An Urban Society

Catarina Rodrigues, Portugal

main entrance area stay places pedestrian connection street connection

Existi ng water Existi ng green

Existi ng connecti ons Existi ng infrasctructure

‘An Urban Society’ symbolizes moments of change empowered by social connectivity thriving values of harmony and belonging with one another by creating a grid structure for public space in the site, suddently it promotes a utopia of urban resilience and connectivity.

The chinese landscape of tranquility and harmony with nature, refl ects the idea of a becoming smartcity solution model that emphasizes the balance of architecture and the surrounding environment. The social connectivity thrives even more when there are human values related with the infrastructure of the city and the urban life between building, which creates the sense of place.

My vision is redirect the principle of architecture connectivity into the site where the public space is key to make the connections with the surroundings and the main points of social interactions between people and buildings. Jan Gehl writes in ‘Life between buildings’, that ‘people come where people are’ and how its absense degrades urban life and contributes to lifeless cities and worse conditions of public space and public life. Creating the public space in Dujiangyan brings the sense of permeability in which adjusts a physical environment that affects social processes and the sense of belonging. Developing layers of sustainability with urban connectivity can contribute to a eco-friendly atmosphere that brings all the community together.

The concept is to create different connections to improve the city life experience and revitalize the missing liveliness of the urban context.

‘The Urban Society’: Inspired by Jan Gehl’s book ‘Life between buildings’, is focus on connections both physical and social of the daily life of Dujiangyan. This typical chinese city is developing in major scale on the context of urbanization and the using of the public space. The urban living society is integrated inside the city generating public spaces as meeting points which are connected with each other, cultivating social bonds.