ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION AND FLOOD REGULATION

After analysing the habitat requirements of different wildlives, especially five species--Beijing Gold-striped Pong Frog, Baer's Pochard, Yellow-breasted Bunting, Great Bustard and Long-eared Owls, which well represent wildlives from wetlands, sparse woods grasslands, farmlands and forests, four types of ecological corridors are designed, based on current situations.

Besides these ecological corridors, a series of flood regulation strategies are used to create beautiful landscape no matter in dry or wet seasons. When the flood comes, water will stream into seasonal wetlands or rivers or submerge into some parts of the flood plain.

The carscade control area helps scientists monitor the water level and water quality, while the gravel banks north to the carscade control area filter the rain and flood and help recharge groundwater.

Ecological Corridors

Corridor for Beijing Gold-striped Pong Frog and Baer's Pochard

Corridor for Yellow-breasted Bunting

Corridor for Great Bustard and farmland birds

Corridor for Long-eared Owl and forest birds

Woods

Flood Regulation

Wet season

Dry season

Human Activities And Traffic System

How to provide close-nature experiences for tourists and protect wildlives' habitats at the same time?

A slow moving system seems to be the best solution.

A new Bus Routine is set because private cars are strictly limited to cut out noise and pollution, though the area is nearly 16 square kilometers large. And a main Ped Routine is set with several other small routines, which connects most activity spots.

Activity Areas

Wetland--

Fishing, Camping,etc.

Farmland--

Agriculture, Nature education

Orchards--

Fruit Picking, Nature education

Villages--

Restaurants, Hotels, etc.

Traffic and Routines

Bus Routines

Motor vehicles

Main ped routine

Main roads

Secondary roads

Nature based activitiy spots

Nature education spots

Artificial recreation spots

Waterfront

Perspective Ii

THE LAST CAVE VILLAGE -------MIDDLE CAVE MIAO VILLAGE RENEWAL

Site: Middle Cave, Guizhou,China

Time: 2022 Autumn

In a mountain in southwest China's Guizhou province lies Zhongdong Miao Village, the last cave village in China. This mountainous area is a typical karst landscape with mountains and numerous caves, but only this cave has been inhabited for a long time. The residents have been living a unique cave life since they migrated to the cave in the 1940s to escape bandits and war. They are not closed to the outside world, but communication is very limited, and generally remain closed to the cave, and when they do meet friends outside the cave, only others visit them in the cave instead of them going out. Marriages are often intermarriages within caves or by outsiders who marry into caves.

Despite their poverty, Dong residents do not want to go out. The local government once set up accommodation for them and invited them out, but they returned after only a few days because they could not get used to it. First, accustomed to living in the safety of caves, the man-made structures appear very insecure, and the sound of rain against the Windows makes them scared. Second, the housing is too far away from the water source of the farmland. Local residents have been used to making a living from farming and feel unable to feed themselves without farmland.

However, living in caves is also facing a crisis. The first is the problem of water use. Deforestation leads to the reduction of water in the cave, and residents lack knowledge of this aspect, blocking many water outlets. At present, the natural precipitation in the cave is not enough to use and lack of purification. Second, there is the problem of the new generation. The caves are warm but old, and the new children are more eager to go out into the wide world. As the current generation of cave dwellers grows old, the caves will gradually be abandoned.

A village near the Geconvex River in Ziyun county, Guizhou province, is mostly Miao ethnic group.

Villages School

Children of the cave village walk a long way to study here.

Farmland

Special farmland built into the hills called terraces, as an efficient use of rainwater .

Upper Cave

Two ends of ventilation ,can't be used for habitation.

The Cave

Drain Pool

Water Storage Tank

Different from ordinary houses, houses in caves have little demand for roofs. They often use very light flat roofs for simple cover, or built slope roofs where there are more leaks in caves, some even don't have a cover. The house does not need to bear the weight so no load wall is needed, the whole house is very light, generally using bamboo and wood structure and the woven bamboo mat as a partition of the enclosure. The outer wall is generally used by rammed earth wall, very few will use bricks.

