[THE VERTICAL CITY] M.Arch Thesis

THE VERTICAL CITY Rethinking the public space on the vertical dimension in the high-rise for a healthier and richer life

It is all about the left over space in the massive cube -- Author

Spencer Junye Zhou M. Arch. Thesis Hammons School of Architecture Maurizio Sabini 2015

CONTENTS

1 2 3

1

INTRODUCTION

THE CITY ON THE 7 FACTORY LINE 9

The Mega-Lego-City

9 The evolution of Megacity 10 What is Mega-Lego-City 13 Examples of Mega-Lego-City

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Machine Is Not For Human

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Conclusion

27 27 28 38

14 High-rise changes thing. Good or Bad? 17 The effects of High-rise to human relationship 21 The effects of High-rise to human mental health

CASE STUDIES The Criteria Kowloon Walled City CCTV Headquarters FLIP/CITY Shanghai

4 5 6

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RESEARCH SUMMARY

PROGRAM 57 FRAMEWORK 58

Project Site

58 Facts of Hong Kong 61 History, development, and condition of the site 65 The future of the site

66 68 70

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Rationale Design Objectives Design Program

END NOTES

Megacity, Digital Art by Joshushund Fig. 1

1

INTRODUCTION

What is the first sense when imagining a megacity? Constant movement? Crowded streets? Clashing noises? Cities like New York City, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo fall under that category. No matter your job, your social class, or your personal life, people occupy the skyscraper the most within the megacity. Why? Think about a person who lives in a megacity - every morning they wake up in a high-rise building, they work in a high-rise building, and they even have lunch and dinner in a highrise building. During the weekend, they might go on a date, plays sports, or go shopping, regrettably, in a skyscraper still. The skyscraper is practically the only social space people in megacities occupy, but does this architectural typology really meet the demands of human life?

A Megacity is like the shelf in the supermarket, it is filled with various building objects, some designed by famous architects, some not, but the essence is the same - they all express power, politics, and profit.

Current skyscraper design only serves the function but ignores the most important thing, the human spirit. Many researches point out the megacity impacts human mental health and affects human relationship, creating social disconnect, and increased crime rate. Why though? How can human life turn completely around in a couple decades within the same city? A city becomes a megacity through economics, location, and politics, causing a rapid growth population, which for a typical megacity, 90% of high-rise buildings serve

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Architecture of Density, Hong Kongskie anthills by Michael Bullock Fig. 2 a residential function to accommodate for a growing population with limited land to building on. In other words, the rise of high-rise building does not happen by accident, but by strategy. We should not blame the megacity, or the skyscraper – the true reason for this problem is the design of the skyscraper.

Why don’t most people notice the skyscraper changing their life?

People are already used to it. The original design of typewriter keyboard layout was “ABCDEFG”, as long as the speed of typing increased, the metal rod that connects keys will interfere each other, therefor the typist had to factitiously slow down to avoid this situation. Thus, Samuel W. Soule and James Densmore invented the “QWERTY” keyboard in the 1860s, which is

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Traditional Old Typewriters Fig. 3 the most inefficient keyboard. According to the statistics, the distance of a professional typist’s finger moving is about 25.7 km in an 8 hour work day.

Ironically, because people got used to it, all the future electronic products adopted this invention from 1860s in order to slow down the speed of typing, even though there is no mechanical problem based on current technology. The design of skyscraper is another version of “QWERTY” keyboard. After the Second World War, megacities started to build skyscrapers to signify power, wealth, and hierarchy, which deprived the city of its humanity - as time passed, cities across the world began to adopt this model of the skyscraper.

We blame everything on the megacity instead of the design of skyscraper and we ignore the demands of the ever changing human life. The skyscraper is a place where people spend most of their time, confined in a closed

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environment, becoming servants to the element of the machine, which in turn this closed space fulfills peoples’ physical needs, but their spiritual needs.

According to research from Robert Gifford, “Residents of high-rise probably have fewer friendships in the buildings, and certainly help each other less.

Crime and fear of crime probably are greater in high-rise buildings. A small proportion of suicides may be attributable to living in high rises” (2006).

The current skyscraper becomes a troublemaker for society and due to the reality of capitalistic development, we cannot stop the production of the skyscraper, so we must change the way we design it. The skyscraper has potential to provide a healing experience for society through adequate social space.

The good news is many architects have already noticed this problem, and some have been designing skyscrapers for a healthier life. They’ve tried to create more open space for social life, bringing programs into the skyscraper that weren’t considered before, and they’ve plugged in green space to promote different happenings of activities. However, these solutions only add functional elements to force interaction among people and ignore the human being as a spiritual animal, where healthy interaction happens naturally, instead of through force.

This thesis is about the design of a residential building, but has nothing to do with rooms; it is about a commercial building, but has nothing to do with office space; it is about the leftover un-functional space. The research seeks to find the answer for why peoples’ life has negatively changed within the megacity, and how can we bring it back through the design of the skyscraper. The final solution does not need to be a big move, but could be small elements acting as magnets to attract people and re-activate the relationship between users. These elements should adapt to the demands of life as it changes over time, resisting fixed functions, and serving as a stage where the performer defines how the void space can be used.

In this research, the first step is to explore human life in traditional skyscraper in order to understand the negative influence the high-rise

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creates. Furthermore, it will focus on the negotiation and the renegotiation of emerging programmatic definitions, the transitions between public space and private domain, and how this change can bring different experiences to user. Furthermore, research shows that different megacities around the world have different effects on human behavior based off their region and culture, which is why it is important to consider regionalization when designing the skyscraper.

