Euthanasia of the Dilapidating Urban Machine | Thesis program by Yue Shen

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE Sustainable degeneration of post-industrial towns in Northeast China euthanasia

n.the practice of killing without pain a person who is suffering from a disease that cannot be cured.

Yue Shen Thesis Program

Content Prologue .................................................................................... 1. Brief ......................................................................................... 3. Fularji ....................................................................................... 5. Geography and nature ............................................................ 15. History and society ................................................................ 19. Architecture and urbanism ....................................................... 21. Lifestyle and mentality ........................................................... 31. Problem analysis ........................................................................ 35. Industry ............................................................................. 35. Economy ............................................................................ 37. Demography ........................................................................ 41. Thematic .................................................................................. 45. Growth and degeneration ........................................................ 45. Creative destruction .............................................................. 49. Sustainable degeneration ........................................................ 51. Methodology ............................................................................. 53. Tools ................................................................................. 53. Time and space .................................................................... 55. Functions ........................................................................... 57. Bibliography .............................................................................. 59.

It was a green train - the kind of train covered with metal in thick office green paint, moving in a slow, rickety way. People crammed in outworn leatherette seats, staring blankly out the window, starting random conversations, or snoozing on the shoulder of a stranger. Red elastic hair band, austere clothing in dim colors, soft dark loafers, cloth bag with household goods or fresh meat and vegetable inside, every figure still nearly fit in a communism poster from the 50’s. It is almost an image of a flock of “hick”, but in a much more restrained manner, bearing the “burden of working class” - as if there was a footnote of Karl Marx. The train crossed through vast plain farmland, grassland, wetland, and finally stopped at a small town, with an unusual name that must come from some minority language. People started to slowly move toward the door. I followed them and intruded into the serene scene as the only stranger. I arrived, for the first time, at Fularji.

Prologue

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Fularji is an industrial town in the northernmost province of China. It was mostly developed during the 1950’s, when the factories, colleges and worker’s housing were built. Today, it is a quiet and lonely town in the middle of nowhere, and most people in China have never heard of this place. But once it had carried the dream of a generation. I only got to know this place because of my father, who was one of the first graduates from the Northeast Heavy Machinery Institute - the first and most important school of mechanical engineering established after 1949, located in Fularji. Every time he and his

college friends get together, they talk about the good old days, about how harsh the environment used to be, and how passionate they used to be. Yet, all of them have left Fularji, and they are not the only ones. Fularji has been left in sereneness. And again, it is not the only one. Fularji is just one component of the large “rust belt” of China — the Northeast, which is the heart of China’s heavy industry, and the wound of China’s transformation. I n 2 0 0 3 , We s t o f t h e Tr a c k s — a documentary film made by Wang Bing — was released. It was a 9 hours trilogy (Rust, Remnants, and Rails) filmed over the course of two years between 1999 and 2001. It details the slow decline of Shenyang's industrial Tiexi district, an area that was once a vibrant example of China's socialist economy, located in the Northeast. With the rise of the free market and the move towards other industries, however, the factories of Tiexi have all begun to be closed down, and with them, much of the district's worker-based infrastructure and social constructs. Many critics have named it one of the best and most important films of the 2000s. Today, merely 15 years after the film was made, what was vividly recorded in the film has been wiped out completely: the factories, the infrastructure, the social structure and the memory, leaving behind the haunting question of what did we lose in this liquidation, and what could have been done differently. Therefore, it is important today to ask the same question in Fularji, while addressing all the industrial districts in the Northeast that still exist: What is their future?

Northeast factories Wang Bing, <West of the Tracks>, 2000

The Northeast has long been the industrial base of China. As the process of liberalization and privatization continues in china's economy, and the global process of the third wave of industrialization, the Northeast is facing severe challenges, especially in the small industrial towns, where the entire establishment is based on heavy-industrialfactories. By studying the history and the current situation of these post-industrial towns, we can see the invariable shrinkage and degradation.

