Design Site

The Design Site

The approximately 65 hectares design site is located in the center of the city of Dujiangyan close to the old city center and is framed by the Puyanghe river in the north, by the Baitiao river to the south and by the 1st Ring road to the east. It is in walking distance from the high-speed train station in the South - West of the site.

Due to its location, the municipality of Dujiangyan has an ambitious plan to develop the design site into a sub-CBD district in a close future. The existing urban structure is already being removed, making space for traffi c-dominated street network, generic high-rise development and enormous public spaces with no connection to the Chinese traditions. The implementation of such aggressive developments often require insensitive relocation of the existing residents into the new structures, which leads to the loss of connection to the land, loss of community ties and segregation.

THE DESIGN SITE

The Urban Village

The existing urban fabric on the site has a very contrasting mix of formal residential blocks and a bare land - remains from the informal housing, the so-called “urban villages” or “village-in-the-city” (Chengzhongcun). As a common part of the Chinese urban landscape, they are considered the only affordable and adequate solution available to the urban poor based on labour-intensive sectors, such as Chengdu: low-cost living makes it possible to keep the wages of employees low, and therefore benefi ts the global competitiveness of the city. With the relocation of industries and services from Beijing to the west (“Go West” policy), the number of urban poor is set to increase in Chengdu (and Dujiangyan due to the high-speed train connection) as well as the demand for cheap housing. Since the government does not provide social housing, the role of urban villages within the market is crucial.

The students had to envision how these trends can be sensitively tackled in their semestral projects and turned into a positive challenge when designing the site. Keeping in mind the ongoing urbanization and migration of population towards the provinces’ capital cities and cities linked to them, they had to holistically address these issues in their projects and sharpen the arguments for their design decisions.

The Design Site

In addition to the country-province-region-county (Peoples Republic of China-Sichuan ProvinceChengdu Region-Dujuangyan county) study, the groups had to analyze the spacial characteristic of the design site itself in relation to the on-going regional planning discussions. The brief asked to carefully investigate the site’s urban tissue and local context to highlight potential opportunities and constraints. The site’s architecture typologies, public space, and landscape characteristics had to be studied thoroughly in order for the groups to conduct conclusions and opinions for the potential transformation. The students investigated the physical dimensions of the site through study sections, scale comparisons, analysis of the public street-scape, density, cultural uses and green infrastructure.

The second phase of the project was both an analytical and a strategical design exercise. Each student had to conduct additional studies and dig further into the essence of the design site, testing strategies, documenting interests. Besides, each student had to develop a ‘Concept Sketch’ - a visual summary of both his/her own interest, speculation and future vision as well as any important questions that were to be tested during the workshop.

STREET SECTIONS - GROUP 6