Master Thesis_Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña_Urban Acupuncture_Sizhou Li by Archdoggy

Universitat PolitÃ¨cnica de Catalunya

Master Thesis - Sizhou Li

URBAN ACUPUNCTURE IN DOMESTIC COMMUNITY APPROACHES IN DIFFERENT SCALESTO REHABILITATE CHANGMEN HISTORICAL AREA, SUZHOU

Tutor: Jordi Ros Master's Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture Contemporary Project 2018-2019 UPC - ETSAB

Universitat PolitÃ¨cnica de Catalunya

Sizhou Li

URBAN ACUPUNCTURE IN DOMESTIC COMMUNITY APPROACHES IN DIFFERENT SCALES TO REHABILITATE

MBArch 2018-2019

With Contributions by Siwei Zhu and Ruoyun Dai

In terms of the formation of my concepts, thanks to the various suggestions and the corrections on the layout of the project by Siwei Zhu who also often discusses the concepts and solutions with me in the design process, especially the Chapter 5 of small-scale typology. Additionally, thanks to Ruoyun Dai who gave me suggestions about researches of precedents related the structural system and construction detail which is also related to the building aesthetic performance.

"It is the urban matter that transmits to us, at its most sensitive points and in its most neutral zones, the qualitative energy that accumulated collective character on certain spaces, charging them with complex significance and cultural references and making them semantic material, social construction of intersubjective memory." - Manuel de SolĂ -Morales "A Matter of Things"

Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Cities usually contain places being isolated during urban development, which lack identity and livability. This project focuses on the architectural interventions which possess the capacity to transform these negative places into positive ones and create their ‘sense of place’ in degraded communities, instead of a single community centre, but an urban ‘bricolage’ of different scales of projects. With the research of city theories, the approach of urban acupuncture can be effective by identifying different places to integrate mixused buildings and public spaces in the congested community to connect in order to rehabilitate urban spaces. Simultaneously, this project can refer to urban interventions by fragments to improve congested areas in the old town of Barcelona, from the urban-scale project Plan Especial de Reforma Interior El Raval to the community-scale modification to Santa Caterina area. Since cities can be understood as different layers, the proposal will be divided into three scales: public areas as connections in the district, mix-used buildings in the community and typology for courtyard house in the neighbourhood. Therefore, through the integration of various levels of interventions, a livable urban image with the participation of residents will be established. Keywords: Urban Acupuncture, Community Architecture, Connectivity, Livability

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Suzhou China

ABSTRACT

Index

007 Abstract

01 Introduction: New Approach on Urban Renovation

010 1 . 1 U r b a n A c u p u n c t u r e : To p i c o n Livability and Identity 016 1 . 2 T h e D e v e l o p m e n t o f U r b a n Acupuncture 020 1.3 Methodology

02 Urban Acupuncture in Historical Cities

022 2 . 1 I s s u e s o f U r b a n R e n o v a t i o n i n

Historical Cities 028 2.2 Suzhou: Historical City in the East China 034 2.3 Site: Old town of Suzhou and the Changmen Historical Area

Public spaces as connections in urban scale

Conclusion

044 3.1 Public space to increase

094 Conclusion

livability in the city 048 3.2 Plan Especial de Reforma Interior El Raval 052 3 . 3 P r o j e c t : F r a g m e n t s o f public spaces in Changmen

04 Mix-used architectures as centers in neighbourhood scale

058 4.1 The communal centers and the identity of the community 062 4.2 Mercat de Santa Caterina and nearby public plazas 066 4.3 Project: Architecture from the private to the public

05 Courtyard house as containers in domestic scale

080 5.1 Context and Typology of

Courtyard House in Suzhou 084 5.2 Regeneration of Qianmen East Hutong Area 086 5.3 Project: Renovation on Courtyard House in Da Ma Tang No.6

098 Bibliography 100 List of Images

Image 1.1 City Map of Barcelona

Introduction New Approach on Urban Renovation

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Image 1.2 Comparison between old town and new centre in Suzhou — 12 — By Author

Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

- Introduction: New Approach on Urban Renovation -

by a single complex space or architecture due to the complex city fabric of this kind of domestic community and thus, different community-scale architecture can be set in several parts of the community as a potential place for activities, which is named the approach of Urban Acupuncture.

The aim of this thesis is to utilize the approach of urban acupuncture in the community of Changmen, Suzhou by the concept of public spaces and architectures in Barcelona. New public spaces, mixused community centres and renovation on courtyards in different parts of the community are supposed to be performed as the attractors for different activities and people. Through these projects, a place for the encounter between visitors and residents, a space for human activities and the memory of traditional lifestyle will be In this situation, a possible solution is rehabilitated. to create public spaces in this crowded community by inserting different projects Meanwhile, to respect the pre-existent as containers for human activities. Different context and significant past events, the parts of the community will be connected public spaces and architectures are in and the activities can happen from inside harmony with the urban context and natural to outside. Through these spaces to hold landscape and are also in connection with mixture activities, the livability and people and history. In this condition, a connectivity can be established and the livable urban bricolage composed of various memory of urban life as the identity can be fragments of spaces and architectures as reconquered. The effect can not be obtained containers of interactions will be created.

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Suzhou China

The present thesis shows a sequence of projects in different scales situated in an old domestic community in the Suzhou, China adopting the concept of urban acupuncture to rehabilitate the livability and identity. Public spaces and architectures will be inserted into the community in order to enhance the relationship between humanity, context and traditional lifestyle. These features are obvious in the selected Changmen Community which is a domestic area in the old town of Suzhou from hundred years ago and the urban fabric keeps the original status until now. However, the living quality and public life are in a bad condition since this community has crowded and mess environment with a large number of elderly and immigrant people and is isolated from the development of the other parts of the city.

1.1 Urban Acupuncture: Topic on Livability and Identity

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

To begin with, the research of urban acupuncture, the concept and the approach to adopting this theory to urban renovation project is essential to be introduced which is also closely related to livability and identity. Urban acupuncture, originally proposed by Solà-Morales (2008), who regards the city as a creature, utilizes small-scale interventions to active the larger urban context which can lead to the further urban self-renovation1. In this process, sites for acupunctures are selected through an aggregate analysis of possible attractors which produce a smallscale space but create a large influence to the city while protecting the original urban fabric. As Jaime Lerner (2014) explains, this is also an approach to create new energy by focused intervention and motivates residents to engage with their community and contribute to urban planning. Moreover, in terms of the renovation of Chinese historical cities in early years, the large-scale destruction and construction lead to a sequence of urban issues including the lack of identity and the destruction of urban fabrics which contain the traditional lifestyle and urban context. According to Wang Shu (2012), the Chinese the main problem in Chinese cities is the lack of tradition behind the economic-aimed city construction and the chase of modern style architectures so that the buildings are empty shells. Therefore, during the exploration of urban renovation, a small-scale, multifunctional and gradual approach can replace the large-scale and fast demolishing and construction which utilizes the concept of urban acupuncture. Under the condition of maintaining the original urban fabric, a small-scale transformation in different sites

can improve the quality of the space and active the livability of the urban space which can be considered as a new method in the renovation of historical cities. As demonstrated above, the intervention of urban acupuncture can motivate the livability of the city by providing multifunctional spaces for human activities and increase the quality of the original urban space. Jan Gehl (2010) indicates that the cities are built for people and will be shaped by people so that the humanity is essential which will be established by livable spaces defined by the quality of buildings and the public spaces. Since the narrow space in historical areas which are difficult for social activities and the bad quality of these areas reduce the attractiveness of the city, the new small-scale spaces in the urban areas will perform as attractors to provide places for various activities and social interactions to enhance the livability. In terms of the identity, the living quality is in a low level in several historic domestic areas and the large-scale demolishing destroy the original urban fabric, which reduces the identity, or the memory of the city. Nevertheless, through the urban acupuncture, most of the urban fabric can be protected and the new spaces will offer a place for residents. The world ‘memorize’ can be regarded as an object or activity contains the memory of people or events which is the essence of memory. The method of urban acupuncture provides spaces for these activities and in this situation, a sense of belonging can be established which will affect the memory of citizens and be transformed into the identity of the community and the city.