Therefore, instead of expecting the city to be a machine of investment and development that generates infinite prosperousness, the urban establishment should be seen as an organic system with the natural attribute of growing, dying and decomposing. Subtraction should be used as a tool to reshape the societal and spatial configuration. A euthanasia of these industrial machines - one sustainable degeneration plan of the urban fabric, including a series of re-selection of industry, prioritization of limited augmentation, re-allocation of social and labor resources, unbuilding of the architectural material, etc. - would be the best solution under the dilapidating process of the city.

Fularji is one district of Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, located on the West Bank of the Nen River. The main urban area of Fularji lies 4.5 km from east to west and 12.7 km from north to south.

Fularji Zhigaodian Studio, 2015

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Fularji

11.

China First Heavy Industry

Qiqihar Steel Mill

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Fularji Thermal Power Plant

Microrayons

13.

Bungalows

Wheatland

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

The Nen River

15.

Geography and nature

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Fularji has arable land of 235,422 ha, grassland of 108,488 ha, and forest land of 1597.4 ha. Fularji has a great natural environment and abundant resources. Mineral water and organic rice have been its main agriculture produce. The Nen river — said to be one of a few rivers in China that have not been polluted — and its wetland are of great ecological value. The Amur-Heilong region that Fularji is located in is an important nature reserve of China. The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) lists the AmurHeilong — including most of the Northeast and parts of Russia and Mongolia — one of their 18 priority protected places. They describe AmurHeilong as follows: “The Amur-Heilong covers areas of northeastern China and the Russian Far East. The region contains one of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world, vast steppe grasslands, and the unbroken taiga biome. The area consists of the 380-millionacre watershed of the Amur River—the longest undammed river in the Eastern Hemisphere— which creates a natural border between China and Russia. This great river originates near the sacred mountain of Burkan Khaldun in northeastern Mongolia, the birthplace of Genghis Khan.” The Nen River plain funcn, 2008

17.

Located on 47°N, Fularji belongs to temperate continental monsoon climate, with four distinct seasons. It has long, bitterly cold, but dry winters, with a 24-hour average in January of −18.6 °C (−1.5 °F). Spring and fall are mild, but short and quick transitions. Summers are very warm and humid, with a 24-hour average in July of 23.2 °C (73.8 °F). The average annual precipitation is 415 millimetres (16.3 in), with over two-thirds of it falling from June to August. The annual mean is 3.95 °C (39.1 °F). With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 56% in July to 73% in February, the city receives abundant sunshine, with 2,839 hours of bright sunshine annually.

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Daily mean °C

Mean monthly sunshine hours 300

30 25

250

20 15

200

10 5 0 -‐5

150 1

100

-‐10 -‐15

-‐20

-‐25

Average precipitation days

Average precipitation mm 16

140

120

100

10 80

8 60

20 0

2 0 1

Four seasons of Fularji

19.

Histo

Fularji is one of the typical industrial towns in the Northeast. "Fularji" is the Daur language "Hulan ereg" in transliteration, meaning "red riverbank." Therefore, it has a nickname called "Red Bank". The early settlements of Fularji were formed in the Qing dynasty, under the Qiqihar deputy system. Later on, as the Eastern Railway set up the Fularji station, the settlements gradually developed into a small town. Major development of the town happened during the 1950’s. Three factories of great importance were placed here — China First Heavy Industries, which was called the “eldest son of the Republic” and “National treasure”; Qiqihar Steel Mill, which was called the “pearl in China’s hand”; and the Fularji Thermal Power Plant. After them, a series of factories of chemical fertilizer, glass, and a power plant were built. In the meantime, colleges and research institutes were also established in Fularji. The Heavy Machinery Institute and Qiqihar Medical School were important educational institutes at the national level. Research institutes of the factories and other provincial institutes also played an important role in science and technology of that time.

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

ory and society

The current population of Fularji is 296,000, of which non-agricultural population counts 235,000. It has a variety of ethnic groups: Daur, Hui, Manchu and Koreans in China. During the planned economy period, a lot of experts, professors, university students and graduates were brought to this town. The industrial town remained remote but cultivated. However, as these intellectuals left after the economic reform, the town returns to relative aridness in civil and cultural life. Wang Zhong in Fularji 1958

Soviet experts in Fularji About 1950

Zhou Enlai in Fularji 1962

21.

