The Significance of Home
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The Significance of Home
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Often, what we consider Home becomes a significant source of the formulation of our identity. In the case of humans, this (re)source could be a place where they go to sleep, eat, pray, work or play, a memory in which they find comfort, an object towards which they feel attached, or a person with whom they feel welcome. In the case of civilizations, it could be the city where they were born, a river that feeds them, a center of activity that ensures their vitality, a structure of governance, or a group of people that guide them. Either way, the implications of our chosen or predestined homes, guide the course of our existence in ways that are significant.
Edited by:
Tamanna Tiku and Fan Yang Cover Art by:
Fan Yang
The Significance of Home
According to Business Insider, on a list of the cities around the world where the richest people live, the San Francisco Bay Area was ranked 11th in 2017. However, this concentration of wealth, is closely followed by crushing economic inequality. NPR reported in 2013 that finite rental stock and the latest tech boom are combining to squeeze middle and lower income San Franciscans out of their homes. The rising homeless population and rates of gentrification combined with the drug epidemic, have turned the Bay Area’s streets into a constant demonstration of this heartbreaking disparity. But are we paying attention?
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HOME DATA AND SCIENCE
LIVE/WORK
RELIGION AND CULTURE
DESIGN RESPONSE
EFFECTS OF FORM
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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YOU LIVE WHERE?
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HOME-BIOME
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HOMEMADE WORKSPACES
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HOME: RURAL OR URBAN?
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FROM THE CENTER TO THE FRINGES
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GETTING HOME
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PIXEL HOUSES
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FOREVER WAITING
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WHAT ARE THE BOUNDARIES OF HOME?
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FABRICS OF HOME AND TIME
Berkeley, California Mercedes HARRIS
Sophia ARBARA
New Delhi, India Tamanna TIKU
Minecraft Tamanna TIKU
Mexico City, Mexico Andrea MEDINA
Rob UNGAR
South Jiangsu, China Fan YANG
Shenzen, China Pei-Chi CHEN
Ping Tan, China Chang XU
9 cities around the world Andrea MEDINA, Brendan HURLEY, Chang XU, Fan YANG, Lydia KONTOZOGLOU, Pei-Chi CHEN, Radhika HARIDAS, Sabrina HUSSEIN, Tamanna TIKU
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YOU LIVE WHERE?
Living Arrangements for UC Berkeley Students Mercedes E. Harris
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Finding Home It seems every conversation in the Bay turns to or references the elephant in the room: the housing affordability crisis. We all know the rents are high and people are commuting farther. However, I wanted to see if UC Berkeley students were coping with the high prices in other - perhaps less legal - ways. When I was arranging my move to Berkeley, I was searching for housing 1,500 miles away. Landlords didn’t want to go through the hassle talking to me because they had a line out the door with people ready to write deposit checks. What I thought would be a walk in the park turned into an Olympic sport. Once I found a place, I had no way of knowing if the pictures online were accurate, if the housemates were friendly or even really where local amenities were until I moved in and settled. For out-of-staters and international students, moving to Berkeley is playing darts in the dark. The first thing that became quickly apparent was if I wanted a private space, I was going to pay a premium. As a graduate student, I was not about to risk sharing a room with an 18-year old. Bless
DISTANCE TO UCB CAMPUS
their souls but my partying days are behind me. I then discovered the capacity of units is usually double what I might consider “normal.” During my undergraduate, a peer of mine had a baby. He and his wife lived in a modest one bedroom. But with the addition of the baby, the landlord was no longer able to lease the property to them. The unit was considered at capacity with two people. A one-bedroom unit in the Bay Area might have 4 or 5 people living together. I am not saying one is better than the other (the first is meant to perpetuate low-density environments, the second starts to consider issues of overcrowding) but definitely different. Because of the culture shock and the stories I have heard from other students, I wanted to see the faces behind the crisis. Where do students live? Does the average student have enough space to live and study? What sorts of rental agreements - formal or informal - are acceptable when faced with outstanding rents?
Quantifying the Problem The accompanying graphs show preliminary resultsNUMBER of a nine question distributed to UCB OF survey ROOMMATES
5+ miles 5%
2 6%
3 - 5 miles 13%
3 3%
students. Questions ask for the students relationship to the university (graduate, undergraduate, etc), the type of residence they occupy (off-campus rental, owned place), the number of people sharing the same sleeping quarters with them (defined as roommates) and the number of people sharing the unit with them (defined housemates). The graphs represent a week of time in a months long project. Forty individuals completed the survey, two responses were eliminated for limited or conflicting responses, resulting in a total of 38 recorded responses. 68% of respondents are graduate students, 24% undergraduate, 5% doctoral students and 3% other. 82% of individuals received their housing from the private rental market, as opposed to campus provided, non-profit charities or owning. No students reported living with family. The survey will stay open and continue to collect results. For now, here are some take-aways: • One individual is informally living in the garage of a larger unit. • One individual resides in his/her van. • Only two individuals do not rent their homes. • 3 respondents reported at least one member
NUMBER OF HOUSEMATES
Other 5%
24+ 18%
16 to 24 3%
Less than 1 mile 37% 0 51% 1 35%
8 to 16 5% 1 to 3 58% 4 to 8 16%
1 - 3 miles 45%
1. Distance of the respondent’s residence to UCB campus
2. Number of individuals sharing a room with the respondent
3. Number of individuals in the same unit with the respondent
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RENT ($)
• of their house do not pay rent through a formal contract with a landlord. • All the undergraduates surveyed reported sharing a room. • Respondents have an average number of 8 housemates. • Respondents paid an average of $1,076.
“Have you tried finding a place to live in Berkeley? It’s so expensive!” Those words are from a guest professor to a group of graduate students. We politely declined to tell him that, yes, we were quite aware of the problem. A full $12,000 of the students loans I’ll have acquired from my masters degree are strictly to pay for housing in Berkeley. That’s more than the amount of loans I took out for my entire undergraduate degree.
