NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY. ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING & LANDSCAPE STAGE 2. 15/16. SEMESTER. 1. ARC2001
STUDIO HOUSES SONGZHUANG, CHINA
STUDIO GROUP: E, GROUP 6
Study Type Booklet SEM. 1: P2.3 DWELLING PLUS
2 P2.3.1
SITE & CONTEXT
Zhongba River
Street view from road 3
2013 1707
The Old Summer Palace is built
2005 1994 Yuanmingyuan an artist community emerges in the 80’s near the ruins of The Old Summer Palace. A utopia for young artists in Beijing.
1980’s
4
Songzhuang’s rise into the 21st Century
The move to Songzhuang 1995
Dissolution of the Old Summer Palace artist community
Knowspace architects design and build Studio Houses
2006
Art Festivals
5
Songzhuang Knowspace architect’s studio houses are located in one of Beijing’s most thriving artist villages: Songzhuang. The area has been in redevelopment since the mid 1940’s after the dissolution of the previous artistic quarter: Yuanminyuan. This was originally a bohemian utopia for young artists, however as the economy of the area rose so did the expense of living; leaving the next generation of artists to find new pastures. As Songzhuang was previously a small farming village, with little economy, all the land in the region was very cheap. Hence why we don’t see many tall structures in the district, the need to build upwards doesn’t exist due to the low land prices. Nevertheless there is an increasing rise in the economy, with property prices quadrupling in the last decade and massive growths in average income, it’s reasonable to assume there is the similar fate of Yuanminyuan heading for Songzhuang.
6
7
Private
Communal
8
9
PLANS & LAYOUTS MASSING
Building footprints of the site
Ground Floor Plan Roughly 1:1000 at A5 Outside semi-public space of the site
First Floor Plan
Private areas of the site
Roughly 1:1000 at A5
10
11
SECTIONS + RELATIONS
West Section Roughly 1:100 at A5
South Section Roughly 1:100 at A5 12
13
INFLUENCE FROM THE TRADITIONAL CHINESE COURTYARD HOUSE
The link between the traditional Chinese
Increasing privacy
house is evident in the composition of the building, As the large arrow illudes to on the plans to the right, the privacy increases the further back into the two buildings you go. The traditional chinese house has all the private living areas in the rear of the building such as the bedrooms. This is similrly evident in Songzhuang house; the private areas of the plot are located to the rear as the two artists private reidencies whilst the more public studio areas are found towards the front of the plot. This again ties in with the traditional house as the more public areas such as the kitchen and living areas are also
Communal space
found to the front of the plot. Another interesting affinity between the two is the introversion; both buildings have all their entrances to their interior spaces facing into a communal courtyard which is enclosed by a boundary wall.
14
15
“The design for the studio houses departs from the traditional Chinese Courtyard House Type. It is not so much in terms of its representation or construction principles, but more in terms of Studio Apartments
its spatial performance, namely shelter (shielded outdoor space within the structure and figure), introversion (all openings open towards the inside, not towards the street), degrees of privacy (graded levels of privacy through the succession of courtyards) and orientation (main living spaces with south orientation).� Knowspace Architects
Traditional Chinese courtyard house 16
17
INHABITATION
The spatial organisation of the plan, creates a clear separation in the communal and personal areas of the site. This clarity is followed up by the architects in their detailing of the buildings. Their importance placed on ‘introversion’ is visible through the placement of windows. All fenestration is focused within the structure, there are few views out onto the road and the private residency has minimal windows facing the communal courtyard space in the centre of the site. We wanted to imagine the buildings in full use and inhabitation - the images on the right help understand the occupancy of two very
Atmospheric drawing showing inhabitation in the kitchen and garden
different zones. The design generates an interesting play and juxtapositioning of both private and communal exterior regions that are still contain within the wrapping wall – an influence from the traditional Chinese house. Both studios face a similar North orientation and each house has a south facing garden.
Atmospheric drawing showing populated main courtyard 18
19
ANALYTICAL DIAGRAMS
These two plans display the difference in movement between the private spaces and the communal, public, areas. Blue showing the potential movement of people on a social occasion, and red representing the solitary motions of the residents. The layout of the site allows for communal activity to take place in the central courtyard. We imagine the artists use both studio spaces and this exterior area for private or public exhibitions, hence the large activity shown on the plans. The L shape of both houses surround a garden. The layout focuses the resident away from the workplace behind them to an area of contemplation. You can see from the plans the
This exploded view provides the opportunity to see the differences in the layout between the two buildings: the studio and the private house. Their forms are very much dictated by their functions, the studio buildings being a lot more open plan with large areas for the artists to work and in contrast the private residencies have a greater seperation of space.
compositional separation of the collective and private areas: the strong mass of the houses backs onto the courtyard, with little windows and straight form it creates a physical and psychological barrier defending the private dwelling.
20
21
ANALYSIS OF TYPOLOGY ON A LARGER SCALE Our concept for point 3 of the brief, thinking about how the building could be repeated to form a new district to the city
It’s important to consider whether this model would work on such a large scale. Would it create A more rectaliniear plan, making for ease of large scale tessellation. Fourth bedroom and part of courtyard removed.
a thriving artist village or an area void of creativity? Arguably the soul of an artist’s village comes from the people within it, everyone’s personal style generates a district of creativity. Perhaps having a model artist’s village, all with the same houses and studios, would only produce a dull atmosphere.
We have kept the exterior courtyard space as it allows for an important flow through the structure.
Furthermore a key intention of the architects was ‘introversion’: drawing influence from the traditional Chinese house, they place the majority of the windows on the interior of the walled structure. Meaning the physical character of the streets would be heavily dominated by walls of red brick, absent of windows. Adding to the ‘dull Issue of planning. All plots would have to face within 20 degrees of north to accomodate for the studios’ light, limiting the adaptability of the model.
22
atmosphere’. So overall I think this typology would lack sustainability, character, ease of planning and good aesthetics for a large scale development
23
TYPOLOGY MASHUP After our review, Nita and Luke asked if
So drawing from the concept in
both our group and group 1 could team
Songzhuang of combining home and
up and make an attempt at combing
studio, we decided to breed a new
our typologies. Group 1 had a housing
typology on the scale Claredale Street.
project in London called Claredale Street.
Removing a housing block created space
It consists of four housing blocks of various
for studios, offices and potentially a few
sizes and differing residencies. We tried
cafes, generating a social core in the
to determine what the essence of each
centre of the site.
model was, and combine them in a Studios with North orientation
way that would add something of more worth to both archetypes. Our typology focuses heavily on the relationship between communal and private areas and furthermore the connection between the workplace and dwelling of an artist.
Straight path to studio zone
Claredale Street had a similar focus on spatial organisation, the layout of the structures was quite strongly dictated by the movement of people through the site. The architects also placed a lot of importance in creating an equal environment for all the inhabitants. We found that Claredale Street wanted to create a strong sense of community however there wasn’t a mutual attention for the residents, no communal activity or
Atmospheric representation of path to studios
creative hub that could potentially bring Section of site with studios
24
them together.
25
26
27