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Image 1.3 Public spaces in Old Town of Barcelona. By Author — 15 —

1.2 The Development of Urban Acupuncture

demonstrated a fragmented development model in The Oregon Experiment that the context will become livable only through the continuous growth of a project instead of a large area development. Then, Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter (1978) criticized the large-scale and overall design, and then explained that the city is a collage of different small-scale objects and contexts which can be constructed by an organic collage. In general, these theories criticize the general urban zoning and focus on a Development In this process, the issues of the site need to part-by-part intervention to the city in order be discovered and a sequence of acupoints to keep the identity and livability of the city. with strong features will be selected such as an abandoned corner, an isolated factory, Manuel de Solà-Morales - A Matter of public architectures or small plazas. Things After the research on the new approach of In terms of the development of the urban urban renovation in western countries. The acupuncture, in the early 20th century, concept of Urban Acupuncture is proposed architects in the modernism proposed several by Manuel de Solà-Morales that the urban models of the future urban development spaces will be regarded as the skin of a such as the Garden City proposed by human, and the interventions to acupoints Howard and Plan Voisin proposed by Le in urban spaces will be effective to improve Corbusier which can be described as a large- the quality of urban space. In the book 'A scale urban planning by destruction and Matter of Things', Solà-Morales explained construction and have deep influences in the the concept of acupuncture and provided urban design of 20th century. However, after different examples in European countries. In the 1960s, since people realized that the general, this book explains the relationship large-scale urban renewal is not suitable to between the Urban skin, the acupoints and maintain the urban fabric and features such urban matters. as the demolishing of Pruitt-lgoe housing project, architects start to rethink the Criticized Urban Planning urban renovation methods (Hernández and A c c o r d i n g t o S o l à - M o r a l e s ( 2 0 0 8 ) , Casanova, 2014). In the book ‘The Death the skin of cities is the composition of and Life of Great American Cities’ by Jane physical matters including various spaces, Jacobs (1992), the author argued that the architectures and objects in the city and large-scale renovation destroys the featured the urban experience is constitutes by the and livable architectures, the urban spaces contact between human bodies and forms and the culture which reduce the urban life of physical matters. In this condition, every and then proposed a subtle, complex and single element in the urban space is unique continuous method of urban development. which will influence personal sensations Additionally, Christopher Alexander (1978) so that Solà-Morales criticized the idea of

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

The concept of urban acupuncture combines the therapy of Chinese medical approach and the urban design. The word 'acupuncture' is a treatment that regards the human body as a set of essential acupoints and put needles on these essential points to cure the disease. In this condition, the urban acupuncture aims to use small-scale intervention to the various essential part of the city instead of largescale destruction to get maximum profits.

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Image 1.4 Collage of Casernes de Sant Andreu, SolàMorales (2008), a livable and mix-used space. — 17 —

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

large-scale urban planning and so-called functional areas. In order to improve the quality of the city, the city needs to be precisely regarded as small objects and the most sensitive acupoints should be concentrated on. Urban Things The urban things are the objects in urban spaces which establish the relations with one and another and in order to make the urban quantity translated into the variety the main characteristic of the metropolitan, the urban things need to be paid attention to (Solà-Morales, 2008). Thus, Solà-Morales compares the urban space with acupuncture therapy that the urban acupuncture is by taking strategic treatment to the location of the sensitive point in the urban skin which likes the acupuncture on the ear can be beneficial to lung or knees and urban acupuncture of one part can influence other parts of the city (Solà-Morales, 2008).

Rapid Transport System and the Smart Transportation System. In the book Urban Acupuncture, Lerner proposed that the approaches for urban acupuncture should be simple and instant which can improve the quality of urban life and solve the accidents in the city. Additionally, Lerner (2014) also believes that acupuncture as an intervention can active the essential nodes of the city to produce a sequence of continuous positive change. The book Urban Acupuncture utilizes a way of the narrative instead of a theoretical way to explain the concept of urban acupuncture and the topic can be divided into different topics including interaction, livability and memory. Interaction In the chapter ‘People in the Streets’, Lerner (2014) demonstrated “it’s mainly people who attract people. Man is both a protagonist and spectator in the drama of everyday life unfolding on the city stage”. The city is actually a ‘living theatre’ for human activities which can shape urban life and the interventions offer a place to collect these activities where the interaction between different people may happen. Thus, the public spaces offer spaces which can be defined by citizens and the mix-used architectures provide people with various possible activities and meeting points.

Urban Acupuncture According to Solà-Morales (2008), to operate on the skin of the city, which things will be added should be considered and the act of modification will be adopted after the problems are detected. In other words, in the process of urban acupuncture, the city will be understood precisely with each object and the urban issues will be founded which will be modified by the strategy of projects. Livability According to Lerner (2014), the key to solve urban issues is to add the urban function that Jaime Lerner - Urban Acupuncture Furthermore, after the urban acupuncture is missing and it could be building homes becomes an essential theory in urban or else creating a provisional recreation design, Jaime Lerner, the mayor of Curitiba, centre; the goal is to promote a healthy Brazil and an urban planner, continuously mix of urban activities. In this condition, utilizes the urban acupuncture to rehabilitate the livability of the urban space can be and manage the city such as the Bus

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

The Death and Life of Collage City Urban Acupuncture Great American Cities Colin Rowe & Fred Koetter Jaime Lerner Jane Jacobs 1978 2003 1960

Plan Voisin Le Corbusier 1922

Oregon Experiment Christopher Alexander 1975

A Matter of Things Manuel de SolàMorales 1980

Public Space Acupuncture Jesús Hernández & Helena Casanova 2014

Suzhou China

Garden City, Ebenezer Howard 1898

Image 1.5 The diagram of development of theories. By author

improved because there are spaces with multifunction instead of single zonings such as a commercial area or industrial area with no residents. Memory Citizens will have their own memory of the urban space and even a mental map will exist in their mind. The original urban fabric preserves the traditional relationship and lifestyle and the new interventions can

provide the community with a space for activities so that people will have a sense of belonging and be proud of the space. Thus, Lerner explains that “Identity, self-esteem, the feeling of belonging - everything is related to the reference points a person has in relation to his city”. When there are suitable interventions in a certain space, a positive effect will be realized and the image will become the memory of citizens.

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Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

1.3 Methodology

where activities can happen such as wells, rivers and gardens in the community, will be selected as acupoints to develop public spaces for various activities in the original compact fabric. A sufficient street system will also be designed to improve accessibility and connectivity. Then, when we zoom into each acupoint, these can be the areas to develop community centres with mix-used architectures as the landmarks in the community to create a sense of place. In this situation, all of the residents, citizens and visitors can share these spaces and thus, the livability can be enhanced. Finally, a continuous effort can be made by renovating the courtyard house to provide a better living quality to residents and each In past decades, the rapid construction courtyard house can be a communal space in China breaks the connection between in the domestic scale. will be selected. traditional lifestyle and urban space in which humanity disappears, and especially I n c o n c l u s i o n , a f t e r e x p l a i n i n g t h e those old domestic areas are abandoned in development and approach of urban urban development. Normally, there are two acupuncture, this thesis will divide the destinies for those communities: destruction urban acupuncture into three different or being isolated with bad quality in the scales from urban scale to architectural city. However, since those communities are perspective to the individual unit and used to maintain a traditional urban fabric discuss the theories and issues of each and memory, a subtle and careful renovation scale since the theory can be helpful to the should be taken. Therefore, the three design process. Meanwhile, the examples in different scales in the domestic community Barcelona will also be researched to figure regard the community as a whole system out the relationship between the project and the city, which is also the practice of theory. which will be connected in various. The projects by the author will be presented Firstly, as demonstrated above, attractors, at the end of each chapter which adopts the concept of urban acupuncture. According to HernĂĄndez and Casanova (2014), different strategies initiated by different entitles of acupuncture in various contexts, by which the public spaces can create vibrant space, rich urban life and social interaction and the multifunctional architectures can be more effective to offer various human activities. In this thesis, approaches in different scales instead of single acupoint will be considered including the public spaces as connections in the urban scale, the multifunctional architectures set around the acupoints in the neighbourhood scale and the courtyard transformation as the domestic scale to rehabilitate the urban fabric.

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Image 1.6 The photos of public space in Barcelona. By Author — 21 —

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Urban Acupuncture in Historical Cities

Image 2.1 Humble Administrator's Garden - Largest Garden in Suzhou. Photo by Author — 22 —

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

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Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Image 2.2 Shibati, Chongqing. Traditional demestic area under demolition.