1600+ 8%
0 3%
NEIGHBORHOODS
1401 - 1600 11%
N. Lake Merritt 5%
Albany 4%
600 - 800 26%
1201 - 1400 5%
North Berkeley 18% Central Berkeley 23%
1001 - 1200 18%
South Berkeley 50%
801 - 1000 29%
RENT ($)
5.Rent prices, per month, in the $600 - $1000 bracket versus the neighborhood the individuals live in. 1600+ 8%
0 3%
NUMBER OF ROOMMATES
1401 - 1600 11%
600 - 800 26%
1201 - 1400 5%
Private Room 32% Shared Room 68%
1001 - 1200 18%
801 - 1000 29%
RENT ($)
6. Rent prices, per month, in the $600 - $1000 bracket versus the number of roommates the individual lives with.
NEIGHBORHOOD Claremont UCB Hills Emeryville 3% 3% 3% Davis El Cerrito 3% 3%
1600+ 8%
Downtown Oakland 3% Southern Telegraph 3%
Albany 5%
0 3%
DISTANCE TO UCB CAMPUS
1401 - 1600 11%
600 - 800 26%
3 - 5 miles 9%
1201 - 1400 5% Less than 1 mile 43%
North Berkeley 11% South Berkeley 43% Central Berkeley 20%
4. Respondents’ Neighborhoods (based on zip code)
1 - 3 miles 48%
1001 - 1200 18%
801 - 1000 29%
7. Rent prices, per month, in the $600 - $1000 bracket versus the distance to UCB campus.
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A full $12,000 of the students loans I’ll have acquired from my masters degree are strictly to pay for housing in Berkeley.
Those who have limited budgets find themselves in precarious situations. The graphs immediately to the right compare the cost of housing versus other reported factors. The individual paying $0 is the person living out of a van. The smaller pie graphs focus on the next bracket up, $600 - $1000, which is below the average $1076 reported. These individuals are less likely to have a private space (68% share a room versus 49% in the overall) and are more likely to live closer to the UCB campus than the overall group (57% versus 67%). The neighborhood diversity seen in the overall group falls when examining the $600 - $1000 bracket. There could be many reasons for this including: high prices to include better living conditions, the unwillingness to move closer once an apartment was secured, or the appreciation of a specific neighborhood. Finding a place to live is hard enough, but for some, keeping it also becomes a challenge. I know of three individuals who regularly move, transferring from one short term lease to another. Others have opted for the higher rental rates on home-sharing sites to have a semi-permanent place to stay. In many regards, I am one of the lucky ones with high student loan allotments who can eat the cost of this crisis. But these students can’t. A sublease may last a couple of weeks or
8. In 2011, UCB converted lounges to temporary, 4-person rooms.
months. But they know, sometime in the middle of the semester, they are going to have to pick up and move...again.
ens if he ever slept in or if one of those modes is late. Thankfully, of the respondents, many are within walking or biking distance.
It’s More Than Housing
The Good News Berkeley is being extremely efficient with the built units it has.
Recent reports indicate 4 in 10 students in the UC system face food insecurity4. As housing prices devour larger percentages of budgets, some students find three complete meals hard to accomplish. Students might skip meals or eat low-quality, cheap meals to squeeze a couple of extra dollars here and there. Students with limited access to kitchens, or access to poor kept kitchens, may opt to eat out. This can be an expensive and unhealthy alternative to cooking balanced meals. Transportation to campus can also add up. One student used to live in Concord where he would need to take two local buses, transfer to BART and then walk or bus up to campus. Each one-way trip cost roughly $6. Travel time is over an hour. Heav-
The Bad News The situation is only bound to get worse. Recent applications cycles have shown a record number of students applying to - and being admitted - to the UCB system. Enrollment totals have increased by 18% in the last 10 years, with the most gains in the undergraduate population1. Meanwhile, a three unit project is held up for two years because neighbors are worried about parking2. Only approved 1,190 new units between 2007 and 20142. have been constructed. 89% of those units are considered “above moderate income.”3 Berkeley’s response to students: drop dead.
HOME BIOME Rob UNGAR
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“The sweet sense of home is strongest when home is not only familiar but distinctive as well” -- Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City Familiarity of home could be found in the habits of activating the mechanisms of livelihood. Distinctness of a familiar setting has to do with ownership, and with relationships. In ecology, a system of interrelated organisms that create a living environment can be defined under the term – biome. Each biome is distinct. This speculative short article explores the personal biome and how it plays a role in creating a sense of home. What is home? Petting your cat, crawling between your sheets for a nap, having a meal with your family, peeking out of the window to see the season change through a tree, even spending a quiet few minutes ridding your body of waste while sitting on the toilet and scrolling down your social media feed. These are daily homey experiences
many of us cherish or do automatically. Each one of these basic actions contains a biological relationship, interaction with organisms that reside in and around us – our pets, fungi in sheets, our siblings, lovers or parents, a tree in our garden, the flora in our intestines and on our skin. Could these feelings of familiarity and belonging be influenced by the biological system we are part of? Perhaps the heart of this sense of home is in fact an outcome of chemical and biological interactions with our environment? Is home our personal biome?
mosquito attraction to humans revealed that odors produced by skin microbiota are attractive to mosquitoes. In fact, human sweat is odorless, and is being “charged” with scent by microbes on the skin surface. Variation in bacterial flora, or germ community, on the human skin may explain the variation in mosquito attraction between humans. It is also the source of the distinct scent that specific people have.
2. The comfort of our own bed
Let’s dive into the bowels of this topic through five homey experiences and scientific discoveries related to them:
2015 research assessed the level of fungal contamination in bedding. Researchers found pillows can contain between 4 and 17 different species of fungus. Each of us has a special unique mix of fungi in our bed that evolve over period of time not changing sheets.