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HP Coca-Cola Production Line Fig. 4

2

THE CITY ON THE FACTORY LINE

• THE MEGA-LEGO-CITY • MACHINE IS NOT FOR HUMAN • CONCLUSION

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Photograph of Tokyo From the Observatory Deck of Tokyo Sky Tree

by ISSEI KATO Fig. 5

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THE MEGA-LEGO-CITY The Evolution of A Megacity

A megacity, according to Cambridge Dictionaries, is a large-scale city, which is based off the size of the population. A city with more than 10 million people living in it is considered a megacity. There are so many causes of the rise of a Megacity such as war, politics, economy, and technological development. However, these reasons all point to one brutal reason: the growing population.

In 1800, the world population was 1000 million, and only 30 million people lived in cities. In less than a century, this number increased by 816 million, which by that time, the world population only increased by 800 million. At the end of the 1950s, there were 83 cities recognized as a megacity (the standard megacity population was 8 million, but now has changed to 10 million). The megacity, started in the Western hemisphere, but has achieved prosperity in the Eastern hemisphere. Based on the world population data, there are seven megacities located in Asia and based on the United Nations population growth projections, by 2025, there will be seven more Asian cities that will join the megacity list, and at the end the 2030s, three more will be added.

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What is Mega-Lego-City

The primary cause of a megacity is the explosion of population. More megacities mean more citizens and less land. Where is the activity space for human interaction going? It will happen within buildings, especially the skyscraper, which will occupy most of the land within megacities. In the 1860s, this tall iron skeletal monster began construction (Sundstrom, 1986). William Le Baron Jenney constructed a ten-story building in Chicago in 1885 (Yeung, 1977).

Home Insurance Building Construction Site Home Insurance Building Fig. 6 Designed by Louis Sullivan Fig. 7

“It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law.�

-- Louis Sullivan (Sullivan, 1896)

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Isometric Map of Manhattan made from Legos Fig. 8

In 1896, an idea of functionalism architecture came up. The father of Skyscraper, Louis Sullivan, brought up “form ever follows function”. The design of building characteristics should be driven by the function of building.

In his typology of high-rise office building, he divided the building into 3 components. The first component is that the lobby has the same function as 2nd floor. The second component is that the above floors are offices. The last component is the top floor, which is the mechanical level.

Mega-Lego-City, is the combination of a Megacity and the famous toy, Lego. This Chicago School Style, is also as known as Commercial style, which expresses the purest admiration for power, wealth, and politics. It influenced the future design of the skyscraper, and ignored the most essential demands of a human being, which is the diversity of life. “Where form comes from I

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Can you tell which city is it? In which country?

Fig. 9

don’t know, but it has nothing at all to do with the functional or sociological aspects of our architecture” says Philip Johnson (2008). Functionalism turns a Megacity to a running machine, or even the playground for kids playing with Lego. This architecture typology treats a building like an object that is assembled from Lego parts - you can get it from any store and assemble them arbitrarily in any corner of the world without consideration of human will, culture, and region. It only serves the functions of the building, and cannot serve the function of architecture itself, which provides needs of human emotion. The best response to a Mega-Lego-City come from Peter Eisenman, “I don’t do function” (wiki). Or more gently, “The Soulless Modern City” by Yansong Ma (Ma, 2015).

Examples of Mega-Lego-City

Mega-Lego-Cities are emerging mostly in developing countries, no matter its economy. Take China for example – during the Chinese reform and opening up policy since 1978, hundreds of millions of migrants have moved into cities leaving the countryside. They are speeding up the urbanization process of China, which over-speeds the process that causes the ignorance of cities to nature, history, and culture. In this past 37 years, China took a large number of references from the urban planning of western plain cities such as Chicago and New York. The process of construction causes architecture to divorce from realities needs. Cities in China became supermarkets, in which the city is the shelf, and buildings are its products. It doesn’t matter if the building looks lavish, they are all same, serving as objects waiting to be bought, and they can easily be replaced. Cities are being duplicated, which means they start to mimic one another. Decades from now, when people roam throughout the Chinese streets, will they still recognize which they’re in? It is a purest admiration to height, power, and capitalism, which reduces architecture to nothing more than a monument.

“In the end, however, a city is more than just an organism, just as a human being is not merely bones, and flesh, and physiological functions. Like

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each human, each city has its own spirit. Technology can only solve certain material problems; it cannot resolve issues affecting the spirit of a city, nor can it resolve humanity’s crisis of feeling. Our modern cities lack an inner spirituality; or rather, they lack a soul� (Ma, 2015).

So, what is the role of the skyscraper in the megacity?

MACHINE IS NOT FOR HUMAN High-Rise Changes Things, Good or Bad? Good and bad are subjective states of the human being. To answer the question, which is good or bad, we need to follow our hearts, we need to follow the inner voice from our mind, and the best answer could be found at the original human behavior of building a city.

Hundreds of years ago, the most important thing about building a city is its location. The forming of a city is a big a step in the history of human civilization. A proper selection of location is the foundation of everything.

It has to consider politics, defense, economy, and sociology. But, no matter what the reason is, the common point is nature. As early as the Neolithic age, people already had some basic knowledge of this selection process.

Most cities are located on an elevated terrace alongside a river or ocean, near a mountain and by the river, or where leeward but facing the sunlight.

The earliest site selections were all located by water, which is of course, an important resource. However, the waterside is also a place that could provide a beautiful environment. A green space can be considered a beautiful environment because it lowers stress through the interaction between

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The diagram represents the site selection of major cities of Sumer Civilization. Older cities located nearby either Tigris River or Euphrates River, after cities located at the plain that with rich resources. This diagram points out that how human defineds the comfortable environment by human nature and human needs.