In the Northeast, during the construction wave in 1950â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and 1960â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, a lot of factories, workerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s housing, public service(school, hospital, refectory, bathhouse, sports facility, etc.) and urban infrastructure were built. Urbanization happened along with it. Small villages and urban fringe zones became new towns in a few years. Fularji is one vivid example of these industrial towns in its planning and architectural form. The new industrial towns usually consisted of a separated factory area and living area, with urban facilities, and a railway going through. People from the rural area and old cities were quickly brought to these places, became the workforce and residents of the industrial towns. Today the existing part of these industrial towns still function as a normal city. Moreover, because of the medium density and integrated plan, they still own an intimate and comfortable feeling, unlike most of the new cities in China today, which are in huge scale and divided by gated community.

Archi

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

As one of the most important samples of Northeast industrial towns and geographically isolated from other settlements, Fularji remains the most distinguishable urban structure today. Both the scale of the town and the physical condition make it perfect to test out new approaches addressing post-industrial urban issues.

itecture and urbanism

Factory: China First Heavy Industry CFHI

25.

Factory building

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

The factories were mostly built in Soviet constructivist style. Some of them also came with the combination of carefully added oriental building ornaments, making them list among the early samples of Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modernism architecture approach. Due to the emphasis of heavy machinery in that era, a large number of these early factories have giant workshop structure, therefore provide a great opportunity in reprogramming the buildings.

27.

The worker’s housing inherited the residential district planning system from the Soviet — the micro-rayon. The apartment buildings are organized in a hierarchy. Each block creates courtyards in the middle. Public facilities and transportation system are located in the center of the micro-rayon. But what distinguish these microrayons in China’s industrial towns from the Soviet model is that: 1. The micro-rayons in China are mostly planned in an orthogonal system. On one hand it saves the land and makes the street system simpler, on the other hand, it was meant to continue the grid pattern of the ancient Chinese city model ( 里坊制 ). 2. The apartment building was mostly built with brick instead of concrete-panel. Brick gives better insulation and durability to the apartment. 3. Most apartment buildings are 3-storied or 5-storied. The ground floor apartments are either adapted for commercial use or extended themselves to winter garden or small front yard. The coherency between buildings and

the street or courtyard are therefore escalated. 4. Due to the enormous number of workers and limited resource in the 50's, most of the "apartments" are dormitary-sized single rooms organized by a linear corridor. Bathrooms and kitchen are located on each end of the corridor, shared by all the residents on the floor. Today the microrayons are mostly challenged by their small unit size against the need of a modern residency. Some resident buildings are already abandoned because of demography change. But the microrayons still owns the architectural value of low FAR and more intimate space, which is hard to realize in today’s real estate development due to land regulation and developer’s interest. Moreover, these micro-rayons’ most interesting value lies in its community. Having residents working in the same factories for years or even for more than one generation, sharing all the public facilities together, the micro-rayon is like a big family. They establish their own social order and organization, and together enrich the social life inside the micro-rayon.

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Worker's housing

29.

Factory Steelmaking

Heating

Cooling

Research and management

Casting

Railway station Finish machining

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Urban machine of Fularji

Microrayon Cinema

g from water cooling

Park Library

The industrial town functions in a system that works as a machine, as the planning and construction comes from a completely top-down approach. This approach has designed the circulation of production, daily routine of people, and flow of energy. The area of factory and microrayon are clearly seperated spatially but closely connected in the way they functions.

Hospital Workerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s housing

School

People Production Energy

31.

