Scenography of memory

Scenography of memory _

THE MATERIALITY OF THE EPHEMERAL

TRANSITORY DWELLING FOR RURAL-URBAN MIGRANTS, IN SHEKOU - SHENZHEN

MENTOR : MARTINE DE MAESENEER STUDENT : SARAH POOT 2014

A work submitted in (partial) fullfillement of the requirements of the degree of Master in Architecture

University of KU Leuven LUCA School of Arts Department Architecture Campus Sint-Lucas (June 2014)

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY MENTOR : MARTINE DE MAESENEER STUDENT : SARAH POOT 2014

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Aknowledgements

I would like to use this place to express my gratitude and love to all the people who were part of the process during which this work came to life.

Let me start with expressing my deep gratitude to people from the department of Architecture of the LUCA School of Arts, Faculty of the KU Leuven University.

I would like to thank particularly to Arch. Martine De Maeseneer, my supervisor, for her patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this work.

I would like to extend my special thanks to my team members An-Sofie De Backer, Ysaline Ophoff and William Riche, for our constructive and fruitful collaboration, as well as for the joyful working atmosphere and the many side moments we managed to set up together. This year would not have been the same without them.

Finally, I would like to thank my life partner, for the never-ending support and assistance he provided throughout my study time.

Sarah Poot Brussels, June 2014.

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Index SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY

The core of the present work is divided in 5 segments which are compiled together to give a complete overview of the design process.

Segment 1 :

Collection Fragments of Shekou - Album -

Segment 2 :

Exploration A few things about SZ - Study -

Segment 3 :

Intentions Shekou as a gateway - Outline -

Segment 4 :

Question Ideological sedimentation - Note -

Segment 5 :

Vision The materiality of the ephemeral - Design -

Starting from the experience of the site in february 2014 (segment 1), an early study has been conducted on Shenzhen (segment 2) that led to define spatial conditions for Shekou, Shenzhen in those conditions (segment 3). The last part is dedicated to a broader reflexion on how architecture can offer a solution on both adaptability and appropriability regarding current migrancy patterns (segment 4) and to develop an architectural proposal accordingly (segment 5).

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SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

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Collection _ FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU - ALBUM -

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY MENTOR : MARTINE DE MAESENEER STUDENT : SARAH POOT 2014

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Forewords

In February 2014, we were invited in Shenzhen to attend a workshop linked to the Bi-City Biennale. Since then we have been treasuring memories from Shekou, fragments that we believe make our experience of the site a valuable design tool. This matrix of fragments is an attempt to grasp, understand and appreciate Shekou. * The contents of this segment have mostly been gathered within a team, in collaboration with : An-Sofie De Backer, Ysaline Ophoff and William Riche.

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Contents ARRIVAL CITY - SEGMENT 1 : ALBUM -

fragments

Forewords Laboratory Rise Full & empty Timescale Variety Confrontation Home Mirror Unheimlich In-betweens Hidden Accident Focus Water Still Awareness Shadow

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

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COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

LABORATORY

 

LABORATORY Having no pressure to develop real estate, hotels or shopping malls, Shekou port is the perfect location to experiment both socially as on urban level.

The combination of location, industrial heritage, mix of cultures due to migration and the large floating population are the ingredients for a new way of living.

frag. 1 — Having no pressure to develop real estate, hotels or shopping malls, Shekou port is the perfect location to experiment both socially and on urban level.

The combination of location, industrial heritage, mix of cultures due to migration and the large floating population are the ingredients for a new way of living.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

BRUSSELS

10 000 inhab./km2

SHENZHEN

10 000 inhab./km2

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161 KM2

100 KM

1 991 KM2

1 164 378 INHAB. (08/2013)

13 000 000 INHAB. (2013)

7215 INHAB./KM2

7 500 INHAB./KM2

BELGIUM

CHINA

2,3 members per household

3 members per household

2011 (Eurostats)

2013 (Forbes)

RISE

 

RISE Even if Brussels and Shenzhen densities of inhabitants per square kilometers are quite similar, the city scape and living spaces are radically diferent, according to lifestyles and culture.

High rise buildings have a much stronger impact as landmarks in a low rise urban landscape.

frag. 2 — Even if Brussels and Shenzhen densities of inhabitants per square kilometers are quite similar, the city scape and living spaces are radically diferent, according to lifestyles and culture.

High rise buildings have a much stronger impact as landmarks in a low rise urban landscape.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

10 000 inhab./km2

10 000 inhab./km2

5000

10 000 inhab./km2

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1000

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1000

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chinese new year

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average population

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winter retreat

FULL & EMPTY

 

FULL & EMPTY Given Shenzhen commuting patterns, including week days workers, occasional business trips, grandparents enjoying the mild climate of southern China for a season, the city can assume varying conditions.

frag. 3 — Given Shenzhen commuting patterns, including week days workers, occasional business trips, grandparents enjoying the mild climate of southern China for a season, the city can assume varying conditions.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

TIME SCALE

 

TIME SCALE A varying public results in different time scales.

While a permanent core is needed to have continuity, artists stay for some weeks, visitors pass by for a day, students follow a single week workshop or workers stay only during weekdays.

This alteration in presence leads to continuously changing impact on spatial conditions.

frag. 4 — A varying public results in different time scales. While a permanent core is needed to have continuity, artists stay for some weeks, visitors pass by for a day, students follow a single week workshop or workers stay only during weekdays. This alteration in presence leads to continuously changing impact on spatial conditions.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

19.8 m2

5.94 m2

12.54 m2

13.86 m2

22.77 m2

5.61 m2

13.86 m2

6.27 m2

VARIETY

 

VARIETY As a migrant city, the new Shekou should provide various living spaces.

Further than addressing various social categories, it will have to reflect upon different cultures, needs and lifestyles.

frag. 5 — As a migrant city, the new Shekou should provide various living spaces.

Further than addressing various social categories, it will have to reflect upon different cultures, needs and lifestyles.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

CONFRONTATION

 

CONFRONTATION Bringing different layers of society together can somehow cause awkward situations.

Using space to force encounter leads to new social and professional relations.

Two worlds, strangers for one another, can be brought together by using the same cantine, for instance.

frag. 6 — Bringing different layers of society together can somehow cause awkward situations. Using space to force encounter leads to new social and professional relations.

Two worlds, strangers for one another, can be brought together by using the same cantine, for instance.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

HOME

 

HOME There are many signs of human presence in the area such as busses and cars.

But this presence is not reflected in the site.

There seems to be no gathering place or a space where people can meet.

This results into the feeling of abandon and emptyness.

frag. 7 — There are many signs of human presence in the area such as busses and cars.

But this presence is not reflected in the site.

There seems to be no gathering place or a space where people can meet.

This results into the feeling of abandon and emptyness.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

MIRROR

 

MIRROR The industrial heritage is reflecting a period that once was.

The presence of this industrial site has made the Shenzhen of today possible.

The build environment around us is always a reflection of society. How can we rethink this industrial experience and make it fitting or even empowering for the challenges in todays society?

frag. 8 — The industrial heritage is reflecting a period that once was.

The presence of this industrial site has made the Shenzhen of today possible.

The build environment around us is always a reflection of society.

How can we rethink it for the challenges in todays society?

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

UNHEIMLICH

UNHEIMLICH “The house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream” - Gaston Bachelard At first glance the whole Shekou site is an “unheimlich” ensemble.

Meaning the opposite of “like home”. This is maybe one of the strongest strength of the site.

Standing in strong contrast to the fast, fluorescent centers of the new Shenzhen, this site has the potential to give a new meaning to the urban experience in its total. A place where daydreaming becomes possible...

frag. 9— At first glance the whole Shekou site is an “unheimlich” ensemble. Meaning the opposite of “like home”.

Standing in strong contrast to the fast, fluorescent centers of the new Shenzhen, this site has the potential to give a new meaning to the urban experience in its total.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

IN BETWEENS

 

IN BETWEENS Shekou is full of objects : the value factory itself, being one of them and hosting others.

Scale of those objects being erraticly different, they can collapse, interlock, fit together. Or not.

The in betweens spaces resulting of those encounters produce a different and unique feeling

frag. 10 — Shekou is full of objects : the value factory itself, being one of them and hosting others. Scale of those objects being erraticly different, they can collapse, interlock, fit together. The in betweens spaces resulting of those encounters produce a different and unique feeling

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

HIDDEN

 

HIDDEN Old factories breathe out a certain history. What once was is only present in memories, but not only in memories.

The spatial properties articulate the very functional meaning of these buildings. Although it is not the same function taking place today the left overs are stunning for the eye and experience.

Hidden in these almost spiritual spaces the quality of loneliness is directly present. The only reality present is the individual with the building. Light, sound, echoes, coldness, materials go into a direct dialogue with the individual.

frag. 11 — The spatial properties articulate the very functional meaning of these industrial buildings. Although it is not the same function taking place today, the left overs are stunning for the eye and experience. Hidden in these almost spiritual spaces the quality of loneliness is directly present.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

ACCIDENT

 

ACCIDENT Accidental coincidences refer to a sequence of events or moments that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged.

The Value Factory gives many opportunities to provoke such moments.

frag. 12 — Accidental coincidences refer to a sequence of events or moments that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged.

The Value Factory gives many opportunities to provoke such moments.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

FOCUS

 

FOCUS Walking on this site is not like walking in a desert. With every turn one can be confronted with a whole new world.

Standing on an industrial site suddenly made aware of the natural surroundings.

The artefacts, like the frame-like cranes have the ability to move and therefore to shift your focus.

This property of a moving structure could be translated not only to the extend of the visual but could also form a strong spatial potential, integrated in the languague of this site.

frag. 13 — Standing on an industrial site suddenly made aware of the natural surroundings.

The artefacts, like the frame-like cranes have the ability to move and therefore to shift your focus.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

WATER

 

WATER Water has played an unexcludable role in the development of the Shekou area.

Without water none of this all would have been possible.

Aside from the current functional role, it is not very present in the over all experience of the Shekou site.

Could it be possible that water becomes visually part of the experience?

Can it even be physically more present? Can water fulfill a new functional role?

frag. 14 — Water has played an unexcludable role in the development of the Shekou area.

Without water none of this all would have been possible.

Aside from the current functional role, it is not very present in the over all experience of the Shekou site.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

STILL

 

STILL Shekou calm contrast with the sparkling effervescence of the city itself.

So on, every single inpulse, like the ferry alert, the woking noise, the song of a bird... takes a new dimension.

Interveining on that site could generate a chain reaction.

On the architectural scale, small boxes in bigger spaces shoves the perceptions of inside and outside space.

frag. 15 — Shekou calm contrast with the sparkling effervescence of the city itself.

So on, every single inpulse, like the ferry alert, the woking noise, the song of a bird... takes a new dimension.

Interveining on that site could generate a chain reaction.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

AWARENESS

AWARENESS Some situations require a person’s full attention.