Fig. 10 humans and nature. A functionalist space will not meet the requirements of the communication between human and nature on a spiritual level. environment. What is a beautiful environment? Green space, lower stress, interaction between human and nature, and so on. Essentially, it is talking about the harmony between human, and nature. A functionalist space will not meet the requirements of the communication between human and nature on a spiritual level.

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Western People Living in Siheyuan, Beijing Fig. 11

A Harmonious Neighbor Relationship in Siheyuan, Beijing Fig. 12

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Multiple Familes Share One Public Space in Traditional Chinese Courtyard, Siheyuan Fig. 13

The Effcts on High Rise to Human Relationship

If you ever lived in a Megacity, could you grab a pen and write down some of your neighbor’s names?

The truth is most people have no idea who they live with. There is an interesting example from Beijing, China. Siheyuan, which is known as Traditional Chinese Courtyard, appeared at 3000 years ago in the Zhou dynasty. It is a typical residential living space for Chinese people. People who are rich or have power have their own Siheyuan with their families and relatives, but lower class people have to share one Siheyuan with other

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families. This research will not talk about something that happened in 3000 years ago, not just because human behavior changes along with the time, but also because there are a lot Siheyuan in Beijing playing the role of housing for mid-lower class people right now. People who still live in Siheyuan with others show that they have a better relationship with each other than people who live in high-rise residential buildings. After dinner, people would like to come to the courtyard to talk about anything from sports to politics. When they cook, and find out that they’re out of salt, all they need to do is yell out, “Could anyone bring me some?” Normally you do not see any neighbor refuse it. If a single mother has to go to work, she can trust her neighbor to take care of her child. They live together like a family, even though they are not related. Could this happen in a high-rise building? When people start to share one public space, like living in Siheyuan, they have more opportunity to build a trusting social relationship among each other. In the meantime, other research might shows why this could not happen in high-rise buildings.

I have experienced many embarrassing moments in the elevator of a high-rise building with my neighbor who lives on the same floor. When we were in the elevator, we nodded to each other, but said nothing, and then stepped back to two corners of the squeezed square space, folding our arms.

The truth is folding one’s two arms is a defense mechanism in psychology.

Even though we know each other, at least I know he is my neighbor.

A. Churchman and Y. Ginsberg did research about the rate of how women (344 samples) know each other in high-rise buildings in Israeli. The reason they chose women is not only to control the possibility of differences of male and female interaction, but also an assumption that, unlike a man, women are likely to have more chance and time at home and are more emotionally affected by the housing conditions. The result of this research shows that 67% of them know someone on their floor, but only 36% know more than 30% of residents in their building (Ginsberg & Churchman, 1985).

Another study from Michelson shows that most people tended to choose friends outside of the building (Michelson, 1997). A healthy friendship is based on many factors, but communication is the most important one, not just on a language level, but also as active interaction. Like a quarrel between two

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kids, no matter how bad the fight was, they could still play together and be very happy becoming friends after 15 minutes. Could adults be like this? The answer is no, because of their self-esteem, or what some people call faceassertion. The material world changes us to be more suspicious, so we refuse to trust strangers.

“These viewed residents viewed their neighbours negatively and “These residents t heir negatively and as dissimilar to the that they were approximate as neighbors dissimilar to themselves, except financial equals.� (Gifford, 2007) -- Robert Gifford

Furthermore, the high-rise building made it worse. As time passes, this causes less interaction, and people believe that keeping the current status is the best solution. But can we blame the people who live in the highrise? No, we cannot because as mentioned before, human social behavior is a natural phenomenon and should not be forced to happen, especially in an uncomfortable environment.

Sample:

344

More Emotionally Affected By The House Conditions More Chance and Time at Home More Sociability

Result:

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Know Someone On Same Floor

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Keow More Than 30% of Residents In Same Building

Churchman & Ginsberg' Research About Neighborhood Relationship Fig. 14

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The Experience of Walking In Manhattan, High Pressure and Squeezed Skylight Fig. 15

The Effcts on High Rise to Human Mental Health

The argument that high-rise buildings contribute mental health issues is never ending in research reports. Many studies shows that the skyscraper causes mental health difficulties, but some even show it in positive results.

Research from Greenberg in 1997 shows that compared to other housing types, those residents who live in a high-rise building have close rates of optimism. Also in other research conducted from Richman, in 1974, results of this comparative experiment about psychology shows that between 25 London families from both high-rises, low-rises, and single-family houses that there were not any great discovery that can prove high-rise buildings impact human mental health (Gifford, 2007).

However, on the other side of coin, there is evidence that points out that high rise building effects human mental health. It may not be directly related, but through the change of surrounding conditions, it is indirectly related. Psychologically, the human mental health system is complex, delicate,

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and sensitive. It is affected by many factors from the environment condition.

It could be light, noise, scale, and density, or even psychological hint. Some research even says that the suicide rate is related to high-rise building because the tall building provides people an easy way out of this world.

In the case of the effects of high-rise buildings to human relationships, most evidences shows that high-rise buildings cause many problems, but in this human mental case, it seems more complex and tricky. The root of this problem is not on the elevation of high-rise building, but on the spatial quality, in other words, the user’s experience of space. “Another reported that slum-dwellers who moved into apartments showed slight improvements in mental health (Wilner, Walkley, Pinkerton & Tayback, 1962). This result may be anomalous because the apartments had an unusual design that included children’s play areas on every floor.” (Gifford, 2007) This is an extract from Robert Gifford’s research used for proving that the high-rise building is not one of the factors for causing human mental health issues. However, the last sentence just proved the argument that came up before: the element. An element that could be plugged into high-rise buildings, allowing for fresh and active interaction, which leaks from human nature, and brings positive effects, in this case, “children’s play areas”.

