RE-APPROPRIATING MODERNIST HOUSING INDIVIDUAL PORTFOLIO XIAOJING GU
RECONNECTION WITHIN THE CITY
This is an individual process portfolio. It contains not only group design results but also some individual work and reection on the whole process. Many thanks for my group members and tutors’ help throughout the design process.
CONTENTS PROJECT BACKGROUND MODERNIST HOUSING
METHODOLOGY
SITUATING, GATHERING, MAPPING, SURVEYING, COMMUNICATING, REFLECTING
CONTEXT ANALYSIS
BACKGROUND, MAPPING, SWOT ANALYSIS
POSITION
PRECEDENTS STUDY
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
YOUNG MOTHER, ARTIST
DESIGN STRATEGY
LONG-TERM STRATEGY, FIVE PHASES, SECTIONS, IMPACE
CRITICAL REFLECTION
THE WHOLE PROCESS, METHODOLOGY, DESIGN STRATEGY, INDIVIDUAL WORK
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Neighbourhood scale
With a population of 3.5 million 13.5% of the population were of foreign nationality
50.9% 49.1%
POPULATION: 278,393 Population with migration background: 70.11% It has the highest population density among Berlin (13.64per㎥) The main research scope of our group is Mehringplatz and the southern part of it. In the early years, the southern part was not a part of the city and it used to be vacant. But now this area is almost used for housing, which might be lack of connection with the northern part and Mehringplatz. So in this project, we plan to reconnect the northern and southern part, especially build the connection between the traditional housing areas and Mehringplatz.
Modernist housing developed from the 1920s onwards, with their own spatial logic, formal language and functional dispositions, often creating frictions, disruptions, opposition to and with areas around them within the inner cities, as well as generating patterns of residential segregation, and is setting these neighbourhoods apart from the surrounding city. In addition, many of them show a severe lack within themselves – functionally, spatially, ecologically etc. This project aims to explore the solution of the problems that modernist housing may lead. And we selected a place in Berlin to re-appropriate modernist housing, since it is a city with rich art culture and complex history. The place is around Mehringplatz which used to be the southern gate of Berlin and reconstructed in 1962 as a double-ring of housing buildings. However, this housing estate is facing a lot of social and environment problems, which is the opportunity for us to engage with this area and its surroundings in order to address these limits and promote more sustainable ways of living.
METHODOLOGY
Final review - Presentation and feedback
Preliminary Study
- Individual reflection
- Gathering background information about Mehringplatz
Methods and Tools:
Reflecting Crits/Reviews; Reflective Journals After our presentation, we received many feedbacks which will help us with our own reflection.
k6 e e W
Gathering Remote sourcing
N
PLA
Six-week Design Project
Planning and preparing tools for the fieldwork after learning some backeground information about the site.
- Developing a position - Considering two specific stakeholders
WALKING
Week 2
- Precedents study
Methods and Tools:
We ek 1
Methods and Tools:
MAPS
Spatial intervention
- Developing long-term design strategies
- Planning for fieldwork
INFORMATION
REVIEW
INTERVIEWING
When we find there is not enough evidence to support our strategy, we also need to go back to the early steps to gathering more information or rethink of our strategy.
- Exploring the site - Analysing the findings and reflections
DRAW SECTIONS AND OTHER VISUAL RESPRESENTATIONS
Mapping Mapping social relations Communicating Tutorials Gathering From books and websites
On-site investigation
PHOTOGRAPHY
W DEVELOPING STRATEGY PROPOSAL
Methods and Tools:
ee
k3
MAPPING
Situating
Gathering Collecting Traces; Interviewing Surveying Photography
-5 BRAIN STORMING （Discussing two stakeholders）
ANALYSIS
Mapping
COME UP WITH AN IDEA
After mapping the social relations and spatial practice, we analyse the information we got and start to discuss and develop our strategy.
Walking
Gaining first and direct impression of the place through walking and also interviewing the local people to get wider understanding of this area.
Subjective, Social, Physical Mapping
CONTEXT ANALYSIS - BACKGROUND ABOUT HISTORY
Mehringplatz used to be southern gate of the city, and the canal was the boundary. The city started to expand to southern part in 1862. So that is one of the reasons why the disconnection of the south and north is happened.
1734 Built as Das Rondell
1737
City southern gate
1757
ABOUT CULTURE
1862
1940
1953
1989
2001
2014
ABOUT POPULATION Though the studies, we found that the fertility rate in Berlin is growing year by year and Kreuzberg has higher fertility rate than the average rate in Berlin. This means that the children especially the babies is an important group of people in this area, which lead us to ďŹ nd out more information about the families.