1. The unique odor of familiar people
3. Domesticated Animals and their effect on emotions
2010 microbiological scientific research about
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Perhaps when moving to a new house, a person could order a prescribed microbe complexion to make themselves feel at home.
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2012 publications about Toxoplasma, a cat-borne parasite that infects over 50% of global population, rocked the world’s understanding of how microbes alter behavior and emotions. The research, performed on rats, showed that behavioral changes caused by re-wiring of carriers’ brain circuits by the parasite, caused changes in primal emotions such as fear, anxiety and sexual arousal. In other words, it makes rats’ aversion from cats turn into attraction. This research was used to explain a gender-problematic stereotype of a “crazy cat lady” as referred to in mainstream media when this paper was published.
4. The need to use the bathroom upon returning home
In a 2017 article published in The Atlantic, several scholars explain the relaxation and familiarity of coming home as the reason we rush to the bathroom. Jack Gilbert, a professor of surgery at the University of Chicago, and the director of the university’s Microbiome Center, claims that “feeling of comfort of home” is nothing but a set of sensory simulacra of that experience projected by the brain. The light in the living room, the smell of the wooden floor, the cold touch of metal spoons, and the microbes that surround the environment - These physical simulations contribute to a sensation that is translated to the feeling of being more comfortable at home, and bring about the much awaited release.
Each one of these basic actions contains a biological relationship, interaction with organisms that reside in and around us – our pets, fungi in sheets, our siblings, lovers or parents, a tree in our garden, the flora in our intestines or on our skin.
5. Spending time in your garden
The microbial effect of plants were examined in a research by Japanese scientists who studied the Japanese tradition of Shinrin-Yoku, or Forest-Bathing. Based on their findings, by spending time in a forest, we take in beneficial substances when we breathe in forest air from three major inhaled factors — beneficial bacteria, plant-derived essential oils, and negatively-charged ions. These findings refer to levels of particles in pure forest air, however it is likely that a cypress trees or rosemary bush that grows your garden has similar effects, in smaller doses. These are few select articles from a growing field of study looking into the inter-relations of humans
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and bacteria in the build environment, so new it hasn’t yet received a name of its own.
Why is this relevant to planning, design or architecture? The answer to that questions lies in the relationship between public health and the built environment. An emerging field of study in medicine is exploring the role of personal gut flora in our physical and mental health. Each person has a “fingerprint” microbiome, and therefore what is healthy for one might be unhealthy for another, merely based on the complexion of bacteria in their stomach. This could lead to more personalized medical prescrip-
tions, as well as nutritional guidelines based on gut flora. If adaptation of internal microbiome environment is significant to our physical and mental condition, it is possible that the external microbiome environment could be adapted to create health or comfort benefits as well. This could lead to a set of personalized architectural design choices, or even the design of a biome that fits individual requirements. This could affect a whole array of design elements to enhance positive bacteria or reduce negative bacteria according to people’s preference or needs. This could affect choice of materials, interior design layout, landscape, product design and more. For example, I might get specific carpets that enhance positive fungi to concentrate better when working from home,
while my friend would prefer create a relaxing balcony microbiome that helps reduce his stress after work. In this logic, perhaps the cultivation of specific “friendly” organisms may become a part of environmental design, regulated by governments or promoted by real estate companies. Another step forward could involve creating internal-external relationships of the biome, in an area where nutrition, medicine and architecture meet. New micro-level relationships could be formed to enhance the creation of beneficial biological environments for humans - and a doctor’s visit could include architectural counseling. Perhaps when moving to a new house, a person could order a prescribed microbe complexion to make themselves feel at home.
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HOMEMADE WORKSPACES Sophia ARBARA
1. Every Day is Like Sunday. Transformation of office parks into living and working spaces. Housing Credit: Dogma
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In times of emerging technologies, physical space relates more and more to an intangible, networked space and so do our activities: from grocery shopping, socializing, to working, our activities have gone ‘online’. The network, to an extent, has become for the modern cities, what for the ancient Greek city the ‘agora’ was: the space of social life, encounter and trade. (1) Within this new condition, how does the notion of home and its relation to activities that were hosted in public space get affected? By home, the symbolic meaning as well as its physical expression are understood. The alteration of home is examined in relation with the activity that takes over most of the individuals time; work. Flexibility on working hours, elasticity, great reduction of the necessary working space and easier transformation of any space to a workplace are facts that alter the traditional notion of “home”. The limits between the domestic/private and the work/public sphere are in decline; they begin to intermingle and overlap in space and time.
Made in Home; domestic productivity Technology may have been one of the key factors for the shift in the living/working conditions, though the concept of working at home is not new. Middle Aged workshops incorporated within the domestic space or painters corner at home, are example of domestic work. The idea of divided activities among working and living arose as part of the industrialization era to be followed by the „work from home“ trends, facilitated by the arising opportunities of remote, digital placed, work. Dogma Architects, by architects Pier Vittorio Aureli and Martino Tattara, focus on these work/live relationships, questioning the model of separation as of what is considered paid labor. With this separation, they mention , “Only activities that would happen within the workspace were recognized as a ‘work’ and thus performed in exchange for a wage, while everything that would happen in the home would be considered non-work and thus reproduction has always been exploited by capital for free. Many people, especially freelancers, professionals etc. tend to work at home and
thus domestic space is again a workspace. Yet as we know freelancing work is increasingly precarious and often unpaid. Ironically (and perhaps tragically) the model of domestic labor as unpaid activity has become the model for work in general, so that an artist or a poet may work for free at home.” (2) Interaction with space and time completely changes; the lack of schedule breaks the rhythm and continuity of regular, 9 to 5, work. Clothing can reveal the blurred relations that in a home like this exist; everything that lies on the upper part of the user, within the frame of visibility of the work sphere, is polished, whereas below, the domestic character is being revealed; casual clothes, even pyjamas and slippers can be part of the scene, since they are part of the invisible realm. Through the detachment of work from a specific place, mobility and nomadic life has become the norm for many dwellers. Individuals that work from a screen can work from anywhere, be in move; instead of the places temporary dwellers live in, the representation of home lies more into the objects they carry.