Imagine you are walking in a narrow hallway in a commercial high-rise building, losing the sense of elevation, not uncommon from the experience of walking in a hallway of a low-rise building. In this case, the only thing still impacting human feeling is the space. Since we are addressing space, we can put the term “high-rise” on the side for a moment.

Johnson Wax Headquarters was built by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939 in Racine, Wisconsin. The word headquarters comes from military system during The Second World War, which stands for a place for the military commander, which has translated into the design of a commercial building. Two floors of high celling, open workspace for lower level staffs, and ring shape semi-open hallway hanging on the wall around of workspace for supervisors to look after staffs. Artificial lights illuminates the work space during the working time, no windows, and the design forces staff to

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Office Space in Time Life Builing Fig. 16

Office Space in Johnson Wax Headquarters Fig. 17

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Office Space in Ogilvy & Mather Headquarters Fig. 18 lose their sense of time, in order to force them to focus on work. People who work in this isolated island are under extreme pressure and can easily develop anxiety psychosis. This building is highly efficient becoming a machine.

Unlike Johnson Wax, Googleplex is totally different. The in-between workspaces provide multiple interesting circulations in both plan and section.

It increases the complexity of circulation, which increases the opportunities to create human interaction. The design encourages people to communicate with each other, opening up conversations and information exchanges, and acting like a lively street. The experience of this space relaxes people and lowers their defenses.

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Diagram of Spatial Relationship in New Method of Interaction Fig. 19

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CONCLUSION

A famous Chinese writer, She Lao, said the beauty of Beijing is in its void space. The void contains trees, birds, and life. This is a beautiful life rather than having magnificent buildings. Today when we talk about protecting historical towns, it is more likely to protect its business value, rather than to protect the traditional lifestyle such as the neighborhood relationship.

With current skyscrapers, the focal point is on the function and response to economic interests. The entire steel box full is filled with functional programs with a circulation that exists to serves those programs. But, human interaction always happens in these beautiful void, un-functional spaces. It is not talking about the building form, or given characteristics, but talking about that how a design can respect human life, their feelings, and most importantly, their spirit.

However, human interaction will not re-active automatically in skyscrapers. A blunt and simple solution, such as plugging in a garden or giving a space people will never use, are not working. Finding a way to deal with these void spaces, should be treated very carefully. Renegotiating the definition between public and private needs be considered - the balance between the interaction and the private is even more critical.

In the end, in all current situations, the high-rise buildings are not an accidental product, but an inevitable product of a megacity. Thus, all these problems created by skyscrapers are not the fault of the skyscraper itself, but the spatial quality inside. Architects need to consider this reality and not take it as an excuse to dismiss it. Furthermore, a megacity needs a new language to define skyscrapers that meet peoples’ material and spiritual needs.

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3

CASE STUDIES

To be chosen as a case study, the precedent had to be one tower or a complex inside a megacity, with services residential, commercial, or both.

The concept of design must be driven by consideration of human life and human activity interaction; it should not be a production of capitalism or a design based on the requirement of economical demand. It could be a conceptual design. Various human activities should happen in the precedent, the precedent should be based on a mixed-use program.

• KOWLOON WALLED CITY • CCTV HEADQUARTERS • FLIP/CITY SHANGHAI

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Analysis of Spatial Relationship and Study the Tenement Houses Example in Kowloon Walled City Fig. 19

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KOWLOON WALLED CITY

Demolished Hong Kong, China 1668 - 1994

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Cross-Section Illustration of Kowloon Walled City by Japanese Researchers in 1993 Fig. 20

The Kowloon Walled City was a large ungoverned settlement in Hong Kong, which was demolished in April 1994. The history of Kowloon Walled City started since the Song Dynasty, as a Song military fort. Hong Kong became a British colony in 1842, when the troop of the Qing Dynasty moved into Kowloon Walled City and expanded it in order to fight against the Victoria City, which was on the other side of the river. The dramatic population explosion occurred from 1941 to 1945. After the end of World War II, Kowloon Walled City became to an ungoverned settlement, and a breeding ground of crime.

In its short 45 years history since the first population explosion, Kowloon Walled City changed from a village into a city. The population reached 33,000 in this 6.9 acre site.

Therefore the population density was equivalent to 3.06 million/sqmi. The population density of the densest city

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Early Kowloon Walled City Fig. 21

Late Period Kowloon Walled City Fig. 22

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Population Density of Kowloon Walled City Compare to American Cities Fig. 23 in the world (Mumbai) is 77,090/sqmi, while New York's density stands at 26,403/sqmi and the density of Manhattan (the densest urban area in teh US) reaches 66,940/sqmi. Due to the population, the limited site, and the situation involving the lack of the law for zoning planning, developers started to build buildings that attached to the existing buildings. In the meantime, this dangerous building method created a complex circulation. This unconventional circulation went through the whole city, both vertically and horizontally. The roof-scape became an icon of Kowloon Walled City, the isolated garden, the children’s playground, and even the circulation. This complex circulation provided users a chance to walk to most corners of Kowloon Walled City without going back to the ground level. This complexity did not affect the familiarity of the path for residents. In actuality, residents could go through the intertwined system, which increased the familiarity in between residents.

