spaces Changing the vacant building to a community hall

Tactic 2: Transforming the street ends to public plaza by medium term interventions • The short term interventions will draw attention to different stakeholders and will enable to built more permanent public space design.

• The sites can be developed permanently and will raise the standard of open spaces in Juta Street, contributing to a higher quality of life for the users.

• Infrastructures will be developped and used for further events, exhibitions and other cultural activities for higher public interractions.

• People who were already a bit organised and educated about

Section 1

Changing the side walk and left-over spaces

Section 1

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Changing the Parking lot and proposing one floor over the existing parking building

Strategy 2: Comfortable Sidewalk ------ Xu Yang

Tactic 2: Lively Sidewalk The sidewalk in short term, we can not change a lot space of Juta street, such as the width of sidewalk. So in this term, we focus on the furnitures on the existing streets. we aim to creat several a walkable sidewalk with placing several furnitures for pedestrians to pause on the street.

Tactic 1: Art Street This is also the first phase of our design. As we have found from exisiting condition of this area, there are few pedestrian compare to the commercial area. But lots of car parking here and they occupy a lot sidewalk place. However, we can find that street art in this area is quite presperous.

Ref: Bland Hoke & Howard Chambers, Softwalk, 2012. Accessed by 01 Dec 2015. http://citysoftwalks.com/

Involved stakeholders $

$

So it is necessary to cut down the car parking number in this area to creat space for another activities.

Guided sidewalk

Involved stakeholders

Designing the sidewalk of plaza by suggestive design or coloring the tile work into different colors can be an imply and guidance for visitors to join in the plaza.

$

Green sidewalk Tactic 3: Peace Pathlet & Guided Sidewalk

Because we exclude the motor vehicle in this area. So it is very important to make a nice walking path for people to enjoy green and nature. And we also pay attention on the suitable scale of the walking path.

This sidewalk strategy is for medium term of the walkable braamrontein. From the existing condition we can see that most sidewalk is used for car parking and these streets is a peaceful place.

Our strategies about medium terms is to make the peaceful area that around the living and create guided line for people to access our plaza. So we can make some significant change in some area.

Involved stakeholders $

$

Ref: Rural Studio, Lion Park, 2010-2014. Accessed by 17 Nov 2015. http://www.ruralstudio.org/

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Strategy 3: Occupying Parking Lots ------ Alexxandre Gaiser

Tactic 1: Containers of Activities Situation: plenty of parking lots shows (and promotes) the preference to cars.

Aim: first subversive approach to start the discussion about public spaces.

Get in touch with the organisation of the directed allotment (either a school or a retail). They can suggest (or define) the activities in the conteiner.

Funding (or material) can be asked for construction companies.

Light instalation as part of the new identity of the street.

Two Precedents:

Santiago Cirugeda, Seville

Oliver Bishop Young, London

Involved Stakeholders $

$

Tactic 3: Street Vendors Square

Tactic 2: Parklet

Situation: blocks with less traffic open possibilities for a walkable city. Stigmatized street vendors are not allowed to work on the area

Situation: cars occuppies more space than the people themselves.

Aim: estabilish a closer relation between the establishment and the public spaces.

Public furniture can be used as extention of the near retail (also responsible for maintenance).

Different activities promote uses day and night.

Involved Stakeholders: 11

$

$

Aim: redefine the street vendors’ restrictions.

Governamental institutions should install the necessary infrastructure (such as eletricity points) to realise the open markets. Traffic control will be also necessary.

Involved Stakeholders: $

$

PART 4 IDIVIDUAL STRATEGY estaur

a

Restaurant

et Garde tre

n

S

Tactic 1: Re-use Inside Leftover Spaces

au e s t r an t

Pub

R

fR oo

nt

R

Re-using the leftover spaces

opping Ma l

l

Sh

As the Juta Street is becoming a walkable street, large number of restaurants will be needed in this street. Our proposal is to transform some abandoned buildings to restaurants to fully utilize them.

au e s t r an t

R

The roof of building in this pedestrain street has great business potential, so we want to transform some roofs of building to restaurants to attract more people come here and have a rest.

Pub From our research, we know that African people love nightlife very much. So we think it is a good way to add several pubs on the street to attract more young people and visitors to enjoy their spare time.

Pub

Shopping Mall As walkable street has great commercial value, we suggest to change some huge buildings which situate on crossroad to shopping mall.It can increase the pedestrian flow of Juta Street.

Street Garden It is a better way to make some small deserted spaces which along the street more beautiful and have some rest facilitis to supply a comfortable walkable environment for pedestrian.

Involved stakeholders Tactic 2: Utilize the small open spaces to recreation

$

Tactic 3: Transform Leftover Space to Business Present Informal Trade:

Future Informal Trade:

Economic activity, both formal and informal, play an integrative role within different communities as well as different ethnics, age, gender and income groups. In South Africa there are a lot of people work on informal business and they do not have safe and confortable spaces for working. For this situation, our proposal is to creat a safe and well organized spaces for people to do business.

It is possible to build a supermarket, fish shop, parking spaces or graffiti gallery in the leftover places which under the flyover. It is an attempt to activate the space which is easy to be ignored. The retails and markets can attract more people to gather and communicate.

Creating spaces for informal “survivalist trading” opportunities of different levels can enable people to fight poverty and engage in the public spaces as well.

Involved stakeholders

In Braamfontein, there are many urban leftover spaces which distribute in some abandoned places or gap between buildings. Our proposal is to re-utilize these places and give them new lives.

Placemaking, by solidifying the links between people and their shared places, can enable us to stitch our cities back together. When we feel connected to a space, we are more likely to experience our connection to others within that space.

Involved stakeholders

Ref: A8ernA: городская площадь и катамараны под эстакадой

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$

$

PART 5 CRITICAL REFLECTION

[Group Work] During the first term, we always worked in group so we have already adapted to this form. In my group, we experienced a pleasant design process. Although we had some conflicts sometimes, I think they are useful to our work as the different opinions contributed significantly to us. During the process, each of us worked seriously and contributed many works to our design. I have learnt many things from my teammates who have their own advantages. For example, Sudeshna is good at writing so she was responsible for our final writing work. Alex is good at gathering information and clearing up them logically. Xu Yang and I are good at graphic and composing. We made up for weakness of the others by own advantages and coordinated our work well.

The weakness of our group work is lack of enough connection to each strategy of each person. We made our own strategies and applied them to each phase separately so they had less connection to each other. One of the reasons is that we had less time to discuss all strategies together and made them as a hole. Another reason is language, as we came from different countries, our English level was not equal so we had some difficulties in communication. As a result, it made us feel a little tired and confused when we talked about something. We often had some confusion about other teammates’ opinion.

[Long Form Graphic] It was my first time to use long- form graphic which comprised with 5 A1 to put on our design work.

It was a hard work to organize all of the graphics in such big size page and unify drawing styles of each person. For solving this problem, we decided to use timeline and color system to organize our graphics. We divided our strategies to three phases and showed them in three parallel based models.

Each strategy and its tactics have their own colors to make our information clear and help people understand it better. In order to make each tactic distinct, we use line drawing to frame them with same color system. The tutors said it is a good and logic way to visualize our content.

The regret was that we always had bad time management so that we cannot finish all of the graphics in time and leave it blank at the bottom of the long-form page.