The network, to an extent, has become for the modern cities, what for the ancient Greek city the ‘agora’ was: the space of social life, encounter and trade.
Home-made workspaces; the rising domesticity On the other hand, high tech campuses attempt
2. Take a nap in a Googleplex
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to blur the limits of the working/living by bringing all activities and facilities of the social or personal sphere in the workspace. The example of Googleplex and how employees have treated this working space as an extension of their home is impressive. “Why bother paying rent when you can shower, eat, work out, do laundry, and sleep at your office? Google perks are so good some employees say they‘ve spent weeks living on campus to avoid paying rent, according to a Quora thread. Technically, you weren‘t supposed to live at the of-
fice, but people got around that by living in their cars in the parking lot of the office or the Shoreline parking lot,”one Googler writes. (3) Eat, exercise, shower, take a nap, do laundry. All of that can be done on campus. This can be interpreted through two points of view: on a psychological aspect, employees work more efficient when in a non strict working environment but a place that incorporates other facilities. Approaching it in an urban scale, the suburban environment where this developments
are happening, do not offer alternative accessible facilities; eat, exercise or attend an event on campus is the easy, sometimes only, solution. More efficient employers, easier access to amenities. Win-win situation? Does in this case the increasing „domesticity“ of workspaces compensate the degradation of home? In both cases, the geographical location of the working space does not matter. In the first case, it is seen more as an individual option, and this placelessness allows multiple transitions in space
“Why bother paying rent when you can shower, eat, work out, do laundry, and sleep at your office?"
3. Marcel Proust‘s room. Credit: Dogma Architects
4. Live Forever The Return of the Factory Proposal for a living-working unité d’habitation for 1600 inhabitants at the Balti Station area, Tallinn, 2013 Credit: DOGMA
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to happen. It allows the contemporary worker to become a new nomad, where the symbolic notion of home exists probably in his sphere of emotional connections. In the case of workspaces, the work/live issue is related to a physical location, whose site does not actually matter, but the physical space exists and is not transferable. In the Living/Working project of Dogma Architects, a different approach aims to create „new typologies“ that respond to the merged conditions of live/work; the contemporary conditions are
5. View of the inhabitable wall
seen as an opportunity for new types of habitats and living to come. Spaces of live and work are being detached from the idea of being ,mechanisms of exploitation and are seen as places to question, places for new typologies to emerge.“ Through a series of texts, drawings and projects that challenge the house as privately owned by one family, they create a project for housing beyond its domestic identity, where domestic space is seen as a space of reciprocity, where reproduction can be organized collectively.
HOME: RURAL OR URBAN? Township-Village Enterprises in South Jiangsu, China Fan YANG
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1. Introduction Township-village enterprises (TVEs) refers to industrial business units that are led by local community government, invested and collectively owned by residents of the rural community where those enterprises are located (Chen Xiang, 2007). TVEs consists of both township enterprises and village enterprises. Differing from state-owned enterprises (SOEs), cooperatives and private enterprises, TVEs are best characterized as community enterprises with a governance structure in which the community government exerts most strategic control rights (CHE Jiahua, 1998). By reviewing the industrial output value by ownership in China from 1978 to 1993, it is obviously shown that the non-state sector has significantly changed the landscape of China’s industries. In 1993, TVEs accounted for 17.39% of national industrial output value and has contributed to 50.4% of the output value growth in the non-state sector. The southern part of Jiangsu Province, which contains three major cities (Changzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou), was one of the pioneering and typical areas where TVEs are developed and thrived. In 1987, the development mode of southern Jiangsu cities was first named as “Southern Jiangsu Model” on an academic seminar in China. This development mode is characterized as fostering TVEs that focus on small-scale manufacturing industry, relying on the market of central cities and absorbing rural surplus labor force (CHEN Xiaohua, 2008). Southern Jiangsu Model is also regarded as a de-
velopment mode of villages that applies to a specific period: the transitional period from planned economy to market economy in China (HUANG Shengmin, 2010). During this period, TVEs successfully helped the economic development, as well as improved the income of rural residents in this area. This article will specifically look into the development history and impetus of TVEs in southern Jiangsu, as well as how they show the changes of urban-rural relationship in China.
