Program internal capacity -xiaoyu xu

Story Tellers Renewing Beijing’s Low-income Hutong Areas based on collective memories and participation

hutongs are in poor condition. They are physically walled by modern buildings and traffic, and socially segregated from the middle class communities. However, the intimate spatial qualities, the closeness to nature , and the vivid life between the alleys are still present.

Internal Capacities Strategies To Maintain The Good Density Of A Hutong Neighborhood In Beijing

DIPLOMA PROGRAME XIAOYU XU 2016, BAS

CONTENTS 0. Brief Introduction 1. Hutong And Complex Challenges 2. The Good Density 3. Internal Capacities 4. Project Site 6. Timeline 7. Cv

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Beijing, the capital of china, is becoming an empty city because it is loosing its locals. Real estate developments have wiped out more than half of the historical residential urban fabric, and have driven 3 quarters of local beijingers to the isolated suburbs, together with a culture formed after generations.

Although the current trend is to protect the surviving historical urban fabrics of hutong(alleys) and siheyuan(courtyards) and renew the densly populated buildings in a gradual, progressive mode, the format of replacing local people with new capital power remains unchanged. And there is no clear solution to the contradiciton between population density and the traditional chinese lifestyle.

In this project, the main subject is the population density of the one or two storey urban fabric. The project will explore strategies in community scale, courtyard scale, and furniture scale to renew an old neighborhood area without pushing most people away.

Hutong And Its Complex Challenges CURRENT URBAN CHALLENGE AND THE POTENTIAL OF HUTONGS

Over the last 50 years, beijing,the capital city of china, has grown from an old, flat imperial city into a stressful city of 21 million population. While the policy-makers are aiming to limit the population growth, the future of city as a livable habitat is at risk.

One alternative lies in the heart of the city, the old urban fabric with hutongs(narrow alleys) and courtyards, with rich history and culture, intimate spatial scale, nearness to nature , and vivid social life between the alleys. Although much of the old buildings has been destroyed by massive constructions over the decades, the remaining area is still large, within which the socio-cultural qualities are still present. The challenge of development is an opportunity.

hutong

courtyard

HUTONG AND SIHEYUAN (alley)

(courtyard)

Hutong is the type of alley or street which forms the urban fabric of the old city.

A typical hutong nowadays is 3-5 meters wide and can span 300 meters, though some of them use to be 10 times wider when first built in the 12 century. The old city of beijing was planned with in a chessboard pattern, and the hutongs are the main structure of road. In most cases, the hutongs connect west and east side of each lifang(square district), within which the south-facing courtyard dwellings can be arranged.

By the year 1949 when P.R.C. was established, there were 3050 named hutongs in the city, with 2 million population. Over 6 decades of urbanization process, there are only 459 hutongs by the year 2002, while the population of beijing as a whole increases to 21 million.

Hutong cannot be seperated from the siheyuan courtyard. The earliest hutongs were designed as fire separation tunnels and transportation passages between courtyard houses. A courtyard is surrounded by buildings on all 4 sides, usually one story high, two storeys when the building is facing the street, which is wider than the hutong alleys. The courtyard is the unit of home, meanwhile it also suit for public functions such as schools and temples.

LOCATION AND POPULATION OF BEIJING,CHINA

Bergen

Beijing Shanghai

Beijing,the capital of china, is a city of serious problems - pollution, traffic jam, huge gap between rich and poor...In regard of the living condition,it is the second largest city in china in terms of population, but the density is only 1167 persons/km2, which is less than one third of that of shanghai.

Beijing Population 21.5 million(2015) 1311 p/km2

x 100

Bergen Population 0.275 million(2015) 14 p/km2

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION The population density has a ringed distribution, leaving the center look like a pit of people. This is mainly due to the difficulty of densifying the one-storey high, old urban areas, and height limit to preserve the historical cityscape near the forbidden city.