Source: Die kleine Beilin Statistic 2015
c culture ti s ti r a e h t f The birth o After the fall of The Berlin Wall, the East was abandoned, littered with ownerless buildings and empty grocery stores. People commandeered these empty infrastructures and turned them into nightclubs and havens for artists, with youths from both East and West agreeing on techno as their soundtrack of choice. People used ruined buildings to start collectives, clubs and places to explore their interests. Today, there are many forms of art we can see in this city, which makes the city immerse in the artistic atmosphere
Maritial status: married, %
15-30 30-35
30-45
Source: Nationality in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin
Before we decided to choose the young mother as one of the two stakeholders, we gathered more information about woman who is married. And we found that the most of married women are around 25 to 35 in Berlin. Thirty to Forty-ďŹ ve percent of people around Mehringplatz are married, which is a large group of people. In addition, the average age of people in Kreuzberg is around 36 and it means the age of this area is very young. These are some of the evidence when we considering of the stakeholders
MAPPING - CONTEXT ANALYSIS
Neighbourhood Scale City Scale
Subjective Mapping
Not claer seperation between pedestrian way and cycle lane.
Chatting
Old factorybuildings still be used.
Playing
Break
Young people enjoy jogging along the riversides.
Cycling
Jogging
Trees in this area are evergreen. It feels like a park but more grave.
Walking dog
Wonderful graffic Lack of sunshine but on the wall of open the open ground ground floor, which floor creates good creates artistic connection with the atmosphere. square.
Walking
Jogging Cycling Shopping
Break
People enjoy walking the dog in the park which is full of sunshine.
Walking
Chatting
Landmark
Break
Impressed Interesting by playground. Most children’s facilities are laughter. made by wood.
Playing
Walking dog
Social Mapping
U Bahn
Physical Mapping
Bus stop
Bu
Car
ria
lp
king
par
lac
eo
f je
rus
ale
During summer time, people go boating here and sit along side the canal
n
elt i
nb
e Gre ep
iddl
em
n th
Useless land People only walking, jogging or riding through this area.
During the weekends, the artists exhibit and selling their paintings in Mehringplatz
Belinische Gallery
Playground
Jewish Museum
Park
Kindergarten
Car parking
Open ground floor
Market
Construction
Canal
America Memorial Library
Cemetery
School
Football Field
Playground
Factory buildings
Church
Bike Lane
Fuel Station
hringplatz Me
pen
eo
id rov ce
spa
CONTEXT ANALYSIS - SWOT ANALYSIS
SW OT
Rich history and artistic culture
Perfect paintings on the facade of the buildings
Increasing amount of garbage on the roads
The buildings in the southern part are mostly enclosed and with high density, which makes it difficult to form some open spaces Along the canal, there are some existing activities but lack planning and facilities
Strengths
Opportunities
Perfect public transport system (Transport hub In front of Mehringplatz)
According to previous analysis, I conclude both positive and negative aspects of the development in and around Merhringplatz. I think that in this project we can reconnect both sides of the canal through the existing activities or creating activities for residents on the both sides to create interaction between them. And we can achieve this through reusing the underused space. In addition, considering of the rich artistic culture in Berlin (also in Mehringplatz), we can also take the advantage of it and combine art with people’s lives.
Lack of public community space
The both sides of the canal are well-developed but lack of connection
Great natural resource - canal
Threats
Weaknesses
The conflicts between the traditional and modernist housing
How to coordinate the protection of historical heritage and the development of future communities
Some public space are not utilise well
Some construction work may affect the quality of living environment
POSITION
Precedents Study GREEN COMMUNITY KREUZBERG
BERLIN GERMANY
Resources: http://www.okra.nl/en/projects/green-community-kreuzberg/#
This plan form a response to the lack of urban vitality in the area that makes living in the city attractive. This will be achieved by lowering the amount of anonymous spaces, which bring little quality to the area and the city. A canal park will be created along the Landwehrkanal where we find it lack of urban vitality during the winter time. Also, the book market will be created in front of the library. These are some good aspects that we find in this project for activating this area.
Nowadays, the wish of the inhabitants of the flats to reconstruct the inner plaza to a place where people can meet and interact, is rejected by the government, for reasons of the conservation of cultural heritage (monument and design of the area). So for this project, we mainly consider to develop our intervention in the public space around Mehringplatz.
Three Aspects
Underused space Reuse and activate these space to attract more people.
The Most Beautiful Lane in Zhonghang Town
Chongqing, China Resources: http://www.gooood.hk/the-most-beautiful-lane-in-zhonghang-town-chongqing-by-change-landscape-studio.htm?lang=en_US
Reconnection Thinking of creating a new path to link different activities on both sides instead of the axes already existed.
