Subdivision+Disassembling - micro-living system design for Kyoto Studio work, 2012-2013 Fall Semester Instructor: Toshiko Mori Site: Kyoto, Japan Solo work
In the perspective of urbanism and architecture, the concept of disassembling is different from the counterpart for sculpture, furniture or industrial products of which the disassembled parts are more unique and distinctive. The city or a building is dominantly controlled by the continuous spatial logic as a whole and the disassembled components would share more identical rational or form in a repetitive way. In this case, before the discussion about disassembling, another important concept – subdivision – is unavoidable. It is crucial to get the way about how to disassemble a city or building both physically and logically.
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Subdivision makes it possible to disassemble an urban fabric or architectural objects because it visualizes the logical relationship between the whole and the individual component and makes the individuality clearly visible. The subdivision emphasizes more on the continuity between the subdivided components and the collective integrity as a bigger picture. It is the foundation to make the further step to disassemble according to the existing logic of subdivision. However, disassembling is more alike a reverse process which intends to get rid of the whole picture and focuses more on the individualities. Even though every single disassembled component is still able to conjure the integrative whole, it amplifies more about the possibilities to hold distinctive and discontinuous characteristics hidden or wrapped behind the identical logic. The contents in each disassembled component are independent with unique personalities. From this point, the relationship between subdivision and disassembly is a very powerful media to talk about the urban discourse which can be understood as the horizontal seriality of dissimilar components organized by similar spatial logic.
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Subdivided City
Kyoto is a good example to discuss about the city of subdivision and disassembling. It is a city with a simple logic to subdivide a rectangular land into more smaller gridded blocks. Furthermore, one block (Cho in Japanese) continues to be divided with a regular grid order into different parcels with different size and scale. These subdivided Chos share the simple and similar planning order with identical rectangular boundaries while at the same time contain diverse and different architectural elements which create distinctive personalities for different Chos. According to this logic of subdivision, the whole city can be disassembled to a huge set of colorful portraits of Chos. Within the boundary of each Cho, this subdivision-disassembling process can be continued in a further step to parcelize each block and even apply it into the design of a typical residential building.
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町 Cho 4
Blocks in Heiankyo
Parcelization of Kyoto in 1890
Study of a typical Kyoto block
Parcelization of Kyoto in 2010
Subdividing System 5
The co-existence of the urban continuity and diversity is realized through the historical accumulation. The modern Kyoto is developed based on the ancient urban planning of Heian-kyo which is borrowed from the paradigm of Chang-an in China. The simple and infinity grids system has been changed and subdivided into smaller scales as the population and density of Kyoto increases. Then through the process of modernization, many small scaled buildings have been replaced by large modern constructions which form the urban diversity together with the existing traditional structures.
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The final project is composed of 13 small houses with 44 single rooms. There are two types of houses and both types have the shared function space with restroom, kitchen and laudry. One smal house can be used by a family or shared with 3 or 4 young single people who spend most of the time in urban public spaces.
Rooms 7
This urban subdivision can be continued applying for the design of a typical residential building in one parcel. Considering about the high density of Kyoto City and the large demand of young people for more affordable houses, I intend to design a micro-living system with small living rooms. That will be a dense and compact project. The design thinking comes from the section to subdivide a traditional house further into more smaller and similar micro houses and rooms.
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Disassembling
The new micro-living system designed according to the similar logic of urban subdivision can be disassembled totally to show the individuality of each living unit. The disconnection between different units in this drawing conjures the hidden relationship between them as the integrity. At the same time, each unit with unique personality of the tenant makes itself as an independent small world with potential possibility to generate infinite diversity in the social dimension.
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Urban Facilities to the Building
The inner space of one micro house continues the spatial logic of subdivision. Using natural materials such wood, paper and mud, the interior design follows the modules of traditional scale of Tatami and Kyoto wall. The inside space is built totally with natural materials while the outer skin is built with concrete wall and steel columns to support the whole building and provide it with infrastructure. The size and portion of Kyoto wall and Tatami control the design of the single room and the organization as a micro house. It is a crowded and dense space with a warm and comfortable environment.
Interior Modules
Integrating the two thinking processes about subdivision and disassembling provides people with a new method to read the classical relationship between city and architecture. Also, it is helpful to understand the compositional logic in architectural approaches between the basic elements and the integrative whole. The subdivision thinking is more alike top-down process to assist people read clearly of the cells and capillary system of the whole body, while in the meantime the disassembling thinking starts from the singularity of each cell with independent characteristics and transforms the body to a disconnected but more diverse one with absolutely fresh inspiration. To keep a balance between the thinking of subdivision and disassembling can not only make sure of a continuous design control, but also enrich the potential possibilities to generate diverse and distinctive small stories based on disassembled individualities.
Interior Modules 11
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Rooms 13
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Small Stories
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Tianci Han Tel: +1 734 834 4252 E-mail: jeeps830@gmail.com Education Background: 09/2012-05/2014 Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA • Program of MArch II 09/2006-07/2012 School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R.China • Master of Architecture • Bachelor of Architecture
Subdivision 17
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