THREE IN ONE Shikumen renovation project for a three-generation family Shanghai China
Tracy Xianying Yao
CONTENT
Part 1 Research
Page 4 -11
Part 2 Site
Page 12 - 20
Part 3 Concept
Page 21 - 22
Part 4 Development
Page 23 - 28
Part 5 Final proposal
Page 29 -50
INTRODUCTION
The project is about designing a residential space for a three-generation family. The aim is about the combination of new and old materials and the use of modern interior language to express traditional Shikumen elements. People of different ages have different needs for space. Privacy and openness will be taken into account in this project. More flexibility will also be brought into this traditional and cultural residential space. The project proposes to redevelop Cite Bourgogne , based on the protection and the idea of bring more flexibility to the space, tackles existing problems in a strategic way.
PART 1 RESEARCH
PROJECT BACKGROUND Three generations under one roof has always been a traditional family model in Shanghai. China News Agency, Shanghai, September 19th An authoritative survey was announced at the seminar on the theory and practice of “harmonious family” in the Yangtze River Delta held in Shanghai today: In Shanghai, the tradition of generations of grandparents and grandchildren under one roof The happiness index of the extended family is the highest, and more than 80% of the “extended family” surveyed agree with “their family life is harmonious and happy”. Experts said that the survey results show that the traditional “big family” culture still has a prominent influence on Shanghai residents.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF RESIDENTIAL FORMS IN SHANGHAI
THE ORIGIN OF SHIKUMEN
Shanghai is located in the plain, there is no stone, so the early buildings are mainly brick and wood structure, the door is mostly brick and wood door frame. In order to make the facade more luxurious, more solid, shops began to use stone as the door frame, and the door is called “Kumen” in Chinese.
“Shikumen” at the beginning of the building gateOn December 27, 1872, “Shenbao” published an advertisement of “house for rent”. As far as we know, the word “Shikumen” first appeared here. However,here, “Shikumen” does not mean “house,” but means “lane” or “lane entrance”, which is the gate of the lane.
“Shikumen” originally refers a alley or residential building’s door, about to the Qing dynasty, the door of this gate is widely used in Shanghai lilong, as a result, all equipped with such forms of gate house is called “shikumen”, and more “shikumen” alley was called “shikumen alley” or “shikumen lanes.
SHIKUMEN STRUCTURE
Shikumen has three or two floors. Some of them have split-level structure. Pavilion (Tingzijian) refers to a small,dark back room over a kitchen. It usually faces north and is therefore cold in winter and hot in summer. House owners often rented this room out for extra income. During the 1920s and 1930s, many progressive scholars and artists came to Shanghai to seek opportunities, and pavilions was to them a affordable form of accommodation. Shikumen and pavilions are often mentioned in their works, so there is a word called “pavilions literature”.
CURRENT SITUATION
COLLAGE AND CONCLUSION
Shikumen houses were built with a service life of about 30 years. Compared with people’s ages, Shikumen houses in Shanghai are already centenarians. It gave birth to a rich and colorful vulgar custom and local culture, and witnessed a century of vicissitudes in Shanghai modern history.
PART 2 SITE
THE CHOSEN SITE -- CITE BOURGOGNE
THE HISTORY OF CITE BOURGOGNE
SITE LOCATION
Location Jianguo West Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200020 China
The chosen site, Cite Bourgogne, at one of the most densely populated districts in the world. Cite Bourgogne was selected for investigation as one of the few types of old-style shikumen lane housing neighborhoods that are still mainly preserved. On its entrance archway, there is also a French name “Cité Bourgogne”, which can be translated as “Burgundy City”. In 1930, it was invested by French merchants and designed and constructed by China Jianye Real Estate Company.
SITE SURROUNDINGS ANALYSIS
The site is located on the cross of South Shaanxi and Jianguo Middle roads. It can be accessed from these two roads, respectively. The figure below illustrates Cite Bourgogne’s closest means of transportation, public and cultural places, as well as hospitals. Besides, it shows the traveling time required by people from various age groups to reach nearby areas within one kilometer.
SITE SURROUNDINGS ANALYSIS The most amountof light is on the roof andupper floors of shikumen,however, the ground floor suffers from the lack of sunlight. This led to thinking about how best to use the space on the ground floor. Perhaps make the kitchen open is more appropriate. Reducing the use of wall partition can do maximum access to sunlight.
