[Location] Hangzhou China
[Duration] 8 weeks
[Individual] Architecture
Since 2016, to welcome the Asian Games and the G20 Summit, the government planned to renovate 178 urban villages in five years, including the changes in the living environment and quality of 540,000 house holds and 2.3 million small villages around the urban area of Hangzhou. Wulian village is one of them, which had gone through the reformation for several times.
However, this did not fundamentally change the living condition in this village, nor did it change the situation that low-income people gathering into the community. It gradually became a tough problem for Hangzhou.
Instead of compulsory demolition, I wonder that if there is a way to break between the village and city by a new public building. I the boundary decide to choose one place in wulian village and based on previous research on residents nearby, make a universal strategy about functions, objects, benefits and so on.
Wulian village used to be located in the rural area of Hangzhou, near the two scenic zone, but now due to the expansion of the city, it has to integrate With the city. However, like other urban village, people live here like living In a jail due to different scales created by close and tight ‘frame’, which deeply affect the lifestyle and behavior of residents.
Life inside and outside this community have a gap or a boundary, both physically and mentally. To break this boundary, I decide t0 start form the frame 0f community by a complete form which grow up from the original frame. lt would locate at the0f the community, where there is more traffic because 0f the primary school. The new building would have one f0 r the community, another towards the city two faces
Although Life is different, people still have a same value. This value would be the care for kids and the old. New public building would mainly focus on their needs and make it possible to gather people of all age together. According to our survey, kids want to have a better environment where there is green and playground. Old people who live alone are worried about safety. Adults preferred to have more service
like gym and cafe.
The design focus on the welfare of children and the elders. 1st floor would focus on the public facilities as well as child care, so the functions would include the canteen, gym, activity room, playground and so on. Those functions organized in a flexible and free way. Besides, the interior space seldom uses solid wall but use glass and furniture to divide the space, so it is transparent and able to entry in all of direction for community members and residents outside.
2nd floor would focus on the care of the old, so the function would include the apartment, reading room, activity rooms and so on. As the 1st floor, the functions is organized in a free and
flexible way. Besides, double-height spaces are distributed between those space to enhance the transparency of the space. Therefore, both the old and the child could see and feel each other easily.