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2.1 Issues of Urban Renovation in Historical Cities

Image 2.3 'Demolition'. Red Character on the wall in Changmen, Suzhou. By Author

Development Most of the cities are continuously growing due to the development of urbanization and the increasing population. In this process, various urban issues become significant such as the existence of urban villages, the lack of identity, the decline of historical areas and the conflicts between the old town and new district. Thus, urban renovation is a necessary approach. According to Tiesdell, Oc and Heath (1996), the reason of the decline of historic areas is the inconsistency between the outdated situation of these areas and the demands in the contemporary period such as the materiality, function, location and economy. In other word, the overdevelopment leads to the decline of the disordered environment and

the destruction of local culture due to the economic aimed construction. In terms of the development in China, from 1949-1978, cities mainly focus on industrial construction and due to the policy of stateowned land, part of the houses in historical areas become factories which destroyed the original urban fabric and function. From 1978-1990, the government starts to partially renovate the historical area. Since the over-emphasis on the utilization of original structures, the quality of the community is still in a bad condition and the construction of infrastructure and the environment is at a low level. After 1990, the main approach to renovate

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Image 2.4 Conversion of Juer Hutong. New typology of Courtyard House.

the city is the large-scale destruction with the emerge of real estate (Tong, 2016). Historical buildings have since been razed to the ground. Even though the rapid modernization movement enhances the quality of living for citizens, obtaining more economic profits becomes the main goal of urban renovation which ignores the issues of urban life. With the demolition of a large number of historical areas, many precious memories were erased from the cities. Therefore, many Chinese historical cities are under the situation including the lack of suitable planning, the over destruction and construction, low public participation and the ignoration of urban identity. Additionally, the construction of new districts and touristic areas aggravates the decline

of historical communities and isolates these areas from future development. New Approach However, since the sustainable development and social ecology becomes a continuous improvement of public awareness, the importance of historical areas have been given unprecedented attention in the process of urban renovation and development. Wu L i a n g y o n g ( 1 9 9 4 ) , a C h i n e s e urban planner proposed the concept of 'Organic Updating' in order to protect the original urban fabric and urban life. For example, in the project of Juer Hutong in Beijing, an approach to respect the urban fabric with new typologies of ‘courtyard-like’ architectures which are

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Image 2.5 Testbed 2, Chongqing. Creative area in the historical community.

similar to the fabric of L'Exiample in 1933 Shanghai and Testbed 2 in Chongqing Barcelona maintains the context and the are projects converted to creative and urban life of residents. livable zones in the historical areas of the city which attract different activities and Thus, considering the rest of historical areas protect the cultural continuity. in China, in order to avoid gentrification and the loss of urban life, a small-scale However, these projects are still initial intervention of urban acupuncture by acupunctures to rehabilitate the historical precise consideration of the context will be areas and each city has unique conditions effective to avoid the negative influence of to deal with. This thesis takes a classic city destruction which can increase the livability Suzhou and the community of Changmen and preserve the memory to the city. with typical urban fabric and history as an example and researches on suitable In recent years, the urban renovation in approaches to rehabilitate the livability and big cities in China such as Beijing and identity of the community. Shanghai start to focus on small-scale intervention to preserve traditional urban fabric which attract a lot of visitors. For example, the 798 Art District in Beijing,

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

苏州，阊门

2.2

Suzhou: Historical City in the East China — 28 —

Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

CHANGMEN, SUZHOU

Community Population Governatorte

9843 Jiangsu Province

Each city has places which preserve the identity and memory of the city. In terms of the city of Suzhou, the place is the vernacular district of the old town of Suzhou. Referring to the “Medusa and Apollo” of Le Corbusier, the old town of Suzhou also have two different faces. On the one hand, the old town preserves the traditional urban fabric by classic material and typology of settlements and those historic attractors which represent the identity of Suzhou. On the other hand, due to the construction of new towns, a lot of old communities become overcrowding and shanty communities without public spaces for urban life.

modernization process accompanied by enormous destruction and construction. By researching on the formation of different development phases, exploring the urban structure and understanding the preservation and planning methods, the aim of this section will understand the Suzhou city with the history, features and culture in order to explain the relationship between urban acupuncture and the city.

This section looks specifically into the city of Suzhou which is a historical city famous by traditional Chinese gardens and rivers. Suzhou was one of the cities listed in the historic and cultural cities in 1982, but it is also experiencing a Image 2.6

Medusa and Apollo, Le Corbusier

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Suzhou China

31°18'46.8"N 120°36'29.3"E

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Image 2.7 Location of Suzhou, by Author

Suzhou is a city with a history of 2500 years which is the second largest city of Jiangsu province, in East China. Historically and culturally, it is one of the most important cities in China since it is the economic centre of the east and southern part of China until the last century. From a topographical point of view, the city is located in the east shore of Taihu Lake, China’s third-largest body of fresh water and the Shantang River of Suzhou links to the Grand Canal of China which is the longest ancient canal in China. In this case, Suzhou is also named with the ‘town of water’ in China. Different scales of rivers run through the city which is the most essential way of transportation in the past and act an important role in the urban fabric and life.

transportation, the role of the river starts to decline and the quality becomes worse. Since the river is still recognizable with waterfront house and activities with water and the water is an important element in the memory of citizens, the different forms of water spots can be considered as attractors and acupoints to develop interventions such as rivers, wells and small lakes. Thus, through the acupuncture, the importance of water spots can be improved and the memory and identity will be preserved through this process.

Another historical symbol that characterized Suzhou is the traditional Chinese gardens built by scholars and rich people in the past. Among these, Yipu Garden, Lingering Garden, Humble Administrator's Garden and other traditional gardens have H o w e v e r, w i t h t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f been well preserved in the old town of

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Jiangsu Province 116°18′-121°57′ E, 30°45′-35°20′N Capital Nanjing Population (2017) 80,293,000 Area 102,600 km2 Division 13 Cities, 106 counties, 1488 towns Imgae 2.8 Map of Jiangsu Province, by Author

GRAND CANAL The Grand Canal is the longest ancient canal in the world and some parts of them are still used till now. This canal starts from Hangzhou to Beijing and connectes five big river systems across China with total length of 1797 km. The Grand Canal is divided in 8 parts and Suzhou located in the starting point of south part named Jiangnan Canal which means the canal in the south of Yangtze River.

HONGZE LAKE This lake is the fourth largest freshwater lake in China. This lake is the northwest part boundary between Jiangsu and Anhui Province.

YANGTZE RIVER

TAIHU LAKE

Yangtze River is the longest river in China and third longest in the world which divided the China into north and south part both geographically and culturally. The southern part near Yangzi River on the east coast are nomally called 'Jiangnan' which has a special cultural context and are famous by traditional Chinese gardens especially the city of Suzhou.

Taihu Lake is the third largest freshwater lake in China. This lake is shared by the city of Wuxi and Suzhou which also is linked by the Grand Canal.

Image 2.9 Importance of Water, by Author — 31 —

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

SUZHOU 119.917-121.38° E 30.759-32.035° N Population (2017) 10,684,000 Area 8848.42 km2 Division 6 Districts 4 Sub-cities

City Centre Old Town Image 2.10 Districts of Suzhou and Gusu District. By Author

Suzhou. Complex spatial relationship and metaphorical approaches are used to express a picturesque and literature atmosphere which is the main feature. However, these gardens are mostly used as tourist spots which are not freely shared by citizens. In fact, there is a limited number of public spaces including parks and plazas in the old town because of the crowded urban fabric and furthermore, some of these spaces can not attract people to stay due to the lack of suitable quality. Thus, public life is declining in the old town which needs interventions to create spaces for activities. The traces of secular history and a rapid contemporary development makes Suzhou a city with strong conflicts between new districts and old town. On the one hand, Suzhou is the perfect expression of Kevin Lynch’s theories about 'five elements' in the book 'Image of The City': there are different high towers and commercial centres as the 'landmarks' of the city; the old town has a strong difference in urban

fabric with the new district divided by the 'boundary' of river and city wall which shows the characters of each 'district'; the north-south and east-west 'path' connects the old town to the new district and the different attraction points as 'nodes'. On the other hand, with the development of new districts and commercial centres, many traditional domestic areas are isolated from this trend due to the complex ownership and the low value of the development. However, since these isolated communities are not destroyed by the development of the city, they preserve the traditional urban fabric which offers an ideal condition to operate small-scale acupunctures to rehabilitate urban life. This thesis will take the Changmen Community in the northwest of the old city as an example since this community used to be the main entrance to the city centre in the past and this community connects the tourist area outside of old town with the central commercial area in the old town.

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Image 2.11 City of Suzhou: Yipu Garden; Waterfront House; Commercial centre

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Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

2.3 Site: Old town of Suzhou and the Changmen Historical Area The old town of Suzhou develops since 2500 years ago and it is still the cultural and urban centre of Suzhou and it is also has a commercial area and many tourist areas. The old town is surrounded by the ancient city wall and a moat linked with different rivers and the Grand Canal, which used to be an essential element in daily life of citizens. Due to the regulation by the government, the

height of the buildings is limited to 24m so that the old town preserves a unique urban fabric. Additionally, most of the Chinese gardens are located in the old town and become the identity to attract visitors. Due to the atmosphere of gardens, citizens also tend to possess a piece of green spaces, no matter a small plant by the window and door or a small garden near the house.