ELEVATION
SITE PHOTOS
Steep staircase and inconvinient circulation
Insufficient lighting
Poor condition
Pipes and wires are exposed; unsafe
Crowded space
Lake of storage
INTERVIEW Interview in Cite Bourgogne 12 people interviewed 8 local Shanghainese 3 migrant Chinese 1 foreigner 1) How satisfied are you with your current life?
2) How do you feel about living in Cite Bourgogne ? ⚫ ⚫ ⚫ ⚫ ⚫
In the past the atmosphere and environment of the area was better The condition of the stairs are extremely bad------Too high to climb up, inconvenient No privacy-----Shared families would like to have more private and individual space People are unhappy with the interior-----------Too small, messy, inconvenient Lacking facilities--------Space for drying clothes, greenery, space for talking
3) The voice of people : “The density is too high, not enough sunshine on the ground foor.” “As Shanghainese people, we do not like to be disturbed.” “I wish we could just move out.” 4) ⚫ ⚫ ⚫ ⚫
What are your needs in terms of environmental needs? Home renovation More daylight Access to nature Gathering space
FUNCTION AND USERS Cite Bourgogne has been used as a residential building since it was built and has undergone a major renovation organized by the government.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BUILDING It is a split-level building. There are three floors plus two mezzanine and a balcony. The space between the mezzanine and the three-story building is often called a patio. The patio runs through the entire space from top to bottom.
PART 3 CONCEPT
CONCEPT DIAGRAM
The project is about designing a flexible residential space for a three-generation family. The aim is about the combination of new and old materials and the use of modern interior language to express traditional Shikumen elements based on protection of the Shikumen. ( for example arc elements extracted from Shikumen. ) More flexibility will also be brought into this traditional and cultural residential space considering of different people’s need. The whole space will be more practical and suitable for residence.
PART 4 DEVELOPMENT
STAGE 1 At that stage, my thinking was still a little messy. And I found some problems in the floor plan and space.
STAGE 2 I hoped people can have interaction and communication in this building. So after trying to arrange the various functional areas, I tried to add a large void area. People can stand on the first floor and see the semi-open kitchen on the ground floor. Actually, I got this idea from a precedent study. However, this idea still needs to be discussed and tested, whether it is necessary to add such a large void area. Additionally, the location of the lift can be tested and questioned.
STAGE 3 Because the traditional Shikumen has an arc-shaped lintel, I extracted the arc element and hope to use them in interior decoration.
STAGE 4
STAGE 5
At this stage, I noticed the position of the kitchen and bathroom in the vertical relationship. I read some precedents, and I also read books about the important points in common residential design . For example, don’t put the bathroom on the kitchen, because it has a disgusting and uncomfortable feeling. So I made new adjustments to the functional area.
Here are the adjustments to the functional area. The location of kitchen and bathrooms are much more reasonable and can work well now. In the section view, the structure on the right is mainly used for the living area, activity area and study room. The structure on the left ( mezzanines)are used as the storage room and public activity area.
STAGE 6 At this stage, I mainly focus on the flexible design. A rotatable partition wall is designed in the living room. It allows the space to be freely switched between open and relatively private. I think the idea of combining the semi-open kitchen and dining area is new and good , which adding modern design ideas and elements to traditional houses. A row of tables by the window can be used as a breakfast table, where people can eat breakfast.
STAGE 7 Combined with the original patio structure of Shikumen, I designed the area which is in the right side of the dinning area and in front of the lift as a small indoor landscape. no matter which floors people stand on, they can see this landscape when they look down.
PART 5 FINAL PROPOSAL
SPATIAL RELATIONSHIP AND FLEXIBLE CHANGES I think that the innovative slide and clothing throwing port I designed strengthened the connection between the spaces and also makes the whole space more interesting. Flexible and changeable designs are mainly concentrated in the dining room, living room, bedroom and study room. In the dining room, I designed a retractable dining table. It can accommodate more people to dine together when needed. In the living room, the TV background wall that can be opened and closed remotely is not only interesting and modern, but can also be flexibly changed according to the scene. The addition of rotatable partitions allows the entire living room to be freely switched between open and private, meeting different needs in different scenarios. The partitions of the bedroom and the study room on the first and second floors bring more possibilities to the whole building.
ATMOSPHERE
AXONOMETRIC DRAWING OF THE GROUND FLOOR
I plan to restore the original walls and reinforce the original stairs. However, on the basis of protection and restoration, new modern elements are also brought into this space. For example, steel balustrade, colorful acrylic storage cabinets and so on.
The first floor has a kitchen, dining room, living room, grandma’s bedroom, bathroom, laundry room and an patio. ( near the stair and in front of the lift)
In addition, I designed a marble table next to the window. People can enjoy the scenery and have breakfast here.
