Otherwise: Shanghai Housing Futures Journal I & II

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otherwise

STUDIO A : HOUSING FUTURES JOURNAL VOLUME I JOSHUA F ADJODHA

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INTRODUCTION

STUDIO A : HOUSING FUTURES COLLABORATION KEY:

CONTENTS:

Studio A Pages 3, 15-35, 43 Studio A & Tongi Studio Pages 45-56 Design Charrette - Mini Tower Group Pages 57-61 Studio A - Air Streets Group Pages 52-64, 66-85

Introduction Housing Futures Page 2 Stage I : Resarch : The Urban Social Field and its Contexts Page 6 Stage II : Field Work [London / Shanghai] + Old Town Analysis /Design Charrettes Page 37 Stage III : Constructing the Hypothesis [Transect] Page 65 Stage IV : Testing the Hypothesis [Architectural Scale] Page 75 Journal Volume I Reflections Page 86

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To investigate the urban housing issues relating to the shanghai old town and its context by considering the key spatial, social, economic and environmental factors in order to propose new urban strategies informed by vigorous research and analytical case studies, and to test and evaluate the design scenario through urban and architectural manifestations.

OBJECTIVES Stage I Research To identify the key housing economic political and social issues observed in the context of Shanghai and to collect a body of research and case studies to distil the key meta-themes and questions to be brought forward into the field investigation.

Stage II Field Study To analyse the contextual factors and issues relating to urban field of Shanghai and the Old Town by drawing parallels to the urban field of London and to propose key design strategies for the old town of shanghai through collaborative design charettes in order to identify key hypothic scenarios to be further elaborated and tested.

Stage III Hypothesis [Transect] To identify a specific urban design hypothesis relating to key meta-themes and contextual conditions through sampling spatial and analytical depictions which define the relevant test conditions.

Stage IV Hypothesis [Architectural] To test the urban design hypothesis through the architectural evaluation of the defined conditions and curate the findings in a graphical language which provokes the consideration of the otherwise.

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Studio A Dundee London Shanghai

Why Shanghai?

Shanghai has experienced considerable growth in its recent history. Now a hypercity Shanghai is forecast to grow considerably more in response to the dynamic economic, political, environmental and social demands. This growth continues to consume large amounts of land and natural resources as the city sprawls over Eastern China.

Why London?

The twelve of us, lead by our tutor and mentor Andy Stoane, in our 4th Year Project titled “Housing Futures” have been given the opportunity to tackle the contextual housing issue of the old town in Shanghai in collaboration with eighteen Tongi University students.

London experienced considerable growth during the industrial revolution of the 19th Century . Post WWII 1950s to 1970s Britain produced housing innovations which we believe to be the last great age of social architecture. Most prevalent cases still thrive today in the City of London. We aim to learn from comparative studies of such housing typologies to create an alternative housing future for Shanghai.

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STAGE I

Research : The Urban Social Field and its Contexts Contents Background Themes Terms & Theorists Literature Case Studies Investigative Questions

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’’What makes mass society so difficult to bear is not the number of people involved, but the fact that the world between them has lost its power to gather them together’’ Hanna Arendt

Polito-economics Ken Yeang in his book The Green Skyscraper describes how the exponential population growth of the built environment with the consumption of land and natural resources more than planetary systems can sustain, which is a major factor of the global economic, social and ecological sustainability crisis.

Hannah Arendt describes how the city now has lost its ability to bring people together. The quantity of human interactions has diluted its quality to the extent which isolates and separates. The city, the invention of the collective has led to the isolation of individuals and the destruction of the collective creating a paradox.

Thomas Piketty in his 2014 book Capital discusses how as housing has increasingly becoming a medium of economical investment has led major global inequalities causing mass homelessness and gentrification, which was demonstrated by the 2008 global housing crisis.

The displacement of middle and lower class in combination with the deindustrialisation of urban centres has led to removal of productive industries from cities into a decentralised configuration of disassociated archipelagos. These districts of built matter continue to consume the natural world and its natural resource through the operation of globalised networks of socio politic and economic interactions.

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THE OTHERWISE “… the starting point of design is the proposition that things could be otherwise” Neil Brenner “unless you transform spatial organisation, no revolution can ever be possible.”

‘’In any space certain forms of interaction are encouraged and discouraged, giving form to social structures and ideologies’’.

“… new social relation calls for a new space, and vise-versa.”

Henri Lefebvre To create the otherwise is to find new typological urban constructs, which can counter the sprawling housing and industrial districts of present day global cities like Shanghai, to counter the breakdown of cities societal collectivity and the global sustainability crisis.

To do this Studio A researched through qualitative and case study methodologies in search of the relevant meta themes concerning the Paradox of the Specious City.

Henri Lefebvre

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THINKING MACHINE “Good Architecture is a Thinking Machine.”

Andy Stoane To think otherwise one would need to use a thinking machine.

What is a Thinking Machine? A physical machine is a manmade system which converts, transports or stores singularly or a combination of energy, matter or information. Machines have been created as tools of convenience by humans since their origin and as such they may be defined as machine making animals.

The creation of complex machines originated in the Renaissance with Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings but thrived in the industrial revolution and now with the invention of computers. Metaphorical or theoretical machines have been used by ancient philosophers like Lucretius’ machina mundi. It has also been historically used in the architectural and urban fields by Plato, Francesco Di Giorgio Martini, and Le Corbusier each whom describe the city as a machine.

Design thinking leading to invention is in the DNA of humanity and provide the landmarks in the history of mankind. However, what are the tools of invention and the invention of these tools which have exponentially increased the rate of inventions by enhancing humanity’s ability to invent. These thinking machines are the tools of thought which enhance one’s ability to invent and create.

Architecture, books and computers are examples of the thinking machines which have enabled humanity to analyze, transport and store thoughts and ideas. To create a thinking machine is to invent a tool of inventing. This would involve the construction of an object or idea which can be used to increase a persons ability to think creatively. Another interpretation of a thinking machine may be an object or organisation which has its own intellegence.

For example Artificial Intelligence (AI), organisations or collectives of animals and plants, and even manmade structures and cities.

[Figueiredo et al. 2020. P68]

“The City is a Thinking Machine.”

Lorens Holm The author’s Design Research Unit looks at Axonometry as a Thinking Machine. Here Axonometry is used for Cartographical , Design, Spacial and Temporal Thought.

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tectonics Architectural Tectonics [Stoane, L1 (2019)] An understanding of: Structure; Details; Components; and Anatomy synthesized into a spatial idea which can instantiate a critical discourse.

Infrastructure [Stoane, L2 (2019)] 1) the basic, underlining framework or features of a system or organization.

2) the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools.

3) the military installations of a country.

Classical Structures [Stoane, L3 (2019)] How Archaic and Classical Architecture responded to the Natural World.

Giedion – Archaic Space – Exterior Space Giedion – Classical Space – Interior Space [Holm, (2019)] Mordern Structures [Stoane, L4 (2019)] How Modern and Post-modern Architecture responded to social political and economic developments in the 19th and 20th Century.

Giedion –Modern Space – Space peering out at the world Holm – Post-modern Space – Space in perpetual motion

Structure

Detail

Component

Anatomy

Transportation

Services

Information

Framework

Column & Beam

Arch

Dome

Catenary

Structural Frame

Truss

Gridshell

Tension

Antecedent

Forefarther

Metabolism

Megastructure

Metabolism & Megastructure [Stoane, L5 (2019)] “a large frame in which all the functions of a city or part of a city are housed … like the great hill on which Italian towns were built.”

P R Banham

URBANISM

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Reflection on the environment from Natural to Constructed [Holm, L1 (2019)] The Hieroglyphics of the City “Town plans are thus no mere diagrams, they are a system of hieroglyphics in which man has written the history of civilisation, and the more tangled their apparent confusion, the more we may be rewarded in deciphering it.” Patrick Geddes, 1915.

Las Vagas - the city as a flow of information

Top Down and Ground Up Urbanism [Holm, L2 (2019)] Bottom Up: Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong; Cedric Price, Fun Palace, 1961, & Potteries think-belt, midlands, late 1960s; Top Down: Haussmannisation of Paris: Rue du Rivoli - the 1st boulevard; Le Corbusier’s Paris, The montage sensibility.

The Function of the Image of the City [Holm, L3 (2019)] self-image = ego. The self-image is a definition of the ego. The ego is formed by the self-image. That’s the myth of the mirror stage.

The Image of the City, Kevil Lynch: Mapping the city image and it’s elements through comparing Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles.

Melun-Senart - the city as a flow of money

Hong Kong - the cityof multiple grounds

Architectural Theorists of the City [Holm, L4 (2019)] Rome >< Noli: Noli Plan of Rome 1748; Pianta di Roma di Leonardo Bufalini 1551; Pirro Ligorio, antique Rome 1561; Ichnographia Campo Marzio, 1762; Paul Letarouilly, Édifices de Rome moderne 1855; Le Corbusier, Towards an Architecture (1923); Roma Interrotta, 1978.

Reclaiming the City [Holm, L5 (2019)] The social role of architecture: How architecture articulates the individual and the collective.

How architecture brings individuals together into political formations.

A long line of thinking: Aristotle, The Politics (400 BC); Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture (100 AD); Hannah Arendt The Human Condition; Frampton contra Venturi, ‘Towards a critical regionalism: 6 points for an architecture of resistance’ (1983); Felix Guattari, The Three Ecologies (1989/2000); Paolo Virno, A Grammar of the Multitude (2004).

URBAN THEORY

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What is Planning Theory [Moyo, L1 (2019)] Planning Theory: An elusive area of inquiry that draws with caution and rigour on a variety of social science disciplines to (re)-position the role of planning in developing the good city and region within economic and political constraints and opportunities.

Social Theory: a Framework for critical appraisal; an Explorative of causes/consequences; a Conjunction of theory and social change; the Challenges of inevitable change; the Inconclusive nature of social theory debate; a Response to change; an Explanatory and enhances quality of questioning

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Political Ideological Frameworks influencing Housing [Moyo, L2 (2019)] Social Democracy 1945-1979: Economic Collectivism; Work Unions, Local Councils; Social Housing Neo-liberalism 1979-1997: Economic Individualism; Market Driven, Minimal Government; For-profit Housing

Thesis: Market failure likely hence need for state intervention “Classical social democracy” Keynesian 1945-1979

Antithesis: Market failure caused by Government intervention “Neo-liberalism” Thatcherism 1979-1997

Synthesis: A synthesis of conventional Government intervention and promotion of market behaviour. Avoids bureaucratic top-down Government and the aspirations of the right to dismantle government. It is about “new progressivism” to achieve equal opportunity, personal responsibility and mobilising citizens and communities.