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Image 2.12 Changmen Part of Prosperous Suzhou, Xu Yang

According to the 6th census data, the population density of the old town of Suzhou is 15,400 people/km 2 , and the density of Changmen Historical Area is around 28,056 people/km 2 which has a relatively high density of people. Regarding the heritage and cultural identity, this area contains architectures in different periods since Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and it close to the Changmen Gate and Shantang River, which is the main water route from other cities and the Grand Canal to Suzhou. The painting, Prosperous Suzhou (Image 2.12), shows the situation of this area in the 1750s of Qing Dynasty (1636-1912). As the map ( Image 2.13 ) shows, the Changmen Historical Area contains two communities including Changmen Community and Jinmen Community which are mainly residential areas. This area connects the tourist of

Shantang Street in the northwest, the Shilu Commercial Centre in the west and the city centre in the southeast so that it is an essential nodes to link the city. Additionally, one of the classic gardens, Yipu Garden, located in the centre of this area which will attract a lot of visitors. Therefore, it contains a high historical and cultural value. Changmen Historical Area: From the Glory of Past to Contemporary Decline As shown in the previous historical analysis, this part used to be an important resource for trade to make the city prosperous of Suzhou during the Imperial period. During Ming and Qing Dynasty, this area represented a famous commercial hub and after that, it developed into a residential district which embodied the style of the traditional urban fabric and inherited the urban layouts. Due to the Taiping Rebellion in 1851-64, the

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Shantang Street

Changmen Gate

Yipu Garden

Site Shilu Commercial Centre

The mountain villa with embracing beauty To City Centre

Image 2.13 Location of Changmen. By Author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 38 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Shilu Commercial Area City Centre - Guanqian Street

Changmen Gate

The mountain villa Yipu Garden with embracing beauty

Condition of the Site

Image 2.14 Important places in Image 2.13

commericial area of Changmen has been destroyed and after this period, the new commercial centre starts to rehabilitate in Guanqian Street which is the city centre. At the end of Qing Dynasty, influenced by continuous wars, this area continuously decreased. After the birth of the People's Republic of China, with the decline of water transportation and the shifting of commercial centres, the commercial function of Changmen is continuous decline to an area of residential functions (See 2.14). Since this area preserves the traditional city layout and a lot of historical buildings in different periods, the urban fabric can be considered as a feature to be inherited. However, the protection of local identity should not be limited in the city layout and historical spots, and in fact the local people continuously moved out to new districts and this area becomes an area for old people and immigrants which only has a lower education background and high mobility and

thus destorys the daily activities and cultural context. There are several reasons for this phenomenon. Firstly, the bad living condition of these areas due to the lack of infrastructure and public spaces resulted in that the local people tend to move out of these areas caused the decline of livability. Secondly, the rent in this area is cheap because of the lack of renovation so that the immigrants gathered in this area which worsens the condition of this area. Thirdly, the ownership of this area is complex and developers tend to develop areas with high profits in the new districts which makes area becomes an isolated area in the urban development. In this condition, the method of urban acupuncture can be effective to improve the living condition in order to protect the urban fabric and new residents and visitors will be attracted to increase the livability.

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Shantang Street

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

At the begining of 1950s, migrants follows the trend of industrializaton to Suzhou and since th enew districts have not been developed, they gathered in the old town and the houses are maintained by state-owned companies. Changmen is a domestic area of handicraft workers.

After the reform of state-owned enterprises, many companies can not afford the maintainance of the worker's house and the quality of the community gets worse. However, people start to move to cities for job opportunities. The old communities become a cheap area for renting which made this area more disordered.

City Skyline

Image 2.15 Development of Changmen. By Author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 40 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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The city is still growing with new districts and the old communities become isolated from the city because of the complex ownership and the limitation of construction in old town. Suzhou China

With the rise of real estate in 1990s, areas with high profits and suitable positions are favored by government and developers to develop but the elderly people and migrants remained in the old communities since they do not have high income to buy new houses.

Urban Condition

Disorganized

Poor Quality

Informal

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Lack of space

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Image 2.16 The public space in Changmen By Author — 42 —

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Image 2.17 The Concept of the project By Author

this area will be demolished to transform into a commercial and tourist area linking from northwest to southeast. In the case, the urban memory will obviously disappear. Thus, in order to propose an organic and livable development, instead of largescale demolishing, but a smaller scale intervention as urban acupuncture can be adopted into the site. Next three chapters will explain this issue from the large, middle and small scale in different projects According to the development proposal by which are supposed to provide space for the government, a large number of houses in various activities and attract citizens. Conclusion In conclusion, the Changmen Historical Area is a typical area develops from commercial area to the domestic area. Due to the urban policy and development of the new district, the Changmen Area is isolated and the quality and identity of the space is decline. However, these areas preserve the original city fabric and are located in an essential link point.

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Public spaces as connections in urban scale

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— 45 —

3.1 Public space to increase Livability in the city

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Public Space In the urban scale, the public spaces including parks, squares and streets are the main places for citizens to stay and do various activities which isare linked with the topic of livability. Additionally, the city will become attractive with suitable public spaces in different parts of the city. As explained above, the selected community in Changmen has a relative high density of population while there are only two small gardens in the community with bad quality and the Yipu Garden is not free to residents. The residents have to use the small courtyards on two sides of the street to sit and chat. The livability, a concept proposed Jan Gehl, could be explained as the place which provides safety and a comfortable environment for people to enjoy physical activities and outdoor living (Sauter and Huettenmoser, 2008). With the rapid development of economy and infrastructure in cities, crowds of people will move into the city to find jobs and enhance living quality. Thus, this situation enables the potential possibility for social interaction in the urban area. Nevertheless, most of the low-income immigrants want to find the areas with low rent where the infrastructure and quality of the community are in a negative condition. The selected site area is an example of this situation. Due to the lack of public spaces and the bad context, this area becomes one of the worse and unsafe areas in the old town of Suzhou. In contrast, as we discussed above, this area is located in an essential link point of several large commercial areas

in the city which is planned to be converted into a special traditional tourist area by large-scale demolishing in the future. The real urban life and memory will disappear. Therefore, a small-scale intervention can be effective to maintain the urban fabric while dealing with the relationship of between residents and tourist and focus on the important location of the site. It will be serious that nobody is willing to live in the community. According to Gehl (2010), in a livable, safe and sustainable c i t y, t h e i m p o r t a n t c o n d i t i o n i s t h e walkability. When people use the public space, it is actually people walk from one area to another and stay in a certain area so that public spaces are actually connecting the city. Thus, the public spaces work as the connection to hold and attract activities in different parts of the city which compose a livable image of the whole city. Acupoints to rehabilitate the livability In the urban scale, even the site is in a negative atmosphere, there are still many places with potential activities including riverbank, traditional garden, small yards on the street, several shops and the wells (See image 3.1). As Ghel (2010) explains, the smaller scale means an exciting and "warm" city which offer an ideal context for communication. These potential elements are all the small-scale place enables various kind of communication. Additionally, the water is an important element in the city that this area is prosperous in the past due to the close relationship with water. Image 3.2 explains that the decline of the water in the city of Suzhou. However, even in the 1970s,

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Around the Tree

Well

Chairs along the street

Riverbank

Small Garden

Suzhou China

Image 3.1 The potential areas of activties of Changmen. By Author

Image 3.2 The Decline of river in Suzhou By Author

the water is still significant for the city that people will wash clothes along the river; the boat is still the important transportation; residents will cook meals with the water obtained from the wells. In this case, the water spots are important locations for citizens to interact and do activities which acts an essential role in the memory of people. People can closely see the architecture, detail and people in a smaller space (Gehl, 2010), which enables more interaction between different objects and people will explore the environment and

culture in this situation. Instead of the big-scale project which is separated and clod atmosphere where there is no relationship between the emotion and environment, smaller interventions provide an intimate relationship between people and context, which compose a livable image. This project in urban scale will take the water spots including wells and rivers as important parameter together with the other potential areas in the community to develop the projects of public spaces.

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3.2 Plan Especial de Reforma Interior El Raval

The Plan Especial de Reforma Interior El Raval (PERI) is one of the PERI project in the old town of Barcelona which aims to solve the problems in the old town of Barcelona including the high concentration of marginal groups, ethnic minorities, ageing society and unemployed and passed in 1983 with the first step of the strategy started from 1989 (Pareja and Tapada, 2001). In detail, the program includes the promotion of the housing stock rehabilitation, the construction of new open spaces by demolishing old degraded buildings and the recovery of old historical buildings to locate cultural centres such as concert-halls or museums. According to the Image 3.3, there are almost no public spaces in the Raval in 1970s-80 s and this district used to be an extremely congested space in contrast with the L'Exiample surrounding the old town. The idea of this project is to connect the north and south of the El Raval, from the Mirador de Colom to the Plaza de Universidad to improve the accessibility. Additionally, Pareja and Tapada (2001) explained that the approach is supposed to help solve the unsafe issue of the immigrant, unemployment, the lower degree of education and Red Light District. Through the new project, several big open spaces inside the area of Raval enable people to move from indoor to outdoor and improve connectivity. Then, from 1990s, different kinds of renovation including public space, public architecture, street and the private house start to take place in El Raval which improves the general quality of this area. For example, when walking into the area of plazas

near the museum area of El Raval, there are people playing skateboards in the Plaza of the angels and visiting the contemporary art museum. Then, there are also people dancing in the inner plaza of CCCB and hanging with pets in this area. When turning to the back to CCCB in the plaza of Terenci Moix, people play basketball which in contrast with the people read in the library next to the area which composes a livable image of the area (Image 3.6). Rambla de Raval Furthermore, one of the most important projects is the Rambla de Raval (Image 3.5) which is finished in 2000 by demolishing a sequence of houses which is in bad conditions. Even the houses were demolished, according to Arbaci and Tapada-Berteli (2012), "the selective demolition of decaying residential areas has been accompanied by the provision of new housing stock, and the upgrading of substandard dwellings, including substantial public subsidies for the rehabilitation of private housing stock". Thus, the urban fabric is still preserved so that the memory of the city was not destroyed but provided a space can be shared by residents in long-term including public spaces and architectures. Moreover, by this program, new public services provided new activities and attract related facilities such as cultural facility, leisure service and food stores to rehabilitate the community. Arbaci and Tapada-Berteli (2012) further explain that the young people and highly educated population are attracted back to those areas with the increasing of business chance even the hotels for visitors.