A level difference between two spaces, a curved path or stepping on an escalator.

These simple but daily routines determine how we “see” space.

If there is no obstacle, we experience space in a different way.

It gives us another visual and audible awareness of the surrounding.

frag. 16 — Some situations require a person’s full attention. A level difference between two spaces, a curved path or stepping on an escalator. These simple but daily routines determine how we “see” space.

If there is no obstacle, we experience space differently.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

SHADOW

 

SHADOW The use of certain materials in daylight can create an unexpected spectacle.

The constant play between light and shadow can provide an extra dimension and have a big impact on a certain space.

frag. 17 — The use of certain materials in daylight can create an unexpected spectacle.

The constant play between light and shadow can provide an extra dimension and have a big impact on a certain space.

COLLECTION - FRAGMENTS OF SHEKOU, SEGMENT 1

A SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

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Exploration _ A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ - STUDY -

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY MENTOR : MARTINE DE MAESENEER STUDENT : SARAH POOT 2014

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Contents A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ - SEGMENT 2 : STUDY -

Forewords

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ON LOCATION

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Pearl River Delta, Megapolis Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Urbanization and land use Climatic conditions

9 10 11 12

ON DENSITIES

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Urban sprawl in China Comparative study Full and empty: the case of Shenzhen

15 16 18

ON MIGRATION

Rural to urban Migrants patterns Huku system Arrival city

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ON POTENTIALS

Testing Shekou Open space and density study Projecting typologies

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21 21 22 24

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27 28 30

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EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

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Forewords

After our stay in Shenzhen, we came back to Belgium with dazzling eyes and sparkling minds. We* deepened our research on topics that have stroken us on the moment such as the climate, the incredible urbanscapes and density aswell as the migrancy patterns. We saw there an opportunity for fostering design tools, that we translated in an experimentation on typologies. This segment synthetize our findings and projects preliminary potentials on the given site taking into account the local social, climatical and economical challenges. * The contents of this segment have mostly been developped within a team, in collaboration with : An-Sofie De Backer, Ysaline Ophoff and William Riche.

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SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

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- On location

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EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

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- On location fig. 1 — Location of Shenzhen on the world map. fig. 2 — Satellite imagery (by NASA), showing urbanized areas of the Pearl Delta River in 1978. fig. 3 — Satellite imagery (by NASA), showing urbanized areas of the Pearl Delta River in 2003.

Shekou is located in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, China. It is an industrial area which harbour activity benefits from its location at the origin of the Pearl River estuary. Its proximity with a major capitalist city such as HongKong and its access to water turned it into the perfect opportunity for China’s opening to free market. This condition has shaped the site according to historical, geographical and climatical criterias.

fig. 1 —

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PEARL RIVER DELTA Megapolis The Pearl River Delta region consists of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou and is inhabited by more or less 120 million people.

From 1986 to 2003 the urbanized area increased 300% (SETO). This resulted in an agricultural land loss of 26,6% in the whole area (fig. 1 & 2). Due to the huge urban sprawl this region is often considered one big megapolis, in which the urban fabric is continous.

fig. 2 —

The region used to be mainly a farmland, but thanks to the liberalisation of China, its activity focuses now mainly on manufacturing.

The development of the Region was mainly fig. 3 —

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GUANGZHOU

SHENZHEN HONG KONG

fig. 1 —

financed by foreign investments coming from Hong-Kong manufacturers seeking for cheaper salaries and logistics costs.

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SHENZHEN Special economic zone From 1978 to 1982 the establishment of Shenzhen shaped China’s post-Mao utopianism.

Even if the main investments were private, the desire to open China to the free capitalist market was the result of a governemental policy.

Here is a succint timeline of the establishment of Shenzhen Municipality and its subsequent division into the Special Economic Zone and New Baoan County showing its expansion both in administration and superficy : •

October 1978 Shekou Industrial Park is initiated by China Merchants

•

March 1979 Baoan County is elevated to Shenzhen Municipality

•

August 1980 – 327.5 km2 Shenzhen becomes SEZ and includes: - Shenzhen Market - Shatoujiao Market - 4 Communes- Fucheng, Futian, Nantou, Shekou

•

October 1981 – 1,625 km2 Shenzhen becomes New Baoan County and includes: - 16 Communes - Dapeng, Kuiyoung, Pingshan, Longgang, Pingdi, Henggang, Pinghu, Buji, Guanlan, Longhua, Shiyan, Xixiang, Shajing, Fuyong, Songgang, Gongming - Guangming Dairy

Within the space of a few decades, Shenzhen, formerly a small fishing village, has become an industrial megacity in which eal estate development generates generic architecture, not providing a home feeling.

fig. 2 —

EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

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fig. 1 — Map showing the proximity of Shenzhen with Guangzhu and Hong-Kong. fig. 2 — Shenzhen’s urbanscape, made out of generic high-rise buildings.

fig. 3 —

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fig. 3 — Map showing the urban development plan of 1982 superposed with the current contour of Shenzhen.

(Image by Mary Ann O’Donnell - August 27, 2011 - Shenzhen Noted) fig. 4 — Maps showing the urbanization of Shenzhen between 1978 and 2003 (Hao, P. (2012). Spatial evolution of urban villages in Shenzhen.

Available: http://www.itc. nl/library/pa pers_2012/phd/puhao. pdf. Last accessed 22nd Mar 2014.)

URBANIZATION Uncontrolled development The redistricting of the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen in 1980 and the rural New Baoan County in 1982 enhanced rural-urban contradictions. Therefore only a small part of the city territory enjoys an integrated planning.

The division of this part into four types of landuse results in an uncontrolled and initially

unexpected urban sprawl in the rest of Shenzhen (fig. 3). Parts which were not included in the development plan were left to local governance, assuming that rural land would sustain as such.

However, the economic success of the SEZ aroused the urge to access the same economical wealth. Local initiatives led to the industrialization and urbanization of the remaining agricultural land. The city expanded rapidly and the shoreline has been redefined by its new function (fig. 4).

fig. 4 —

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fig. 1 —

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fig. 1 — Wind directions in Shenzhen (source : http:// nl.windfinder.com) fig. 2 — Average temperatures in Shenzhen in °C (source : Source: http:// www.worldweatheronline.com) fig. 3 — Average rainfall in Shenzhen in mm (source : Source: http:// www.worldweatheronline.com) fig. 4 — Floods in Shenzhen, 2010

CLIMATE Conditions The wet season lasts from May until September and bears 80% of the annual rainfalls.

The region is threatened by cycloons and typhoons from the West Pacific. Due to spring tide, low lying areas may suffer flooding twice a month (fig. 4). Unfortunately the connection between planning and flood control is inexistant. Tremendous floods are generated by the impermeabilization of the ground.

This climatic issues are currently being fighted.

However, they could rather be accepted and translated into a narrative resilient landscape.

EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

fig. 2 —

fig. 3 —

fig. 4 —

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- On densities

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EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

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- On densities

fig. 1 — Seoul urbanization over last three decades (in Vertical Village MVRDV)

In order to understand densities, one has to consider the various criterias that defines it.

Among them, the most commonly used to talk about density are the Floor Area Ratio (calculated by comparing the footprint of the building with the actual surfaces of available floors), the number of dwelling units on a given surface (usually used by investors to evaluate the profit they will be taking from a real estate operation) and the number of inhabitants per square kilometers (usually a good indicator of the poverty level in a given neighborhood). However, densities are also embeded in various sociological, geographical and historical contexts that can not be exluded for an in-depth research.

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URBAN SPRAWL From the Hutong to the High rise tower In Shenzhen, like other asian cities, informal vernacular horizontal urban sprawl is being replaced by high rise anonymous towers.

As China’s economy and modernization grows, so does its need for urbanization. Its population has almost reached the one billion and a half, and its urbanscapes have considerably been altered over the last de-

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cades. From the traditional model of low rise networks of Siheyuan (courtyard buildings, fig. 2, next page)) generating social encounter and providing diverse intimacy levels, cities have moved to the logic of the maximum (fig. 1).

fig. 1 —

High rise buildings are (not so) slowly replacing the existing urban fabric, relocating inhabitants in high rise towers. In those buildings, people are deprived from the opportunity of using the groundfloor as an extra space for gathering, encounter or even informal businesses (fig.1 next page). Moreover, the spatial configuration of those towers implies that its users never really meet each other, coming from the streets directly into their own private space, without benefiting from the diversity of

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

fig. 1 —

hierachical spaces they had to walk trough in the traditional settings. As a consequence, anonymity becomes one of the bigger issues of our contemporary urban lifes. Investors may argue that it is a response towards a growing population, but -keeping the economic logic in mind- isn’t there any other options to respond to a growing density?

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COMPARISONS High rise vs urban sprawl

fig. 2 —

to belgian and chinese ways of living, we realise that the number «3» does not have the same implications in both cultures. In Belgium, given the high rate of divorces, a household of 3 people might actually be one single person, or a family of five, or even a divorced father with his two children once in a while. In China, given the one child policiy, a family is more ofen a traditional pattern of two parents and a child. Therefore, the needs in terms of space changes completely.

Comparing Brussels with Shenzhen, one might be surprised to discover that the density is quite similar in both cities (fig 4).

However, we have to be cautious when we talk about density, given the many diverse tools that can be used to actually measure it.

So on, the average density of inhabitants per quare kilometer is similar in both cities, but the way the built environnment is set up dramatically changes its perception.

Culture is one of the aspects that impacts on the way we perceive cities density : in Belgium for example, the average size of households is estimated around 3, the same as in China (fig. 3). If we have a closer look

fig. 3 —

In the build environment, those differences can also be withnessed in the urban fabric.

In Shenzhen for instance, the accumulation of high rise buildings generate a loss of hierarchy in the city, while in Brussels, high rise landmarks pop out in the horizontal low rise sprawl (fig 5 & 6).

EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

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fig. 1 — Hutong informal relation with the street : small businesses (Photograph by Justin Hill) fig. 2 —Siheyuan fig. 3 —Comparison of Shenzhen and Brussels average households (author’s own drawing)

BRUSSELS

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fig. 4 —Comparison of Shenzhen and Brussels average density. fig. 5 —Brussels low-rise morphology, with a few landmarks poping out. (google image search) fig. 6 —Shenzhen high-rise morphology. (google image search)

fig. 5 —

fig. 6 —

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fig. 1 — Comparison of Shenzhen average density according to seasonal migrant patterns. From left to right : Shenzhen density if inhabitable spaces are removed; Shenzhen density during winter; Shenzhen density during Chinese New Year week. (author’s own drawing)

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FULL & EMPTY The case of Shenzhen Density can also be seen as a relative measure : in Shenzhen for example, the city can be full or empty.

The average density of inhabitants per square kilometer for instance, does not take into account the unhabitable areas as greenery, infrastructure, reservoirs, etc. In Shenzhen, only two tirds of the surface being habitable, it dramatically rises the density.