2. Development History of Township-Village Enterprises in Southern Jiangsu 2.1 Before the 1960s: Initial Phase Since the 8th century, Southern Jiangsu has become a district with developed commodity economy with flourish towns functioning as commodity circulation and exchange centers, where agricultural products and family handicrafts were produced (LI Yonggang, 2001). During the period between 1949 and the Chinese economic reform in the 1970s, the development of commodity economy was once restrained and weakened the commodity circulation function of towns in southern Jiangsu. Meanwhile, those family handicrafts workshops that scattered in the rural area were incorporated as sideline occupations into agricultural production cooperatives set up in the 1950s. Also, by taking advantage of their adjacency to major cities and the situation of commodity shortage during that period, farm-
'Southern Jiangsu Model' fosters TVEs focusing on manufacture, relying on the market of central cities and absorbing rural surplus labor force. 1. (Left) Looking at Huaxi Village from a High Rise Residence Tower
2. Location of South Jiangsu Region
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3. Disposable income (ÂĽ) per capita of urban and rural residents in China (1985~2014) Source: a. Changzhou Bureau of Statistics b. Statistical Yearbook of China, 2015
ers in southern Jiangsu founded the community team owned factories, with a certain degree of mechanization, on agricultural machinery, cotton processing, textile, and garment were founded. These factories marked the germination of rural industry and the turning point of these towns by strengthening their commodity circulation function as well as adding a production function. 2.2 From the 1970s to 1980s: Prosperous Phase During the early 1970s, as the Cultural Revolution disturbed industrial production and resulted in most factories in cities stopped functioning, rural industries got an important chance to thrive. More farm machinery and tools factory, machine producing and repairing factories quickly emerged as community team owned factories. In 1978, after Cultural Revolution ended, the central government realized the significance of rural industries and implemented some preferential policies and support measures for the development of community team owned factories. In early 1980s, with the dissolution of the people’s commune and the implementation of the household contract farming system, the development of rural industry in southern Jiangsu greatly accelerated. In 1984, those community team factories were renamed as township and village enterprises and entered a period of prosperous since then (CHEN Xiaohua, 2008). TVEs had a different operating mechanism and social environment compared to community
team factories. Local residents of the town or village where TVEs located were the main investor and worker for the enterprise (Xia Yongxiang, 2011). These enterprises gradually improved their scale and technology of production, as well as adopted the modern elements of production that flow from state-owned enterprises (LI Yonggang, 2001). During this period, the growth of rural industry far exceeded the growth of urban industries. TVEs has replaced agriculture to become a leading industry in rural economic development(Fig 3). 2.3 After 1990: Restructuring Phase Entering 1990s, with the domestic buyer market began to take shape, previous advantages of rural industries ceased to exist. After China’s accession to the WTO, the small-scale and low-technology based TVEs would face a survival crisis. As a result, a large-scale reform of ownership system of TVEs took place in southern Jiangsu. Since 1995, solely collective-owned township-village enterprises gradually being replaced by foreign-funded enterprises, private enterprises, in order to change their trend of declining. Developing an export-oriented economy has become the main growth driven force of TVEs.
TVEs created a unique landscape of rural industrialization: 'leaving farmland without leaving rural home, entering factories without entering cities'.
4. Rural Industry Output Value (in 100 million Yuan) and Growth Rate of Changzhou (1980~1997) Source: History of Jiangsu Province - Rural Industry, 1998
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3. Township-Village Enterprises as a Manifestation of Urban-Rural Relationship 3.1 Opposition Phase Applied in 1958, the household registration system (Hu Kou) of China fostered a binary structure of society and economy that divided urban and rural area. Rural residents were restrained from entering cities and involving in industrial production. After the economic reform in 1970s, rural residents were allowed to be engaged in non-agricultural economic activities as the policy loosened (Xia Yongxiang, 2011). The emergence of TVEs was an attempt to challenge the binary structure of society and economy. Yet the binary social structure remained intact even though the binary economic structure weakened. The urbanization process of this area lagged behind the industrialization process. 3.2 Collision Phase From the mid-1990s to around 2003 was the collision period of the urban-rural relationship. Some of them began to relocate to new development zones at the outskirt of cities. The expansion of cities came at the price of invading farmland, as well as relocating rural settlements and residents. Most of the residents could not merge into cities and gain equal treatment as urban residents due
to the household registration system. They were marginalized with the risk of losing jobs, residences, insurance, and identity. This is a period when industrialization and urbanization were promoted simultaneously. The urban and rural area started to collide with each other instead of being two separated entities (Xia Yongxiang, 2011). 3.3 Integration Phase Since 2003, the urban-rural relationship in China was in the trend of integration. The central government proposed to equalize basic public services in the urban and rural area. With the reform of household registration system and a series of new policies including subsidy, tax cuts, rural residents got the chance to be more involved in the process of industrialization and urbanization. All these changes, aiming at the equalization and integration of urban and rural area, functioned gradually to bridge the identity gap between urban and rural residents. By reviewing the urban/ rural disposable income per capita of Changzhou (Fig 4), it is obviously shown that the gap between urban/rural DIC increased since 1985 and reached its peak in 2008 when urban income was about 2.12 times of rural income. Since 2009, the ratio started to decrease and it dropped back to 1.94 in 2016.
5. Ratio of disposable income per capita of urban and rural residents in Changzhou (1985~2016) Source: Statistic Yearbook of Changzhou, 2017
6. Looking at Huaxi Village from a High Rise Residence Tower Photographer: Anonymous
FROM THE CENTER TO THE FRINGES Housing for Muslims in Contemporary New Delhi Tamanna TIKU
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Since the 11th century - what is now the capital city of India - Delhi has been supervised by an illustrious roster of dynasties that followed the Islamic faith. Until the British finally put an end to the immensely proactive and massive Mughal Empire in India, Delhi had been thoroughly enriched by the deep cultural impact that centuries of Islamic leadership had had on its architecture, planning, infrastructural development and even language. Even in this day and age, about two centuries after the plan of Lutyens’ Delhi was executed, the same architectural marvels - sometimes as preserved ruins and sometimes as jewels untouched by the tests of time - stud the map of this city of extremes. If we google ‘places to visit in Delhi’, 8 out of 10 monuments or neighborhoods that appear are Islamic structures that range from mosques to forts and from graves to minarets. This is remarkable in a Hindu majority backdrop which has only grown more hostile towards their Muslim brethren in post-independence contemporary India.
Delhi from the Iconic Jama Mazjid, which is also depicted on the left
In the last 71 years after independence, all 14 Prime Ministers of the largest democracy in the world have hoisted the national flag at the Red Fort on India’s Independence Day. This historic fort, built with the local red sandstone that is so characteristic of Delhi, used to be the main residence of the Mughal emperors in Delhi. In the very same city, the majority of the Muslim population has been relegated to 3-4 crowded neighborhoods where tiny 200 year old buildings are falling apart. In these neighborhoods resides a lower middle class demographic that feels socially disenfranchised by the rest of the city thanks to volatile geopolitical strife between India and Pakistan since the partition of 1947. These are some of the densest parts of Delhi - not just in terms of the number of housing units per square foot but also the number of people per household. The urban housing typologies that emerged in Delhi in the 70s, 80s and 90s never reached these regions - due to either reasons of preservation of historical districts or due to social
In these neighborhoods resides a lower middle class demographic that feels socially disenfranchised by the rest of the city thanks to volatile geopolitical strife between India and Pakistan since the partition of 1947.