“The Third Way” Blairism 1997-2008

Desynthesis: A fission of the established Government into polarised left and right wing groups exacerbated by the polarisation of media.

“Political Polarisation” Obama-Trumpism 2008-(2020)

3) Third way politics 1997-2008: Participatory Individualism; Public-Private Partnerships; Government Incentivised Housing 4) Polarised politics 2008-(2020): Polarised Collectives of Individuals; Division of Social Groups, Market Control of Government; Housing Crisis, Gentrification, Homelessness Post-War Planning Theory [Moyo, L3 (2019)] Utopian socialism: Idealistic planning desires to solve urban social problems.

Social democracy: Establishing a consensual relationship between the state, society and other institutions.

Assumptions of Post War Planning: Town planning as physical planning of the built environment; Anticipation that good design will resolve urban problems; Anticipation that cities grow as planned with limited complexity

“The city is like an Amoeba... Splat!” Domiso Moyo

Post-War London - Foundation of the Social Democratic Era “Last Social Age of Architecture” Andy Stoane

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Key Research Terms

Key Research Theorists

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“an archipelago of architectures in a green lagoon of natures” rem koolhaas

Berlin Manifesto: the green archipelago Rem Koolhaas devised the Green Archipelago under the premise that Berlin was reducing in population during a period of Post-World War II retrenchment.

Koolhaas suggested that it was paramount that urbanity be retained despite the shrinking of the population. His solution was not further construction but rather deconstruction in any part of the city deemed unnecessary and improvement to those parts which were to be retained. A well designed ‘synthetic-nature’ would then begin to reclaim the areas left and become ‘an archipelago of architectures amongst a green lagoon,’ intensifying the feeling of man-made metropolis.

These green areas, he mused, would allow for a new lifestyle to emerge, that of a ‘metropolitan gypsy’ – someone who would travel in between the ‘islands’ in mobile homes, as part of markets or circuses for years at a time without ever needing to stop- an interesting way of encouraging the collective and breaking down traditional preconceptions of what a city should be.

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melun-sénart Koolhaas further explored the idea of archipelago in architecture in his Melun Sénart proposal – part of a competition for a new city on the outskirts of Paris. The site as it existed, was purely country side, free of any building work, the brief allowed the architect to do as he pleased. Koolhaas stated ‘The site of Melun Sénart, the last of the Villes Nouvelles that encircle Paris, is too beautiful to imagine a new city there with innocence and impunity.” He realised that poor urban development was inevitable within areas of the city and merely accepted this fact. He maintained the notion however, that it was possible to save areas of untainted countryside by cutting deliberate swathes of green through the city fabric. By setting aside set areas in which no construction could ever take place you could preserve the beauty which was here before, whilst also accommodating for the rising population which demanded a new town be created.

Where Koolhaas’ vision for Berlin was an archipelago of retrenchment, of deconstruction.

Melun Senart was very much to be an archipelago of growth, of construction.

“The built is now fundamentally suspect. The unbuilt is green, ecological, popular. If the built, le plein, is now out of control, subject to permanent political and financial turmoil. the same is not yet true of the unbuilt; nothingness may be the last subject of plausible certainties.”

REM KOOLHAAS

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Through collaborative programmatic endeavours Hybridisation enables many different groups of people to carryout various activities in the same location. This can positively benefit to the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the area as the distances that need to be travelled between activities are greatly reduced.

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Rem Koolhaas’ patent of the Social Condenser is flawed as the founding of the Social Condenser from the mainstream aspirations of Soviet architectural ideologues one hundred years ago ambitions of equality with a sensitive to the social asymmetries.

His definition is more kin to hybridisation.

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“As long as humans cannot fly, moving horizontally is natural and moving vertically is not. Thus, where there is not sufficient land for construction, a new plane created in the air at medium altitude should be preferred to an American-style tower ” EL LISSITZKY

air rights To avoid the plutocratic ground tied to the established economic model of its hypercommodification we must look for new operational zones above, below and in-between the earths planer surface. The work of El Lissitzky and Yona Friedman are examples of how man may occupy the sky.

Air rights are the rights to build or develop in the airspace above a property. Air rights are determined by the density of the area also known as FAR (floor area ratio). Landowners can sell any unused development rights to adjacent lots. The use of air rights allows the city to densify even if there is no ground-space available.

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plutocratic ground

"OBJECTIVES OF CITY SUCCESS HAVE COME TO BE IDENTIFIED AND ALIGNED WITH THE PRESENCE OF WEALTH ELITES WHILE WIDER GOALS, OF ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FOR CITIZENS, HAVE W I T H E R E D ” ROWLAND ATKINSON, SIMON PARKER ROGER BURROWS

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INVESTIGATIVE QUESTIONS After research into the key global issues relating to Shanghai: of Social Disparities; Finite Land and Natural Resources; Environmental Crisis; Housing Crisis, and the key research themes of: Grids and Archipelagos; Urban Typologies; What is the Ground?, the following questions were distilled.

How can Urban and Architectural Thinking reduce the expansion of suburban housing and industrial districts whilst providing quality socially inclusive housing?

Can investigations into the socio-political effects of various types of urban fabric and texture be applied in the consideration of the different urban conditions of Shanghai?

How can the consideration of urban indeterminacy inform the design of the cityscape to avoid obsolescence?

Can investigating housing case studies from Post War Britain provoke design thinking to create new housing typologies for the context of Shanghai?

How can classical, modern and post-modern architectural thinking and tectonics be integrated into new typological creations, with minimal use of the pluralistic ground to solve the housing paradox?

Stage I Conclusions

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Stage I identified the key housing economic political and social issues observed in the context of Shanghai and to collect a body of research and case studies to bringing forth the key meta-themes reflected in Stages II, III, and IV.

STAGE II

Field Work : [London / Shanghai] + Old Town Analysis /Design Charrettes Contents

Shanghai Field Intro Cities & Housing: Shanghai, London Shanghai Old Town Introduction, Analysis, Issues, Design Charrette Questions Mini Towers Hypothesis Making

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REM KOOLHAAS CONTENT

GLOBAL CONTEXT Rem Koolhaas in the book Content draws comparisons between the various city hosts of the World Expo from 1851 to 2010. The nature of the host cities themes were correlated with the GDP Growth rates of the cities at the time of their World Expo.

It was identified that cities with themes on expanding progress tend to have high rates of GDP growth: London 1851 with +6% Growth; New York 1939 with +3% Growth; Seattle 1962 with +5% Growth; Osaka 1970 with +9.5% Growth; and Shanghai with +10% Growth. On the other hand, cities with themes on questioning progress tend to have low to negative rates of GDP growth: Brussels 1958 with -1% Growth; Montreal 1967 with +1.2% Growth; Spokane 1974 with +1% Growth; and Hanover 2000 with +0.4% Growth.

The proportion of urbanization of the host cities in their geopolitical zones are also plotted to demonstrate how the periods rapid growth are in relation to the years in which the World Expos were hosted.

At the two ends of the timeline with the World Expo 1851 London and the World Expo 2010 Shanghai contextualise the periods’ of great urban growth for the two cities. London in the industrial revolution of the 19th century and Shanghai in China’s opening to global markets in the 1980s caused periods of great economic and urban growth for each city.

The World Expo was often the birthing ground of revolutionary ideas and innovations. Koolhaas compares the timeline of innovations in technologies to key World Expo events. Some major architectural developments introduced in World Expos include: the Crystal Palace London 1851; the Elevator Manhattan 1953; the Eifel Tower Paris 1889; the Ferris Wheel Chicago 1893; the Space Needle Seattle 1962; Buckminster Fuller’s Biosphere & Habitat 67 Montreal 1967; Kenzo Tange’s Space Frame Osaka 1970; Pavilion Portugal Lisbon 1998.

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LONDON 2019

HOUSING FUTURES

SHANGHAI 2019

PARRADOX OF A SPECIOUS CITY 8.9 million 1.5 % growth rate 1,572 km^2 0.2 % growth rate

‘CAPITALIST’ URBAN RENEWAL AFFORDABILITY CRISIS

population 1:3 land area 1:4

GENTRIFICATION SOCIAL DISPARITY PRIVATISATION COMMODIFICATION DENSIFICATION

24.2 million 2.9 % growth rate 6,340 km^2 1.5 % growth rate

‘SOCIALIST’ URBAN EXPANSION SOCIAL RELOCATION

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LONDON

SHANGHAI

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LONDON

SHANGHAI

The operational field: Shanghai, and case study city; London, have both experienced unprecedented physical and economic growth at different periods of history. Between 1800 and 1900 the population in London grew from 1 million to 7 million after the industrial revolution which led to the development of new housing typologies. The growth of Asia has followed the growth of Europe, but with a new extremity and intensity which Europe finds hard to imagine, far less absorb. London and Shanghai had the same population in 1985, around 7 million. In less than thirty-five years, London has increased to 9 million while Shanghai has reached more than 26 million. Such extreme growth has brought about huge transformations, infrastructurally, physically, socially and culturally.

London responded to its staggering growth with experiments in new forms of housing (and new forms of social relations therein) throughout the twentieth century. These commitments, however, were largely abandoned through the emergence of neoliberal economics which propagated around the world at the end of that century. Architecture capitulated to market forces.

The consequence is unprecedented housing unaffordability and levels of social inequality not seen since the eighteenth century.

Housing Context

Housing Context

Will Shanghai’s growth signal even more intensified social and economic distortions? Will it bring about erasure and displacement of communities, models of gentrification, and a socio economic zoning across the city? What role can architecture play in the avoidance of this? How can we learn from London?

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Housing Case Studies Shanghai Tianzifang developed in a quiet southern portion of the former French Concession of Shanghai. Locally it has the nickname ‘Laotiandi’ meaning old world. The bottom up development, led by the collection of small-scale businesses and creative industries, grew organically from the original mat like fabric. This low-rise fabric consists of 1920s and 1930s housing as well as a selection of former industrial buildings, which have been repurposed into livework use, where the original occupants live above, enabling the strong local creative arts community onto the street. The result is a series of interlocking alleyways with local boutique shops and restaurants which has created a vibrant atmosphere which attracts both foreign and local visitors. The texture of the mat enables one to freely wonder though various market and green spaces, which vary in scale and sizes. An experience unlike any modern mall or street. The catalytic effect of the community has been shown to spread as Tianzifang grows and matures through its surrounding context. It is a good example of a minimal erasure and displacement strategy lead by bottom up incentives. [Bracken G (2013)] Sanlin Yuan is a gated housing community located in Sanlin, Shanghai, which is around 10km from the old town. It consists of streets of five storey apartment blocks surrounding a central community centre. The residents were relocated from the traditional way of life where the street was an extension of the house, communal living room. The community centre at Sanlin Yuan fails to act as a replacement for this way of life, thus the residents have lost the collective lifestyle of their original neighbourhoods.