Due to the identity of ungoverned settlement and Law Grey Zone, Kowloon Walled City became to the best location for criminals, such as the Triad (the famous local gang), a whorehouse, an illegal casino, and an opium den. However, Kowloon Walled City also had its good side, due to the cheap rental prices and no needs for various taxes. It became an industryintensive city in the early 1960s, and even became the biggest gathering place of dental clinics. People from outside of Kowloon Walled City believe that this was a place that full of diseases, murder, and other dangers, but

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Infographic: Life Inside The Kowloon Walled City

by South China Morning Post Fig. 24

many researches have shown that it was not. From a local interview of past residents who lived in Kowloon Walled City for over 60 years, it was actually peaceful and in good order. Gang members never did dangerous things in the city and sometimes they even became the protector of Walled City. The public security in Kowloon Walled City was as well as the Kowloon district, residents did not need to lock the door while sleeping or going out. The reason was all because people knew each other. They were the guardians of Kowloon Walled City.

“Whenpeople people knew am living in the City, Walled City,ofmythestudy of “When knew I am I living in the Walled my study system of Walled went much invited me came to their homeme came the system ofCity Walled Cityeasier, wentthey much easier, they invited for have a home cup of for soup, have even though before.” they never meet to their a cupthey of never soup,meet evenme though --- Xiangcun Chan, The first map maker of Kowloon Walled City me before.” (Translated by Author)

-- Xiangcun Chan, The first map maker of Kowloon Walled City

Even though Kowloon Walled City was considered the symbol of Sin City, it also provides an inspiration to current architecture design. This architecture accidently redefined the definition of circulation in huge-scale building in megacities, hallway was not a hallway anymore, and it was instead a roof, garden, and street. A residential building was not a residential building anymore; it was a clinic, factory, store, and school. The circulation system and programs in Kowloon Walled City made a huge interlaced fabric in both physical structure and social structure. All these conditions provided residents a chance to know each other and chance in order to build up the trust. Its growth was based on the original demands of humanity without participation of government. In a sense, it was a real democracy, and it was a combination of society, space, economy, balance, and architecture.

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Inner Alley Fig. 25

Kids Playing at the Roof-top Playground Fig. 26

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Inner Courtyard/Plaza Fig. 27

Hospital Space Fig. 28

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The View of CCTV HQ From Street Fig. 29

CCTV HEADQUARTERS

Built Beijing, China 2002 - 2012 OMA

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CCTV HQ Is Showing Its Giant Size In The Urban Context Fig. 30

CCTV HQ Blend Into The Urban Fabric Fig. 31

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The Strong Sense Of Power From Street Fig. 32

A Soft Sense Of Power From Street Fig. 33

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CCTV Headquarters is regarded as the best example for future skyscraper in megacities; it aims to explore the new typology of the skyscraper. Instead of competing to become tallest skyscraper like in traditional towers, the CCTV’s programs strung on one major loop circulation, which provided a three-dimensional public experience.

In a sectional sense, it is a typical program arrangement of commercial building. It seems like nothing could be referenced to future skyscraper design. However, the CCTV Headquarters shows great respect to the spatial experience and human emotion.

CCTV, the national media within the Great Fire Wall, seems to be always standing on the opposite side of cultural freedom. Therefore, the relationship between CCTV Headquarters and the city is more like a drastic collision. The design competition winning entry by Koolhaas reminds society that CCTV does not want to hide in this skyscraper city, but instead create a bizarre scene admits the city’s skyline. The CCTV Headquarters is visible from most areas of Beijing. From different perspectives it presents aspects such as big, small, strong, and soft. Unlike traditional skyscrapers, it reduces the feeling of high pressure to people who are on the street. The creative structure system also shows the public the beauty of structural force on the façade, in which the diagrams of structural stresses are represented, thus showing a higher density of networked structural elements where the stress is higher. With traditional skyscrapers, the vertical circulation is more like a dead end. Users always need return to the ground by the way they came. The loop is an innovative idea as to how the circulation system could work in skyscrapers.

Without this bended loop concept, the building can only be an ultimate height glass monster in order to contain nearly 473,000 sq m programs. The height of skyscrapers will only make people walking on the streets, feel extremely uncomfortable.

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Program Diagram Of CCTV HQ Fig. 34

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Circulation Diagram Of CCTV HQ Fig. 35

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Structural Facade Diagram Fig. 36

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Axon Site Digram of FLIP/CITY SHANGHAI Fig. 37

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FLIP/CITY SHANGHAI

Unbuild Shanghai, China 2012 PinkCloud. DK

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Concept Diagram Fig. 38

“What happens if you rethink a city by flipping it from the horizontal to the vertical?”

-- PinkCloud. DK

Megacities are facing rapid population growth, heavy pollution, and limited land. To deal with these situations, PinkCloud proposes a new idea of future skyscraper design in Shanghai, which is called FLIP/CITY.

In the current megacity, the center of the city become a financial center and gradually warped by residential buildings. This urban development requires more infrastructures in order to connect the long distance between working and living. However, those functional residential buildings lose the intimacy of human scale, they are forcing people to live and work in an unhealthy environment which lack social and physical connections.

The concept of FLIP/CITY is the literal flipping of the horizontal district, vertically. However, “literal” does not induce simplicity. Six modular typologies came from the section of six typical urban architectural typologies, therefore, this FLIP/CITY skyscraper contains different programs, such as residential area, commercial space, educational space, cultural space, and infrastructure. It allows all the daily functions within a walking distance, and the original urban dead space to be flipped vertically. The sectional void space becomes a space for equipment, meeting, and infrastructure. At the same time, it increases the density of urban green zone. In the micro scale, it

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Concept Diagram Fig. 39

Concept Diagram Fig. 40 provides a chance for people to see this interesting and complex construction on the street, instead of in a huge unfriendly concrete or glass wall in front of people. This method could apply to any megacity, which has numerous urban dead spaces, which can be seen in Barcelona. Barcelona is a wellplanned city based on hundred years old urban planning method. This is a city

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Rendering Fig. 41 that has many pocket spaces wrapped by buildings. However, most of those spaces are not occupied by public activities due to the need for authorization to get in. It would be another story after those dead spaces were flipped.