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Public Space Public Architecture Street

Image 3.3 The development of El Raval in PERI. By Author — 49 —

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Image 3.4 Important places in El Raval. By Author

Compared to the condition in Changmen area, both of these two communities are crowded and in a mess condition. It is very hard for people to go across those communities in a maze-like street system. The house in bad quality and without people living can be destroyed or renovated to improve the quality of spaces. Then, there is no space to attract people and for them to stay outside so that it is necessary to create communal spaces with activities. When there are people, these places will also be shaped by people. According to Lynch (1960), people have a special map of the city as the memory of places from a mental perspective. Therefore, when we consider memory, when there are activities in a space, people can remember this area by the livable atmosphere and all similar spaces can hold and express memory to the city.

Conclusion Through the example of PERI de Raval, the crowded situation of El Rval has been relieved by various public spaces. The approach, in general, is by choosing two points of the city and connects them with a sequence of projects which provide space for activities for communities. Thus, this approach can also be adopted in the city of Changmen since both of them is in a crowded condition of the old town and due to the important position of Changmen Area which surrounded by important areas of the city, an effective connection system should be considered to improve the connectivity of the community. Additionally, by inserting public spaces in the community, the livability will be enhanced by these spaces offered to residents.

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Image 3.5 (Up) Rambla de Raval. An essential city space connect the north and south part of El Raval.

Image 3.6 (Right) Plaza of Terenci Moix. Basketball court next to the university library. By Author

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3.3 Project: Fragments of public spaces in Changmen

The project for the fragments of public spaces in Changmen can be served as the approach of acupuncture in urban scale which is realized by selection of potential attractors in the community of Changmen and then insert a sequence of public spaces to these areas in order to create open space in the compact community and make full use of the potential objects such as wells. rivers and gardens. Thus, as the title suggests, these spaces are the fragments of the community and contains the fragments of the past urban life of the site. By combining these fragments, a livable collage will be created in the community which is like the argument by Colin Rowe (1978) that the city is the collage of history, memory and activities, and by making the collage with the continuity of the city, the city can grow in an organic way. The new spaces are not breaking the fabric of the community but works as an

Image 3.7 Location and feature of the site in Changmen Area By Author

open space for light, air and activities. In this section, based on the site analysis in Chapter 2, the area of Changmen can be divided into different layers including the attractors, street system, architectures and landscapes which will be further analyzed and explore the proper acupoints. Then, the examples of acupoints in different area will be explained and discussed. According to the analysis, the 500*80m area in front of the Yipu Garden is selected to be the example of urban acupuncture. The reason is that this site actually connects the river bank to the other side of the main road and the route in this area is the most frequently used by both residents and tourists. Additionally, this area also possesses various architecture in different historical period so that this area could be considered as an ideal target to explore.

Cooking in public

Outdoor Laundry

Small garden

Well

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Image 3.8 Elements in the site By Author — 53 —

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Minor Acupoints as connectors Major Acupoints as communal centres

Buildings to be preserved and renovated Buildings to be demolished Original Path New Major Path New Minor Path Image 3.9 Intervention to the site By Author

By overlapping three important layers: street pattern, attractors and potential, the final proposal of the urban scale is decided to taken in the blue circles which are areas with potential human activities and interactions. Thus, public spaces can be inserted in these areas. Additionally, in order to enhance the connectivity, other acupoints are selected and will be connected with an effective path system.

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Vertical Street Plaza of Well Tea House, restaurant, Paper making workshop, market, vegetable garden

3. Generating a co-living community

Bookshop, Coffee Kindergarten, gym, shops

Bridge on the River Performance, Artist centre, Exhibition, Commerce and Riverbank park

2. Remove the messy and bad building

Original Street Area been removed New Public Space New Civic Centres

1. Insert public space and connection in original urban fabric

Acupoints for large public space Acupoints for small public spaceand nodes of street Image 3.10 Formation of Urban Acupuncture By Author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 55 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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New Street New Public Space New Civic Centres

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Public Kitchen

Bar

Vegetable Garden

Image 3.11 Minor Acupoints with well By Author — 56 —

Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Scenario 1 - Riverbank - Artist Area For the riverbank area, the idea is to use the large area along the river and transform this area as the collection of exhibition, art and performance which requires a large area of land. Then, the water-related public space could be added such as the hanging area, boating area, sports area and swimming area

Scenario 2 - Main Street - Civic activity Since the Wuqu Alley is a living street, the activities should focus on living functions. The idea of this project is to open the wall of the community to let people go into the community to enhance the interaction and the long architecture is like a vertical street to provide a soft boundary to the community. Image 3.12 Major Acupoints 1 - Riverbank; Major Acupoints 2 - Main Street By Author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 57 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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City Moat

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Mix-used architectures as centers in neighbourhood scale

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— 59 —

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4.1 The communal centers and the identity of the community

For each acupoint selected on the urban scale, a project as the civic centre can be developed in these areas and attract people. Instead of one specific centre, different areas can have different centres with various programs by replacing buildings in a very bad condition. These programs will enable people to do different activities which are like a stage to perform their daily lives in order to form a livable bricolage. Then, when these places are shaped, they can offer various programs to shape the life of residents and make people feel a sense of belonging in order to rehabilitate the memory and method of urban life. The architecture and the memory in these communities are essential to contain different relationships, different lifestyles and different periods of history. Ruskin (1969) explained that architectures express the history, the process to build them and traditional lifestyles, which are more than the contents in historic books so that instead of the present delight or present use alone, the architectures should become an object that can let descendants be thankful and let people think and rethink. This idea can also be confirmed in Kant’s argument about aesthetics that aesthetic art contains agreeable art and fine art. Both of these two types are related to sensation and pleasure. However, the fine art can lead people to think and rethink which will please people accompanied by the methods of cognizing judged by sensation (Kant, 1976). Consequently, the new civic space could be understood from the perspective which will lead people to explore the sensational content such as memory and history.

are the components of the reality of an area which might also contain a real memory for a period and should be rehabilitated. When people visit these areas with the traditional urban fabric, unconscious memory of the past will influence the sensation of people. This memory results from a long-time practice which is a potential influence in people’s mind of past events and Freud (2003) states that this influence is an uncanny influence actually related to familiar or intimate experiences and these experiences will influence the emotion negatively and the feeling of uncanny will be developed in the repetition of these situations or experiences. However, since uncanny is also an intimate memory to influence mental power, can this feeling become a positive role in relation to architecture? Aldo Rossi explained in the book the architecture of the city and cited by Wang Shu (2000) that when the repetition of intimate elements including materials, activities, gardens and even a gate of a house could remind people the memory of that period. Thus, the architectural spaces respect to history could also inspire the memory of people to the past which contains the feature of realism. The material, the public spaces with water spots and the programs will all remind the memory of residents.

The project of this section will take the area in front of the Yipu Garden as an example since this area is a significant central area to connect different directions of the site where the locals, immigrants and visitors can meet. As Gehl (2010) explains people is the most attractive elements in the city and the interaction will absolutely Then, the traditional lifestyle and history happen in the public areas. This program

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Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

Image 4.1 Nantou Old Town Regeneration (Urbanus, 2017) Urban Acupuncture by inserting mix-used architectures in the community to inspire the livability.

also includes various public areas inside the building and create a soft boundary between public square and architecture such as the programs in the ground floor can attract people to stay in the architecture and enjoy the space. SolàMorales (2008) explains that the good city is one in which private buildingsespecially good private buildings -

public elements whether they like it or not and serve as vehicles for social meanings and values that reach beyond themselves, and it is precisely in this that they are urban. The later project is mix-use of relocation housing on the top and public programs in the low levels which enable the mixture of public and private.