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People of this faith have had to go from the center of cultural emancipation and development to the dark fringes of unemployment and disenfranchisement in the last 70 years.
alienation of Muslims in post-colonial India. Today, India houses the 3rd largest number of Muslims in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan but their othering has been relentless. In a city that has been so generously bestowed upon with cultural marvels by this faith this disparity becomes even more glaring.
Muslims’ growing disadvantages. It found that very few army officers were Muslim; their share in the higher ranks of the police was “minuscule”. Muslims were in general poorer, more prone to sex discrimination and less literate than the general population (see chart). At postgraduate level in elite universities, Muslims were a scant 2% of students.”
In 2016, in an article titled ‘India’s Muslims - An Uncertain Community’ the Economist wrote, “India’s Muslims have not, it is true, been officially persecuted, hounded into exile or systematically targeted by terrorists, as have minorities in other parts of the subcontinent, such as the Ahmadi sect in Pakistan. But although violence against them has been only sporadic, they have struggled in other ways. In 2006 a hefty report detailed
People of this faith have had to go from the center of cultural emancipation and development to the dark fringes of unemployment and disenfranchisement in the last 70 years. Under the cloud of this global jargon on religious extremism, this community has lost respect in its own home, and in fact has gotten lost within its own home. Surely, a ‘secular and democratic’ nation can do better than this.
Barakhamba Monument, Central Delhi
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4. Qutub Minar, 1192 AD: UNESCO World Heritage site
5. Lodi Garden, 1517 AD
6. Humayun’s Tomb, 1570 AD: UNESCO World Heritage site
1. Housing Density
2. Mixed use lanes with ground floor retail; Fire hazards
3. Edges of the tight housing communities have 3 to 5 lane streets running past them
7. Bare-bone structures
8. Courtyards with houses - a tradition
9. Shared allies between houses
GETTING HOME Fallen Leaves Return to the Roots Pei-Chi CHEN
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A long time ago, the Italian had the perception that Chinese people never die for several reasons. First,most Chinese faces looked similar to them. Second, they (Italians) had never seen a Chinese funeral or grave in Italy. It is a prejudice formed by cultural misunderstandings and racial discrimination. However, the early Chinese people did have the traditional obsession that they must die or be buried in their hometown, which made Chinese people’s death so mysterious for other foreigners. “Luo Ye Gui Gen”is an ancient Chinese saying, which means“fallen leaves return to the roots” In my parents’ generation, many Chinese people traveled around the world, seeking opportunities that would outdo the poor living qualities in their hometowns. They worked in foreign lands, saved money, but missed their families. Most of them had never seen these foreign lands as their home, but they didn’t have the courage to buy return tickets for home since there was too little chance to earn enough money to support their families back in their hometown. Therefore, the only thing they could do was to keep working and send money back until the end of their life and only then
fulfill their last wish: returning home. The movie “GETTING HOME” represents this traditional concept of HOME in a humorous and warm tone, which is touching the rings deep in the souls of numerous people who leave their hometown for various reasons. The play book is based on a true story. About 15 years ago, China was going through rapid urbanization and, like other places in the world, many people traveled over a great distance to big cities for job opportunities. Zhao and Liu are good friends who leave their hometowns for Shenzhen to make money for their families. Unfortunately, Liu dies during an accident (he drinks beyond his capacity). As his best (and only) friend in this big city, Zhao decides to bring Liu’s body and meager pension to his family in Chongqing, which is 1,500 Km away due to a shared faith and promise between them. Zhao can’t afford the formal funerary services, so he decides to carry the body on his own - with his own two hands. The insufficient budget forces Zhao to use many tricks to achieve their goal. Often, Zhao needs to make Liu seem alive so that they can travel without creating too much doubt. Left: The movie poster of Getting Home
The only thing Zhao cared about was how to bring Liu to his hometown and families 1,500 km away.
Mobility (1)
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The journey is full of twists and turns, tears and laughs. They move through bus (and bump into gang robbery), big tire (with Liu’s body inside), and cow carriage and numerous unexpected ways. The audience never knows what weird situation will happen next and how Zhao would react in a weirder way. The entire movie uses an amiable and approachable way to depict every scene and character, presenting the concrete thinking buried deeply in traditional Chinese people’s mind, guiding the audiences to rethink the issue of life and death, homelands and foreign lands, partners and families, and the faith and inconstancy in human affection. On the one hand, Zhao and Liu’s journey is an amazing and absurd experience with exaggerated plot-points. One the other hand, it is so real
No one noticed that there is a dead man on the bus, and Zhao naturally leaned on Liu’s body like he was still alive. Mobility (2)
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and full of compassion and resignation. Under the present circumstance with massive globalism and urbanism, besides the physical environment and the theoretical definition, the definition of home is an inevitable question, worth discovering and challenging in our limited lifetime. Ultimately, the director leaves the audiences with an open ending with some musings and several valuable questions:
“What is home?” “Where is home?” “When will we get home?”
It is so comfortable lying in the hole which I prepared for Liu’s body and seeing the clouds floating in the sky....How about I just die and follow Liu to the other world? Maybe it’s a good idea!! Let’s do this!!
PIXEL HOUSES MINECRAFT: A game to build the house of your imagination Tamanna TIKU
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If pixels were bricks, And desktops were construction sites, Digital toolboxes would be our contractors, And our imagination - the only architect alive. Shelter seems so accessible on the screen, Each contender has the same resources. One builds a castle and another a coral reef, One floats in the air and another rolls down valleys. These pixel cities become democratic models Of dimensionless materials and timeless existence, No rule of law, no fear of regulations, And yet we become servants of precision.