Zhongyuoan Liangwan City is a development of apartment block towers surrounding a central park. Prior to its construction the area consisted of congested two to four storey shed shacks. The original residents of the matlike fabric were relocated to Taopu, Baoshan and Jiangqiao in the suburbs of Shanghai and only the more well off could afford to purchase one of the new apartments. This mode of displacement and erasure causes Shanghai expanding suburbia and gentrification of the traditional fabric. The apartment towers create a sharp public to private transition where the traditional collective lifestyle of the peoples original housing configuration is lost. As described by Arendt this causes a tendency towards introspection.

Our studio wishes to discover alternatives to Shanghai’s cycle of erasure and displacement. To do this we analysed various housing case studies in London.

TIANZIFANG, 1920s Land Area: 7 ha Households: 673 Parking: No Density: 97 ppa SANLIN YUAN, 1995 Land Area: 14 ha Households: 2,092 Parking: YES Density: 151 ppa ZHONGYUOAN LIANGWAN CITY, 2004 Land Area: 50 ha Households: 20,000 Parking: YES Density: 332 ppa

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Housing Case Studies London

GOLDEN LANE ESTATE, 1950s Land Area: 2.8 ha Households: 554 Parking: YES Density: 200 ppa

Golden Lane Estate was an early 1950s council housing development in an area of the city of London devastated by bombing. Designed by the competition winners Chamberlin, Powell and Bon partnership it consists of a series of apartment blocks and towers around central courtyards and gardens with communal sports facilities and underground parking. The City of London Corporation who commissioned the project still retains its freehold and manages the property. The estate incorporates hybridised programmes with a pub and shops ground floor presence on to Goswell Rd and levels of apartments above. 52% of the flats have now been sold under Thatcher’s 1980s right to buy act, however some are still rented affordably for council tanents.

BARBICAN ESTATE, 1960-80s Land Area: 14 ha Households: 6000 Parking: YES Density: 173 ppa

The Barbican Estate is a hybridised residential development neighbouring Golden Lane Estate which was also designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon and developed by The City of London Corporation whom still manage it. The Barbican Estate was built between the 1960s and 1980s on a 14-hectare site which was devastated by the blitz. The complex contains an art centre, museum, schools, bars restaurants, library and performance art centre as well as many communal spaces and facilities around the enclaved lake like underground parking and a conservatory. The grounds and indoor facilities have become vibrant spaces enjoyed by both residents and visitors alike. There is a very strong sense of identity and collective life. The apartments occupy the top seven levels of the multi-programmatic figure of eight shaped blocks and float above high level walkways. The estate also contains three 48-storey apartment towers.

ALEXANDRA ROAD, 1978 Land Area: 6.5 ha Households: 520 Parking: YES Density: 78 ppa

Alexandra Road is a kilometre long social housing estate organised around the iconic red brick communal street which runs parallel to the West Coast Main Line in the London Brough of Camden. Designed by Neave Brown of Camden Council’s Architects Department it consists of two outward sloping blocks which run along the curved street with dual aspect apartments each with a presence onto the street. The orientation of facing apartments enabled the community to grow with a family friendly atmosphere due to the passive surveillance from the apartment balconies. The grounds contain gardens, a school, a youth club, a heating complex, underground parking and a communal facility. Some aspects the property are poorly maintained due to the lack of self organising management or council support.

These London housing case studies from the last age of social architecture adds to the spaces of the polis enabling organic collectivity and thus a Leferbrian right to the city.

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Shanghai Growth 1 : 250,000

Compared with London, Shanghai’s towers are taller, it’s sprawl is greater and its development is more extreme.

After the Cultural Revolution, when the post-war generation reached the age where they were starting families, the Chinese government was too poor to provide adequate housing for its population due to a period of heavy spending. In the late 1970’s when the planned economy was opened to the market, the government encouraged and assisted private developers in producing mass housing. The monopolisation of the ground and control over development by a small group of wealthy individuals, a byproduct of the ground becoming hypercommodified, has seen the majority of people priced out of the city. This condition was coined The Plutocratic Ground.

Much of Shanghai has already found itself subsumed, and all indicators suggest this will continue and, it stands to reason, based on other aspects of Shanghai’s development that the chasm will only widen.

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NANSHI DISTRICT

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The locations of the Shanghai housing case studies in the in relation to the Old Town is shown above. These models involve the displacement of the working class from the central areas to the suburbs resulting in gentrification of the city core and an expanding suburban housing configuration.

This plutocrification is resulting in vast erasure and displacement of established communities, which capitulate to market forces which recognise its land as valuable but its social fabric as valueless. These issues are, at their most extreme in the Old Town of Shanghai where the traditional urban fabric is rapidly disappearing, and the indigenous population are being relocated into satellite cities far from the urban core.

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- 南市区 Nanshi Nanshi DistrictDistrict - 南市区

1:5000

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The Old Town, which is the traditional urban core of the city is located in Huangpu District, Shanghai, The circular area of a 2km diameter, enclosed by Renmin Road and Zhonghua Road, houses 180,000 people. With people experiencing as little as 10m2^2. Located in the heart of Shanghai, the Old Town is the origin of Shanghai’s development from a seaside fishing port to a modern city.

Drawing on our research of morphological patterns involving continuity of fabric (mats), we can make a clear correlation between the mat pattern and a specific form of political economy that involves collective operation and social collaboration.

In the Old Town these interventions are evident if we compare the spatial change of building functions from 1948 and 2019 (see above maps). The new urban development mainly consisting of high-rise buildings, complete erasure gentrification, as well as glamorous, socially exclusive, commercial development implies displacing people and leaving them with very little. Residents have been offered less than ¥24,000 or £3,000 for everything they owned, forcing them from the area. One issue with these new developments is that they force long-time residents to leave the Old Town as this is not enough money to buy in the area once it has been developed.

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The density of the old town is much less in conparison to immediately outside the ring road.

To respond to high density demands government has intravined by relocating large areas of the olf town and enabling developers to build new gated highrise blocks inside the old town.

The ongoing demolishon of the mat fabric is evident by the red signs.

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Drawing on our research of morphological patterns involving continuity of fabric (mats), a clear correlation can be made between the mat pattern and a specific form of political economy that involves collective operation and social collaboration. The dense, low-rise typology of the Old Town can be considered a mat, albeit an accidentally occurring one. Quoting architect Alison Smithson, “mat-building can be said to epitomize the anonymous collective” without a concern on achieving a physical form. However, there are shared qualities among this configuration: large-scale, highdensity and the formation of a matrix based on the repetition of a unit among a grid. Even though the Old Town is not configured by the repetition of a unit, due to its continuous urban fabric within an enclave, it allows for communities to engage in a collaborative set-up. A pluralistic way of life.

Here, Lefebvre’s ‘right to the city’ seems to play out in a continual ambiguity between inside and outside, private and public and thresholds of ownership. In a way, the accidental mat of the Old Town operates like one big household.

As Lefebvre suggested, “in any space, certain forms of interaction are encouraged and discouraged giving from to social structures. “The streets become living rooms, the limitation of space in the houses results in people extending their lives into the streets. When walking around the different districts we could find a mix between the private and the public activities. The whole area is like a big house which insinuates social freedom within the old town. We also distinguished a strong sense of community as the streets become the community centre which is the core of the collective way of life.

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The Government’s Protection plan focus on the historic fabric for example the a Confucian Temple and other areas which are being set aside for preservation. However, these areas have been decided only on historical and architectural value, of which, the old fabric have been deemed to have very little. In part, this is because much of the fabric is unsanitary, lacking in facilities and is overcrowded. This causes a crude erasure of the traditional li-long and mat fabric of old Shanghai. Where the rich collective life of the Old Town is deemed valueless and will soon be erased by processes of gentrification.

Another form of gentrification we identified involves what might be described as ‘Taxidermic gentrification’. In an attempt to sustain the social interaction taxidermic urbanism is performed. Taxidermic urbanism, as defined by Canadian landscape architect Robert Allsop, is “the art of preserving, stuffing and mounting buildings for lifelike effect to simulate an intrinsic social, cultural or commercial vitality.” This can be witnessed in Yu-yuan Gardens in the Old Town. The gentrified and commercialised part of the old urban core have been revitalized but with a different demographic of tourists and more wealthy shop owners.

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Old Town Historic Mat Fabric

Yuyuan Garden ‘Taxidermic Urbanism’ of Historic Fabric

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Can a housing intervention prevent the erasure of the old town mat fabric and the displacement of the indigenous population?

Can a housing intervention prevent the taxidermic preservation of the historic fabric?

Can a housing intervention reintroduce the pluralistic living to the archipelagos of new highrise blocks to avoid introspection?

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Subterranean Expansion And Repair

PROTECTION

SHANGHAI DESIGN CHARETTES TONGI X DUNDEE Nanshi District - 南市区

INTROVENTION AND REPITITION

ELEVATED GROUNDS

The twelve of us in Studio A on a field study trip to Tongi University1:5000 collaborated with a studio of eighteen students to participate in a 1-week design charette for the Nanshi District or Shanghai Old Town. Pooling our combined research and field analysis we formed six groups of five students, with each group using the different strategies of: Protection; Intrevention; Repetition; Repair; Elevated Grounds; and Subterranean Expansion. The six proposals were then presented to a panel of Tongi University Staff, Architects and Government Representatives.

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URBAN GRAIN

AXONOMETRIC

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growth towers

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Stage II Conclusions Stage II analysed the contextual factors and issues relating to urban field of Shanghai and the Old Town by drawing parallels to the urban field of London. From this key design strategies for the old town of shanghai were proposed through collaborative design charettes with Tongi University in order to identify the key hypothic scenarios which were further elaborated and tested in Sages III and IV.