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4.2 Mercat de Santa Caterina and nearby public plazas

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

The Santa Caterina Market is a project including the renovation on old architecture, the protection of the historical site, the mixused project and organization of public space. In detail, the project of Mercat de Santa Caterina is part of the PERI de Santa Caterina which mentioned in Chapter 3.2. Firstly, the architect utilizes the old facade of the market and insert a new roof with local Catalonia identity. In this condition, the memory to the architecture is inherited and the new roof reminds the traditional construction style and made the architecture into a monument. Additionally, due to the important position of the architecture, public space is given to the front and back of the architecture for citizens. Then, this project is not only a renovation on the market, but a renovation of nearby areas by demolishing certain buildings to create space for citizens and design of relocation houses. In this case, as Image 4.2 shows, a group building which blocks the street from southwest to northeast were destroyed and a group of housings were integrated into the back of the market as the living space (See Image 4.3). Thus, this architecture is actually a mix-used project with both living and commercial functions. Finally, in terms of the nearby plazas, this project connect a group of public spaces in both sides of Av. de Francesc CambĂł to Carrer de la Pou de la Figuera which opens the crowded area and connect these public spaces together to form a system of plazas and gardens instead of single plaza surrounded by buildings.

Monumental approach to rehabilitate local identity and livability This project of Enric Miralles is also closely connected to the local culture and identity which can remind a strong local identity by using the traditional construction and local materials and the provide a sense of belonging and collective memory to local people. The material contains a certain condition and culture in a certain region which will become a special identity of this region. According to Zeng (2017), Miralles uses a method from modernism with decorative elements to express the Catalan culture while the materials in his projects are mostly the classic materials, but the various combination of different materials creates an abstract shape which stresses on the naturalism and organism to form a strong identity of the Catalan culture. The traditional Catalan roof becomes the most significant feature of this project and the material of the roof is the composition of different colour of tiles which is also a classical material in the local environment. Consequently, the projects utilized the local context and the regional culture, the abstract and organic shape express imagination of the Barcelona city and become the collective memory of the city. The context modified by Miralles is concentrated on the experience of people and people will be impressed through the visiting of the space. Moreover, this impression is resulted from the inspiration from the space to people to inspire the memory of the past and the thinking of the future. Additionally, the public spaces together with the architecture work as a civic centre for communities.

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Image 4.2 Development of PERI de Santa Caterina. By Author — 63 —

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Image 4.3 Roof of Santa Caterina Market

The Public Spaces Integrated into the Architecture Considering the public spaces, Miralles combines the architecture with public spaces and the public spaces work like a needle inserted into the acupoints on the original community. In this situation, people can both enjoy the public plazas and the interior of the market, shops and civic centres. Different activities happen in different places which compose an image of livability. Take Parque de Pou de la Figuera as an example, space is occupied by a group of buildings which was demolished to give a bigger space of a football field, kids area and benches for relaxing. This area is also connected to another empty square by Carrer de l'Arc de Sant Cristofol and then to the Santa Caterina Market. On the other side, this park is connected to a civic centre in the north which provides space for communities to use and share. On the south part of this park also lies a small community

garden for vegetables, Hortet del Forat. Residents posses their own land to plant vegetables and flowers which also provide a space for communication. With the integration of surrounding houses, shops and these spaces, this area is actually becoming a mix-used community with various livable spaces. Conclusion In conclusion, referred to the Changmen Historical Area, except the public spaces to connect and open the communities in essential places, a mix-used project can also be introduced near these public spaces and make them become the civic centre into the memory of people. The functions are selected according to the contexts in the acupoints for example the wells and rivers might require different programs. Then, the architectures are supposed to be the landmarks of the community and exist in people's memory.

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Image 4.4 Housing Projects of Santa Caterina Market

Image 4.5 Plaça Sant Agustí Vell

Image 4.6 Park of Pou de la Figuera — 65 —

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4.3 Project: Architecture from the private to the public

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

As discussed above, the mix-used building is a soft boundary in the urban space and since a part of houses in bad quality are replaced by the public spaces and connections, except the public programs, the project should also include a housing project for the residents. Thus, with a mixture of programs, this area will become a livable and attractive area. Taking the acupoint in front of the Yipu Garden as an example, which is the second major public spaces of the Plaza of Well, this area is an essential link point which can

accommodate different people and activities than in other parts of the community. The well is also an important element for the community to use so that we hope to retain the original activities and offer public space in the architecture of the project and let people enjoy these spaces. Thus, we insert a courtyard-like architecture with timber structure to act as the monument of the area and encourage different activities happen in this courtyard. Through this project, people are supposed to walk from their indoor space to the outdoor communal space to do different activities.

Image 4.7 Site of the Mix-used Building By Author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 66 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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Communication

Leisure Image 4.8 Diagram of Human activity By Author

Indoor and Outdoor Activities According to the diagram, it is obvious that the immigrants which take a large part of the residents. Thus, when we plan the activities, we need to consider how to provide suitable activity spaces such as restaurants and cafe for them to stay. Then, for elderly people, the outdoor space such as vegetation gardens and traditional tea house can be an ideal space for them. Additionally, in order to attract tourists, the traditional paper workshop can be an interesting space to inherit the culture and attract people.

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4.Creat connection as public terraces

3.Adjust the building height according to the urban fabric

2. Create entrance from all directions

1. Create a Courtyard Space

Image 4.9 Formation By author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 68 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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Suzhou China

Site Plan Image 4.10 1:500 Site Plan, 1:400 Floor Plan, 1:400 Elevation By Author

— 69 —

20m

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

7 8

2 4

10 1

8 3

1 Well 2 Vegetable Garden 3 Private House Entrance 4 Paper making Workshop 5 Frontdesk and worker's room 6 Tea House

GF Plan at 0m

7 Kitchen and Bar 8Toliet 9 Market 10 Food shop 11 Store

16m

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Down

13 Down

10 8

12 5 3 4

1 Opera stage 2 Restraurant 3 Bar 4 Kitchen and storage 5 Toliet 6 Outdoor Garden 7 Bookstore

1F Plan at 3.5m

8 Private House Entrance 9 Outdoor Bar 10 Sitting Corridor 11 Gym 12 Shower 13 Ourdoor Sports 14 Dressing

Down

16m

— 71 —

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Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

2 3

6 3

1 Public Kitchen 2 Single person House 3 Family House 4 Shared Housing 5 Play Area 6 Saloon

2F Plan at 7m

16m

— 72 —

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3 2 3

Down

1 BBQ Area 2 Single Person House 3 Family House 4 Shared Housing

3F Plan at 10 m

16m

— 73 —

Elevation 0 4 8 16m

— 74 —

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Image 4.11 Human View By author — 75 —

A Friday of Miss Zhang

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Miss Zhang is 26 years old and she is one of the tenant in Changmen, after graduation, she is working for the paper making workshop in the community. This is a new museum that introduce the traditional method to make paper since there is a paper making office in the past. This is a Friday for Miss Zhang.

8:00

She meets Mrs Li in the entrance, where she buy breakfast from the store

8:20

9:00 12:0012:30 14:0017:00 18:00 19:00

She put her She starts She talks c l o t h e s i n work in the with her the washing workshop f r i e n d s machine at in the home platform.

Image 4.12 Story in the community By author

She has the lunch i n t h e restaurant on the 1st floor

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S h e starts to work again

She gets a tea and sit in the courtyard to listen to the opera

After a d a y ' s work, she take some exercise i n t h e gym and children starts to play in the plaza

M i s s Zhang go home and stay with her family

Sizhou Li - Master Thesis 1

1.Roof Construction - Single-ply roofing membrane - Rigid tapered insulation - 20mm external plywood thermal insulation - 120mm dense mineral wool thermal insulation - 20mm internal plywood panel

2.Wall Construction - 15mm Timber cladding boards - 20mm counter-batterns - 20mm Batterns - 10mm external board - Moisture waterproof layer - 120mm insulation with timber studs - 10mm internal board

Suzhou China

3.Floor Construction - 20mm internal plywood panel - 120mm dense mineral wool thermal insulation - 20mm external grade plywood sheathing - 100mm laminated timber secondary beam - 300 laminated timber primary beam 4.Window Construction - 9mm window glass - 12mm air cavity - 9mm window glass - Steel Frrame 5.Foundation - Metal plates with crews - Limestone pavement layer - Concrete foundation layer

A Image 4.13 1：30 Architectural Detail By Author — 77 —

0.3 0.6

1.2m

Typology 1 Single person House 5*7m 1. Kitchen 2. Toliet 3. Bedroom 4. Working and Leisure 5. Balcony

1 4

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Typology 2 Family House 7*7m

1. Kitchen 2. Toliet 3. Bedroom 4. Livingroom 5. Bedroom 6. Balcony

5 3

4 6

Typology 3 Shared Housing 16*9m 2 5

7 5 5 1

5 4

Image 4.14 Room Typologies By author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 78 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

1. Kitchen 2. Toliet 3. Toliet with Shower 4. Livingroom 5. Bedroom 6. Balcony 7. Storage

Sizhou Li - Master Thesis

3rd Floor

2nd Floor

1st Floor

Ground Floor and Core

Secondary beam

Primary beam

Column

Image 4.15 Exploded View By author — 79 —

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Slab

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Courtyard house as containers in domestic scale