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FOREVER WAITING TRANSFORMATION OF #17 STONE HOUSE
HOPE
Chang XU with CK YAN, Xian CHEN, Weixi LIU
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it o
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KYLINE AND S O PIER TION T
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MEMORY | DIRECTION TO CH ANGJIANG AO
S E A FO O D RE S TA URA NT | MO THE R'S HO P E
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STORY We once read an article which tells the story about a young man who left his hometown, Ping Tan, to go to work in Iraq. Unfortunately, He was kidnapped by terrorists during one mission. His mother was at home, worried about him. Outsiders have an impression that people from Ping Tan always like adventures. In the recent centuries, this small village has been famous for its fishing industry. Every morning, young fishermen would leave the harbor to go fishing in the distant seas and only get back at dusk. Nowadays, since the local fishing industry is shrinking, more and more young people choose to leave their hometown and go to big cities to find jobs. Only their old parents are left behind, missing and worrying about their sons and daughters everyday. Time goes by, but their youngsters don’t come back. Old parents die one by one. Their old stone houses are slowly abandoned. Of late, in order to bring the shrinking village back to life, the local government is trying to transform the village from a fishing town to a tourism destination. We were asked to utilize one of the abandoned stone houses to transform it into a seafood restaurant. We hope that through our design of the restaurant, the Ping Tan can be planted in a new soul.
Most of the old materials will be preserved and highlighted. Even though a lot of young people never came back and their old parents already died lonely in the hometown, we still want to dig this story out and tell other people. Only in this way, maybe we can stop the same tragedy from happening in the future.
CONTEXT The stone house is located on the top of a small mountain, which provides a excellent view to the beach and sea in the west. With the mountain at the back and a face to the sea, the surrounding environment of the house is very quiet. So it’s also a good place for visitors to rest and have some chats with friends. The stone house originally had 2 stories, but now only 1 story is left. The second floor slab is gone, so is the roof. The walls are also damaged seriously. However, the good thing is that we found the main facade and gable roof remaining in good conditions. An old tree stands beside the house, weeds and moss are growing actively. The plants are slowly taking over the debris, and those memories about old parents waiting for their children are fading.
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OLD HOUSE, NEW LIFE NEW STRUCTURE We tried to preserve most existing structures and introduced new 3-story high steel columns as the main structure of new restaurant, which rotates at an angle from the existing structure. NEW GARDEN We tried to make use of the existing plants on first floor and create a new garden. So vistors will get a feeling that the tree and new structure is growing up from the old existing debris. VIEW DECKS The core concept of the restaurant is two view decks stretch out of the second and third floor, facing the direction of old Chang Jiang Ao and the distant line between sea and sky. The scenery outside will tell the story of old parents waiting for their children coming back. ROOF Local people use small stones on their roof to prevent damage from strong wind. We got inspired from the form of traditional roofs and chose prefabricated white glass as roof material. So vistors can see colorful roof stones from inside the restaurant.
WHAT ARE THE BOUNDARIES OF HOME? Andrea MEDINA
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More often than not, people have a lot of misconceptions about what boundaries are. We are used to viewing them as everything, from an excuse for not helping others, to walls for avoiding close relationships between us. We all determine boundaries, both physical and emotional. They define our person - who we are and who we are not. We own everything inside these boundaries, because we are free to choose what we include these boundaries; we are fully responsible for it. As we grow, we change, and move.
es more than 11 times in his or her lifetime. How does this impact the ties to their original boundaries of home? To me, being home means being within the limits of four walls of the family home. But to someone who has moved over a thousand miles away, is his or her hometown that boundary? Is it the state? Does it shift to a complete new place, or does it expand into a larger scale? Probably the easiest way of gauging it comes from the emotional content of our boundaries. You’ve probably heard Edward Sharpe’s thoughts on this:
I grew up in a gated community in the suburbs of Mexico City. When my family moved there in 1993, it was considered the outskirts of the City. It has now been absorbed by the unstoppable urban sprawl. There was a park that I used to visit with our dogs, but other than that, I didn’t have access to other open “public spaces”. I didn’t give it much thought when I was growing up, especially since most of my friends lived in similar settings in Mexico City. We studied the concept of public life as an inherent part of urban life when I was in Architecture School, but it wasn’t until grad school when I knew other people my age who grew up with a completely different sense of public life and home boundaries.
“Oh, home, let me come home. Home is whenever I’m with you…”
To me, home has always been contained by the four walls of the house in which my sisters and I grew up. For most of my classmates, home included those neighborhood parks and streets where they made friends and spent their free time. When asked if I could relive my childhood in a neighborhood that allowed me to have an active public life, I couldn’t figure out which one was “better” than the other one. I never felt that the boundaries I considered home were a rigid form of containment - using a car to go everywhere was just our accepted way of life. Yes, Mexico City is famous worldwide for its traffic, but in my head, that was my daily fix of mom/dad one-onone time (in large part due to the fact that smart phones weren’t in the picture yet). About 24% of American adults have reported moving within the country in the past five years, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average person in the United States moves residenc-
The average person in the United States moves residences more than 11 times in his or her lifetime. How does this impact the ties to their original boundaries of home?
FABRICS OF HOME AND TIME 9 cities around the world Andrea MEDINA, Brendan HURLEY, Chang XU, Fan YANG, Lydia KONTOZOGLOU, Pei-Chi CHEN, Radhika HARIDAS, Sabrina HUSSEIN, Tamanna TIKU
Clarkston, Georgia, USA: 1845 AD Sabrina Hussein N
Scale: 1” = 500’ - 0”
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Changzhou, China: 547 BC Fan Yang
Jingzhou, China: 1046 BC Chang Xu
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Kochi, Kerala, India: 1341 AD Radhika Haridas
NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh, India: 1985 AD Tamanna Tiku
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Taitung City, Taiwan in 1,500m x 1,500m street intersections : 217
my home building type : townhouse Taitung, Taiwan: 1500block AD size: 1.25 acres Pei-Chi Chen residential density of block: 21 parking : 1 in garage, 1 on the s ways to school : biking Pei-Chi Chen CP248 Spring 2018
Mexico City, Mexico: 1325 AD Andrea Medina
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Density comparison
Thessaloniki, Greece: 345 BC Lydia Kontozoglou
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Density comparison
Leroy Town, Ohio, USA: 1802 AD Brendan Hurley
0’
500’
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BIBLIOGRAPHY YOU LIVE WHERE?