Ever since the 1950's, people started to move to the Northeast because of the wave of new industry and urbanization. Many young peasants and workers from other domain were recruited into the factories. After some training, people were assigned to jobs, spending most of their time in factories, and the rest in the housing area and public facilities. In order to provide jobs and livelihood for not only male workers but also their spouse, factories for textile and food were also established. Besides a small number of experts and engineers, the majority of this factory system were blue collar workers. Therefore, a strong characteristic of the working class became the representation of the Northeast. Rude, sanguine, muscular, drinking, fighting, gambling people with a strong sense of collectiveness were the general impression of the workers.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of people still donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t truly understand or believe in the role of the market.â&#x20AC;? For these people, who spent most of their life with their whole family in the mechanism of the factories, they deeply believe in the mechanism despite how much they complains about it. Factories provides everything, as long as you finish your shift well. They are used to the central-planning mentality that when the market comes most of them find it hard to adapt the way of thinking. The Soviet mentality is the obstacle for creativity and positiveness. Nonetheless, this mentality became so rare that it is a living heritage of the old times.

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Life-style and mentality A day of workers in industrial town

The workers in Fularji spend most of their daytime working in the factory, and the rest in their home and public facilities of microrayon. The "factory" includes everything of their daily lives.

Worker's housing

Public facilities

Factory

31.

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Life-style and mentality A day of workers in industrial town

The workers in Fularji spend most of their daytime working in the factory, and the rest in their home and public facilities of microrayon. The "factory" includes everything of their daily lives.

Worker's housing

Public facilities

Factory

35.

From the 1950's to 1960's, with the focus to achieve growth in national power, a wave of state-driven industrialization and urbanization was prompted, manifesting the centralized planning model adapted from the Soviets. A concentration in construction of 694 large and medium-sized industrial projects, including 156 with the aid of the Soviets, was launched in the First Five-year Plan. 62 of the 156 Soviet aid projects were located in the Northeast, bringing millions of agricultural population to the city. Those factories mark the highest achievement in the industry during the New China epoch. Ever since the Chinese economic reform starting from 1979, the shift from planned economy to the socialist market economy has been challenging the state-owned factories. A global reduction of military expenditure after the Cold War, and a revolution for new materials and new energy have sharply changed the situation of those heavy-industry-based Northeast cities. Most of these factories have declined from the mainstay of the national economy to the edge of bankruptcy and recombination.

Problem analysis

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

s: Industry

Social attention on the Northeast is increasing. In 2003, the Chinese government made revitalizing the northeast a priority. A series of approaches have been adopted, including revitalization of the industries, environment and resource conservation, development of modern agriculture, etc.. However, the current economic structure is ever more reliant on property-market-driven investment and manufacturing. A real estate bubble together with the inferior position in geography and demography put the Northeast in a predicament of urban degradation. The disregard of the existing urban and industrial heritage, large vacancy resulted from urban sprawl, and the attenuation in infrastructure and public service are progressively significant.

The first five year plan China's economic reform

37.

In the Database of National Bureau of Statistics of China, we can see that the three provinces of the Northeast are ranked in the bottom five of Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 31 provincesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; GDP growth in the third quarter of 2015, and this position in the ranking has stayed put since 2014. In about 2006 - 2008, these provinces had a moment of prosperousness. But to see in the long term, it has been the slowest growing region in China for more than a decade.

Problem analysis: Economy China's GDP by region (2014-2015)

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

How do these numbers reflect in reality? What exactly is happening in the factories? One vivid example is the story of China's First Heavy Industry in Fularji. China's First Heavy Industry is China's largest heavy equipment manufacturer. When it was founded in 1954, the first Chinese Prime Minister called it “the eldest son of the Republic” and a “National treasure”. After the economic reform, it was regrouping into a central government-owned enterprise. Just like all the other factories, this enterprise was facing a severe challenge during the crisis in 2008. But good news comes in 2009, by a series of innovation approaches, First Heavy Industry has achieved a new round of growth in profit. The CEO, Shengfu Wu, became the hero. However, after just a few months, the Ministry of Environmental Protection levied a

fine against the enterprise for infringing the environment law. Not much later, it was reported that there was falsification in their previous data, and Shengfu Wu was being investigated. On the night of August 3rd, 2015, suffering from the pressure of his job, Shengfu Wu committed suicide in his office. The story of China’s First Heavy Industrial Factory is dramatic, but it’s not an exception. As a factory specializing in military, steel, mining, nuclear power equipment and petrochemical equipment, there is very limited space for its “innovation” and “reform”. In 2015, The Economist published an article called Back in the cold. In the article, the author described and analyzed the economic status of the Northeast. It called the current economy of the Northeast “the wrong mix”:

“…Those efforts(the central government’s efforts to steer the national economy back to a more sustainable pace of growth)have borne fruit: state-owned firms produced more than two-thirds of the region’s GDP in the early 2000s. That has fallen to about 50%, still above the national average of 30%, but progress nonetheless. The structure of the north-east’s economy, however, has worsened in a more important respect. It has become ever more reliant on investment and manufacturing, both geared to the now-slowing property market. State companies and private firms alike have poured into mining, heavy-equipment factories and construction. Even the car industry, in which the north-east has been a national leader, is closely linked to property, as buyers of new homes also tend to buy cars. In any case, home-grown car brands such as Hongqi and Jinbei are falling further and further behind foreign rivals in popularity.“ — The Economist, 2015

39.

Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ghost town map

based on an experimental model of future supply and demand ratio, and oversupply or undersupply against existing homes, Chinese economic researcher Chen Qin

Th Ch

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

he first five year plan hina's economic reform

A direct result of “the wrong mix” is what we always discuss as the extremely hot topic today — the ghost town. Latest data shows that over 11% of China’s GDP in recent years came from housing revenue. This number is higher than mature markets like the US(10%) or Hong Kong(8% - 9%). If we look at the analysis map made by Chinese economic researcher, Chen Qin, on ghost towns, we see the dots indicating the higher danger of ghost town clustering on the north-east corner of China. The South China Morning Post concludes that “the ‘ghost towns’ are clustered in northeast China, where local economies rely heavily on natural resources, heavy industries and farming, and are not diversified enough to offer a variety of jobs”. Nonetheless, the Northeast remains difficult to pursue any in-depth reform. Liang Qidong of the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, even argues that the north-east is the world’s best example of a Soviet-style economy, because its central-planning mentality has persisted for so long.

41.

Population growth rate of the Northeast

Problem analysis: Demograp

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

T h e p re d i c a m e n t i n t h e e c o n o m y has also started to hurt the demography. The Northeast has become one of the regions with the lowest natural growth rate in China. China Statistical Yearbook from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the three Northeast provinces have a natural growth rate of less than 0.1‰(in Liaoning it reached -0.03‰) while the national average remains 4.92‰. The birth rate is less than one child per woman, 1/3 lower than the national average. The average birth rate of this three provinces stays around 6‰, which is even less than Denmark(10‰), where people are encouraged to “Do it for Denmark”. What adds to the decline is that the emigration rate is also high in the Northeast. More than 4 million residents are now working in other parts of China, not including those who has already change their resident status to other cities. Besides the decline in population growth, aging is also a big problem. Take the northernmost province in Northeast — Heilongjiang as an example, by the end of 2012, there were 14.8% of the total population aged 60

phy

years and above, the number was over 5.7 million people. From 1995 to 2012, the share of this group has increased twofold. It is estimated that the population aging level in Heilongjiang will reach 19% by 2020 and be over 33% by 2045. The working-age population peak is coming. But the society is not ready. China as a whole is facing severe problems with pension and elderly care. The shortage in infrastructure and facility for the aging population is enormous. However, one interesting fact is that, as The Guardian pointed out in their research on China’s aging problem, older people tend to be active, involved and respected community members. Under the current retirement scheme, most people are still in good physical condition when they retire. Their major occupation — if it is not making money to support themselves — is activities that are healthy, interactive and outdoorsy — activities that they did not have the chance to do while they were occupied by stressful work. This energy often turns into noise and hassle in the city, but it could also have the possibility to become a great social resource.

Family structure from 1960's to 2010's

43.

China's age structure 2012, BBC

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

45.