Times of the year also have to be taken into account: Shenzhen being a migrant city, where people work but do not live, it gets very empty during week-ends or holidays: the city is reported as a ghost city during Chinese New Year week for example, when everyone goes back to his family in the rural areas for spring festival.

On the other hand, the mild climate of southern China brings more inhabitants in winter, when grandparents are joining their sons in Shenzhen to avoid colder climates in the North (fig. 1).

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- On migration

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EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

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- On migration

ref. 1 — H. Xiaochu, China’s ‘New Generation’ Rural-Urban Migrants: Migration Motivation and Migration Patterns (January 2, 2012).

Migration Information Source, 2012. .

Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1978546 or http:// dx.doi.org/10.2139/ ssrn.1978546

On may 23, 2007, the world became more urban than rural. Since then, the proportion of inhabitants living in urban areas never stoped swelling. This migration from rural to urban areas is probably the most major change that could happen to our city structures, and designers have to rethink the configuration of urban space in order to respond to new dwelling needs.

In 2009, there were 145 million rural-urban migrants in China, which represents about 11 percent of the total population. Among them, about 85 million to 100 million were born after 1980 — a period when three distinct government policies converged to shape the circumstances for increased ruralto-urban migration within China, according to Xiaochu Hu (2012)ref 1.

In China, these mobility patterns are exarcerbated with the economic boom that promesses a certain kind of chinese dream (in comparison to the american dream) to the adventurers.

MIGRANTS

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RURAL TO URBAN Floating population According to the International Labour Organization, internal migration in the People’s Republic of China is one of the most extensive in the world.

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Different patterns ’According to a recent report by the China National Bureau of Statistics, 44.4 percent of new-generation migrant workers are employed in the manufacturing industry compared to 31.5 percent of the previous generation. Construction, which was traditionally the primary magnet for rural-urban migrants, now draws just 9.8 percent of new-generation workers compared to 27.8 percent of the previous generation’.

(Xiaochu Hu, 2012) This new generation of migrants is rather young, and have no experience neither in the agricultural sector as well as in city life,

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1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

fig. 1 —

1. Remits and save more 2. Heavier family burden 3. Continues within a business 4. Changes job for higher salary or status

Higher education level Job changing: random Job searching: self, media, ...

Find spouse on their own High adaptation to city life.

CARRER BUILDER

EMOTIONAL EXPLORER

FAMILY HELPER

and are confronted to a variety of challenges. According to the National Bureau of Statistics reports a shift in patterns, showing that migrants are younger than before : the first migrating age of migrants born between 1980 and 1990 is 21.1, while the age for those who were born after 1990 is 17.2.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

LOST FOLLOWER

Lower education level Job changing: Spring festival Job searching: Laoxiangs Find spouse through family Low adaptation to city life.

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HUKU SYSTEM Those young migrants have usually not achieved school and are underqualified. They are thus underpaid when they arrive in an urban environement and have to deal with a confusion of their identity - villager or citizen? Most of them show an overall lack of happiness.

‘After months of interviewing new-generation rural-urban migrants, I generated four representative social migration patterns these youth generally follow based on their educational attainment, job-hunting methods, social network usage, remittance behavior, and reasons for relocation: Career Builder, Family Helper, Emotional Explorer, and Lost Follower’. (fig.1) (Xiaochu Hu, 2012)

Inequalities and sacrifice The Hukou system is a family registration program that serves as a domestic passport, regulating population distribution and rural-to-urban migration. It is a tool for social and geographical control that enforces an apartheid structure that denies farmers the same rights and benefits enjoyed by urban residents.

Recently a new group has been established, the rural migrant laborers. These are people that are registered in the countryside, but are working and living in the city. These people are still depending on their village for social security, education, etc. They are part of China’s 2 million floathing population. (fig. 2) Shenzhen has 9 017 000 inhabitants but only 2 954 000 have their hukou registered in Shenzhen. This means that the majority of the

EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

1. Remits and save less 2. Lighter family burden 3. Jumps between businesses 4. Changes job for fun or freedom

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fig. 1 — Mobility patterns in China, diagram redrawn according to H. Xiaochu.

ref. 1 — H. Xiaochu, China’s ‘New Generation’ Rural-Urban Migrants: Migration Motivation and Migration Patterns (January 2, 2012).

Migration Information Source, 2012. .

Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1978546 or http:// dx.doi.org/10.2139/ ssrn.1978546

CARRER BUILDER

FAMILY HELPER

LOST FOLLOWER

Looking for opportunities

_

EMOTIONAL EXPLORERS

Looking for a good life/work balance

Looking for affordability

Looking for social encounter

They are the most independant migrants: they have a relatively high level of education and are aware of the opportunities offered in the city. They adapt and take advantage of the urban environment to gain knowledge and skills.

They promote their carrer while helping their family financially. They are the elite of rural to urban migrants and are of special interest for the policy makers.

The Family Helper is the traditional chinese rural to urban migrant, sending home every penny they earn.

They usually have a stable proffesional situation in a factory but they might cumulate several jobs if the family situation requires it. Sometimes, their activity is very close to illegal in order to achieve their financial goals.

They might change jobs after spring festival.

Emotional Explorers are the result of the one child generation, their are refered to as spoiled and egoistical. They don’t remit or save money for their family, and claim that their salary is barely sufficient for sustaining the glossy urban lifestyle they desire.

They might change jobs or location randomly, according to their personal interest and connections.

Fewer new-generation migrants from the study fell into the category of Lost Follower. They commonly migrate following someone they know. They are under-educated, not prepared and feel particularly lonely in the city. This makes them especially vulnerable to human trafficking, exploitation, abuse, victimization by criminals, and engaging in crime themselves.

_

fig. 2 — Huku registration system. Diagram.

_

_

Mao’s Era

Present

The Rich

The Rich

urban worker

urban hukou rural hukou

Peasants

urban worker

rural migrant labor Peasants

fig. 2 —

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RRIVAL CITY hen, China

10 000 (*10 000 inhab)

901,7

5000

259,4

fig. 1 —

fig. 2 —

1000 0 1981

Increases in the regional minimum wage in 2012 (Yuan/ month)

Current minimum wage

fig. 4 —

2011

Previous minimum wage

people living in Shenzhen are still depending on other areas in China. (fig. 1)

The small arrival cities no longer exist in Shenzhen. The government replaced them with high rise buildings to provide more housing. But the consequences are that ordinary factory workers are not able to afford these housing and there is no possibility to start a small business. People are moving to other cities where they are able to afford a place to stay. Shenzhen tries to keep people by increasing the minimum wages but this means Shenzhen is loosing it’s economical position to cities where the wages are lower.

After Chinese New Year in 2008, 2 million workers (18%) did not return to Shenzhen. The city decided to higher the wages from 450 to 900 yuan but nobody returned. The problem was not the wages in Shenzhen but the hukou registration that made it difficult for people from the countryside to have a permanent residence in the city. This resulted in people leaving Shenzhen to start a live in other parts of China. Now, Shenzhen shows one of the highest wage in China, and looses its economical position. (fig. 2) In 2009, Shenzhen has decided to change the system. Now, after working in the city for 5 years, you can apply for a hukou in Shenzhen.

fig. 3 —

possibility to start a small local shop and create a social network within the new city.

It is an urban settlement platform where people start building a new live before they move on to a better one.

The arrival city no longer exists in Shenzhen.

The city has destroyed them and relocated the people living in them in high rise buildings.

However, the possibility to start a small shop, the key element that makes these arrival cities an urban settlement platform, is lost. (fig.3 & 4) The housing prices in Shenzhen have become so high, that people live together in dormitories because they are not able to efford a place to stay on their own. (fig. 5)

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ARRIVAL CITY Transit space Arrival cities are integral parts of the larger city that function on their own. It is a tranfer zone where poor people arrive from the countryside to get access to jobs in the city.

The arrival city provides cheap housing, the

EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

fig. 5 —

24

fig. 1 — Differences between the total inhabitants of Shenzhen (9.010.000 inhabitants) and the urban hukus tenants (2.590.000) fig. 2 — Average wages in China, per city fig. 3 — The Wang family’s living room : where they live, sleep, eat and work. fig. 4 — The Wang Family’s traditional bath tubs business fig. 5 — Dormitories in Shenzhen

- On potentials

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EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

26

- On potentials fig. 1 — Site taken into account for the study : 7sqkm.

Shekou’s industrial activity is meant to move to a northern part of the city. What is the future of this area? Without any specific development plan, the site will probably taken over by real estate investors, building another bunch of high-rise soul-less buildings. Can we propose another vision? How can we seduce investors with inovative housing typologies, Existing density in Shekou is 5800 inh/sqkm the economical logic and taking in account that roughly taken the needs which inaremeans densities? there already 40 600 people Can we provide a living in this area better living quality with the same averageif we want to achieve the same as SZ density? density (15 000 inh./sqkm)

order to achieve the current average density observed in Shenzhen. (15.000 inh./sqkm).

How can we translate an amount of 60.000 inhabitants in an urban artefact? How can we feel how much space this is going to take in?

the total of inhabitants should be lifted up to 105 000 inhabitants

_

TESTING SHEKOU

This is:

+ 64 400 inhabitants

Projecting typologies

Shekou port, as the place that made the modern Shenzhen possible trough manufacturing, offers valuable industrial heritage all reachable from one to another in 5 minutes.. It is also a place where nature and infrastructure are overlapping : the abondance of roads and the confrontation between the sea and the mounts.

fig. 1 —

Projecting densities // grasping scales

Following the studies on density and measuring the superficy of the site (7 square kilometers, fig.1), we could form the hypothesis that 60.000 inhabitants should move to Shekou, in

27

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fig. 1 — SAINT JOS TEN NODE / BRUSSELS inhab. per km2 : 20 600 FAR : 2,5 average height : 5 floors open space : 50% fig. 2 — WOLUWE / BRUSSELS inhab. per km2 : 7 200 FAR : 0,2 average height : 2 floors open space : 90%

fig. 1 —

fig. 3 — QUARRY BAY / HONG KONG inhab. per km2 : 31 000 FAR : 10,5 average height : 35 floors open space : 70% fig. 2 —

fig. 4 — LAMMA ISLAND / HONG KONG inhab. per km2 : 460 FAR : 0,20 average height : 2 floors open space : 90%

fig. 3 —

EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

fig. 4 —

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fig. 1 — MANHATTAN / NYC inhab. per km2 : 27 200 FAR : 2,5 average height : 8 floors open space : 70% fig. 2 — BROOKLYN / NYC inhab. per km2 : 13 200 FAR : 0,8 average height : 4 floors open space : 80% fig. 3 — FU TIAN DISTRICT / SHENZHEN inhab. per km2 : 15 000 FAR : 1,75 average height : 35 floors open space : 95% fig. 4 — SHEKOU PORT / SHENZHEN inhab. per km2 : 5 800 FAR : 0,8 average height : 2 floors open space : 60%

fig. 5 —

fig. 6 —

fig. 7 —

fig. 8 —

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fig. 1a —

fig. 1b —

fig. 2a —

fig. 2b —

fig. 3a —

fig. 3b —

EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

30

As a tool to envision this we placed typologies -that we are familiar with- on the site. The three typologies that were used are Hong Kong based, being a city known for its incredible density and intensity. We estimated that there would be an average of three people living per appartment. * Each typology has its own footprint, amount of floors, and amount of appartments per floor.