Activities
In this project, the designer uses three mountain tracks which were designed in lengths of 3km, 5km and 10km to go through the view sites in the park. These tracks with lovely pictures or slogans at intervals to encourage the runners or hikers. This is a good idea to link different view sites and may be introduced in our project to link the southern and northern area.
Considering different activities happened in this area and different people groups’ needs. And also because we want to reconnect both sides of the canal through introducing the running track here, we chose the green space on both side of the canal to reconnect them by planning for some existing activities or creating some new activities that could have people from both sides interact with each other. So a new bridge might be needed in our intervention.
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
63% YOUNG MOTHER
Reasons
More than half women in Berlin do not have full-time job in the following 8 years of their pregnancy.
POLICY
Government grants cover 67% of their salary in the following year
FAMILY
The stress of managing work and family demands
CHILDREN
0 -3 years old children: A demanding full-time role
Send kids to primary school
Shopping
Gathering with friends
Collect kids
Send kids Get up
ARTIST / DESIGNER
Speaking of artists, they are the most dynamic people group in this area, but they also need more opportunities and space to express their ideas and works. By this, they have possibility to exchange ideas, facilitate each other and even attract investment for their production.
Back home
Housework
Go to bed
Accounting to our research on two groups of young mother, a Muslim immigrant and a local habitant, they both have plenty of free time, in which they stay at home or have a rest on them own. However, they tend to feel lonely and desire to interact with each other, including sharing nursing experience, exercising together and even exchanging experience of raising children.
Demands Better public space for social life
Strategies Exercising space
Demands Children’s playground
Better space for outdoor activities Mother and kid friendly environment More activities to fill in their time Outdoor space with nursing room
More space for expression and popularization Exchanging ideas
Family cafe Parents gathering space
Seperate circulation Nursery room
More opportunity for exhibit their woks
Strategies Painting wall + exihibition plaza Weekend flea market
Attracting investment
Multimedia (for work displaying)
Low rents space for working
Workshops
DESIGN STRATEGY
Due to all above, we set three goals. For the first goal, we reconnect two pieces of green land and riverside with winding path and running track. And then, those area become accessible and available for the community. Besides, we induce artistic activities happened here, regards those activities as attraction for common people coming out to start their social activities, and link those activities through the running track. Finally, we provide various facilities for diversified people groups and design family activities and baby nursing room.
Mehringplatz [WALKABLE ENVIRONMENT]
[ACTIVITIES FOR ART]
[COMMON FACILITIES CONNECTED BY RUNNING TRACK]
Plaza with dry fountain
[WALKABLE RIVERSIDE]
[WHEN ART MEETS CHILDREN]
[FAMILY ACTIVITIES]
Art saloon
Riverside path and viewing platform
Outdoor education space Children's playground Adults’ leisure space
[GREEN SPACE]
[EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT]
[COMMON NURSING SPACE]
DESIGN STRATEGY - PHASES PHASE 1
STAKEHOLDER 1 : ARTIST
PHASE 2
Master plan for phase 1 to 4 In our proposal, we divide our strategy into 6 phases. For the first four phases, we develop our strategy in the neighbourhood scale. We proposed to connect the Mehringplatz with the existing green space by creating the running track, which starts from the inner space of Mehringplatz and go across the northern and southern public spaces beside the canal, then finally go back to the Mehringplatz. And this running track is around one kilometre long. We introduce running track here is because many people running along the riverside which is an existing activity happen there and we want to use the running track to guide people into the two public space. And then create more activities there to activate the space and provide artists and young mother with some facilities or activities they need.
Reflection
In our former presentation, we only have 5 phases which might not consider much about the strategy of the city scale. So I try to rethink the whole strategy and develop it in the city scale. As the running track could be expand to larger scale and link more activities or public space, more basic facilities will also be added or activities will be created in other public space.
PHASE 3
STAKEHOLDER 2 : YOUNG MOTHER
IMPACT - DESIGN STRATEGY CONSTRUCTION
IMPACT Artists (Painter)
Running Track Cconstruction
0
Residents in/around Mehringplatz
Building the wall
Adding Facilities Outdoor fitness equipments
1 year
3 months Residents
Dry Fountain
Step 2:
Older people Kids
LED Screen
Residents
Running Track Cconstruction
Bridge Construction
Change the cover of the floor and add traffic sign to protect runners’ safety 6 months
3 years Young mothers in Mehringplatz
M NURSING ROO
Kids Young mother with kids
Nursery Room Cconstruction
Playground and Community Space Construction 6 months
5 years
DESIGN STRATEGY During the first phase, we mainly consider our first stakeholder – artists. Firstly, we will spend 3 months to introduce the running track here to guide more people into this area. And then we gonna build a wall for the painters to show their paintings. Besides, we will leave 9 months to test how it change people’s activities in Mehringplatz.