STAGE III

Constructing the Hypothesis [Transect] Contents Meta Themes Key Issues Air Streets Transect Logic Transect Drawings & Models Hypothesis Test Conditions

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METATHEMES

REPAIR THE LOST FABRIC

URBAN GROWTH

SKY STREETS

DENSIFY TO MEET DEMANDS

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ZERO DISPLACEMENT

MIMIMAL ERASURE

OF THE INDIGENOUS POPULOUS

OF THE EXISTING FABRIC

ENHANCING THE LIFESTYLE OF

BUILDING ON THE TRADITION OF

ONE BIG LIVING ROOM

COLLECTIVE LIFE

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Streets in the Air

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For the very survival of the 470-year-old traditional core of Shanghai the Nanshi District or Old Town must adopt new typologies to stay relevant with the fast and dynamic pace of Shanghai’s bustling growth. Without this step to the otherwise: The traditional organic mat fabric will continue to be erased and replacement by the generic, gentrified with its indigenous populous displaced into the suburban utopia which consumes the natural world.

The historically important fabric will continue to be gutted of its living heritage, striped and stuffed with consumerism to become taxidermically preserved.

The newly established Highrise communities will continue their iterative cycle of functional precision and obsolescence consumed by the needs of the city slowly eroding the gaps, the common and the polis into an introspected society of NeoCapitalism.

The Streets in the Air is an infrastructural public intervention which soars above the old town ancient streets, which offers an alternative to the cycles of erasure and displacement, gentrification and preservation, isolation and introspection.

The Streets in the Air aim avoid the displacement of the people of the old town by creating elevated housing scenarios following the street hieroglyphics. The existing population of the mat fabric is 150,000 people, who live in conditions on average of 10m2 per person. Air streets will house at least 75,000 with conditions of at least 20m2 per person. This will enable the remaining 75,000 to have at least 20m2 per person freeing space for further social and economic endeavours. A bottom up development model such as Tianzifang may be introduced to allow the indigenous families and their properties to develop new commercial and cultural programmes.

The legs of the air streets will provide the connection between the ground and the air. These slender towers will be combined with mini squares on the ground providing communal facilities and commercial centres. The air streets will interact with the 3 fabrics identified of the mat, historic and high-rise in symbiosis and with minimal erasure.

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Structure

The solids will act as a continuous beam.

The Voids provide a veriety of configuration.

El Lissitsky, Horizontal Skyscrapers, 1925 [Stoane, L4 (2019)]

Lissitsky’s thinking is of a multi-level cityscape.

The Streets in the air will incorporate modern structural technologies to achieve this dream.

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MINI TOWER CONNECTION

AIR CONNECTION

GROUND CONNECTION

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TRANSECT MODEL D

SAMPLE MODEL

1 : 1000

1 : 500 MAT

HISTORIC PRESERVATION

HIGHRISE BLOCKS

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TRANSECTION Transect D was chosen as it follows Penglai Road, originally one of the rivers through the old town, as it experiences the three different fabric scenarios.

The Air Streets are to interact with the three different fabrics of High rise, historic and mat to address the identified key issues.

These three scenarios have led to three sister hypothesises. The three hypothesises will be tested through three key Sectional Perspective drawings taken through Transect D at key areas.

1 : 10, 000 Old Town Transect Plan 1 : 2000 Transect D Samples

SMALL - OLD TOWN MAT FABRIC

BIG - HIGHRISE BLOCK FABRIC

VARIED - HISTORIC FABRIC

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Test Conditions

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Stage III Conclusions Stage III identified the specific urban design hypothesises relating to the key meta-themes and contextual conditions of the old town, through transect samples, in order to establish the different urban conditions testing in Stage IV.

STAGE IV

Testing the Hypothesis [Architectural Scale] Contents Testing Hypothesis Perspective Sections Results &Findings

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HIGH-RISE FABRIC The Streets in the Air aim to connect the newly planted high-rise block fabric with the traditional fabrics through communal, commercial and public programmes creating revanchlising collective life with interactions at high and low levels to create an enriched public-private relationship where the old town’s enclaves meet.

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HISTORIC FABRIC The Streets in the Air aim to respect the inheritance of the historic fabric through cultural and educational programmes for the collective benefit of all living populous’ in the old town in order to maintain and enrich their cultural inheritance by establishing new creative industries which interact with the historic fabric with mini markets where the local meets the world.

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MAT FABRIC The Streets in the Air aim to Protect the pluralistic life of the Old Town’s mat fabric by offering an alternative living scenario to reverse the overcrowding pressures below for the indigenous communities to continue to occupy and thrive, interacting at key points with mini squares. A meeting place between the ground level and sky level.

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Exhibition

Streets in the Air

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Stage IV Conclusions Stage IV tested the urban design hypothesises through the architectural evaluation of the defined conditions and curate findings in a graphical language which provokes the consideration of the otherwise. The results of which will be further reflected upon to refine the hypothesises and be further tested at an architectural scale in Journal II.

Conclusions

Reflections and Towards Journal II Journal II will aim to continue the refine the established hypothic thinking through Architectural and tectonic scales. This will aim to rigorously test the viability of the distilled urban manifesto, through architectural and tectonic scale manifestations, to analyse how successfully the scenario may resolve the current global, Shanghainese and Local Old Town issues identified...

...in search of an otherwise.

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Bibliography

Adjodha J (2018). Structural Design for Adaptability and Growth. Sheffield: The University of Sheffield.

Arendt H (1958). The Human Condition. 2nd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Amoma, Koolhaas R, et al (2004). Content. Copenhagen: Taschen.

Banham P R (1976). Megastructure. London: Thames and Hudson.

Bracken G (2013). The Shanghai Alleyway House . New York: Routledge.

Brand S (1997). HOW BUILDINGS LEARN- What happens after they’re built. 2nd ed. London: Phoenix Illustrated.

Brenner N (2013), Designing out of Crisis, Fulcrum 65, 2013: Neoliberalisation, London, Bedforn Press,.

Figueiredo S, Krishnamurthy S, Schroeder T (2020). Architecture and the Smart City. New York: Routledge.

Frampton, (2007) Modern Architecture ‘Architecture in the age of Globalisation’, London, Thanmes & Hudson.

Habraken N J (1972). Supports: an alternative to mass housing. Bedford: Architectural Press.

Kwinter S (1996). Rem Koolhaas: conversations with students. USA: Rise University School of Architecture.

Koolhaas R, Mau B (1995). S,M,L,XL ‘Surrender’. New York: The Monacelli Press1. 972.

Koolhaas R, Mau B (1995). S,M,L,XL ‘Whatever happened to Urbanism?’. New York: The Monacelli Press1.

959.

Koolhaas R, Mau B (1995). S,M,L,XL ‘Generic City’. New York: The Monacelli Press1. 1238.

Koolhaas R (1994). Delirious New York: A Retroactive manifesto for Manhatten, New York, Monaceli Press.

Koolhaas R, Obrist H U. Project Japan: Metabolism Talks, Cologne, Taschen GmbH, 2011.

Lefebvre H (1991), The Production of Space, Oxford, Blackwell.

Lebesque S, Van Vlissingen H F (1999). Yona Friedman: Structures Servicing the Unpredictable. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.

Lemer A C. (1996).

Infrastructure Obsolescence and Design Service Life .

JOURNAL OF INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS. Schneider T, Till J (2007). Flexible Housing. Oxford: Elsevier.

Staone A (2019). ‘Otherwise’ Housing Futures: The Paradox of the Specious City. Dundee: University of Dundee.

Staone A (2019). ‘Otherwise’ Shanghai Inverness Paris Verona Dundee. Dundee: University of Dundee.

Ungers O, Koolhaas R (1977). The City in the City: Berlin A Green Archipelago. Germany: Lars Muller Publishers.

Yeang K (1999). The Green Skyscraper. London: Prestel.

Course Lectures Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 1: Patrick Geddes and Reflection on the Environment, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 2: Planning, Ground Up and Top Down, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 3: Kevin Lynch and the Funtion of the City, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 4:Rome and Rowe, Collage City, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 5: Conclusions on Cities and Politics, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Moyo D (2019), Urban Policy Lecture 1: What is Planning Theory, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Moyo D (2019), Urban Policy Lecture 2: Ideologies Influencing Planning Practice, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Moyo D (2019), Urban Policy Lecture 3: Early Post-war Planning Theory, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 1: The Tectonic Question, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 2: Infrastructure, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 3: Complexio Oppositorum, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 4: Higher, Faster, Further Freer, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 5: Kinetics, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 6:Inderterminacy, Dundee, University of Dundee.

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Thank You Tutor: Andy Stoane Lecturers: Andy Stoane Domiso Moyo Lorens Holm Tongi University Tutors Fellow Students Tongi University And Fellow colleagues of Studio A Especially working with Hafsa and Tong of the Streets in the Air proposal It has been a pleasure working with everyone on this project Joshua F Adjodha

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otherwise

STUDIO A : HOUSING FUTURES JOURNAL VOLUME II JOSHUA F ADJODHA

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INTRODUCTION

STUDIO A : HOUSING FUTURES COLLABORATION KEY:

CONTENTS:

Studio A Pages 92, 114 Studio A & Tongi Studio Pages 115, 117-119 Studio A - Air Streets Group Pages 124-133

Introduction Housing Futures Page 92 Stage V : Testing the Hypothesis [Architectural Scale] Page 96 Stage VI : Testing the Hypothesis [Tectonic Scale] Page 154 Journal Volume II Conclusions Page 167

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AIM To respond to the urban housing issues discovered in Journal I relating to Shanghai old town and the key spatial, social, economic and environmental factors, by testing the urban hypothesis and design manifesto developed in order to imagine new urban, architectural and tectonic scale manifestations, which are informed by vigorous research and analytical case studies, to form a conclusive study of a new forms of collective living… an otherwise.

OBJECTIVES Stage V Testing Hypothesis [Architectural Scale] To test the urban design hypothesis through developing an urban and architectural proposition of an identified fragment of the urban strategy which responds to the identified housing economic political, social and environmental issues observed in the context of the Shanghai Old Town which can be elaborated further in Stage VI.

Stage VI Testing Hypothesis [Tectonic Scale] To further evaluate the design hypothesis and developed urban and architectural manifestation from Stage V through the tectonic scale evaluation of specific moments in the overall proposition, demonstrating a higher level of resolution of the proposed urban, architectural and tectonic manifestation, to draw conclusions on how effectively the urban hypothesis addresses the key meta themes discovered in Shanghai and the possible further research implications.

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Studio A Dundee London Shanghai

Why Shanghai?

Shanghai has experienced considerable growth in its recent history. Now a hypercity Shanghai is forecast to grow considerably more in response to the dynamic economic, political, environmental and social demands. This growth continues to consume large amounts of land and natural resources as the city sprawls over Eastern China.