The following typologies were used for this inquiry: The Star Shape Tower, The Kowloon Block and the Pencil tower. *(with the exception for the Kowloon block of which we know that it is estimated that there’s 4000 people living in one block) In order to show that building high rise towers -as seen in modern Shenzhen- might be pointless, the studied densities were projected both in their current conditions (vertically) and in a 90° anglexrotation. This projection shows that the site can achieve Shenzhen density in a middle to low-rise way.

The result shows that high rise might not be the only solution to achieve density in Shekou. Other solutions can be found.

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EXPLORATION - A FEW THINGS ABOUT SZ, SEGMENT 2

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3

Intentions _ SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY - OUTLINE -

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY MENTOR : MARTINE DE MAESENEER STUDENT : SARAH POOT 2014

_

Contents SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY - SEGMENT 3 : OUTLINE -

Forewords

5

MANIFESTO

7

MASTERPLAN

11

Defining site Observing site Vision for Shekou Narrative landscape Maps Visualisations

13 13 14 15 16 26

SPATIAL CONDITIONS

33

Use of public spaces Configuration of spaces and territorial depth Axes, convex spaces and isovists Settings (phenotype and genotype) Codes Scale and sensory distances Bounding and bridging Circulations

35 35 35 35 36 36 36 36

3

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

4

_

Forewords

This segment envisions the future of Shekou trough a rather open masterplan. Using the projection of typologies developped in segment 2, we* defined spatial guidelines for the area, both on the site scale and on the scale of the future architectural proposals. The main challenge of this masterplan is to outbalance the economical logic of real estate operators, by proposing a density similar to the current one in Shenzhen without sacrificing a good living quality and innovative response to current needs in housing. * The masterplan strategy presented in this segment has partly been developped within a team, in collaboration with : An-Sofie De Backer, Ysaline Ophoff and William Riche.

However, most of the drawings presented here are author’s production.

5

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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- Manifesto

7

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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- Manifesto One of the most evident findings on the Shekou area is, that it is not related to the fragmented, flashy, frosty and generic city fabric of Shenzhen. It is nothing like it. In this sense Shekou is not related. However, Shekou is physically part of Shenzhen and in self-evident relation to it. And this is where the great opportunity lies. Shekou could become a part of Shenzhen, a different destination, a place to just be. The existing (mainly manufacturing) built heritage generates qualities that could make this place a new retreat.

The industrial heritage in itself has the quality of being rough, honest, straightforward. This strategy for Shekou treasures these qualities, together with a strong belief that friction, accidents, may occur. Not everything has to be flashy and sleek. This place can become a meaningful venue, a place where people are aware of where they are, a place where light and air in space play a much bigger role than what kind of brands will be sold, if any.

Therefore the main focus as far as movement goes will be pushed in the direction of walking and biking. Absorbing the environment by standing in it. New centers will be configured in such a way that they will become walkable pockets. The straight forward charac-

9

ter of the area can also be extended to the way that will be dealt with nature. On the one hand there is a lot of pristine nature, amidst the concrete industrial fabric. On the other there is the sea, which can play a narrative role. Water will become part of the area, accepting it for what it is, letting it flow in/ over.

Generating a resilient landscape.

Achieving all of this by making use of what is there rather than adding new things. Removing parts of the concrete impervious surfaces, to let the water through, can shift the natural and cultural experience.

Walkable pockets will come to life by exploiting the existing (industrial) heritage and making intense use of the built space as new cultural centers; as nodes in a soft network.

However, this doesn’t mean that Shekou will not give a conclusive response to tomorrow’s demands in (Shenzhen’s) density. Density can offer loneliness without anonimity.

An-Sofie De Backer, Ysaline Ophoff, Sarah Poot & William Riche

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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- Masterplan

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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- Masterplan According to the manifesto for Shekou we developped, spatial strategies for the site have been proposed.

_

This situation enhances the border-like nature of the site, where most of the Ferry routes from Hong-Kong, Macau and other cities converge.

DEFINING SITE Scope of the intervention The masterplan focus on Shekou Port, the southern part of the Nanshan district. One interesting finding is the peculiar configuration of its shoreline, which coincides perfectly with the administrative border between China and Hong Kong.

IC OF C HINA BL

SHEKOU

NG

’S PLE EO H ON G - K

O

P

R

U EP

As a matter of fact, this location at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta used to play an important part in the development of Shezhen, allowing the SEZ to open China to international trade and open markets.

The zone defined for the intervention represents approximatively 7.2 kilometers at the edge of this peninsula.

_

OBSERVING SITE Working with the existing As a motor for China’s industrial development, Shekou port’s landscape is composed of countless factories or logistical/infrastructural features.

HONG-KONG

fig. 1 — Map showing the location of the site on the administrative border separating China from Hong-Kong.

Author’s own production

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The site presents a wide range of valuable industrial buildings or landmarks that define the identity its identity.

Among the buildings, three different typologies might be found interesting for redevelopfig. 1 —

13

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ment : silos, warehouses and administrative constructions. Those objects in the landscape have the particularity to define empty indoor spaces with peculiar dimensions and scale.

fig. 1 —

Other industrial landmarks such as the 60 meters-high cranes punctuating the outskirt of the area give it a monumental sense. Part of the site history -standing there, sentinel-likethey seem to defend the area from outside invasions.

_

VISION FOR SHEKOU Activated loop of urban nodes The project proposes to preserve the valuable industrial buildings, improving a pedestrian network connecting them. It proposes to redevelop this former industrial area in a highly compact network of urban nodes in walkable distance from each other.

The loop is continued towards the sea with new urban nodes. Those nodes are defining a border to the intervention, following the contour of the past shoreline.

Valuable industrial buildings will be converted into public programs in order to polarize the focus. Those public features will be completed by new temporary housing for migrants : labor workers, artists, expats... Each of the 20 urban nodes will be able to host about 3000 inhabitants, wich makes Shekou port able to afford Shenzhen density.

Those urban nodes height will be limited to the height of the existing landmarks such as the cranes or the factories chimneys.

fig. 2 —

fig. 3 —

INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

14

fig. 1 — Valuable industrial heritage typoligies : silo, warehouses and additions of slabs.

Collage by An-Sofie de Backer

fig. 2 — 60 metershigh cranes on the shoreline of Shekou

fig. 3 — Strategy for the site. Drawing by Ysaline Ophoff.

_

fig. 4 — Serie of collage showing the diverse flooded conditions on the masterplan model.

Author’s own production

NARATIVE LANDSCAPE Different conditions of resiliency While the edge of the site will be highly programmed and activated, the center will be kept empty and unprogrammed, giving back the reclaimed land to the nature : impervious surfaces, buffering flooding pockets, introduction or preservation of wild life will be possible. However, the edge of the current shoreline will be ketp strong, as a scenography of the past.

The different conditions of the site will provoke unexpected situations: when the site is flooded, a few of the bridges could be under water and therefore some buildings can be isolated on an island and confront its users with the uncertainty of the grounds.

fig. 4 —

15

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_

MAPS Spatial strategies

INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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N

1 km

map. 1 — Map of the site, showing the area taken into account for 1 KM the development of the masterplan strategies.

Author’s own production

17

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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N

1 km

map. 2 — Map of the site, showing the former shoreline and the 1 KM contour of the reclaimed land built to respond to the industry needs.

Author’s own production

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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N

1 km

map. 3 — Map of the site, showing the short walking 1 KM distance network between existing valuable industrial heritage.

Author’s own production

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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N

1 km

map. 4 — Map of the site, showing the short walking 1 KM distance network between existing valuable industrial heritage and the continuation of it as an activating loop circling an unprogrammed central area.

Author’s own production

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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N

1 km

map. 5 — Map of the site, showing the floodable areas 1 KMincreasing the resiliency of the site.

Author’s own production

25

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fig. 1 — Collage.

The banks of the shoreline between each of the new urban nodes will constitute a pictural promenade on Shenzhen’s border.

Author’s own production

INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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fig. 1 — Collage.

In the existing industrial fabric, the architectural interventions will save as much land as possible by investing the airs.

Author’s own production

INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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fig. 1 — Collage.

On the new edge of the site, the bulding height will not be higher than the existing cranes, that will remain landmarks in the landscape.

Author’s own production

INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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- Spatial guidelines

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INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

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- Spatial guidelines

fig. all — Illustrations of the spatial guidelines.

Drawings by Ysaline Ophoff.

We defined some spatial conditions we consider significant both on city and building scale for the next steps of the design process.

The quality of public space does not depend on the amount of open space.

A porous groundfloor, both visually and physically, enhance social interaction and human presence on the street.

35

Subtile changes in a space’s morphology influence the way people use this space.

By simply shift door openings for instance, the depth of a space can fundamentally change.

Axes, isovists and convex spaces define wether or not a space is well connected and integrated.

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

A setting can be described as an activity outlined by codes which direct people’s behaviour. This is related with genotype - a transspatial concept related to the elements which compose a space- and phenotype - a spatial concept related to the appearence of a space.

highrise apartment buildings people enter their building, take the elevator and cross their corridor. The chance to meet neighbours more than once is rather small because of the scale and configuration of the circulation. The relation with the public space surrounding the building is minimal.

As an opposite situation, we want to refer to the house of M. Hulot (Mon Oncle, J. Tati).

When M; Hulot enters his house, he makes a promenade, which doesn’t only allows him to meet his neighbours regularly, but which also becomes a spectacle for an outsider.

Behaviour codes in urban settings will be much more complex than in areas with one specific socio-cultural group.

We can describe circulation space with three components: the horizontal connection (a porous transition from collectivity to privacy), the vertical connection (the way stairs can enhance social interaction) and spatial and social quality of the space itself.

Integrating every sensory distance (smell, conversations, recognise, distinguish) within an urban context allows to experience every scale.

Bonding refers to the activities enhancing a community feeling. Bridging refers to the way different communities can interact. In

INTENTIONS - SHEKOU AS A GATEWAY, SEGMENT 3

36

fig. all — Illustrations of the spatial guidelines.

Drawings by Ysaline Ophoff.