Folk Houses

Live-Stock Shed

Front Garden

Ware Houses

Debris Storage Area

Folk Houses

Playground

The Cave

Tent Area

Home Stay Inn

Dry Grain Area

Folk Houses

Home Stay Inn

Water Storage Tank

Storage Pool

Drain Pool

Backyard Bean Field

Water Collection

Domestic Water

Water For Batik

Water For Livestock

Water For School

General Plan

Drying Tourism

Frontyard

Backyard

Playground Batik Workshop

Cornfield

Debris Storage

The function of the whole cave are reorganized based on the water system. No major changes are made, but integrated and improved on the original basis.

In order to solve the problems of water shortage, poor water quality and water accumulation, the water usage and drainage system is replanned. Water towers are set up in leaking areas of the cave to collect the cave water and then purified and piped to small storage tanks in each household. Special water routines for batik water, for livestock sheds and for schools are set and separate drainage routine is set for toxic industrial water.

The overall function is integrated according to the distribution of water use facilities and the existing function distribution. By combining the drainage pool with batik drying, public activities, children's recreation facilities with grain drying, and each household's water storage buckets with the backyard function, the function distribution in the cave is reorganized more reasonably, and guided by several device nodes constructed with local construction methods. For detailed design of these devices, see the next page.

Water System

The main source of water for the villagers is leakage from the cave. We collected cave water through water towers and distributed it to the families through multiple stages of evolution using locally available and easily maintained materials.

All the waste flows through natural terrain and sunken drains into now-clogged drainage basins and into mountains. In order to prevent the drainage pool from being blocked, bamboo and wooden shelves were built around the pool, and it was transformed from waste dumping place into a stage for airing and entertainment.

Through simple ground excavation and pavement changes, a place for children to enjoy the water is formed near the school. Together with the drainage pool stage and the basketball court, it becomes the main public meeting place in the cave.

The farmland receives rainwater from a water tower outside the cave, which is then watered as it passes through a bamboo pipe with holes in it, and then along with the water used by the livestock to water the small farm inside the cave.

All the installations are multi-functional, simple structural materials, easy to build and maintain, and harmoniously integrated with the original building.

Water collection tower

Groundwater leaks into the cave through cracks in the rock and collected

Rainwater is filtered through the forest into the mountain rock and then into the cave

Household water

Rainwater collected by the water tower to water the crops Water collection tank

Independent water pipes for Batik workshop, the used water are specially treated and discharged.

Drainage Pool

The shelves around the drainage basin can be used for drying, exhibition and public events.

Collection and filtration

Gravel

Plastic film funnel

Fine filter layer Sink cylinder

Storage tank

A.water

Five kinds of water devices are designed including the collection, usage,drainage and incidental functions of cave water. These devices can be easily built with bamboo and wood.

B.water Drainage Playground

Multifuctional Places

Most of the public areas in the cave carry a variety of functions and take on different looks at different times of year. This efficient and flexible way of using space is more in line with the reality of village life, and also enables the new generation to love this old but not ruined village as much as the old generation.

Spring--Winter

Rehabilitation Spaces For College Students Suffering From Psychological Disorders

Nowadays, college students are under great pressure from schoolwork/relationships/social expectations and other aspects, which may end up with different psychological disorders.

Researches showed that the environment students stayed in had great effect on their emotions , which gave me the idea that maybe by creating certain kinds of outdoor spaces,we can improve students' psychological condition in some way.

Firstly, to be specific, I looked into medical reports and picked out six main psychological disorders that Chinese college students were suffering from, which were anxiety, depression, irritability, distration and eating or sleeping disorder. Then I learnt some environmental psychology theories and did my own researches, and finally understand what kinds of spaces were preferred by students with these disorders.

With these specific knowledges, I turned the design into a place ohealing and designed several rehabilitation spaces within it.