Why London?

The twelve of us, lead by our tutor and mentor Andy Stoane, in our 4th Year Project titled “Housing Futures” have been given the opportunity to tackle the contextual housing issue of the old town in Shanghai in collaboration with eighteen Tongi University students.

London experienced considerable growth during the industrial revolution of the 19th Century . Post WWII 1950s to 1970s Britain produced housing innovations which we believe to be the last great age of social architecture. Most prevalent cases still thrive today in the City of London. We aim to learn from comparative studies of such housing typologies to create an alternative housing future for Shanghai.

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STAGE V

Testing the Hypothesis [Architectural Scale] Contents

Testing the Hypothesis [Architectural Scale] Urban Themes Literature and Lectures Housing Case Studies Project Overview Urban Scales Architectural Scales

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’’What makes mass society so difficult to bear is not the number of people involved, but the fact that the world between them has lost its power to gather them together’’ Hanna Arendt

Polito-economics Ken Yeang in his book The Green Skyscraper describes how the exponential population growth of the built environment with the consumption of land and natural resources more than planetary systems can sustain, which is a major factor of the global economic, social and ecological sustainability crisis.

Hannah Arendt describes how the city now has lost its ability to bring people together. The quantity of human interactions has diluted its quality to the extent which isolates and separates. The city, the invention of the collective, has led to the isolation of individuals and the destruction of the collective creating a paradox.

Thomas Piketty in his 2014 book Capital discusses how as housing has increasingly becoming a medium of economical investment has led major global inequalities causing mass homelessness and gentrification, which was demonstrated by the 2008 global housing crisis.

The displacement of middle and lower class in combination with the dis-industrialisation of urban centres has led to removal of productive industries from cities into a decentralised configuration of disassociated archipelagos. These districts of built matter continue to consume the natural world and its natural resource through the operation of globalised networks of socio politic and economic interactions.

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THE OTHERWISE “… the starting point of design is the proposition that things could be otherwise” Neil Brenner “unless you transform spatial organisation, no revolution can ever be possible.”

‘’In any space certain forms of interaction are encouraged and discouraged, giving form to social structures and ideologies’’.

“… new social relation calls for a new space, and vise-versa.”

Henri Lefebvre To create the otherwise is to find new typological urban constructs, which can counter the sprawling housing and industrial districts of present day global cities like Shanghai, to counter the breakdown of cities societal collectivity and the global sustainability crisis.

To do this Studio A researched through qualitative and case study methodologies in search of the relevant meta themes concerning the Paradox of the Specious City.

Henri Lefebvre

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THINKING MACHINE “Good Architecture is a Thinking Machine.”

Andy Stoane To think otherwise one would need to use a thinking machine.

What is a Thinking Machine? A physical machine is a manmade system which converts, transports or stores singularly or a combination of energy, matter or information. Machines have been created as tools of convenience by humans since their origin and as such they may be defined as machine making animals.

The creation of complex machines originated in the Renaissance with Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings but thrived in the industrial revolution and now with the invention of computers. Metaphorical or theoretical machines have been used by ancient philosophers like Lucretius’ machina mundi. It has also been historically used in the architectural and urban fields by Plato, Francesco Di Giorgio Martini, and Le Corbusier each whom describe the city as a machine.

Design thinking leading to invention is in the DNA of humanity and provides the landmarks in the history of mankind. However, what are the tools of invention and the invention of these tools which have exponentially increased the rate of inventions by enhancing humanity’s ability to invent? These thinking machines are the tools of thought which enhance one’s ability to invent and create.

Architecture, books and computers are examples of the thinking machines which have enabled humanity to analyze, transport and store thoughts and ideas. To create a thinking machine is to invent a tool of inventing. This would involve the construction of an object or idea which can be used to increase a persons ability to think creatively. Another interpretation of a thinking machine may be an object or organisation which has its own intellegence.

For example Artificial Intelligence (AI), organisations or collectives of animals and plants, and even manmade structures and cities.

[Figueiredo et al. 2020. P68]

“The City is a Thinking Machine.”

Lorens Holm The author’s Design Research Unit looks at Axonometry as a Thinking Machine. Here Axonometry is used for Cartographical , Design, Spacial and Temporal Thought.

URBAN THEORY

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What is Planning Theory [Moyo, L1 (2019)] Planning Theory: An elusive area of inquiry that draws with caution and rigour on a variety of social science disciplines to (re)-position the role of planning in developing the good city and region within economic and political constraints and opportunities.

Social Theory: a Framework for critical appraisal; an Explorative of causes/consequences; a Conjunction of theory and social change; the Challenges of inevitable change; the Inconclusive nature of social theory debate; a Response to change; an Explanatory and enhances quality of questioning

1) 2)

Political Ideological Frameworks influencing Housing [Moyo, L2 (2019)] Social Democracy 1945-1979: Economic Collectivism; Work Unions, Local Councils; Social Housing Neo-liberalism 1979-1997: Economic Individualism; Market Driven, Minimal Government; For-profit Housing

Thesis: Market failure likely hence need for state intervention “Classical social democracy” Keynesian 1945-1979

Antithesis: Market failure caused by Government intervention “Neo-liberalism” Thatcherism 1979-1997

Synthesis: A synthesis of conventional Government intervention and promotion of market behaviour. Avoids bureaucratic top-down Government and the aspirations of the right to dismantle government. It is about “new progressivism” to achieve equal opportunity, personal responsibility and mobilising citizens and communities.

“The Third Way” Blairism 1997-2008

Desynthesis: A fission of the established Government into polarised left and right wing groups exacerbated by the polarisation of media.

“Political Polarisation” Obama-Trumpism 2008-(2020)

3) Third way politics 1997-2008: Participatory Individualism; Public-Private Partnerships; Government Incentivised Housing 4) Polarised politics 2008-(2020): Polarised Collectives of Individuals; Division of Social Groups, Market Control of Government; Housing Crisis, Gentrification, Homelessness Post-War Planning Theory [Moyo, L3 (2019)] Utopian socialism: Idealistic planning desires to solve urban social problems.

Social democracy: Establishing a consensual relationship between the state, society and other institutions.

Assumptions of Post War Planning: Town planning as physical planning of the built environment; Anticipation that good design will resolve urban problems; Anticipation that cities grow as planned with limited complexity

“The city is like an Amoeba... Splat!” Domiso Moyo

Post-War London - Foundation of the Social Democratic Era “Last Social Age of Architecture” Andy Stoane

URBANISM

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Reflection on the environment from Natural to Constructed [Holm, L1 (2019)] The Hieroglyphics of the City “Town plans are thus no mere diagrams, they are a system of hieroglyphics in which man has written the history of civilisation, and the more tangled their apparent confusion, the more we may be rewarded in deciphering it.” Patrick Geddes, 1915.

Las Vagas - the city as a flow of information

Top Down and Ground Up Urbanism [Holm, L2 (2019)] Bottom Up: Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong; Cedric Price, Fun Palace, 1961, & Potteries think-belt, midlands, late 1960s; Top Down: Haussmannisation of Paris: Rue du Rivoli - the 1st boulevard; Le Corbusier’s Paris, The montage sensibility.

The Function of the Image of the City [Holm, L3 (2019)] self-image = ego. The self-image is a definition of the ego. The ego is formed by the self-image. That’s the myth of the mirror stage.

The Image of the City, Kevil Lynch: Mapping the city image and it’s elements through comparing Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles.

Melun-Senart - the city as a flow of money

Hong Kong - the cityof multiple grounds

Architectural Theorists of the City [Holm, L4 (2019)] Rome >< Noli: Noli Plan of Rome 1748; Pianta di Roma di Leonardo Bufalini 1551; Pirro Ligorio, antique Rome 1561; Ichnographia Campo Marzio, 1762; Paul Letarouilly, Édifices de Rome moderne 1855; Le Corbusier, Towards an Architecture (1923); Roma Interrotta, 1978.

Reclaiming the City [Holm, L5 (2019)] The social role of architecture: How architecture articulates the individual and the collective.

How architecture brings individuals together into political formations.

A long line of thinking: Aristotle, The Politics (400 BC); Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture (100 AD); Hannah Arendt The Human Condition; Frampton contra Venturi, ‘Towards a critical regionalism: 6 points for an architecture of resistance’ (1983); Felix Guattari, The Three Ecologies (1989/2000); Paolo Virno, A Grammar of the Multitude (2004).

tectonics

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Architectural Tectonics [Stoane, L1 (2019)] An understanding of: Structure; Details; Components; and Anatomy synthesized into a spatial idea which can instantiate a critical discourse.

1) 2)

Infrastructure [Stoane, L2 (2019)] the basic, underlining framework or features of a system or organization. the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area.

Classical Structures [Stoane, L3 (2019)] How Archaic and Classical Architecture responded to Nature.

Giedion – Archaic Space – Exterior Space Giedion – Classical Space – Interior Space [Holm, (2019)]

Mordern Structures [Stoane, L4 (2019)] How Modern and Post-modern Architecture responded to social political and economic developments in the 19th and 20th Century.

Giedion –Modern Space – Space peering out at the world Holm – Post-modern Space – Space in perpetual motion Metabolism & Megastructure [Stoane, L5 (2019)] “a large frame in which all the functions of a city or part of a city are housed … like the great hill on which Italian towns were built.”

P R Banham

Structure

Detail

Component

Anatomy

Transportation

Services

Information

Framework

Column & Beam

Arch

Dome

Catenary

Structural Frame

Truss

Gridshell

Tension

Antecedent

Forefarther

Metabolism

Megastructure

Components

Systems

Buildings

Cities

Kinetics [Stoane, L6 (2019)] Dynamic Architecture in responce to uncertainty.

Differentiation [Stoane, L7 (2019)] Appearances and Essences [Stoane, L8 (2019)]

MODERNISM

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Space and Its spatial Subjects [Holm, L1 (2020)] Giedion –Modern Space – Space peering out at the world Modernism, the dynamic interaction between interior and exterior Modern Subject

Inside - Outside

Threshold

Dynamic

Principles

Apparatus

Realism

Architectural Intent

Objects - Buildings

City Network

Object Collection City

Building Commodities

Object - Subject

Mobile Entertainment

Object Discourse

Urban Media

Perspective [Holm, L2 (2020)] The representation of space and birth of the modern subject.

Brunelleschi’s 1410 Baptistery Florence founding linear perspective.

Alberti’s Della Pittura, 1435 principles of linear perspective.