4

Question _

IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION - NOTE -

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY MENTOR : MARTINE DE MAESENEER STUDENT : SARAH POOT 2014

_

Contents IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION - SEGMENT 4 : NOTE -

Forewords

5

REFLEXION QUESTION

7

Note

9

CASE STUDIES ON APPROPRIABILITY

17

Utopias Built projects Emergency architecture Kinetic architecture Community building

18 20 22 24 26

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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3

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QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

4

_

Forewords

“ Si je devais écrire un livre pour communiquer ce que je pense déjà, avant d’avoir commencé à écrire, je n’aurais jamais le courage de l’entreprendre.

Je ne l’écris que parce que je ne sais pas encore exactement quoi penser de cette chose que je voudrais tant penser. (...)

Je suis un expérimentateur en ce sens que j’écris pour me changer moi-même et ne plus penser la même chose qu’auparavant”.

Michel Foucault, Dits et écrits, 1978

Architecture is not unrelated to writing. One can even dare to propose the following interpretation: architecture is writing. It is writing the space being transformed, reorganized, composed or created. It is ordering, describing, and determining the uses, appropriations, meanings and cultures in an urban fabric.

This master project constitutes an essential step in the journey of my intellectual development as a future architect. It is a priviledged moment when I can stand up to shape a personal way of thinking and give it a tangible form. It is the opportunity to find coherence between my architectural practice and my moral or ethical positions. It is a chance to grow up!

5

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

6

- Note

7

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QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

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- Note “ How to generate a transitional space in arrival cities - where people can leave a trace - but still incentive for migrants to leave, settle and grow old elsewhere? ” When you move, you are -somehow- leaving a trace behind you. Or not. Not in Shenzhen....

In the (amazing) urban growth in China, little attention is paid to accommodation for migrant workers. In Shenzhen, arrival cities are des­troyed in order to build modern high-rise building supposed to dwell the thousands of migrant workers arriving in the city, seeking for a better life. Those soul-less apartments don’t provide a space for people to express themselves, find their marks, or even sustain a parallel economy that would allow them to afford better living conditions in a close future. Instead, those migrants are massively leaving Shenzhen, without even leaving a glimpse of their presence in the city.

9

If genotype and phenotype together generate a living environment, how can we generate a space in which people can literally carry their homes on their back, land for a while, and then leave? But more importantly, how can we capitalize on their experience/ expertise, make their short time-lapse on the site meaningful for the ones who will follow?

How to generate a generic infrastruc­ture highly adapted (in opposition to adaptive) in order to allow any single one to invest and feel «home» in an indigenous environment?

How can we link this built environment with social mechanisms that can pro­vide good living conditions and trai­ning for a better life?

How can we make this utopia still in­centive for people to leave, settle and grow old elsewhere?

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

fig. 1 —Yang Long Long - 30 Yrs. Farmer.

Gansu Province. (Illiterate) ‘When I go to the big city I feel like I don’t know anything’ Photo by Adrian Fisk.

On may 29th, 2009; the world population became more urban than rural. Main reasons for this shift in living patterns are due to job opportunities offered in the cities by our post industrial society that focuses on tertiary services. China being no exception, 145 millions of rural-to-urban migrants are moving to urban environments, in search for fortune, happiness and independence (Xiaochu Hu, 2012. ref. 1). They represent roughly 11% of the total population. Most of those migrants are born after 1980 – since when three different government policies have shaped the circumstances for migrancy patterns within China.

First of all, the one child policy introduced in 1979 promoted late marriage and delayed child bearing in rural families. This affected the vast rural China household structure by drastically reducing the agricultural workforce. Then, in the 1980’s, the Hukou system that was introduced in the 1950’s to regulate internal migration on the Chinese territory became to loosen in response to the demand of the markets as well as of the rural resident that pictured greater economic opportunities in the cities. At the same time, the opening of China to international trade generated an economic boom that increased incomes across the country, pushing rural surplus labour to the cities (Xiaochu Hu, 2012).

This massive exodus towards cities questions our ways to dwell in the city. In the (amazing) urban growth in China, little attention is paid to accommodation for migrant workers. In Shenzhen, arrival cities are des­troyed in order to build modern high-rise building supposed to dwell the thousands of migrant workers arriving in the city, seeking for a better life.

Those soul-less apartments don’t provide a space for people to express themselves, find their marks, or even sustain a parallel economy that would allow them to afford better living conditions in a close future. Instead, those migrants are massively leaving Shenz-

ref. 1 —Hu, Xiaochu, China’s ‘New Generation’ Rural-Urban Migrants: Migration Motivation and Migration Patterns (January 2, 2012).

Migration Information Source, 2012. .

Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1978546 or http:// dx.doi.org/10.2139/ ssrn.1978546

fig. 1 —

hen, without even leaving a glimpse of their presence in the city.

Sheer pragmatism and economy of means has forced those migrant cities to develop an urbanism of inherent flexibility and malleability. But because an accommodation does not make a home, those migrants experience a sense of homelessness in the cities.

Rural-to-urban migration in China also generates poor living conditions: their social, working and geographical mobility that seems to be a great opportunity for achieving a better life is instead alienated by their working and living conditions.

Different streams of though discussed the development of those so-called “generic cities”, generated by urban sprawl in global cities. According to the New Urbanism movement:

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

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fig. 2 —Hanging gardens, Seven Series Miles Gerter, 2013 ref. 2 —DunhamJones E. (2001) ‘Capital transformations of the post-industrial landscape’ in OASE, Re-Generic City (54), pp. 9-36.

ref. 3 —Koolhaas, R., Whatever Happened to Urbanism? In S,M,L,XL, OMA, (with Bruce Mau), The Monicelli Press, New York, 1995, pp. 959/971

“If sprawl is the post-industrial landscape of private investments, the insistent now, speed, disposability and the temporary contract, New Urbanism is a counter project to postindustrialism dedicated to the slow and the enduring. It provides an emphasis on figural public spaces, historical references, traffic calming and walkable distances, placebased architectural designs and reminders of one’s obligation to others, especially in terms of preservation of open space for future generations and the recognition that at the private building’s interface with the public realm, individual expression is limited for the sake of designing the larger space of the community.”

Dunham-Jones, E. 2001 (ref. 2)

obviously not the enemy. Generic can be an opportunity for appropriation and adaptation to various different conditions at affordable price. But it has to be designed accordingly, in order to be able to host the future as much as the memories.

This in mind, how to generate a generic infrastruc­ ture highly adapted (in opposition to adaptive) in order to allow any single one to invest and feel «home» in an indigenous environment? If genotype and phenotype together generate a living environment, how can we generate a space in which people can literally carry their homes on their back, land for a while, and then leave?

In opposition to the new urbanists, for whom the generic implies a loss of identity, Koolhaas claims that the generic city represents an opportunity for reinvention free from nostalgia.

“If there is to be a ‘new urbanism’ it will not be based on the twin fantasies of order and omnipotence; it will be the staging of uncertainty; it will no longer be concerned with the arrangements of more or less permanent objects but with the irrigation of territories with potentials; it will no longer aim for stable configurations but for the creation of enabling fields that accommodate processes that refuse to be crystallised into definitive form; it will no longer be about meticulous definition, the imposition of limits, but about expanding notions, denying boundaries, not about discovering unnameable hybrids; it will no longer be obsessed with the city but with the manipulation of infrastructure for endless intensifications and diversifications, shortcuts and redistributions and the reinvention of psychological space’.

Koolhaas, R. 1995 (ref. 3) I would say that I very much agree, generic is

11

fig. 2 —

In order to achieve a better understanding of the issue of appropriability, many precedents that promote adaptability in theory and history of architecture have been investigated.

The case studies range from utopias to build project, from traditional construction to conceptual proposals.

Constant Nieuwenhuis for instance, was a figure of the avant-garde movement. He describes his ‘New Babylon’ as a continuous city hosting a life freed from labour, in which

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

nomadic behaviours allow the Homo Ludens (man at play) to feature creativity in his way of living. In a society freed from any control, the intensity of daily life would be the guarantee of a better society: ‘The Project of New Babylon only intends to give the minimum conditions for a behaviour that must remain as free as possible. Any restriction of the freedom of movement, any limitation with regard to the creation of mood and atmosphere, has to be avoided. Everything has to remain possible, all is to happen, the environment has to be created by the activity of life, and not inversely.’

Constant, 1999 (ref. 4)

fig. 1 —

Other theorists such as Yona Friedman –with his groupe d’étude d’architecture mobilehave been imagining infrastructures able to respond to individual needs in terms of housing. The concept of his ‘Mobile City’ is another interpretation of the New Babylon, and insists on mobility for the people and self-planification. It is a rupture in traditional top down urban planning by democratizing architecture. His visions depicts a gigantic

net that stands over existing cities, giving the possibility to anyone to inserts its own inhabited volume in the so-created interstices. It focuses on the fact that people’s mobility is dramatically increasing and that architecture needs to adapt accordingly.

In Yona Friedman’s own words ‘The city, as a mechanism, is thus nothing other than a labyrinth : a configuration of points of departure, and terminal points, separated by obstacles.’

But built projects applying those principles can also be found. For instance, Next 21 in Osaka is a project that introduces the idea of a long life structure that can host short life elements constituting an apartment. The basic infrastructure is provided to its users, which are free to develop their own housing units.

Another example is the Ökohaus in Berlin by Frei Otto, which was first designed as an example of experimental housing for the IBA (International Building Exhibition) of 1987. It showed a concrete structure of floor levels of 6m high, entirely filled with vegetation. In this vertical garden, people were free to build their own ‘nest’. The building structure designed by Frei Otto has a rather non-existing expression: it only consists of floors on large columns on the ground level, 6 meters and 12 meters above. The floors design follows the movement of the sun. The only obligations that inhabitants had to take into account when designing their unit were the preservation of the vegetation and the use of passive solar energy. Also the large cascade stairs along the blocks was not negotiable: when the inhabitants mentioned their preference for a central staircase with an elevator, Frei Otto did not accept to change it in order to let people meeting each other and seeing each other on the stairs and stimulating social contact.

On a wider scale, prefabricated elements

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

12

fig. 1 —New Babylon, Constant. Model ref. 4 —Constant, The Decomposition of the Artist: Five Texts by Constant, The Drawing Center, New York, 1999, a12

fig. 1 —Dom-Ino house, Le Corbusier.

Drawing fig. 2 —Primitive future house, Sou Fujimoto. Drawing ref. 5 —Sou FUJIMOTO, Not an object, but a field of relationships, 2009

fig. 2 —

have been used in housing construction especially in emergency architecture. They ensure a better quality given their precise assemblage, as well as a reduction of the manufacturing costs. The chain manufacturing of those elements also allows a wide diversity of elements, which can respond the various needs linked to the specificities of the users.

Thus, could we somehow combine the idea of a generic infrastructure such as the DomIno house by Le Corbusier with a very improvised configuration of space such as the vision of the future primitive house developed

by Sou Fujimoto? In this vision, Fujimoto projects the idea of an habitat that would not consider the walls, floors or ceilings, but that would allow the human body to create its own memory of the space by improvising its appropriation. A space were human can find a niche to invest.