1. https://opa.berkeley.edu/berkeley-fall-enrollment-trends 2. http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/07/25/berkeleysbid-stop-new-housing-built-overruled-judge/ 3. https://www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Planning_and_Development/Level_3_-_Commissions/Commission_for_Planning/2015-2023%20Berkeley%20Housing%20Element_FINAL.pdf 4. http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ucfood-insecurity-07112016-snap-story.html Images Sources: 1: http://2040.planbayarea.org/ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7: Survey Conducted by mercedes Harris 8: http://www.dailycal.org/2011/11/17/uc-berkeley-student-housing-leaves-students-cramped/
HOMEMADE WORKSPACES
1. Mitchell W. “City of Bits, Space, Place and the Infobahn”, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 1995 2. “Living together is only possible if there is always the possibility to be alone.“ – Dogma studio‘s hard-line look at architectural solitude. archinect.com 3. “Google‘s Perks Are So Amazing That Employees Have Found Ways To Secretly Live On Campus And Avoid Paying Rent” bussinessinsider.com Image Sources: 1,2,4,5:http://www.dogma.name/slideshow.html 3: http://business.financialpost.com/business-insider/ an-inside-look-at-googles-luxurious-googleplex-campus-in-california
HOME: RURAL OR URBAN?
1. ZHU Huiwei, 2006. Research on the Distribution of Township-Village Enterprises from the Perspective of Land. Zhejiang University. 2. ZHANG Chunhua, 2003. Urbanization and Spatial Integration of Township-Village Enterprises in Southern Jiangsu. 05 Rural Economy 13-15. 3. CHENG Xiaohua, 2008. Rural Transformation and Urban –Rural Integration. Nanjing Normal University. 4. LI Yonggang, 2001. Research on the Relevance of Urbanization and Spatial Concentration of Township-Village
Enterprises. 6 Collected Essays on Finance and Economy 20-25. 5. HUANG Shengmin, 2010. The Theory Formation and Practice of Southern Jiangsu Mode. 1 China Collective Economy 66-67. 6. ZHANG Min, 2002. Rural - Urbanization: “Southern Jiangsu Model” Compared with “Pearl River Model”. 4 Economic Geography 482-486. 7. WANG Xingping, 2003. Study on Regional Industrial Space Dominated by Township-Village Enterprises. 3 Economic Geography 300-303. 8. CHEN Xiang, 2007. New Souther Jiangsu Urbanization Model and its Dynamics: A Case Study of Changzhou. 5 Urban Economy 76-83. 9. Xia Yong-xiang, 2011. The Evolution Route of “Southern Jiangsu Model” and Transformation of Urban and Rural Areas Relationships. 4 Journal of Suzhou University 169172. 10. CHE Jiahua, QIAN Yingyi, 1998. Institutional Environment, Community Government, and Corporate Governance: Understanding China’s Township-Village Enterprises. 1 Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization 1-23. 11. LUO Xiaolong, ZHANG Jingxiang, JIANG Xiaofeng, 2000. The Flux of the Southern Jiangsu Model and Town Development. 5 Journal of Urban Planning 26-27 40
HOME BIOME
1. Chemical ecology of interactions between human skin microbiota and mosquitoes, Niels O. Verhulst, Willem Takken, Marcel Dicke, Gosse Schraa Renate C. Smallegange, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Volume 74, (2010) 2. Fungal contamination of bedding, Woodcock, Steel, Moore and Denning, Allergy 61(1):140-2 (2006) 3.https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/11/ gotta-go/544544/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark 4.http://thescienceexplorer.com/brain-and-body/scientists-reveal-why-forest-bathing-or-going-beach-boostsour-well-being Image Sources: Cover: http://www.emmental.me/cozy-small-livingroom.html 1.https://coach.nine.com.au/2017/07/04/08/19/microbes?app=applenews 2 . h tt p s : / / w w w. fl i c k r. c o m / p h o t o s / 3 3 3 8 9 9 8 9 @ N06/4560714704 3. Lynea Lattanzio and some of her cats at their home:
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/7-giveaways-friendcrazy-cat-lady
FROM THE CENTER TO THE FRINGES
Reference: https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21709341-indias-biggest-minority-grows-anxious-about-its-future-uncertain-community Image Sources: Cover: http://www.treasureindia.com Delhi from Jama Mazjid: https://urbanrecorder.wordpress.com Barakhamba Monument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Barakhamba 1. Getty Images 2.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi 3.https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news 4.https://asocialnomad.com/india/delhi-in-three-days/ 5.http://architectureimg.com/colors/887733/page/4/ 6 . h tt p s : / / w w w . fl i c k r. c o m / p h o t o s / j l a s c a r / with/4499836380/ 7.http://www.eco-business.com/news/delhis-housesbuilt-on-sand/ 8.http://www.hearty-india.com/2011/05/aligarh-sprawling-buildings.html 9.www.wildfilmsindia.com
GETTING HOME
Map: Google Maps Other images: Fortissimo Films
PIXEL HOUSES
Cover:http://www.minecraftgallery.com/tag/ bridge/ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6://www.minecraftgallery.com/tag/ bridge/
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HOME
MSquare A spontaneous production by the Masters of Urban Design Class of 2018 at College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley.
WHERE IS HOME?
Contributions, guidance and assistance from a student body whose origins span 9 nations, 14 cities and numerous interpretations of Home.
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