Object Architecture [Holm, L3 (2020)] Graham Harman Object Oriented Orthology. Pirre Ligorio’s 1561 Antique Rome and Le Corbusier’s 1923 Towards an Architecture.

Archigram the rise of the machines [Holm, L4 (2020)] architecture + telegram - Pop Architecture - Consumer City Capitalist Action Heroes.

Walking City 1964, Instant City 1968, Plug in City 1964 Aldo Rossi & the Collective Space of Memory [Holm, L5 (2020)] the city - a collective artefact, collective consciousness, the unconscious. Architecture as the construction of the city over time.

The Architecture of the City, 1966.

Le Corbusier and Loopy Time of Modernism [Holm, L6 (2020)] Le Voyage D’Orient, 1911/1965, A lifetime to answer the Parthenon.

Solid + Space

Taxidermic Urbanism

Continuity

Dynamic Urbanism

Isolation

Global Mechnics

Disjunctive Form

Ecological Erasure

Koolhaas, the Big Box projects, & a particularly ‘clinical’ relation to Modernism [Holm, L7 (2020)] Psychosis Clinic. Koolhaas - Le Corbusier. Limitless self-study.

Recent China: Space and Critical Regionalism [Holm, L8 (2020)] A clash between tradition and glabalised explosive growth.

Globalism & Junkspace [Holm, L9 (2020)] Spaceship Earth - Global + Local - Scarcity or Design Ignorance

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buildings The End of Modernism ?

or Victim of Socio-political Disparities

the Pruitt-Igoe Myth [Stoane, L1 (2020)] The residents perspective on Pruitt-Igoe’s life and death.

Erasure

A Gerrymandered Estate [Stoane, L2 (2020)] Chamberlin, Powell and Bon partnership’s London PostWWII housing estates: Golden Estate and the Barbican.

The Last Social Age of Architecture: elevated the living standards of the working class, creating an urban oasis and a new identity.

Urban Archipelagos

Societal Rebirth

Social Condensing

Hybridisation

Intent

Design

Analysis

Construction

Bottle-Rack

Footprint

Topography

Extended Family

Reimagined Town

Urban Hybrid

Interior Streetscape

Economic Forces

Unit House

Unit Organisation

Megastructural Frame

Urban Organism

The New Walsall Art Gallery [Stoane, L3 (2020)] Peter St John and Adam Caruso’s Walsall Art Gallery.

Structural and Architectural intent from concept design to detailed design and construction.

Displacement

Unité D’ Habitation, Marseilles [Stoane, L4 (2020)] Le Corbusier’s 1952 Unité D’ Habitation in Marseilles revoulutionary mass housing scheme. The family unit as part of an extended living machine.

Cumbernauld Megastructure [Stoane, L5 (2020)] The 1960s Cumbernauld Town Center was described by R. Banham as ’ ...the most convincing paradigm we have of what a megastructure should be.’

All aspects of a town contained in one wholistic public infrastructure.

Pavilion De L’Esprit Nouveau [Stoane, L6 (2020)] Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret’s 1925 Pavilion De L’Esprit was an industrial era modular housing unit which could form part of an urban megastructural framework to form new urban organisations.

Lafayette Park Detroit [Stoane, L7 (2020)]

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Key Research Terms

Key Research Theorists

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INVESTIGATIVE QUESTIONS After research into the key global issues relating to Shanghai: of Social Disparities; Finite Land and Natural Resources; Environmental Crisis; Housing Crisis, and the key research themes of: Grids and Archipelagos; Urban Typologies; What is the Ground?, the following questions were distilled.

How can Urban and Architectural Thinking reduce the expansion of suburban housing and industrial districts whilst providing quality socially inclusive housing?

Can investigations into the socio-political effects of various types of urban fabric and texture be applied in the consideration of the different urban conditions of Shanghai?

How can the consideration of urban indeterminacy inform the design of the cityscape to avoid obsolescence?

Can investigating housing case studies from Post War Britain provoke design thinking to create new housing typologies for the context of Shanghai?

How can classical, modern and post-modern architectural thinking and tectonics be integrated into new typological creations, with minimal use of the pluralistic ground to solve the housing paradox?

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REM KOOLHAAS CONTENT

GLOBAL CONTEXT Rem Koolhaas in the book Content draws comparisons between the various city hosts of the World Expo from 1851 to 2010. The nature of the host cities themes were correlated with the GDP Growth rates of the cities at the time of their World Expo.

It was identified that cities with themes on expanding progress tend to have high rates of GDP growth: London 1851 with +6% Growth; New York 1939 with +3% Growth; Seattle 1962 with +5% Growth; Osaka 1970 with +9.5% Growth; and Shanghai with +10% Growth. On the other hand, cities with themes on questioning progress tend to have low to negative rates of GDP growth: Brussels 1958 with -1% Growth; Montreal 1967 with +1.2% Growth; Spokane 1974 with +1% Growth; and Hanover 2000 with +0.4% Growth.

The proportion of urbanization of the host cities in their geopolitical zones are also plotted to demonstrate how the periods’ rapid growth are in relation to the years in which the World Expos were hosted.

At the two ends of the timeline with the World Expo 1851 London and the World Expo 2010 Shanghai contextualise the periods of great urban growth for the two cities. London in the industrial revolution of the 19th century and Shanghai in China’s opening to global markets in the 1980s caused periods of great economic and urban growth for each city.

The World Expo was often the birthing ground of revolutionary ideas and innovations. Koolhaas compares the timeline of innovations in technologies to key World Expo events. Some major architectural developments introduced in World Expos include: the Crystal Palace London 1851; the Elevator Manhattan 1953; the Eifel Tower Paris 1889; the Ferris Wheel Chicago 1893; the Space Needle Seattle 1962; Buckminster Fuller’s Biosphere & Habitat 67 Montreal 1967; Kenzo Tange’s Space Frame Osaka 1970; Pavilion Portugal Lisbon 1998.

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LONDON 2019

HOUSING FUTURES

SHANGHAI 2019

PARRADOX OF A SPECIOUS CITY 8.9 million 1.5 % growth rate 1,572 km^2 0.2 % growth rate

‘CAPITALIST’ URBAN RENEWAL AFFORDABILITY CRISIS

population 1:3 land area 1:4

GENTRIFICATION SOCIAL DISPARITY PRIVATISATION COMMODIFICATION DENSIFICATION

24.2 million 2.9 % growth rate 6,340 km^2 1.5 % growth rate

‘SOCIALIST’ URBAN EXPANSION SOCIAL RELOCATION

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LONDON

SHANGHAI

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LONDON

SHANGHAI

The operational field: Shanghai, and case study city; London, have both experienced unprecedented physical and economic growth at different periods of history. Between 1800 and 1900 the population in London grew from 1 million to 7 million after the industrial revolution which led to the development of new housing typologies. The growth of Asia has followed the growth of Europe, but with a new extremity and intensity which Europe finds hard to imagine, far less absorb. London and Shanghai had the same population in 1985, around 7 million. In less than thirty-five years, London has increased to 9 million while Shanghai has reached more than 26 million. Such extreme growth has brought about huge transformations, infrastructurally, physically, socially and culturally.

London responded to its staggering growth with experiments in new forms of housing (and new forms of social relations therein) throughout the twentieth century. These commitments, however, were largely abandoned through the emergence of neoliberal economics which propagated around the world at the end of that century. Architecture capitulated to market forces.

The consequence is unprecedented housing unaffordability and levels of social inequality not seen since the eighteenth century.

Housing Context

Housing Context

Will Shanghai’s growth signal even more intensified social and economic distortions? Will it bring about erasure and displacement of communities, models of gentrification, and a socio economic zoning across the city? What role can architecture play in the avoidance of this? How can we learn from London?

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Housing Case Studies Shanghai Tianzifang developed in a quiet southern portion of the former French Concession of Shanghai. Locally it has the nickname ‘Laotiandi’ meaning old world. The bottom up development, led by the collection of small-scale businesses and creative industries, grew organically from the original mat like fabric. This low-rise fabric consists of 1920s and 1930s housing as well as a selection of former industrial buildings, which have been repurposed into livework use, where the original occupants live above, enabling the strong local creative arts community onto the street. The result is a series of interlocking alleyways with local boutique shops and restaurants which has created a vibrant atmosphere which attracts both foreign and local visitors. The texture of the mat enables one to freely wonder through various market and green spaces, which vary in scale and sizes. An experience unlike any modern mall or street. The catalytic effect of the community has been shown to spread as Tianzifang grows and matures through its surrounding context. It is a good example of a minimal erasure and displacement strategy lead by bottom up incentives. [Bracken G (2013)] Sanlin Yuan is a gated housing community located in Sanlin, Shanghai, which is around 10km from the old town. It consists of streets of five storey apartment blocks surrounding a central community centre. The residents were relocated from the traditional way of life where the street was an extension of the house, communal living room. The community centre at Sanlin Yuan fails to act as a replacement for this way of life, thus the residents have lost the collective lifestyle of their original neighbourhoods.

Zhongyuoan Liangwan City is a development of apartment block towers surrounding a central park. Prior to its construction the area consisted of congested two to four storey shed shacks. The original residents of the matlike fabric were relocated to Taopu, Baoshan and Jiangqiao in the suburbs of Shanghai and only the more well off could afford to purchase one of the new apartments. This mode of displacement and erasure causes Shanghai expanding suburbia and gentrification of the traditional fabric. The apartment towers create a sharp public to private transition where the traditional collective lifestyle of the peoples’ original housing configuration is lost. As described by Arendt this causes a tendency towards introspection.

Our studio wishes to discover alternatives to Shanghai’s cycle of erasure and displacement. To do this we analysed various housing case studies in London.

TIANZIFANG, 1920s Land Area: 7 ha Households: 673 Parking: No Density: 97 ppa SANLIN YUAN, 1995 Land Area: 14 ha Households: 2,092 Parking: YES Density: 151 ppa ZHONGYUOAN LIANGWAN CITY, 2004 Land Area: 50 ha Households: 20,000 Parking: YES Density: 332 ppa

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Housing Case Studies London

GOLDEN LANE ESTATE, 1950s Land Area: 2.8 ha Households: 554 Parking: YES Density: 200 ppa

Golden Lane Estate was an early 1950s council housing development in an area of the city of London devastated by bombing. Designed by the competition winners Chamberlin, Powell and Bon partnership it consists of a series of apartment blocks and towers around central courtyards and gardens with communal sports facilities and underground parking. The City of London Corporation who commissioned the project still retains its freehold and manages the property. The estate incorporates hybridised programmes with a pub and shops ground floor presence on to Goswell Rd and levels of apartments above. 52% of the flats have now been sold under Thatcher’s 1980s right to buy act, however some are still rented affordably for council tenants.