The FLIP/CITY is more focused on void space rather than solid space.

The idea is how to use the urban void space after being flipped. It provides four solutions of sustainable development for a megacity.

In the social sustainability, it reconnects programs in a threedimensional way. The connection is not just for circulation, but also a meeting area, and garden. It reconnects people both visually and physically, and it provides a chance for people meet each other, which will potentially build trust.

In the economic sense, different programs are plugged into the skyscraper. It brings a complex life-style instead of the inanimate life in the traditional residential building. The skyscraper becomes a city hub where more human activities happen in this limited land, which creates more economic benefit.

In ecological sustainability, the intricate modular organization provides

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space for the collection of rainwater, wind energy source, and solar energy on different levels of the building. This interesting program arrangement also provides a better solution to deal with different needs of sunlight, which also saves the use of energy.

In the final solution FLIP/CITY respects the historical urban texture vertically rather than horizontally. It provides a chance to keep this heritage, which people could see it on the street level, and not just on the plan view.

Diagram Of Human Scale Elements Fig. 42

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Concept Diagram Fig. 43

Concept Diagram Fig. 44

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Concept Diagram Fig. 45

Concept Diagram Fig. 46

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4

RESEARCH SUMMARY

The design of the skyscraper is an unavoidable complicated problem due to the high population and limited land in current megacities. For Skyscraper to become a friendly urban object in both physical and psychological terms, the improvement has to aim at different aspects. The driving force of future skyscraper design should be able to respond to the healthy sustainable development of megacities, rather than be a human container.

In order to respond to the healthy sustainable development of society, the role of skyscraper should be redefined. The skyscraper itself should be an ecosystem, but not an automatic running community, which isolates people within the city. An ecosystem as a city hub that should reactive its surrounding site, and the human interaction. It is all about the design of left over space that connects solid programs. The left over space is acting like an urban stage, waiting for the occupation of users.

In order to achieve the goal, the skyscraper should contain various programs from different fields, such as living, working, and play. This successful ecosystem will stimulates the interaction between users, and creates a healthy idea of community. As the past resident of the Kowloon Walled City says, “People will not be afraid of a space that they are familiar with.”

Architecturally, the skyscraper’s elements need to be redefined, which

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means the edge of roof, stair, wall, and floor should be blurred in order to create an interesting spatial quality. Like the Kowloon Walled City, roof could be roof, floor, garden, and path. The new circulation system should be created both vertically and horizontally. This new complex circulation system provides people a chance to freely walk through the skyscraper. Through this circulation system, people can create their own path, which increases the chance for them to meet different people every day during their exciting exploration of this system. As Heraclitus said, “Man cannot step in the same river twice.� The energy flow is changing in the future skyscraper, and every day is different to users.

In the end, the design of the future skyscraper should focus more on the section rather than the plan. Unlike the traditional design of skyscraper, focus on the section has a potential to provide an interesting spatial quality not just to interior but also to the exterior of the building. This method reduces the sense of pressure to the street level, and also brings an unexpected perspective views to different corners of the megacity.

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A Typical Rich, Complex, Beautiful and Active Street Life in Old District, Hong Kong Photo took by Rizal Ismail Fig. 47

5

PROJECT FRAMEWORK

towards to the urban STREETscraper

• PROJECT SITE • PROJECT RATIONALE • DESIGN OBJECTIVES • DESIGN PROGRAM

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PROJECT SITE Facts of Hong Kong • • • • • • • •

Location: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China City Population: 7,234,800 Land: 426 sq mi Geography: Hilly Altitude/Elevation: 40m (132 ft) Climate: Monsoon-Influenced Humid Subtropical Climate Average High Temp: 30° C Average Low Temp: 20° C

Hong Kong, is one of the most important cities in the world in many aspects. Its unique political background made it the first open “port” of China, in the past 20 years, instead of an “entry” of China, it became a diversified city that has creates a beautiful combination of an economic center, tourist attraction, and shopping district.

However behind the prosperity, Hong Kong is facing progressively social problems. Various pollutions, high stress, high criminal rate, population aging, and gap of wealth are common problems among megacities caused by economic globalization and modernization. It is exploiting the population.

There are 7, 234, 800 people living on this 426 sq mi land, which the population density is 17,024/sq mi. As comparison, the population density of NYC is 27, 016/sq mi. But based on the World Culture Report, NYC only has 19.7% un-urban space (green space or undeveloped area), Hong Kong has more than 75% un-urban space. In the other words, the population density of Hong Kong is approximately 68, 252/sq mi.

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Great NYC Area Population: 8,405,837 Land Area: 305 sq mi Poplulation Density: 27,016/sq mi Urban Area: 216.55 sq mi

Hong Kong Population: 7,234,800 Land Area: 426 sq mi Poplulation Density: 17,024/sq mi Urban Area: 106 sq mi True Population density: 68,252/sq mi

Fig. 48

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Location of Hong Kong Fig. 49

Location of Site in Hong Kong Fig. 50

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History, Development, and Condition of Site

Due to the problem that Hong Kong’s nature land is hilly and undevelopable, Hong Kong went through many times land reclamation movements in the past hundred years. Till Mar 2013, the land reclamation created nearly 26 sq mi lands. Currently, there are 1,953,396 people living on those artificial lands, and 70% commercial activities of Hong Kong are happening on them. Lands from the land reclamation are playing a significant role in Hong Kong on many aspects, but also play the role of the troublemaker to the society.