‘I propose a primordial place to live before a notional ‘house’ became a ‘house;’ when it was uncongealed to be all at once a house, a city, a garden, a forest, a prairie, the natural and the artificial. It is analogous to the ruins of ancient cities, to the natural landscapes, to the network of neural activities in a stimulated mind, and to the structure of the

13

fig. 3 —

Universe...’

Sou FUJIMOTO, 2009 (ref.5) This nest-like condition can be achieved by proposing various different levels were the human body will experience different situations such as being above, being under, being next to, being in front of, etc.… The height or distance separating one element from the other will define the degree of intimacy and the potential of appropriability of each of the spaces created. This versatility can be improved by combining kinetic elements, which would constantly change the perception of the space in which the users are settling down. (see case studies : kinetic architecture) So on, migrants would be able to relate more easily to their new environment, according to their own memory of space and former living conditions.

More importantly, how can we capitalize on their experience/expertise, make their short time-lapse on the site meaningful for themselves and the ones who will follow? How can we link this built environment with social mechanisms that can pro­ vide good living conditions and trai­ning for a better life?

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

One of the main concerns expressed by the new generation of migrant workers in China is the lack of social encounter as well as the difficulty to relate with the city. As a matter of fact, the typologies of high-rise housing currently in use does not allow unforeseen patterns of collective life to develop democratically. The strong edge between public and private space aswell as the straight connection between the ground and one’s elevated apartment does not give any opportunity for slowing down and meeting each other.

A third category of space –the ‘collective space’- emerged in the theoretical discussions over private and public spaces. They are the one where civic life happens, no matter if they are of private or public domains.

sterdam to make a proposal for an intervention on the city. Due to the bombing during the war, many empty plots were found in the urban fabric. Van Eyck proposal was to transform those in playgrounds for the local communities. The process implied to build a few of them in given locations, and to respond to the further demand of the inhabitants on the go. Over 600 hundreds playgrounds were built, without being planned. This archipelago of collective spaces, initially dedicated to children, were in fact a mean to achieve a better social cohesion within the neighborhoods, by letting the community meet in certain places and so on, win back their territory.

‘Collective space is much more and much less than public space, if we limit it to public property. The wealth of a city is that of its collective spaces, of all places where everyday life takes place, presents itself, and is present as memory. And maybe they are more and more often spaces that are not public or private but both at the same time: public spaces used for private activities or private spaces that allow collective uses.’

De Sola-Morales,1992 (ref.6) Those spaces can be found on a city scale such as in churches, shopping malls, squares… The important thing about them is that they are not always focused on a single activity, rather they define a space where encounter is made possible. From space, they thus become a place.

‘The study of empty spaces forces us to look at the actual sequencing of events and activities rather than placing static labels on architecturally defined spaces as being always and only for a particular kind of activity.’

Monica L. SMITH, 2008 (ref.7) In the 1960’s for instance, Aldo Van Eyck was asked by the planning department of Am-

fig. 1 —

On the scale of a building, those collective spaces can be found in vernacular Chinese architecture. The Tulu building is a circular community building organised around a central communal area comprising collective features such as kitchens. The housing units are spread in the fortified wall circling and protecting the community.When a cluster reaches its maximum capacity, the community starts building a new one next to it instead of expanding it. This results in an agglomeration of fortified clusters all connected to each other. These settings ensure certain cohesion

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

14

fig. 1 —Map of the spontanous playgrounds poping up in Amsterdam in the 1960’s. Aldo Van Eyck ref. 6 —De Sola-Morales, M. ‘Openbare en collectieve ruimte: de verstedelijking van het privé-domein als nieuwe uitdaging’(1992) in OASE 33, pp.3-8. ref. 7 — Monica L. SMITH, Urban Empty spaces, 2008

fig. 2 —Diagram showing the transit space that constitutes an arrival city. fig. 3 — Conceptual image. Author’s own production.

?

of the collectivity, not only by the presence of a collective central space but also because of the non-hierarchical configuration of it.

Seeking to allow chinese migrant workers to improve their social network, applying these archipelagos of collective space into transitory housing seems to be a interesting solution to rapidly create encounter (over community). Since they don’t know each other and are in constant movement, the aim here is not to create a sense of collectivity but to generate the opportunity to observe and gain knowledge or skills from the previous ones. By making the migrants cohabit and share certain features, the proposal will force confrontation between its users. Pulled away from their comfort zones, migrants will have to step up and grow old. They will be much more prepared for a better life.

Poor living conditions

Transit zone

Settle and grow old

fig. 2 —

Finally, I believe that dwelling migrants induces the notion of transition. In order to be efficient, the accommodation proposed to house those rural-to-urban has to remain temporary. The spatial configuration of the building will have –somehow- to provoke uncertainty of the territory in order to be incentive for them to leave, grow old and settle elsewhere.

fig. 3 —

15

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

16

- Case studies

17

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

CASE STUDIES - Utopias

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fig. 1 —

_

_

NEW BABYLON

MOBILE CITY

NO STOP CITY

Constant Nieuwenhuys 1999

Yona Friedman 1960’s

Andrea Brazi (Archizoom) 1969

‘The project of New Babylon

‘The city, as a mechanism, is thus

No stop city is an unbuilt pro-

only intends to give the minimum

nothing other than a labyrinth : a

ject picturing rather featureless

conditions for a behaviour that

configuration of points of depar-

endless interiors in which humans

must remain as free as possible.

ture, and terminal points, separa-

live as campers.

Any restriction of the freedom

ted by obstacles’

Andrea Branzi wrote about the

of

limitation

The vision insists on the freedom

project: ‘The real revolution in

with regard to the creation of

and the mobility of the inhabi-

radical architecture is the revo-

mood and atmosphere, has to

tant, enabling self building in

lution of kitsch: mass cultural

be avoided. Everything has to

opposition to top down planning.

consumption, pop art, an indus-

remain possible, all is to happen,

The infrastructures are nor deter-

trial-commercial language. There

the environment has to be crea-

mined nor determining and seek

is the idea of radicalizing the

ted by the activity of life, and not

to a minimal footprint, domanta-

industrial component of modern

inversely.’

bility and alterability as needed.

architecture to the extreme.’

movement,

any

New Babylon - Constant, drawing

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

fig. 2 —

New Babylon - Constant, model

18

fig. 4 —

fig. 3 —

CASE STUDIES - Utopias

La ville mobile - Yona Friedman. Drawing

La ville mobile - Yona Friedman. Model

fig. 5 —

fig. 6 —

No stop city - Archizoom. Plan

No stop city - Archizoom. Collage

19

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

CASE STUDIES - Adaptability: built projects

_

_

ÖKOHAUS

NEXT 21

Frei Otto 1987 - Berlin

Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. 1993 - Osaka

The Ökohaus in Berlin by Frei Otto

The project closely follows the

was first designed as an example

principle of the Open Building

of

for

movement, and takes account

the IBA (International Building

of different needs and time

Exhibition) of 1987. It showed a

horizons, both in terms of social

concrete structure of floor levels

occupation but also in terms

of 6m high, entirely filled with

of construction, with the latter

trees and plants. In this vertical

being differentiated according

garden, people would be free to

to the particular life span of each

build their own ‘nest’.

component. The indroduction of

However, they had to build it with

long life elements and short life

very strict rules, and the choice of

elements allow the building to

a staircase over an elevetor was

be adaptated depending on the

non-negociable.

needs of its current users.

experimental

housing

fig. 1 —

fig. 2 —

Ökohaus - Frei Otto, participatory process

Ökohaus - Frei Otto, model

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

20

fig. 3 —

CASE STUDIES - Adaptability: built projects

Next 21 - Osaka Gas Co. Axonometry of the long/short life elements

fig. 3 —

fig. 4 —

Next 21 - Osaka Gas Co.

Next 21 - Osaka Gas Co. Open plan

21

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

TRANSITIONAL HOUSING

Jean Prouvé 1943 - France

Affec-T 2013 - Hong-Kong (UABB)

_

CASE STUDIES - Adaptability: emergency architecture

PAVILLON DÉMONTABLE

_

The Pavillon démontable is a

Designed for the Hong Kong/

post war emergency housing

Shenzhen Biennale of 2013 the

commissionned by the French

Bamboo Mirco-housing project is

government in order to host the

a form of transitional housing for

inhabitants which houses were

the 280,000+ residents living in the

destroyed by the bombing.

city without permanent housing.

The wood and steel construction

It is a temporary solution investing

taked into account the lack of

the unused industrial space of

steel due to the war, and the pre-

the city using vernacular system

fabricated elements are trans-

of bamboo construction. Each

ported in kit. The house can be

unit can be expanded depen-

built on site in one day by two-

ding of the family situation at the

persons only.

current time.

fig. 1 —

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

Pavillon démontabl - Jean Prouvé, construction process

22

fig. 3 —

fig. 4 —

CASE STUDIES - Adaptability: emergency architecture

Transitional housing - Affec-T. installation for the UABB Bienale

Transitional housing - Affec-T. plan

23

fig. 4 — Transitional housing - Affec-T. Axonometry

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

CASE STUDIES - Adaptability: kinetic architecture

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_

WALKER GUEST HOUSE

CHICKEN POINT CABIN

Pierre Charreau 1932 - Paris

Paul Rudolf 1952

Olson Kundig Architects 2002

The Maison de Verre is a private

«Rudolph said to my husband,

The idea for the cabin is that of a

residential project for a doctor.

‘Sometimes you want to live in a

lakeside shelter in the woods—a

The project proposes various dif-

cave and sometimes you live in a

little box with a big window that

ferent journeys in the house, ac-

tent.» When it rained or was very

opens to the surrounding lands-

cording to the specificity of the

cold, and you lowered the flaps,

cape. The cabin’s big window-

users : separation of the visitors

it was just as cozy as you could

wall (30 feet by 20 feet) opens

from the family or the house staff.

be.»

the entire living space to the

This results in a sonore specificity

Elaine Walker

forest and lake. Materials are low

of movement aswell as in hidden

The guest house features retrac-

maintenance, and left unfinished

spaces. Retractable staircases

table façades that could either

to naturally age and acquire a

and sliding doors enhances the

completely close or completely

patina that fits in with the natural

spaces with the impression

open the house from its surroun-

setting. The cabin sleeps ten.

light and transparency.

fig. 1 —

_

LA MAISON DE VERRE

Maison de Verre - Pierre Chareau, Door

of

ding environment.