HUTONGS FILLING THE IMPERIAL CITY, AND NOW ONLY 1/5 LEFT

YUAN DYNASTY

h u t o n g h u t o n g hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong MING, QING hutonghutonghutong h u t o n g h u t o n g h u t o n g DYNASTIES hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutonghutonghut

JIN DYNASTY

h u t o n g h u t o n g hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong hutonghutonghutong h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g h u to n g hutonghutonghutonghutonghut

Remaining old city Beijing, 2001 Remaining old city Beijing, 2015

R E A L I Z E D P R O J E C T S TO R E N O VAT E COURTYARDS IN HUTONGS

1990 Liangyong Wu, collective housing in ju'er hutong

There have been done many projects from different approaches to renovate hutong neighborhoods in the pas 30 years. There are good attempts spatially, but social qualities are lost.

In different degrees these projects lack the integral consideration of hutong together with the courtyards. Hutongs as spaces are crucial in shaping the whole atmosphere. They function as the livingroom of the courtyards nowadays.

Also, in the latest design interventions, apart from a few attempts, most of the projects reflects ideas of the designer group and the wealthier, rather than fitting the lifestyle of the inhabitants.

2000

private renovations 2010

Dashilar Design Week(s)

Project Site:

Liuxue Road neighborhood

the neighborhood is located north of Tianqiao area, and only 2 km south of the Tian’anmen Square. Tianqiao area is famous for its history of performance art in Beijing, and is in a re-development process.

Liuxue Road neighborhood is characterized with narrow hutongs, deep courtyards(between hutongs), and mostly one-storey buildings. it has a population of nearly 10 thousand people, mostly having low-income. the site is surrounded with a hospital and two commercial streets. there is a need of space for people and development for the area.

500m

400m

Internal Capacities capacity Definition of capacity in English: [1] The maximum amount that something can contain [2] The amount that something can produce [3] The ability or power to do or understand something [4] A specified role or position

The title ‘internal capacities‘ means the approach to focus on individual and collective capacities of the community, let the future space develop from within.

The clients are the inhabitants in a courtyard, as well as one neighborhood as a whole (to be specified).

They are the actors with social,cultural,architectural capacities in responce to the external cultural-economic impact, which tend to flatten the existing structure with newly inserted projects.

Songdong, the wisdom of the poor

deliver the deliver of work contains: 1. architectural and artistic display of present social culture condition in hutong neighborhoods 2.neighborhood scale urban design principles and scenarios (1:300) 3. small scale interventions(1:100, 1:50,1:1)

Timeline social anthropology Jan.

general program

1.29

site study 1:1 mock up, collect, interview,test,analyze more precise program

Feb. 2.25-2.26

2nd presentation site model references small scale tests mezzo scale strategies

Mar.

April.

1st presentation

4.14 - 4.15 3rd presentation online feedback to contact persons adjust mezzo strategies develop architectural interventions

May.

finalize proposals

exhibition making

June.

6.24

exhibition completed

Site Study Plan

2.4-2.6 hutong skimming and random interviews 2.7-2.11 Chinese Spring Festival 2.12-2.13 hutong skimming and informal interviews case review: juer hutong rennovation taner hutong rennvation 2.15-2.19 1:1 excercise : what matters?

scale, material,sun,wind,vegetation

1-3 courtyards in depth:

population,age, change

depth of courtyard, relation to density how functions organize.

Shichahai Huguosi Dongsi Baitasi

Xijiaominxiang Dashilar Tianqiao

footprints

Xiaoyu Xu daphnexiaoyu@gmail.com +47 40201438

EDUCATION 08.2013~

Bergen School of Architecture(BAS), Norway

Master student (ongoing)

courses: Complex Context,

Dale NKD-Villa Fageheim Open Utopia 09.2014~01.2015 excwhange student at KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture, Gent,Belgium 09.2008 ~06.2013 B.Arch Faculty of Architecture and Urban

Planning, Chongqing University, China

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 03.2015~ 06.2015 Intern architect at Wim Goes Architectuur, Gent,Belgium 11.2012~01.2013 Intern architect at Chinese Academy of Building Research,Beijing 07~10.2012 Intern architect at PAO/PIDO （Peoples

Architecture Office）,Beijing

PUBLICATION 2012.10

Chongqing Architecture Magazine, 2013.1st issue (ISSN 1671-9107)

Paper: Characteristic Analysis on Shop-House

Combination of Liu’s Compound in Longxing,

an Ancient Town of Chongqing 1671-9107(2013)01-0016-04