Among them, the kitchen is divided into Chinese kitchen (relatively closed kitchen) and semi-open kitchen. The combination of open kitchen and dining room can allow family members to have more interaction.
PLAN OF THE GROUND FLOOR
RENDERING OF DIFFERENT SCENARIO
A rotatable partition wall is designed in the living room. It allows the space to be freely switched between open and relatively private.
By rotating it, a space connected with the patio, dining room and semi-open kitchen can be obtained, which is very open. The family can play games here, and children can also play freely here. Oppositely, when you wish a relatively private space such as, family cinema or chess room. Then you can turn the partition wall around. At this time, the living room is relatively separated from the dining room and the patio, but they are connected by an invisible door on the partition wall.
Now, it can be ‘a home theater’. A family of six can watch a movie or documentary together in this space after dinner.
After putting down the table board, this area can also be turned into a temporary area for reading newspaper quietly, calligraphy practicing, studying, and working.
MAIN SPACE SECTION
RENDERING OF SEMI-KITCHEN AND DINING AREA
Lift The storage shelf is designed with arc elements derived fromShikumen.
I designed a retractable dining table. It can accommodate more people to dine together when needed. When there are not so many people using the dinning table, the table board can be put away. The patio will have more space for activities.
RENDERING OF SEMI-KITCHEN AND DINING AREA
I make full use of the window view here. The countertop on the side of the window can be used as a breakfast counter. People can watch the scenery outside while having breakfast, of course, they can also read and rest here.
EXPLODED DIAGRAM OF PATIO
With the help of this patio that runs through the entire building, I created a small natural landscape indoors. At the same time, more natural sunlight will enter the interior through this patio structure. More importantly, no matter which floors people stand on, they can see this landscape when they look down.
PLAN
RENDERING OF PATIO
The application of glass tiles on the entire surface gives people a modern feel, and makes the entire patio bright and warm.
Because of the split-level structure, the floor height here is not very high. So I made a void here to make the view of the entrance more open. At the same time, people can have more interaction between the two floors.
SECTION
ELEVATION
RENDERING OF PATIO The use of glass blocks more effectively solve the problem of insufficient lighting in Shikumen. More light enters the entire residential space through the patio.
DETAIL
DETAIL OF GLASS BLOCK
STAIR COLLAGE The original staircase is very dilapidated and damaged. The timber risers are severely deformed, and the balustrade are inclined and damaged in many places. Therefore, I plan to renovate the original staircase with new and modern steel balustrade and steel supporting stringers on the basis of retaining some part of the original wooden structure.
RENDERING OF STAIR
DETAIL
STAIR Steel rod structure interprets the beauty of a metal and looks quite modern and simple. In addition, I added storage space under the stairs. This shelf is not only a structure for decoration and auxiliary supporting, but also has a storage function.
The combination of the steel structure with partitions and drawers makes storage more flexible, and the storage method can be adjusted at any time according to the needs of the people.
RENDERING OF THE MEZZANINE ONE The mezzanine one is mainly used as an activity area and an open reading or working area. The shelves made of metal can be used to store things, or sit on it to read a book or even take a nap. Of course, the family can also play games, have some activities, and interact in this area. Children will like this space very much.
AXONOMETRIC DRAWING The table and storage here are designed with arc elements derived from Shikumen.
PLAN OF THE MEZZANINE ONE
RENDERING
PLAN OF THE FIRST FLOOR
The partitions of the bedroom and the study room on the first floor bring more possibilities to the whole building. For example, when the couple’s third child is born, they can use the study room in the bedroom as a nursery room. This is a good partition to help them have two relatively independent spaces. Therefore, the design of the movable partition also makes the house suitable and flexible for the future.
AXONOMETRIC DIAGRAM
RENDERING
DETAIL
Meanwhile, under normal circumstances, when a relatively quiet and private working environment is required, the partition can also be pulled out and the study room will become very private.
The movable partition allows the space to be changed according to people’s needs, either open or private.
PLAN OF THE MEZZANINE TWO
PLAN OF THE SECOND FLOOR
In the study room , there is a foldable bed. It can be either a bed or a locker. Therefore, when needed, the entire study can also be used as a bedroom.
RENDERING OF CHILDREN’S BEDROOM
RENDERING OF CHILDREN’S STUDY ROOM
With the folding bed, this space can be used as a separate bedroom or a study room. This design is very necessary when children grow up and need privacy.
PLAN OF THE TERRACE