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

fig. 2 —

Walker Guest House - Paul Rudolf, Overview of the façade system

24

_

STOREFRONT FOR ART

The Storefront for Art and Architecture is situated on the corner of a bloc. The gallery itself is a limited, narrow wedge with a triangulated exhibition interior, such that the most dominant structure for the Storefront is the building’s long facade. When the façade panels are locked in their open position, the facade dissolves and the interior space of the gallery expands out on to the sidewalk.

fig. 4 —

fig. 3 —

Storefront for Art and Architecture - Steven Holl, impact

CASE STUDIES - Adaptability: kinetic architecture

Steven Holl 1992 - New-York

Chicken Point Cabin - Opening system

25

fig. 5 —

Chicken Point Cabin - Olson Kundig, Door

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

_

AKA TULU Vernacular housing China The Tulu building is a circular community building organised around

CASE STUDIES - Community building

area.

a The

central housing

communal units

are

spread in the fortified wall circling and protecting the community.

When a cluster reaches its maximum capacity, the community starts building a new one next to it instead of expanding it. This results in an agglomeration of non-hierarchical fortified clusters all connected to each other.

fig. 2 —

fig. 1 —

Tulou Housing, Communal space

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

26

Tulou Housing, Spatial organisation

CASE STUDIES - Community building 27

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

QUESTION - IDEOLOGICAL SEDIMENTATION, SEGMENT 4

28

BIBLIOGRAPHY Avermaerte, T. (2001) ‘Capsulair Places, Analysis and therapy of the public space’ in OASE, Re-Generic City (54), pp. 37-49.

Borret, K. (2001) ‘On Domains, The public, the private and the collective’ in OASE, Re-Generic City (54), pp. 50-62.

Constant, The Decomposition of the Artist: Five Texts

by Constant, The Drawing Center, New York, 1999, a12 De Cauter, L. (2001) ‘The capsule and the network, Preliminary notes for a general theory’ in OASE, Re-Generic City (54), pp.

122-133.

De Sola-Morales, M. ‘Openbare en collectieve ruimte: de verstedelijking van het privé-domein als nieuwe uitdaging’(1992) in OASE (33), pp.3-8.

Dunham-Jones E. (2001) ‘Capital transformations of the postindustrial landscape’ in OASE, Re-Generic City (54), pp. 9-36.

Hu, Xiaochu, China’s ‘New Generation’ Rural-Urban Migrants: Migration Motivation and Migration Patterns (January 2, 2012). Migration Information Source, 2012. . Available at SSRN: http:// ssrn.com/abstract=1978546 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ ssrn.1978546

Koolhaas, R. (1995) ‘Whatever Happened to Urbanism?’

In S,M,L,XL, OMA, (with Bruce Mau), The Monicelli Press, New York, pp. 959-971.

Leach, N. (2001) ‘The Aesthetic Cocoon’ in OASE, Re-Generic City (54), pp.

105-121.

Monica L. SMITH, Urban Empty spaces, 2008 Shannon, K. (2001) ‘Shifting gears, Western to Asian or Asian to global? in OASE, Re-Generic City (54), pp.

86-104.

Sou FUJIMOTO, Not an object, but a field of relationships, 2009

5 Vision _

ARRIVAL CITY : THE MATERIALITY OF THE EPHEMERAL - DESIGN -

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY MENTOR : MARTINE DE MAESENEER STUDENT : SARAH POOT 2014

_

Contents ARRIVAL CITY : THE MATERIALITY OF THE EPHEMERAL - SEGMENT 5 : DESIGN -

Forewords

5

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

7

Grid Maze Open or closed Inhabited walls Tri-dimensional

9 10 10 11 11

PROPOSAL

14

Principle Appropriation Territory System Clusters Implementation Visualisations

15 26 28 30 32 34 42

3

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

VISION - DESIGN, SEGMENT 5

4

_

Forewords

The architectural proposal presented in this segment is a prototypical attempt to respond to the issues raised in the previous ones.

It does not pretend to be suitable for a lifetime accommodation, but rather proposes an alternative solution for migrant workers arriving in a city. This transitory space will play an important part in allowing them to capitalize on each other’s experience/expertise by combining social mechanism with territorial configuration. The migrant’s time-lapse in the building will be an opportunity to –somehowtrain for a better life before they can settle and grow old elsewhere.

It is a trial to combine a highly generic infrastructure with opportunities of appropriation and a spatial configuration that allows complex and unforeseen patterns of life to develop democratically.

5

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

VISION - DESIGN, SEGMENT 5

6

- Conceptual tools

7

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

VISION - DESIGN, SEGMENT 5

8

- Conceptual tools

fig. 1 — Comparison between path-based design and open plan.

Upper image : Jean Louis Nicolas Durand, Précis des leçons d’architecture données à l’école polytechnique, Paris 18021805 - an early example of path-based design.

Lower image : Universal space in Mies Van der Rohe, Crown Hall. IIT campus, 1952-1956 - universal space as opposed to path-based design

Given the nature of the program, an initial postulate has to be made on the overall configuration of the space. Opposing the open plan providing a universal undefined space with the path-based design plan offering the opportunity of various rooms to be crossed, this last one has been chosen to embody the notion of a journey through the building (fig. 1).

_

GRID Isotropic spaces

In order the develop a system that would draw the framework of the proposal, some conceptual tools have been identified.

The orthogonal grid has been chosen for its intrinsic qualities of repetition and balance, to guarantee an easy reproduction of the system aswell as both structural and spatial regularity.

The grid will generate isotropic spaces, meaning that the entire system will be an addition of non hierarchical spaces : interconnected rooms with multiple orientations, accessible from every side.

Each space defined can so on become a room, while the crossing of each line become both a part of the load bearing structure and a structuring partition of the space. fig. 1 —

9

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

_

_

MAZE

OPEN OR CLOSED

Shortcuts and detours

Individual vs. collective realm

What is the difference between a labyrinth and a maze (dedalum)?

Each room would have the possibility to be closed from the inside by its occupants.

The labyrinth always has a way out, even if this one is twisted, tortuous or resinous, it remains logical. The maze on the other hand is a network including a multiplicity of false routes, unnecessary rooms and hidden shortcuts.

Inspired from the elevated pathways that can be experienced in Hong-Kong or Calgary for instance, the project will propose a wide variety of routes through the building.

Since the only way to walk through the building is to cross a room, a closed or an open room on your way will drastically change your perception of the space depending on the moment. As an example, one could take a closer look to the map of Rome developped

by Giambatista Nolli, wich does not show the manichean public/private or open/built traditional ways of representing a city, but rather the accessible/non accessible spaces in it depending on the time of the day.

The shortcuts and detours created would make the users more aware of their direct or indirect environment.

This continuously reconfigurable network will allow for complex and unforeseen patterns of life to develop democratically.

fig. 1 —

VISION - DESIGN, SEGMENT 5

fig. 2 —

10

fig. 1 — The endless interior (Calgary +15 Skywalk system) Calgary’s Plus 15 Network in 1992.

From “A Public Passageway: Exploring Calgary’s Plus 15 System”

by Nick O.W. Sully B.A., The University Of Calgary, 1992.

fig. 2 — Map of Rome, Giambatista Nolli.

1958. Showing churches as open spaces.

_

fig. 3 — Fortresses plans - inhabited walls.

Castle architecture “with great central living halls and auxiliary spaces nestled into thick outside walls.” (David B. Brownlee and David G. De Long. Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture. Grand Rapids: Universe, 1997, 155)

fig. 4 — Sou Fujimoto. Log house, 2008.

_

INHABITED

TRI-DIMENSIONAL

Served and servant spaces

Isovistas

Inspired from the architecture of ancient fortresses, each room defined by the grid will be enclosed by an inhabited wall.

The grid will be implemented both horizontally and vertically.

The castle architecture, and more specifically its organisation of served and servant spaces with great central living halls and auxiliary spaces nestled into outside walls ensures the protection of the building by thickening its outer shell.

This principle will be rethinked in a lighter way, but its purpose will remain : allowing opening or enclosure from the outside while maintaining a collective central space.

This system might also be understood as an interpretation of the Tulu vernacular housing.

The diverse reconfigured openings in the building will constantly modify the visual fields of the users, changing their perception of the space, and consequently their perception of both the others and themselves.

This will influence users behaviours, which will become much more aware of their environments and of each others presence.

The endless configurations of isovists in the space will also define the degree of intimacy of a space depending on the moment it is observed.

fig. 3 —

11

fig. 4 —

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

VISION - DESIGN, SEGMENT 5

12

- Proposal

13

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

VISION - DESIGN, SEGMENT 5

14

- Proposal The project proposes to generate a system that could be implemented on different scales on any site with very little modifications of the conception.

This new typology of building will be able to host up to 3000 inhabitants depending on the seasonal changing flows of migrancy in Shenzhen. It will combine temporary housing with collective features.

_

PRINCIPLE The housing unit Since the emphasis is stressed on adaptatability and affordability, the dwelling units will not match the traditional housing standarts.

In a conventional house, very little space is used at one precise moment for one specific activity: I don’t need a bedroom when I’m cooking and I don’t need a kitchen when I’m sleeping for instance. However, the extra under-used space provided is valuable in terms of better living quality. The project proposes to reduce the individual space to its minimum and to mutualize the other features such as bathrooms, kitchen and livingrooms. This way, the project is able to propose a much more compact building, without sacrificing the im-

15

pression of space for its user.

Since the project is meant to host rural to urban migrants, it takes into account the fact that the average user is a single person with diverse temporal patterns. It proposes a modular system that allows local micro-migrancy in the building itself. The user can move from one place to an other regarding changing needs influenced by occasional conditions such as climate, work, financial situation, connection making or even family visits.

According to the the masterplan strategies, each urban node is supposed to host about 3000 inhabitants on a given surface of 10 000 square meters with an average height of 10 floors, excluding collective features.

This project reduces it to 7000 square meters with an average height of 6 floors, including collective features.

The proposal offers about 300 housing units, that can all host up to 10 people. The basic housing unit is a cube of 9 by 9 meters. The basic functions such as sleeping, cooking and bathing are reduced to the minimum, with the possibility to expand the space in case of need.

SCENOGRAPHY OF MEMORY - SARAH POOT

Each unit is composed as following: • Individual shelter for 10 persons 10 * 2 sqm (+ 5 * 6 sqm & 2 * 4sqm expandable) • 2 Shared bathroom for 5 persons each 2 * 2,5 sqm (+ 4 sqm expandable) • 1 Shared kitchen for 10 persons 1 * 3 sqm (+25 sqm expandable) ____________ 29 sqm (+ 67 sqm expandable) If the cube was a regular slab to slab construction, it would offer 300 sqm in total, which would leave approximatively 202 sqm to share with the collectivity.

The project is based on a single unit of 9 by 9 meters, virtually divided in 3 floors of 3 meters high. This cube is a territorial unit called the ‘shared house’. It can be described both as a single room, or as a collection of rooms. The loosely defined program and the diversity of the indvidual floor plates create settings for a range of activities that can take place at different scales and moments.

Two of the four edges of the cube are thickened by one meter, in order to host the basic necessary functions such as sleeping, bathing and cooking. (fig. 1) Those inhabited walls don’t have the traditional height of a floor slab, but rather have many different heights according to the human body dimensions, in order to provide a multiplicity of different situations.