The site of this thesis project is located at one of two busiest areas of Hong Kong, on a land created from the 1990 Meifu land reclamation, which called Yau Tsim Mong district, Kowloon Peninsula. Yau Tsim Mong district is the birth place of skyscrapers such as the tallest building in Hong Kong: ICC, which rented out to private companies, banks, high-end residential buildings, luxury stores, and hotels. Compared to another busy area of Hong Kong, the

Illustration of Hong Kong Land Reclamation Fig. 51

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Coastline Original Coastline in 1842-1856 Fig. 52

Coastline Land Of The Site Is From Meifu Land Reclamation in 1990 Fig. 53

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Central, has a richer urban activated environment and urban context, but it still shows the lack of respect to architecture and human emotion in the individual building. Like most Asian cities, the urban planning is more oriented by mixed use, and unlike NYC, they have regulation zoning signs for different functions in different areas. However, the language of skyscraper itself is mostly imported from American cities after 1950. In the thesis background, researchers show the problem of skyscraper is not only due to the lack of land, but more due to the functions it serves. Obviously, there is no reason to critic the design of the skyscraper as an affordable use in reality, yet, the disrespect of architecture and human spirit should not be ignored during the design of these high-rises, especially in significant city centers.

The famous Taiwanese architect Kris Yao argued that the reason behind why most wealthy people spent large amounts of money for luxury goods is because they want to experience the difference - the difference that most people could not have, but they do not realize that they are having the same spatial and living experience like most people. The only difference is the size and quality, but nothing fulfilling in a spiritual sense.

Perhaps it sounds like the perspective of capitalism and class distinction, but it points out the argument that a city should be diversified through its celebration of the beauty of architecture, beauty of the cityscape, and the beauty of the human spiritual experience through the design of its buildings, instead of worshipping heights, flashy shapes, and high-tech building skins.

“Human emotions has been absent in modern architecture, as has the relationship between architecture and nature. The ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ architecture we see is still based on this modern logic – they are the same buildings, with the same kind of space, based on technology and materials.”

Yansong Ma pointed his perspective about the modern architecture in the RIBAJ interview. Obviously, the ICC tower, which on the north part of the site, certified as HK-BEAM Platinum certification, does not take the responsibility.

However, the current West Kowloon Cultural District has a chance to change this situation by providing a void space for everyone living in Hong Kong to use. And luckily, the Hong Kong government has taken notice and is going to change it, by providing a new city plan strategy, called New Planning of West Kowloon Cultural District.

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“Our vision is to build a vibrant cultural quarter for Hong Kong, dedicated to bringing local and international artist together with audiences to be inspired by and to celebrate the arts”

– WKCDA

Based on Foster’s winning master plan (Edited by Author), it will have several stages for development. For stage one, from west to east of the site, it will contain various programs, which are under construction (Fig. 54):

West Kowloon Park, a new waterfront park introducing the forest to the heart of Hong Kong with rich variety of vegetation as open lawn spaces for leisure and relaxation for the public.

Designed by Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers Ltd, West 8, and ACLA

Existing West Kowloon Waterfront promenade, a unique quiet haven within busy city heart for outdoor playing, cycling, and sporting.

M+ Museum, this 60,000 m2 will become an icon of modern for future Hong Kong and even world. Designed by Herzog & de Planning to be completed in 2019.

M+ Pavilion - a small exhibition and event space for artists, designers, and organizations. Designed

by VPANG architects, JET Architecture, and Lisa Cheung.

Planning to be completed in 2016.

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museum museum for the Meuron.

Potential Site

The Future of The Site

The West Kowloon Cultural District is an important strategic investment initially launched by Hong Kong government at 1998, and is also the future’s largest mixed cultural complex in the world designed by Foster + Partners in 2009. It aims at become the world-class cultural district that provides the long-tern development needs of arts and culture. In the future, this site will be a destination for local people and visitors and will also become an icon for new lifestyle.

Xiqu Center, A world-class theatre for Chinese Opera performances, production, education, and research.

Designed by Bing Thom Architects and Ronald Lu & Partners in March 2012.

Lyric Theatre Complex, comprising different sized theatres, from 250 to 1,450 seats, and also providing a home for dance companies and artists.

Consultancy services are provided

by UNStudio and AD + RG.

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RATIONALE

As a thesis that seeks the possibility for the future design of skyscrapers for megacity, it should not be completely iconized, but should respect the existing site condition. Since the concept of West Kowloon Cultural District and the thesis share the same goals, the adaption of Foster’s master plan is quite suitable. However, Foster’s concept is mainly focused on bringing the rich activities into the macro scale (urban) and slightly touching the micro scale (building); it shows the lack of representation that could be demonstrated at a different and better human experience, vertically. Furthermore, an ideal living and working experience does not only have to provide people with natural environments, programs and technologies, but also must analyze the local climate, culture and history.

The final design should be demonstrated at 3 layers from macro to micro. The first layer is about the respect of Hong Kong’s rich and complex urban context, culture and history. Due to the unique history of Hong Kong, even through Hong Kong as a highly globalized city, it still has a strong regional culture attribute. The project should not be another imported good from western society, but should carefully consider the surrounding environment.

The next layer is about to create a three-dimensional skyscraper, not only horizontally but vertically as well. The Yau Tsim Mong district has a rich, complex and chaotic street life – the street is not a continuation but a fragmented strip divided by different programs and functions. This architectural language should happen in the final design as a street system inspired by Kowloon Walled City that circulates in the entire building on both elevation and plan in order to celebrate street life.