BARBICAN ESTATE, 1960-80s Land Area: 14 ha Households: 6000 Parking: YES Density: 173 ppa

The Barbican Estate is a hybridised residential development neighbouring Golden Lane Estate which was also designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon and developed by The City of London Corporation whom still manage it. The Barbican Estate was built between the 1960s and 1980s on a 14-hectare site which was devastated in the blitz. The complex contains an art centre, museum, schools, bars, restaurants, library and performance art centre as well as many communal spaces and facilities around the enclaved lake, like underground parking and a conservatory. The grounds and indoor facilities have become vibrant spaces enjoyed by both residents and visitors alike. There is a very strong sense of identity and collective life. The apartments occupy the top seven levels of the multi-programmatic figure-of-eight shaped blocks and float above high level walkways. The estate also contains three 48-storey apartment towers. [Stoane L2 (2020)]

ALEXANDRA ROAD, 1978 Land Area: 6.5 ha Households: 520 Parking: YES Density: 78 ppa

Alexandra Road is a kilometre long social housing estate organised around the iconic red brick communal street which runs parallel to the West Coast Main Line in the London Brough of Camden. Designed by Neave Brown of Camden Council’s Architects Department it consists of two outward sloping blocks which run along the curved street with dual aspect apartments each with a presence onto the street. The orientation of facing apartments enabled the community to grow with a family friendly atmosphere due to the passive surveillance from the apartment balconies. The grounds contain gardens, a school, a youth club, a heating complex, underground parking and a communal facility. Some aspects the property are poorly maintained due to the lack of self organising management or council support.

These London housing case studies from the last age of social architecture adds to the spaces of the polis enabling organic collectivity and thus a Leferbrian right to the city.

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Shanghai Growth 1 : 250,000

Compared with London, Shanghai’s towers are taller, it’s sprawl is greater and its development is more extreme.

After the Cultural Revolution, when the post-war generation reached the age where they were starting families, the Chinese government was too poor to provide adequate housing for its population due to a period of heavy spending. In the late 1970’s when the planned economy was opened to the market, the government encouraged and assisted private developers in producing mass housing. The monopolisation of the ground and control over development by a small group of wealthy individuals, a byproduct of the ground becoming hypercommodified, has seen the majority of people priced out of the city. This condition was coined The Plutocratic Ground.

Much of Shanghai has already found itself subsumed, and all indicators suggest this will continue and, it stands to reason, based on other aspects of Shanghai’s development that the chasm will only widen.

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The locations of the Shanghai housing case studies in the in relation to the Old Town is shown above. These models involve the displacement of the working class from the central areas to the suburbs resulting in gentrification of the city core and an expanding suburban housing configuration.

This plutocrification is resulting in vast erasure and displacement of established communities, which capitulate to market forces which recognise its land as valuable but its social fabric as valueless. These issues are, at their most extreme in the Old Town of Shanghai where the traditional urban fabric is rapidly disappearing, and the indigenous population are being relocated into satellite cities far from the urban core.

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NANSHI DISTRICT [SHANGHAI OLD TOWN]

Photograph by author of 1:500 City Model at the Peoples Square Urban Exhibition

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1948

Old Town Historic Mat Fabric

OLD TOWN FABRIC EVOLUTION 2018

Highrise Fabric Gated Communities

Protected Historic Fabric

Commercialised Fabric ‘Taxidermic Urbanism’

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OLD TOWN STREET ANALYSIS

Taxonomy of Streets

Main Road

Street

High Street

Lane Alley

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The density of the old town is much less in conparison to that immediately outside the ring road.

To respond to high density demands government has intervened by relocating large areas of the Old Town and enabling developers to build new gated highrise blocks inside the old town.

The ongoing demolition of the mat fabric is evident by the red signs.

Can a housing intervention prevent the erasure of the old town mat fabric and the displacement of the indigenous population?

Can a housing intervention prevent the taxidermic preservation of the historic fabric?

Can a housing intervention reintroduce the pluralistic living to the archipelagos of new highrise blocks to avoid introspection?

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TOWERS Ancient Towers Towers have been used for fortifications and religious applications throughout time. In the urban context towers fulfil the role of providing landmarks and nodes. The Italian city of Bologna once had 116 medieval towers. Of the surviving 22 towers the main Asinelli Tower built in the 12th century is 97m tall. The tower also relates to the plaza and streetscape.

Medieval Towers of Bologna

The Twin Asinelli Towers, Bologna

The Shanghai Tower, Shanghai

Burj Khalifa, Dubai

Renzo Piano’s Shard, London

Fuller’s Tokyo Tower Design

Concrete Tower Structures Concrete, used since the Romans and reapplied since the 19th century in combination with steel reinforcement, has been used to construct many of history’s tallest structures. The current two tallest tallest buildings: the Shanghai Tower, Shanghai, 2008, 632m tall; and the Burj Khalifa, Dubai, 2010, 828m tall, are both reinforced concrete frame structures.

[Stoane, L4 (2019)]

Composite Tower Structures With greater advances in modern materials, design, and construction, more composite towers enable more effective use of materials. The Taipei 101, Taiwan, 2004, 509m tall, uses a steel and RC composite members and the Shard, London, 2012, 310m tall , uses a RC base and steel frame top. Buckminster Fuller’s design for the Tokyo Tower if constructed would have been over 2,400m tall . This design used 3 tetrahedral shaped anchor buildings to brace the central steel framed tower. [Fuller (1981)]

BRIDGES

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Old London Bridge, London

Forth Railway Bridge, Fife of Forth

Pointe Vecchio, Florence

Forth Road Bridges, Fife of Forth

Ancient Bridges Bridges have have been used for transportation routes over the many complexities of earth terrain.

In many river centered cities, river bridges enabled the coexistence of the above city traffic and below water traffic creating three-dimensional layering by the provision of artificial land. The Old London Bridge, 1200-1725 and the Ponte Vecchio, Florence, 1345 facilitated the expansion of the city onto an artificial ground above the river. [Stoane, L5 (2019)] Modern Bridges With greater advances in modern materials design, and construction, modern bridges have achieved greater spans and scales. The Forth Railway bridge, Edinburgh, 1889, uses steel cantilever trusses to achieve a maximum span of 361m. The Forth Road Bridge, 1964 and Queensferry Crossing, 2017 use steel suspenion and cable-stay structures to achive maximum spans of 1,006m and 650m respectively.

[Stoane, L3 (2019)]

Yona Friedman, Ville Spatiale, 1960

Yona Friedman, Ville Spatiale, 1958

Space Bridges Using a megastructural space frame can mitigate the sprawling of cities by enabling vertical growth. Architect Yona Friedman in his 1956 Manifesto: L’ Architecture Mobile and other works envisioned ‘Skeletonal Structures’. These consists of a combination of towers and bridging structures which spanned above the land below.

[Lebesque (1999)]

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METATHEMES

REPAIR THE LOST FABRIC

URBAN GROWTH

SKY STREETS

DENSIFY TO MEET DEMANDS

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ZERO DISPLACEMENT

MIMIMAL ERASURE

OF THE INDIGENOUS POPULOUS

OF THE EXISTING FABRIC

ENHANCING THE LIFESTYLE OF

BUILDING ON THE TRADITION OF

ONE BIG LIVING ROOM

COLLECTIVE LIFE

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Streets in the Air

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For the very survival of the 470-year-old traditional core of Shanghai the Nanshi District or Old Town must adopt new typologies to keep up with the fast and dynamic pace of Shanghai’s bustling growth. Without this step to the otherwise: The traditional organic mat fabric will continue to be erased and replacement by the generic, gentrified with its indigenous populous displaced into the suburban utopia which consumes the natural world.

The historically important fabric will continue to be gutted of its living heritage, striped and stuffed with consumerism to become taxidermically preserved.

The newly established Highrise communities will continue their iterative cycle of functional precision and obsolescence consumed by the needs of the city slowly eroding the gaps, the common and the polis into an introspected society of NeoCapitalism.

The Streets in the Air is an infrastructural public intervention which soars above the Old Town ancient streets, which offers an alternative to the cycles of erasure and displacement, gentrification and preservation, isolation and introspection.

The Streets in the Air aim to avoid the displacement of the people of the old town by creating elevated housing scenarios following the street hieroglyphics. The existing population of the mat fabric is 150,000 people, who live in conditions on average of 10m2 per person. Air streets will house at least 75,000 people with conditions of at least 20m2 per person. This will enable the remaining 75,000 people to have at least 20m2 per person thus freeing up space for further social and economic endeavours below. A bottom up development model, such as Tianzifang, may be introduced to allow the indigenous families to develop new commercial and cultural programmes within their properties.

The legs of the air streets will provide the connection between the ground and the air. These slender towers will be combined with mini squares on the ground providing communal facilities and commercial centres. The air streets will interact with the 3 fabrics identified of the mat, historic and high-rise in symbiosis and with minimal erasure.

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TRANSECTION Transect D was chosen as it follows Penglai Road, originally one of the rivers through the old town, as it experiences the three different fabric scenarios.

The Air Streets are to interact with the three different fabrics of high-rise, historic and mat to address the identified key issues.

These three scenarios have led to three sister hypothesises. The three hypothesises will be tested through three key Sectional Perspective drawings taken through Transect D at key areas.

1 : 10, 000 Old Town Transect Plan 1 : 2000 Transect D Samples

SMALL - OLD TOWN MAT FABRIC

BIG - HIGHRISE BLOCK FABRIC

VARIED - HISTORIC FABRIC

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Structure

The solids will act as a continuous beam.

The Voids provide a veriety of configuration.

El Lissitsky, Horizontal Skyscrapers, 1925 [Stoane, L4 (2019)]

Lissitsky’s thinking is of a multi-level cityscape.

The Streets in the air will incorporate modern structural technologies to achieve this dream.

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Test Conditions

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Streets in the Air - Tower Intervention

131 Shanghai Growth 1 : 200,000 The operational field Shanghai has experienced unprecedented physical and economic growth.

In the past thirty-five years Shanghai’s population has almost quadrupled from 7 million to more than 26 million.

This extreme recent growth has brought about major urban transformations.

Shanghai’s core, the old town, is undergoing major erasure of the traditional fabric and the displacement of the indigenous populous to the suburbs. The sprawling of Shanghai’s suburbs continues to consume natural land whilst its cultural core rapidly gentrified and soon lost.