The next two meters lying next to this thickened wall are preserved for expansion of the individual units, but they will be shared by the community as a circulation space. (fig.

2) Those floors have a regular height of three meters.

In the middle of the cube, an all-height atrium hosts the vertical circulations crossing the cube while providing an overall cohe-

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rence for the shared house. The position of the circulations will influence the openings in the inhabited wall. (fig. 3) The opposite edges of the cube are the connexions with its neighbours. Floor plates will be added depending on the position of the vertical circulations. (fig. 4) Inspired by scaffolding construction, the rather short span to bear allow very small structural sections both for the columns and the floor plates.

As a consequence, intangibility, blurring of the edges, mesmerizing repetition, unusual depth and apparent fragility of the elements reveal the temporary nature of the shared house.

fig. 1 —

fig. 2 —

fig. 3 —

fig. 4 —

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fig. 4 — Floors slabs are added to connect the vertical circulations with the next unit. In this case, the lower level expands to offer a collective space in front of the kitchen.

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fig. 3 — Vertical circulations take place in a vertical atrium connecting the different levels of the shared house.

They are also structurally reinforcing the stability of the overall unit by cross bracing the trusses with the other edge of the cube.

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fig. 2 — Regular floors offer a space for expansion and appropriation in front of the individual units.

Those spaces can also support a micro local economy by sustaining informal businesses.

Depending on the accesses with the next unit, part of those might need to negotiate with other users passage.

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fig. 1 —Various slabs are added to ensure the stability and cross bracing of the structure. Those slabs vary in height in order to provide various different situations appropriable by different people.

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fig. 1 — Each unit is enclosed by an inhabited wall structurally supported by two main load bearing trusses that allow very small sections.

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APPROPRIATION Scenography of memory The project is pictured as a palimpsest that would surrender to its users. They will be writing its history.

Arriving in the building, each visitor transiting receives a basic set to build his own closed space on one of the many fixed floorplates available. The project is build in such a way that, as scaffholfing, it is extremely easy to add a screen, an additional floor plate or a step to climb between two columns.

But the adventure will start by choosing a place to settle. Many criterias might interfer in the choice of a place : the proximity to light or shadow, the level of intimacy or the proximity of a mainstream passage, a nice spot full of plants installed by a former user, the height of a floor plate that reminds one of this cabin he built in a tree when he was a kid...

After a while, signs of his presence will start writing the story of his life; shoes hanging around; a book lying on a shelve; a flower pot that helps claiming is own territory. Conversation with a neighbour will engage, on the way he makes some tea, or the way to care of the plants. Going along, he will learn that the used to work with wood back in his village.

They will eventually exchange their knowledge and discuss how to improve their living conditions. They might come up with the idea to improve their individual boxes by creating a wooden screen to filter the light, which reminds him of his parents house.

They will start writing their own present. Other neighbours will be interested and trade their own skills or expertise in exchange of tips or help to do so as well.

As long as he will stay, his behaviour and use of the space will have an influence on his direct and indirect environment,

fig. 1 — This drawing by architects Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till, titled Increasing Disorder In A Dining Table, documents the progression of a meal from a perfectly laid table, through a motiontrace palimpsest of the dinner party in action, to the wreckage of dirty dishes and crumpled napkins that confronts the host(s) after the last guest has departed. Or the other way round, if you read from left to right…

fig. 2 — Possible floor plans. Each users appropriates his own territory.

fig. 3 — Model showing the different appropriations of the floor plates at many levels.

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level 3 —

level 2 —

level 1 —

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TERRITORY

and protect is belongings when he is absent.

Openness and enclosure

The flexibility of those elements also allow to define several conditions: open by 90 degres, it will define a territory of appropriation in front of his indivudal unit; open by 180 degrees, it will open this portion to the other inhabitants of the house, but will enclose it from the outside (fig 3 & 4).

Each individual has a access to a given portion of the inhabited wall, measuring three by three by one meter (fig.1).

He is free to display in the layout of his choice different elements of enclosure that will define his own territory (fig.2).

Different system of curtains, pivoting panels or retractable doors allow him to entirely close his own portion of the inhabited wall to store

According to the different patterns of use of the inhabitants, the shared housing unit can be completely hermetic from the outside and thus change completely the perception of the building (fig. 4 & 5).

fig. 1 — The basic portion of the wall and its expandable zone.

fig. 2 — Possible addition of elements of enclosure such as plexiglas, paper or wooden screens.

fig. 3 — Different elements of protection shown in different positions that define various territorial depths.

fig. 4 — Three times the same floor plan with different configurations.

From left to right : units completely closed, units expanded but closed from the outside, units completely open that enclose the house.

fig. 1 —

fig. 2 —

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fig. 5 — Conceptual plans, inspired from the Nolli maps of Rome.

From left to right : from completely open to completely closed and states in between. White color represents the accessible space while dark tone represents the non accessible space.

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fig. 3 —

fig. 4 —

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fig. 1 — Staircases following each other from unit to unit

SYSTEM The randomness of repetition

fig. 2 — Staircases going in two different directions

The project evolves around its vertical circulations. They constitute the overall skeleton on wich the building is organised, and that would define the many small differences between each housing units.

Since the cube is virtually divided in 3 floors, each of them will feature three staircases connecting them. Hoever, those staircases will not superpose each other as the upper drawing shown in figure 1, but rather follow each other from unit to unit to enhance the connections between all of them as shown in the lower drawing. Then, a collaboration between the different houses will be needed to cross the building in a straight way. However, each unit still has the possibility to close, perturbing the journey trough the building.

In order to offer alternatives to this situation, the different lines of staircases will cross the building in two different directions everu floor such as shown on the plan and the two elevations in figure 2. Given their position and dimensions, those staircases will never meet each other. By rotating this module four times by 90 degrees, those two directions actually become 4 directions (fig.4) and by superposing them two by two, the building becomes entirely accessible.

This system working two by two floors, the four rotated modules have to be additionned three times to fill 8 cubes that can be superposed again. For each given cube, the configuration of the staircase is different and influence on both the openings in the inhabited wall and the configuration of the additional slabs. (fig.5) In total, 6 different floor plans are possible according to the openings generated by the position of the staircase. (fig.6)

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fig. 3 — Module of staircases rotated by 90° to form a four direction net.

fig. 1 —

fig. 4 — Modules of staircases rotated by 90° and superposed three times to form a cluster of 8 cubes repeatable.

fig. 5 — The 8 different configurations of the units.

fig. 2 —

fig. 6 — The 6 possible floor plans showing the accesses needed for the staircases.

fig. 3 —

fig. 4 —

fig. 7 — Reference.

46 Variations on three different kinds of Cubes, photograph. Sol LeWitt - 1967.

Sol showed 46 Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes. By presenting an ordered series of objects as exemplars of a personal but highly logical system of permutations, Sol demonstrated the potentially infinite number of ways in which reality could manifest.

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fig. 6 —

fig. 7 —

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CLUSTERS Materiality of the ephemeral The building may look like a labyrinth of madnes, but it as to respond to a economical logic. In order to ensure its feasibility some systems have to be developped.

Each housing unit is hooked on a primary mega structure that defines the net in which life will take place. Those units are assembled in clusters that define constructible lots. Each clusters is measures 36 by 36 meters, on an average height of 12 floors. This measurement represents 64 potential shared units.

can host various collective activities, such as amphitheaters, markets, workshops, classrooms, etc. (fig. 2 & 5, 6, 7) Clusters can be combined as bridges over the floodable landscape, the cubic units binded together will act as a truss. The effect of a darker space on a humid ground will provoke a different air temperature that will generate an air movement between the hot outside and the cold under. Since the building itself is not hermetic to air, the natural ventilation will ensure a fair temperature and a good quality of the air flowing through the building. (fig.3)

In order to ensure ventilation and light inside the building, only half of it may be colonised by the housing units. However, the configuration of those 32 units remain free to the developper. (fig. 1) Basic rules will apply in terms of structural stability: for each cluster, at least one structural core equivalent to 4 of the units will be constructed. those cores may remain empty, as shafts bringing light into the building, or

fig. 1 —

fig. 2 —

fig. 3 —

In order to reduce the building costs, most of the elements are prefabricated. Two sorts of elements can be identified : the long term

fig. 1 — Only half of the potential units of a cluster can be built, but the configuration of it remain free.

fig. 2 — Each cluster comprises at least one structural core that can play the role of a collective space.

elements such as the primary mega infrastructure and short term elements such as thelight weight structure of the housing unit.

Depending on the success of the proposal, or the future needs that will appear in the coming decades, the housing unit can be replaced by another system but the main infrastructure can remain et be adapted.

fig. 3 — Clusters can be combined to bridge over the landscape. The differences in temperature between the inside and the outside will provoke an air movement that will ensure ventilation.

fig. 4 —

?

fig. 4 — Combination of a primary structure (long life elements) with a secondary structure (short life elements). fig. 5 — Possible core: vertical shaft that will bring light and ventilation to the building.

fig. 5 —

fig. 6 —

fig. 6 — Possible core: amphitheater that acts as a democratic space where unforeseen activities can happen.

fig. 7 — Possible core: flexible space that could host a market, a dance lesson, a workshop, etc.

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IMPLEMENTATION A metaphorical gateway.

The project proposes to generate a system that could be implemented on different scales on any site with very little modifications of the conception. However, it will be tested on a specific location on the site, in order to confront the conceptual guidelines with the reality of a tangible environment.

According to the master plan developed in the previous segment, the architectural intervention will take place on the southern part of the shoreline of Shekou and constitute one of the new urban nodes composing the outer ring surrounding the area. This specific location –on the administrative border between Shenzhen and Hong-Kong - will turn the building into a metaphoric gateway at the edge of the city.

So on, the Southern edges that form an angle of 90 degrees will have a strong wall aspect while the inside part of the building will be crumbling towards the inner land.

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N

50 m

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50 m

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50 m

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50 m

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  ill. 2 — The building faces the sea towards Honk-Kong, and crumbles towards the inner side. Some floodable areas eroded by the tides below the bridging units allow water to remain on site. The humidity created generates an air movement that allows natural ventilation through the building.

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  ill. 1 — In the inner space of the area, the loosely defined landscape offers resiliency to the movements of the tides and recurrents floods.

The reclaimed land is given back to nature, that will (not so) slowly colonize it.

The presence of porous grounds and water instead of impervious surfaces will allow micro-environements to develop along with re-introduction of wild life.

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  ill. 3 — The system might be implemented in other spaces, such as in the existing industrial fabric. Thus, the valuable industrial heritage will compose collective unprogrammed spaces inserted naturally in the new construction.

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  ref. 1 — Overview of the project: sectional perspective in the building, cutting through various core spaces punctuating the building.

Under it, the ground remains floodable in order to sustain natural ventilation.

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