The final layer moves down to the human scale; it aims to provide a

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better experience of spatial quality not only for people inside or near by the building, but also for people who can see the building from different areas of Hong Kong. At this level, many aspects such as the natural lighting, natural ventilation, building orientation, view, and material selection should all be considered. Like CCTV’s headquarter, even though it is massive and can be seen from most corners of Beijing, people from different areas have different feeling: sometimes big and sometimes small; sometimes strong, sometimes soft. Instead of a giant glass wall, the design should be inspired by the Flip/City, which has more consideration about architectural elements at the human scale in order to eliminate the high pressure that can be produced when people walk next to the traditional skyscraper.

Finally, the project seeks to create a “new” lifestyle that existed before the skyscraper; it should be an environment encouraging people to build connections and trust; a space creating various experiences without any instruction from architect; a place providing the mental healing experience as a remedy to the high stress brought upon by the city.

Diagram Shows Different Layer and Scale in The City Fig. 55

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DESIGN OBJECTIVES

The project is to design a mixed-use skyscraper in the West Kowloon Cultural District that will accommodate the vision of Foster’s winning master planning. While its function serves commercial, residential and cultural elements, the emphasis remains on creating a healthy ecosystem, not just for people who occupy the building, but also for the building’s surroundings.

Programs within residential and commercial buildings have less freedom than in cultural buildings, due to their limiting function. Therefore, the challenge is to find which appropriate element could plug into the project.

Rather than designing a room layout, the design of this key element is more important. In other words, this thesis is about designing a residential building, but nothing to do with rooms; it is about designing a commercial building, but nothing to do with office space; it is all about how to design the public space in between those individual programs.

The idea is to break the traditional impression of circulation space by blurring the edges between “public space” and “circulation space” by creating various prototypes of circulation - circulation is program, program is circulation; circulation does not solely to take people up and down anymore, but will provide a “pause” in the building, such as eating, relaxing, waiting, reading, talking, playing, watching, etc; it should be inspired by Lynch’s Five Elements from The Image of the City, where the design should treat the circulation as a streetscape where every turn and node is meaningful.

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The Diagram Of BIG's Brooklyn Bridge Park Viewing Platform Shows Various Abilities Of One Element Fig. 56

The Section Diagram Of The Winning Project Of AIA Student Competition Shows Various Abilities That The So Called Circulation System Could Have Fig. 57

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DESIGN PROGRAM

Residential Space

Sq.Ft

#

Sq.Ft

Micro Units for Artist

1 Bedroom

2 Bedroom

3 Bedroom

Recreation (Indoor) Lobby/Mail

Bike Parking

Bike Storage Mechanical Circulation

325 650 850 1,000

*150 *80 *60 *20

48,750 52,000 51,000 20,000 2,500 1,500 1,500 400 7,148 17,870 202,668

Street Market

Asdas

Permanent Stalls

Flexible Stalls

Eating Area Restrooms Administration

15,000 15,000 5,000 400 500 35,900

Commercial Space

asd

Office Space Retail Space

100,000 50,000

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Cultural Complex

Sq.Ft

#

Theater

Educational Facility

Urban Stage

Sq.Ft 60,000 30,000 10,000

Total

A S 15%

KEY ELEMENT

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488,568 73,285

6

END NOTES Sundstrom, E. (1986). Workplaces: The psychology of the physical environment

in offices and factories. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Yeung, Y. (1977). High-rise, high-density housing: Myths and reality. Habitat

International, 2, 587-594.

Louis H, Sullivan. (1896). The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered. P.

403 -409.

Andrew, Hollingsworth, Danish Modern, 2008, Gibbs Smith, p.31.

Ma, Yansong. (2015). Shanshui City. Lars Muller Publishers, p. 21.

Ma, Yansong. (2015). Shanshui City. Lars Muller Publishers, p. 24.

Ginsberg, Y., & Churchman, A. (1985). The pattern and meaning of neighbor

relations in high-rise housing in Israel. Human Ecology, 13, p. 467

– 484.

Gifford, Robert. (2006). High-Rise Housing and Social Relations. The

Consequences of Living in High-Rise Buildings. p. 9 Gifford, Robert. (2006). Strain, Crowding and Mental Health in High-Rises

versus Other Types of Housing. The Consequences of Living in High-

Rise Buildings. p. 6

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ole-scheeren-rem-koolhaas-rohbau.jpg Fig 31 https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/9 /17/1410970274373/149bc059-3e6b-4bd1-9326-45c4c1877700-2060x1374.jpeg?w =1200&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=e038b182732f3d190085d9a737cf8d30 Fig 32 http://img.archilovers.com/projects/090759b4-56a7-4ae0-812728edfe5fccf6.jpg Fig 33 http://img.archilovers.com/projects/993d3391-8e20-413e-aea425ec608d9f6d.jpg Fig 34 https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/75/1f/d7/751fd7ba318191d73 48a3e9519a79263.jpg Fig 35 http://www.buildernews.in.th/images/detail/0b459d64.jpg Fig 36 http://design.epfl.ch/piraeus/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/cctv_ drawing.jpg Fig 37-46 http://pinkcloud.dk/work/05/flipcity-shanghai Fig 47 https://www.flickr.com/photos/rizaru/9249583344/in/set72157634531686658 Fig 48-50 Produced by Author Fig 51 http://www.oldhkphoto.com/coast/ Fig 52-53 produced by Author Fig 54 http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/west-kowloon-culturaldistrict/ Fig 55 produced by Author Fig 56 http://www.big.dk/#projects-bbp Fig 57 Produced by Author

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HSA