“Development is the absolute principle.”

— Deng Xiaoping, 1992

China’s rising is based on its rapid economic growth. In less than 70 years, it changed from a poor agricultural country destroyed by war to the second largest economy in the world. But today, the speed of growth has slowed down. The problem in law, social structure, aging, and environment has started to take over. All these social issues are like a ticking bomb, that needs to be handled properly and urgently. The Northeast was one of the first to rise, and now it’s one of the first to slow down and face these problems. But what is the current plan for the future? In Chai Jing’s 2015 documentary film Under the Dome, she investigated the industries that are already considered to be in serious overproduction and causing enormous environmental problems in China. The result was that they are still listed as “key industries” in the 12th FiveYear Plan of more than half of the 31 provinces. Among the 200 municipalities in China, 184 of them have plans to become “international metropolises”. The current population is 1.3 billion. But if we take into account the plans laid out by all the municipalities, the population adds up to 3.4 billion. When the famous saying by Deng first came out, it was the foremost creed in China from the central government to the everyone’s home. Yet 25 years later, though over-urbanization has already brought the problem of the ghost town, unbalanced economic structure, etc., this kind of “development” is still being seen as the absolute solution everywhere.

Grow

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

The challenges in the dilapidated industrial towns are under the meta-discussion of post-industrial urbanism in the 21st century, and shrinking is one inevitable aspects of it. In <Aged Industrial Countries>, Peter Hall concluded that: in the course of economic development populations have gone through two demographic transitions. The first was the rapid rise of population during early industrialization… The second, typically a century later, was a slower but progressive fall in the rate of growth, as contraceptive understanding diffused and as traditional incentives to childbearing declined in an industrial or postindustrial society with a developing welfare state. And he stated that cities could avoid shrinkage only if they proved attractive to migrants. The Northeast is going through the second transition period. And given the regional situation, it is more likely to be the origin rather than the destination of migrants. While shrinkage is becoming a global phenomenon in urban transformation, not enough practice adapted to this trend has been performed. Keller Easterling addressed this issue under the discussion of “subtraction”. While building and development have been believed to be the primary constructive activity, shrinking and degeneration have rarely been discussed positively. After all the struggle to save the Northeast factories, maybe it’s time to stop and make a reselection. Even when we think about the future of China’s municipalities, “development” should not be the only path anymore. Degeneration needs to be acknowleged. Subtraction is the new tool.

wth and degeneraion

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Methods for demolishing, imploding, or otherwise subtracting building material are not among the essential skills imparted to architects in training. Believing building to be the primary constructive activity, the discipline has not institutionalized special studies of subtraction. In fact, for architects building envelope is almost always the solution to any problem. The demolition plan, one of the first pages in a set of construction documents, provides instructions for the removal of building material, but only building material that presents an obstacle to more building material, the material of a new, superior design. Architectural authorship is measured by object building rather than by the admirable removal of material, and the general consensus within the discipline is that architectural efforts should be visible in photographs. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Keller Easterling, <Subtraction>, 2003

49.

Creative destruction is a concept in economics which Joseph Schumpeter popularized as a theory of economic innovation and the business cycle. According to Schumpeter, the "gale of creative destruction" describes the "process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one".