This intervention aims to find new ways for the new and old to grow in symbiosis to solve the paradox of the specious city.

Transect Model 1:10,000

Old Town Axonometric 1:10,000

Transect Axonometric 1:10,000

Fragment Axonometric 1:10,000

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HIGH-RISE FABRIC The Streets in the Air aim to connect the newly planted high-rise block fabric with the traditional fabrics through communal, commercial and public programmes to promote collective life with interactions at high and low levels, which create an enriched public-private relationship where the old town’s enclaves meet.

This intervention employs the use of towers and bridges as urban columns and beams to create a multi-storey streetscape. The placement of the columns must positively interact with the public domain of the street to form nodes which connect the fabrics of the ground and air. The path of the beams must interact with the existing building fabric to benefit for the symbiosis coexistence of the current and new users.

The public realm is then extended into the air, enabling new connections and interactions. This may fertilise the social, cultural and economic dynamics of the Old Town, to bloom into new local and creative industries.

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TOWER FABRIC SECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE 1 : 1000

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Streets in the Air Infrastructure Axonometric 1 : 1000

Construction Axonometric 1 : 2000

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Air Streets Layers Axonometric 1 : 500

Floor Structure Axonometric 1 : 200

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Structural Model 1:500

Spatial Model 1:500

Fragment Model 1:500

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FRAGMENT DESIGN The 150m Streets in the Air Tower Intervention fragment interacts with the locally identified stakeholders of: Tangcheng Apartments; Yinxing Art Training School; Jingye Middle School; and the Li Long Community.

The fragment design interacts with these identified stakeholders, providing housing, library and exhibition spaces, studios and gallery spaces, as well as the continuous public Air Street which includes market, garden spaces and an Air Tram system.

Specifically the 150m street fragment provides: housing for 400 people with at least 30m2 per person; cultural and educational expansion for 720 artists and students; 40 x 55m2 rentable market units; and 3000m2 of public Air Streets.

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KEY CONNECTIONS The Streets in the Air Tower Intervention fragment connects to the public domain of the street and the private domain of the high-rise blocks. This facilitates these tower blocks to have a more gradual transition between public and private.

The Air Street is lowered in key area to interact with the streetscape below. This enables the public realm to be extended into the continuous public Air Street giving access to amenities such as gardens, markets and the Air Tram system, creating a new urban experience.

The Air Street is raised in key area to interact with the existing high-rise biuldings. This creates new threasholds between the Air Streets and the existing buildings creating new public interfaces in the air.

These transition spaces form Air Atriums.

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LEVEL A1 PLAN 1 : 500

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Street Level View

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Market Level View

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Exhibition Level View

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Roof Level View

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Stage V Conclusions Stage V tested the urban design hypotheses through the urban and architectural evaluation of the defined conditions and curated findings in a graphical language which provokes the consideration of the otherwise. The results of which will be further reflected through the Architectural and Tectonic Scale in Stage VI.

STAGE VI

Testing the Hypothesis [Tectonic Scale] Contents

Testing the Hypothesis [Tectonic Scale] Project Overview Architectural Scale Information Tectonic Scales Information Results & Findings Conclusions

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ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY The Streets in the Air urban strategy provides the Shanghai Old Town with quality housing as well as social and economic opportunities, without the erasure of the fabric and displacement of the resident populous.

This has major CO2 and embodied energy savings by reducing the sprawling of the city and obsolescencing of the local building fabric. The Air Tram public transport system running below the Air Streets will reduce the road vehicular traffic within the Old Town and reduce polluting of hydrocarbon fuels.

Using a slender plan depth of less than ten meters enables natural light and ventilation to be maximised thus reducing the energy usage. This also has a minimal impact on the energy usage of the surrounding buildings.

The adaptability of the infill structure enables future changes to the interior programme, structure, services and finishes with minimal disruption, which enables major embodied energy savings over their life-cycles.

The tower connection between the Air Streets and the existing building creates a thermal buffer zone. This reduces heat loss in the winter and uses the atrium stack effect to cool in the summer.

The tectonic strategy includes: double skin façades with mechanical ventilation; exposed concrete slab thermal mass; a light structural frame; and local reclaimed clay brick.

Environmental Section 1 : 200 @ A1

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Environmental Section 1 : 200

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Housing Level Fragment Tectonic Sectional Perspective I 1 : 50

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Education Level Fragment Tectonic Sectional Perspective II 1 : 50

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Public Level Fragment Tectonic Sectional Perspective III 1 : 50

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Ground Level Fragment Tectonic Sectional Perspective IV 1 : 50

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Housing Level Fragment Construction Section i 1 : 20

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Education Level Fragment Construction Section ii 1 : 20

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Public Level Fragment Construction Section iii 1 : 20

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RESULTS & FINDINGS The Streets in the Air intervention aimed to provide the Old Town of Shanghai with a system of growth, with minimal erasure and displacement, to meet the social, environmental and economical land pressures of the Shanghai metropolis.

The strategy aimed to interact with the identified fabrics of the cultural mat, historically preserved and gated high-rise blocks in symbiosis by creating elevated housing scenarios following the street hieroglyphics.

The Air Streets aimed to house at least 75,000 of 150,000 people in the old town, who live in overcrowded conditions of less than 10m2 per person, thus enabling the indigenous families of mat fabric to continue to thrive.

The Air Streets aimed to provide elevated streetscapes, with collective, cultural and economic programmes to connect to the isolated gated tower communities.

The Streets in the Air Tower Intervention took a 150x150m fragment of the overall strategy to test the design of the intervention at the Urban, Architectural and Tectonic Scales. This 150m street fragment was shown to provide: housing for 400 people with at least 30m2 per person; cultural and educational expansion for 720 artists and students; 40 x 55m2 rentable market units; and 3000m2 of public Air Streets including gardens, markets, and an Air Tram public transport system.

Extrapolating the 150m fragment study to the initial proposal 20km of Air Streets would provide: housing for 53,000 people; cultural and educational programmes for 96,000 artists and students; 300,000m2 of commercial spaces: and 400,000m2 of the continuous public streetscape. Although the results show that only 70% of the immediate housing demand was met, with the initially proposed 20km of Air Streets, using the Tower Intervention fragment will inherently cause an underestimation of the provided housing as it is proposed in areas of high residential density and thus the key focus was not housing. In the cultural mat or the protected historic fabrics which covers over 75% of the Old Town the focus would be on providing housing and thus would have at least 200% more accommodation. Accounting for this would bring the total Air Streets population to over 80,000 which meets the current housing demand of 75,000.

Furthermore, the Old Town has the potential for expansion up to 35km of Air Streets providing 75% more Air Streets. Based on the fragment study estimation this would provide housing for 93,000 people, which is 120% of the current demand. The structure also has potential for an additional 20% vertical expansion to react to future demand increases. The Streets in the Air infrastructure is also a highly adaptable megastructural frame which enables changes of use to deal with the varying pressure to avoid its premature obsolescence.

FUTURE RESEARCH The Streets in the Air intervention, although specifically designed for the Old Town in Shanghai, may be applied in other urban metropolises, in answer to the identified worldwide metathemes, to achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Moreover, research into the design, manufacture and construction of the various components of the designed Air Streets may further refine these conceptions and enable them to be realised and applied.

Furthermore, different systems of creating urban three-dimensional growth and multistorey streetscapes may be explored through integrated design, in the fields of Engineering, Urban Planning and Architecture, to consider and achieve the otherwise.

Old Town Axonometric 1 : 10,000

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Stage VI Conclusions Stage VI tested the urban design hypotheses through the architectural and tectonic evaluation of the defined conditions and curated findings in a graphical language which provokes the consideration of the otherwise.

Conclusions

Reflections on Journal II Journal II refined and tested the urban hypothesis thinking through Architectural and Tectonic scales. This study demonstrated that the urban hypothesis could be resolved to the architectural and tectonic level within a sample section of the Urban Transect taken through the Shanghai Old Town Field. These architectural and tectonic scale manifestations have shown how successfully this scenario may resolve the current global, Shanghainese and Local Old Town issues identified...

...and towards an otherwise.

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Course Lectures Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 1: Patrick Geddes and Reflection on the Environment, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 2: Planning, Ground Up and Top Down, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 3: Kevin Lynch and the Function of the City, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 4:Rome and Rowe, Collage City, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2019), Reclaiming Urbanism Lecture 5: Conclusions on Cities and Politics, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2020), Reclaiming Modernism Lecture 1: Space and Its Spatial Subjects, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2020), Reclaiming Modernism Lecture 2: Perspective, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2020), Reclaiming Modernism Lecture 3: Object Architecture, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2020), Reclaiming Modernism Lecture 4: Archigram , Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2020), Reclaiming Modernism Lecture 5: Aldo Rossi & the Collective Space of Memory, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2020), Reclaiming Modernism Lecture 6: Le Corbusier & Modernism, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2020), Reclaiming Modernism Lecture 7: Koolhaas’ Relation to Modernism, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2020), Reclaiming Modernism Lecture 8: Chinese Modernism, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Holm L (2020), Reclaiming Modernism Lecture 9: Globalism & Junkspace, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Moyo D (2019), Urban Policy Lecture 1: What is Planning Theory, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Moyo D (2019), Urban Policy Lecture 2: Ideologies Influencing Planning Practice, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Moyo D (2019), Urban Policy Lecture 3: Early Post-war Planning Theory, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 1: The Tectonic Question, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 2: Infrastructure, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 3: Complexio Oppositorum, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 4: Higher, Faster, Further Freer, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 5: Indeterminacy, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 6: Kinetics, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 7: Differentiation, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2019), Reclaiming Tectonics Lecture 8: Appearances and Essences, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2020), Buildings Lecture 1: the Pruitt-Igoe Myth, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2020), Buildings Lecture 2: A Gerrymandered Estate, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2020), Buildings Lecture 3: Walsall Art Gallery, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2020), Buildings Lecture 4: the Unité D’ Habitation, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2020), Buildings Lecture 5: Cumbernauld Megastructure, Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2020), Buildings Lecture 6: Lafayette Park Detroit , Dundee, University of Dundee.

Stoane A (2020), Buildings Lecture 7: Pavilion De L’Esprit Nouveau , Dundee, University of Dundee.

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Thank You Tutor: Andy Stoane Lecturers: Andy Stoane Domiso Moyo Lorens Holm Tongi University Tutors Fellow Students Tongi University And Fellow colleagues of Studio A It has been a pleasure working with everyone on this project.

Joshua F Adjodha