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5.1 Context and Typology of Courtyard House in Suzhou

In this case, the renovation of the courtyard house in the community can be the last scale, domestic scale in the project of urban acupuncture. After the project public spaces to connect the community in the large urban scale and the mix-used architectures as the civic centres in the community, the courtyard house is the living space related to daily life of residents which can not be ignored and the improvement of livability in each unit can be positive to the context of Ruskin (1969) argued that people can not the whole community. remember without architecture which means that the architecture holds the memory The courtyard house is the identity of the of people. The courtyard house can be domestic unit of the regional culture and considered as a traditional form to contain also a space for communication. According the history and the memory and the old to Ruskin (1969), the buildings should domestic areas can be regarded as an area respect the vernacular cultures of their belonging to the history of a city. These origins, the local architecture can make architectures are still significant to the people be proud of their group and city collective memory of citizens which used to Thus, the courtyard house contains the contain an image of livable community life. memory and lifestyle, it can be selected as the acupoints to bring the memory. However, the maintenance of these houses is in negative condition because the ownership Housing Typologies of these houses are complex and the main The street to lane system is the urban group of people living in these houses are fabric of old town which consists from old people and immigrants who can not the street and lane to plots of land and afford to renovate the house which has a then to the individual courtyards so that strong contract with the high rise in outside the courtyards are the object in the smallof the city wall. scale acupuncture. By classifying different typologies, the renovation on one acupoint Normally, the central courtyard house is the can also be applied in other similar projects courtyard space and all rooms face to the to obtain a more effective solution. In centre which is connected to the traditional detail, according to the Image 5.1, there lifestyle. However, the traditional family are mainly three different kinds of buidling model is not suitable for the individual typologies by the layout of space including lifestyle in the contemporary period. the courtyard house, the single house which Thus, since the courtyard house still takes face to land or street and the unit house an important character in the city, it is mainly built for workers with higher levels. necessary to explore an approach to balance the identity of the city and the individual Since the courtyard houses take an essential life.

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Courtyard House and Memory The courtyard house is a traditional Chinese typology of the domestic house which normally has a square courtyard space in the centre surrounded by walls and rooms in 4 edges. The courtyard house in Changmen community is mostly built Qing Dynasty and Period of the Republic of China which inherits the memory and identity of the traditional urban fabric and urban life.

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Type 2 Unit in Workers' House Mostly built after 1978 Grouped in a certain area 5-6 floors

Image 5.1 Typologies of houses in the Changmen area. By Author

role in history and formed the life of the community in traditional life, these houses can be selected as acupoints. With the improvement of individual life, the community will be rehabilitated. Then, since the courtyard houses are often used as a rental house because it has more rooms and space, this section will discuss the renovation for rental courtyard house. Courtyard house as communal containers for various activities The courtyard house is used to be shared by a single family and contains different activities for the family. The central courtyard is the most livable space for the whole family. However, the courtyard houses are mostly shared by immigrants and there is no space for communication. The core of contemporary life is more about privacy and a comfortable distance of interaction. Thus, the idea for the renovation of the rental courtyard house is to create both private and communal space for residents. The house is divided into four rooms with a semi-private garden of each one which

Type 3 Courtyard House Mostly built before 1949 Single courtyard or connected with other courtyards Mostly for rent

follows the transformation of lifestyle and social structure. In the traditional courtyard, there are only one central courtyard and several private rooms that there is no conversion space between private and public. This project offers 4 small semi-open yards in the entrance of each house facing to the big courtyard. Even though the life changes from collective living to individual, the courtyard is always the core of the house. The 4 yards are small but of great significance for the life between nature and life which also can be integrated to the whole courtyard to form a bigger space while it can also be a pravite space by closing the doors. Additionally, the central courtyard also contains a kitchen, a washing space and communal area which create the possibility of communication. Therefore, even it is a still small space, but the renovation preserves the traditional architecture and the lifestyle which opens to nature and communal life. The new typology provides a new individual and communal life in the traditional domestic area.

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Type 1 Single House Mostly built after 1949 Develop according to the street or river Different shapes and forms

5.2 Regeneration of Qianmen East Hutong Area

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

The project of regeneration of Qianme East Hutong Area is a project using the approach of urban acupuncture on the renovation of courtyard houses in Beijing, China by Urbanus. According to the architects, there are always conflict among large-scale protection, renovation on the traditional urban fabric and small-scale life (Urbanus, 2018). Since the life depends on the individual sensation with the urban objects, the quality of the life will be enhanced by the improvement of more precise urban objects which also influences the transformation from largescale projects to the small-scale intervention of urban projects. In this project, the architects selected a traditional community in Beijing which preserves the urban fabric of the courtyard house and street system. The architects describe this situation as a small, disordered, irregular and multifunctional urban and social life model (Urbanus, 2018). Thus, the project is decided to rehabilitate the traditional urban life and create a bricolage of various urban fabrics and activities by the renovation of this area. The houses in this area are classified by different types according to the renovation approach (See Image 5.2). Then, considering the demand of different groups of people including immigrants, local family and individual people, more detailed approaches will be adopted in the project in order to integrate different group of people and the life of people. This project is actually a smallscale renovation of the individual house by different typologies which is applied to a renovation of an urban

area. In terms of the condition in Changmen, as discussed above, the houses can mainly be divided into 3 typologies of different lifestyle: the courtyard, the individual house and unit house. Different from the single house or the unit house which are totally private space, the courtyard house combines pravite with semi-public which works as a small community in the large community. The courtyard is considered to be a significant communal space containing the public life of the residents. The collection of courtyard houses in the community is actually the collection of various communal containers where different interactions might happen with family, other residents or neighbourhoods. However, due to the lack of maintenance, the courtyard houses are in bad quality and the owner adds a lot of illegal structure to enlarge the storage and living space which destroy the urban fabric. Additionally, the courtyard houses are mostly rented to immigrants and the interior courtyard is mostly occupied for storage where there is no space for people to communicate and relax. Thus, due to the large number of immigrants, the type of rental courtyard house is selected to be the example for small scale acupuncture. This approach is aimed to create a new typology for the courtyard houses by providing different publicity of the space, from private space to semi-private gardens and the central courtyard shared by residents. This project is supposed to improve the living quality and the shared space such as the public kitchen and the clothes washing area will enable the possibility to interact.

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Image 5.2 Classification of houses (Urbanus,2018)

Image 5.3 Project of the regeneration of Qianmen East Hutong (Urbanus,2018) — 85 —

5.3 Project: Renovation on Courtyard House in Da Ma Tang No.6

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Project of Rental Courtyard House As explained above, the courtyard houses are the traditional living space to hold the memory and livability to the community (See Image 5.6). This part of the acupuncture in domestic scale is the renovation on courtyard houses mainly for renting as one typology in order to rehabilitate the urban life in units. This part will firstly introduce the location of the selected house which is located in the Alley of Da Ma Tang and built in Qing Dynasty. This house is a typical courtyard house rented to 4 people and the house is located in one main alley to the Yipu Garden. Thus, this renovation of the house will be used as the example of the typology of the rental courtyard.

Yipu Garden

BaoLinSi Qian Alley

Project: Da Ma Tang No.6

Then, as discussed in Part 5.1, the new typology is created by adding a semi-public entrance garden to each room and offer a Image 5.4 central area for shared spaces to enhance the The Map of the context By Author communication.

Courtyard House in the Community Selected courtyard Image 5.5 The typology of courtyard house By Author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 86 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Da Ma Tang Lane

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Image 5.6 The collage of courtyard life of local people By Author

Image 5.7 Photo of the courtyard (Occupied by storage space) and interior (Ineffective layout) By Author — 87 —

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

New typology: 4 Rooms with public communal courtyard and small gardens

New Layout of Rental Courtyard Integrated with new structure to offer shade for the shared kitchen and laundry.

Add new programs: The 3 Rooms used to be shared by 3 family (Single or Two people) are divided by 4 rooms, the central area is changed for a shared area and communal area. The other space is used as the entrance garden. Original Status: 3 Rooms with a courtyard occupied by storage space

Image 5.8 Formation By Author â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 88 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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New Structure for shading

Tailiang - Raised Beam System

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Roof

Structure

Wall

Image 5.9 Structural Diagram By Author — 89 —

N 7 7

6 5

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6 5 4

3 4 5 5

6 6

Image 5.10 1:100 Plan, 1:100 Section By Author

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1 Courtyard 2 Washing Area 3 Public Kitchen 4 Entrance Yard 5 Kitchen 6 Washroom 7 Living Room 8 Bedroom

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4.8m 3m

Section

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Image 5.11 Perspective By Author

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Conclusion

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CONCLUSION

The first scale, urban scale, aims to find attractors in the city and develop the public spaces to enhance the connectivity and attract people to stay and do activities. Then, the area in front of the Yipu garden is selected to be the example of the middle scale, neighbourhood scale, that a mix-used space with the soft boundary at the ground floor is proposed to enable the combination of public space and private space. Finally, due to the high population of the immigrant in the community and the courtyard house holds the history of the area. The type of rental courtyard house is selected as a renovation example to create a new typology of communal space in the unit and domestic scale. Through these approaches in different scales, this project is set to be a potential place to offer different possibilities of interactions of the community and the collective memory of the daily life will be rehabilitated through this approach.