Mapping of vacant plot Dan Hoffman, <Erasing Detroit>, 2001

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

If we look at the history of the postindustrial districts, such as Detroit, Turin and Ruhr, before any renewal and revitalization project happens there, most of them had suffered from 10 to 20 years of decline â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an unintentional free fall of economy and physical environment, the creative destruction of the 20th-century-industries. This creative destruction clears the ground for the creation of new wealth, and creates the "tabula rasa" in urban environment. As David Harvey wrote:"The built environment that constitutes a vast field of collective means of production and consumption absorbs huge amounts of capital in both its construction and its maintenance. Urbanization is one way to absorb the capital surplus". Renewal projects aims to honor the glory of the industrial history and reuse the site in a sustainable way, while the most valueble part of the heritage and social construct has already started to disappear over a decade ago, when creative destruction began and everything were meant to be erased. When we examine the outcome of industrial renewal projects, even takes Ruhr, the first and most legendary one as an example, there is some flaws we can sense. On the way to the museums in Ruhr, the tram passes by incessant suburban worker's housing standing quietly between weed and woods. Though the museums were fascinating for tourists, it casts limited light on its surroundings â&#x20AC;&#x201D; no shop, no restaurant or cafe, even not so many locals come for recreation in the park. The museums' collections of fine art and design works also break away from the beerdrinking, football-watching working class culture. To a certain extent, industrial heritage becomes delusional theme parks. Therefore, in the scenario of postindustrial cities, if the ultimate goal is not about achieving economic benefit, the way of subtraction needs to be re-evaluate. Is creative distruction an inevitable process for post-industrial cities?

Vacant building in Detroit Unknown

Creative destruction

51.

Sustainable degeneration Today, the Northeast is standing at the starting point of the creative destruction. Most of these industrial towns are becoming vacant and dilapidated, being devoured by the inflating property market. Architectural heritage, workerbased infrastructure, and social constructs are vanishing. However, instead of the free fall, this thesis project is aimed to explore a cautious design of the sustainable future of industrial towns. The current condition is both a challenge and an opportunity to be put into the project.

Therefore, I would like to bring forward a concept of â&#x20AC;&#x153;sustainable degenerationâ&#x20AC;?. When development is not the only path anymore, a planned, advantageous, environmental-friendly degeneration might be the cure of post-industrial over-urbanization.

After all the struggle to save the Northeast factories, maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to stop and make a re-selection. Instead of giving endless aid to all the factories but not helping anyone indeed, only the ones that actually meet the demand should be kept. The industry workers should be re-allocated on their own will either to other jobs or another place or simply be provided proper urban infrastructure after their retirements, such as nursery housing, elderly center or retirement resorts, as most of the employees are of the working-age population peak. The part of the town being or about to be in obsolescence should be reconsidered of their role and form of material existence in the future. As the most mature and urgent sample, towns like Fularji would be the best test field for this euthanasia.

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

If subtraction is part of a system of exchange, a function of an active organization of construction and destruction, it is also a positive tool of space making. — Keller Easterling

With the subtraction of building being as important as the making of building today, the violent and reckless feature of deconstruction can be positively replaced by thoughtful design of “unbuilding” process. In Dan Hoffman’s project “Erasing Detroit”, the idea of unbuilding was tested out by unbuilding a vacant house. They reversed the commonly accepted process of building, gradually took pieces apart from the finished building. “The house transformed itself into successive states … At one point the house was entirely plaster, at another, all wood. Our labor was confined to splitting the house, loosening its fastenings, mapand overcoming the forces of friction which kept the house in an unrequited relationship with the forces of gravity. “ This tool of subtraction can bring a new methodology to reshape the obsolescent towns and bring a new dimension to the discipline. Instead of thinking what to build in the town to fulfill its mission during the degeneration process, the town will be redesigned by considering the existing environment as a volume to carve the positive space and weighing the material against its significance of time.

Process of deconstruction Dan Hoffman, <Erasing Detroit>, 2001

(http://www.detroitresearch.org/wp-

53.

Methodology: tools General framework

Degeneration Discourse

Research and design on the degeneration theme of urbanism and architecture

Strategic Masterplan of Degeneration 1:2000, Fularji Time-depended planning of the degeneration process of the town

Future atmosphere Visualizations

The new vision of Fularji in/after the process

Architectural Toolbox Typology subtraction of factory 1:100, typical factory building

Design of subtraction to decompose factory buildings with time-related functions

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Scale of research

s of degeneration

Architectural Toolbox Typology subtraction of housing 1:100, typical worker's housing Subtraction design to decompose worker's housing with time-related functions

Scale of strategic planning

Scale of typology design

1 23 45 67 89 111 133 155 177 199 221 243 265 287 309 331 353 375 397 419 441 463 485 507 529 551 573 595 617 639 661 683 705 727 749 771 793 815 837 859 881 903 925 947 969 991 1013 1035

55.

Methodology: time and spac A connection between time and space

When evaluating and designing the physical environment, careful consideration of the historical value, the appearance for the time being, and the impact on future is of great importance.

1057 1079 1101 1123 1145 1167 1189 1211 1233 1255 1277 1299 1321 1343 1365 1387 1409 1431 1453 1475 1497 1519 1541 1563 1585 1607 1629 1651 1673 1695 1717 1739 1761 1783 1805 1827 1849 1871 1893 1915 1937 1959 1981 2003 2025 2047 2069 2091 EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Change of demography and industry over time

Sequence of space from factory and housing to agriculture landscape

57.

Methodology: functions Elderly care

Agriculture

Heritage

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE

Based on the dramatic demographic change happening in the Northeast, the exploration of aging of the city should be linked with aging of its population. Today our cities have been largely designed and programmed to address the needs and desires of a younger population. How would the urban system functions with an increasingly aged population? A broad and renewed sense of elderly care should come in as the main function of the degeneration purposal. Infrastructure and facilities addressing an elder lifestyle and mentality should be designed with unbuilding of the current material.

When the urbanization process began, these forests and grassland became industrial towns. When the industrial town became dilapidated and left empty, could nature take over again? If we look back in history, besides industrial construction from the 19th century, the Northeast is an area of great ecological value. Although nowadays in Northeast, quite a lot of land has been polluted by the heavy industry. But luckily, due to the low density of this region, there is large capacity to regain the environmental quality. With the infrastructure and the workforce liberated from factories, ecological project could be implanted in these industrial towns. With proper agriculture program to bring back the greenness, the environmental benefits and social value is beyond calculation.

In 2006, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China published <Notice on Strengthening Protection of Industrial Heritage> . It became the first official document on industrial heritage. It shows the emphasis on treating industrial remains as a valuable part of the built environment. The industrial town of the Northeast had their historical importance of its great contribution to Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development. To preserve these heritage, the first thing to do is to stop the blind real estate development on the site of the industrial town. A careful degeneration plan would help these industrial town to retain its integrity and authenticity, as well as better utilization of the existing structure.

59.

Bibliography

Ellen Braae: Beauty Redeemed, Recycling Post-industrial Landscapes, 2015 Keller Easterling: Subtraction, Perspecta 34: Temporary Architecture ( MIT Press), 2003 Elke Beyer, Anke Hagemann, Tim Rieniets, Philipp Oswalt: Atlas of Shrinking Cities, 2006 Dan Hoffman: Erasing Detroit, Stalking Detroit, 2001 Kuba Snopek: Belyayevo Forever, A Soviet Microrayon on its Way to the UNESCO List, 2013 Michele Bonino, Filippo De Pieri (eds.): Beijing Danwei, Industrial Heritage in the Contemporary City, 2015 Chai Jing: Under the Dome (film), 2015 Wang Bing: Tiexi Qu: West of the track (film), 2003 The Economist: Back in the cold, 2015 Dong Lisheng: China’s Drive to Revitalise the Northeast, 2005 Yifei Chen (SCMP): Chasing ghosts, Where is China's next wave of empty 'new towns’?, 2015 Yufei Wu (Caijing): Shengfu Wu, No return for the chairman of China’s First Heavy Industry, 2015 BBC: Ageing China: Changes and challenges, 2012 The Guardian: China faces 'timebomb' of ageing population, 2012 Li Shen, china.org.cn: Population outflow affects NE China's economic recovery, 2015 National Bureau of Statistics: China Statistical Yearbook 2014 INTERNATIONALE BAUAUSSTELLUNG (IBA) FÜRST-PÜCKLER-LAND: http://www.iba-see2010.de/en/ index.html Indexmundi: http://www.indexmundi.com/ WWF, Amur-Heilong: http://www.worldwildlife.org/places/amur-heilong

EUTHANASIA OF THE DILAPIDATED URBAN MACHINE