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This thesis discusses the urban acupuncture in different scale in the domestic community of Changmen, Suzhou. The livability and memory are two main elements which are supposed to rehabilitate in the process of the acupuncture. By adopting the theory of urban acupuncture, small interventions are operated in this community which is referred to the examples in Barcelona including the PERI de Raval and the Santa Caterina Market.

Bbliography

-Alexander, C. (1978) Oregon Experiment. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. -Arbaci & Tapada-Berteli. (2012) Social inequality and urban regeneration in Barcelona city centre: reconsidering success. European Urban and Regional Studies, 19 (3) pp. 287– 311 Available from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.870.8124&r ep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed: 15 June 2019] -Freud, S. (2003) The Uncanny. London: Penguin.

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-Ghel, J. (2010) Cities for People. [Chinese Version], Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press. -Hernández, J & Casanova, H. (2014) Public Space Acupuncture: Strategies and Interventions for Activating City Life. New York: Actar Publishers. -Jacobs, J. (1992) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage. -Kant, I. (1976) “Experts from Critique of Judgement.” In Philosophies of Art and Beauty, edited by Albert Hofstadter and Richard Kuhns, 277-331. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. -Lerner, J. (2014) Urban Acupuncture. London: Island Press. -Lynch, K. (1960) The Image of The City. Cambridge: The MIT Press. -Pareja, M. & Tapada, T. (2001) Urban renewal planning in Barcelona: what can we learn from experience? European Spatial Research and Policy, 8 (2), pp. 39-54. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228999101_Urban_renewal_planning_in_ Barcelona_what_can_we_learn_from_experience [Accessed: 15 June 2019] -Rossi, A. & Eisenman, P. The architecture of the city. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982. -Rowe, C. & Koetter, F. (1978) Collage City. Cambridge: MIT Press -Ruskin, John. The Seven Lamps of Architecture. London: Dent, 1969. -Sauter, D. and Huettenmoser, M. (2008) Liveable Streets and Social Inclusion. Urban Design International, 13(2), pp.67-79Shanghai Planning and Land Resource Administration Bureau (2016). Shanghai Street Design Guidelines. Shanghai: Tongji University Publications. -Solà-Morales, M. (2008) A Matter of Things. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.

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-Tiesdell, Oc and Heath (1996) Revitalizing Historic Urban Quarters. London: Routledge -Tong, M. (2016) Contemporary Chinese Urban Design Reader. Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press -Urbanus. (2018) Preservation & Regeneration of Qianmen East Hutong Area. [Online] Available from: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/projects/qianmen-east-hutong/?lang=en [Accessed: 30 June 2019] -Wang, S. (2000) “Fictionalizing City.” PhD diss., Tongji University -Wang, S. (2012) Forming Houses. Hunan: Hunan Arts Press.

-Zeng, C. (2017) “The Strategy of Building Material in Symbol Construction Taking the Representative Works of Spanish Architect Miralles as an Example,” Beauty & Times, (8) pp.18-19, Available from: http://www.cqvip.com/qk/7161 4x/201708/77697367504849554856484949.html [Accessed: 21 June 2019]

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-Wu, L.Y. (1994) The old city of Beijing and its Juer Hutong neighbourhood. Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press

List of Images

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Chapter 1 Introduction: New Approach on Urban Renovation 1.1 Urban Acupuncture: Topic on Livability and Identity Image 1.1 City Map of Barcelona Source: http://www.photographerofdreams.com/es/2016/01/25/5-razones-para-mudarse-abarcelona-y-cuanto-cuesta-la-mudanza/ 1.2 The Development of Urban Acupuncture Image 1.2 Comparison between old town and new centre in Suzhou. By Author Image 1.3 Public spaces in Old Town of Barcelona. By Author Image 1.4 Collage of Casernes de Sant Andreu Source: http://manueldesola-morales.com/proys/Casernes_pla_eng.htm Image 1.5 The diagram of development of theories. By author 1.3 Methodology Image 1.6 The photos of public space in Barcelona. By Author Chapter 2 Urban Acupuncture in Historical Cities 2.1 Issues of Urban Renovation in Historical Cities Image 2.1 Humble Administrator's Garden By Author Image 2.2 Shibati, Chongqing. By Author Image 2.3 'Demolition'. Red Character on the wall in Changmen, Suzhou. By Author Image 2.4 Conversion of Juer Hutong. New typology of Courtyard House. Source: http://www.ikuku.cn/post/35150 Image 2.5 Testbed 2, Chongqing. Creative area in the historical community. Source: https://bbs.meizu.cn/thread-8189258-1-1.html 2.2 Suzhou: Historical City in the East China Image 2.6 Medusa and Apollo, Le Corbusier Source:http://jasonhesiak.blogspot.com/2015/12/ideology-as-idolatry-part-2a-inerrant.html Image 2.7 Location of Suzhou. By Author Imgae 2.8 Map of Jiangsu Province. By Author 2.3 Site: Old town of Suzhou and the Changmen Historical Area Image 2.12 Changmen Part of Prosperous Suzhou, Xu Yang Source: http://www.sohu.com/a/190319853_680253 Image 2.13 Location of Changmen. By Author Image 2.14 Important places in Image 2.12. By Author Image 2.15 Development of Changmen. By Author Image 2.16 The public space in Changmen By Author Image 2.17 Typical "Square" in the community. By Author

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Chapter 3 Public spaces as connections in urban scale 3.1 Public space to increase livability in the city Image 3.1 The potential areas of activties of Changmen. By Author Image 3.2 The Decline of river in Suzhou By Author

3.3 Project: Fragments of public spaces in Changmen Image 3.7 Location and feature of the site in Changmen Area. By Author Image 3.8 Elements in the site. By Author Image 3.9 Intervention to the site. By Author Image 3.10 Formation of Urban Acupuncture. By Author Image 3.11 Minor Acupoints with well. By Author Image 3.12 Major Acupoints 1 - Riverbank; Major Acupoints 2 - Main Street. By Author Chapter 4 Mix-used architectures as centers in neighbourhood scale 4.1 The communal centers and the identity of the community Image 4.1 Nantou Old Town Regeneration Source: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/projects/nantou-old-town/ 4.2 Mercat de Santa Caterina and nearby public plazas Image 4.2 Development of PERI de Santa Caterina. By Author Image 4.3 Roof of Santa Caterina Market Source: https://www.barcelona-life.com/santa-caterina-market Image 4.4 Housing Projects of Santa Caterina Market Source: https://enochliew.tumblr.com/post/39359346960 Image 4.5 Plaça Sant Agustí Vell Source: https://www.elnacional.cat/es/cultura/sant-agusti-vell_107320_102.html Image 4.6 Park of Pou de la Figuera Source: https://www.evarganzuela.org/2016/02/encuentro-con-el-pou-de-la-figuera/ 4.3 Project: Architecture from the private to the public Image 4.7 Site of the Mix-used Building. By Author Image 4.8 Diagram of Human activity. By Author Image 4.9 Formation. By author Image 4.10 1:500 Site Plan, 1:400 Floor Plan, 1:400 Section. By Author Image 4.11 Human View. By author

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3.2 Plan Especial de Reforma Interior El Raval Image 3.3 The development of El Raval in PERI. By Author Image 3.4 Important places in El Raval. By Author Image 3.5 Rambla de Raval. Source:https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambla_del_Raval Image 3.6 Plaza of Terenci Moix. By Author

Image 4.12 Story in the community. By author Image 4.13 1:30 Architectural Detail. By Author Image 4.14 Room Typologies. By author Image 4.15 Exploded View. By author

Urban Acupuncture in Domestic Community

Chapter 5 Courtyard house as containers in domestic scale 5.1 Context and Typology of Courtyard House in Suzhou Image 5.1 Typologies of houses in the Changmen area. By Author 5.2 Regeneration of Qianmen East Hutong Area Image 5.2 Classification of houses Source: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/projects/qianmen-east-hutong/ Image 5.3 Project of the regeneration of Qianmen East Hutong Source: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/projects/qianmen-east-hutong/ 5.3 Project: Renovation on Courtyard House in Da Ma Tang No.6 Image 5.4 The Map of the context By Author Image 5.5 The typology of courtyard house By Author Image 5.6 The collage of courtyard life of local people By Author Image 5.7 Photo of the courtyard and interior By Author Image 5.8 Formation By Author Image 5.9 Structural Diagram By Author Image 5.10 1:100 Plan, 1:100 Section By Author Image 5.11 Perspective By Author

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