PHASE 4
For the second phase, we will add some basic facilities such as benches and outdoor fitness equipment. At the same time, we consider to build the running track in the southern side and build a bridge above the canal to link the running track in both sides. This will take 6 months for construction and one year and a half for test. During the third phase, we consider to design for our second stakeholder-young mother. So we will spend 6 months build a nursing room for mother to do some private things for their babies and also add some playground for children and community space for mother to share their knowledge of raising the child. Also, it will take a year and a half to see what gonna happen there. For the forth phase, we try to connect this space to the library. We build an outdoor childhood education space, which will belongs to the library. And the library could negotiate with the artist to hold an art workshop for children or families during the weekends. Maybe during the testing year, there will be a mobile coffee shop there to sell coffee for the family. And more people will seat outside the library for reading.
SECTIONS WEEKEND FLEA MARKET (PAINTING/BOOK)
FOUNTAIN PLAZA (WITH INTERACT MULTIMEDIA)
SEPARATED CIRCULATION
EXERCISING
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
FAMILY CAFE
DESIGN STRATEGY CONSTRUCTION
IMPACT
Art Workshop Cafe (moveable)
Winter Garden Construction
Families
Terraced Seating Construction 6 months
PAINTING WALL
8 years
18 months
PARENTS GATHERING
SANDPIT
NURSERY
DESIGN STRATEGY PHASE 5
BLUE Running Track Cconstruction 9 years
PHASE 6
GREEN Running Track Cconstruction
10 years
As the graphic shows, there are three colours of the running track which are in different length but all start from the Mehringplatz.
The last two phases will be developed in a larger scale. For the fifth phase, we will expand our strategy to another two green space which are next to the Mehringplatz and beside the canal. Because there is an existing running track along the canal, we connect our running track with that one to guide the people who used to run on that track into Mehringplatz. Also, we will create the outdoor art workshop area in the green space near the Mehringplatz to activate this area. For the final phase, the running track will be introduced in the southern part which is a residential area. In this phase, the running track will link different public space which are most for children or exercisers. We will re-activate the space which might be underused such as the green belt in the middle of the road. And also add some facilities for people to exercise especially we can add more facilities for women near the children’s playground. Through the running track, I hope people who live on both sides of the canal will have a chance to see what others’ lives look like and interact with each other.
REFLECTION The Whole Process
Design Strategy
During the six weeks, we focus on re-appropriating modernist housing in and around the area of Mehringplatz. We firstly learn from the place by an on-site visiting in not only the neighbourhood scale but also the city scale, which was a good chance to find out the limitations created by the housing scheme. Also, we have many other events during the fieldtrip, such as a bus tour and attending finial reviews of the MA Urban Design of Technical University Berlin. I feel these also help us to gain more information about the background and the development of the modernist housing in Berlin.
Our design strategy was focus on the stakeholders – young mother and artists, because we talked with a woman who lives around Mehringplatz and talked to us about her feelings and demands. But I think the reason for us to design for them are not strong enough, and the strategy dose not link to a specific issue but only try to provide more facilities and space for them to do some outdoor events. Actually our strategy more focus on the reconnection of the both sides of the canal, since the residents on the both are not often interact with each other. The running track was the key element in our proposal for guiding people into other space and also provide people with a more sustainable lifestyle. I think for this part we did better than the consideration of the two stakerholders.
After we came back to Sheffield, we start to develop our strategy based on the analysis that we did during the fieldtrip. Actually it was quite hard at first, because we gathered a large amount of information and our analysis are too general. And then, we try to assess the current condition of Mehringplatz and considering the two specific stakeholders at the same time to find out what can be improved to meet two groups of people’s demands. In addition, the tutorials are really helpful for us to improve our proposals before the final review. The whole process of this project are quite enjoyable for me because this was the first time for me to go abroad for a fieldwork. But the shortage might be the lack of background knowledge and the recognition of German. Besides, I think we did not have a deep understanding of the modernist housing during the design process which led to the strategy of our group was not much related to the modernist housing, and this should be improved next time.
Group Work VS Individual Work Until now, our works are most group works, I feel I accumulate experience on group works. So this time, we have a good cooperation and we try to gather all of our ideas to assess the better one or combine the ideas together to develop our proposal. Although sometimes we may have differences of opinion, we can always find the way to solve the problems and everyone works hard. We also did our individual work during the process, for example, I did the history and population background of Mehringplatz, the mappings, 3D model-making, some part of the sections and the timeline and impact of the strategy.
Methodology During this course, we used many different types of methods and tools to gather information and explore our proposal. Before we go for a fieldtrip, we gathered information about the site from the Internet and made a plan for our fieldtrip. When we were in berlin, we find that the information we gathered before was not quite useful but the plan was because it guided us what to do next. During the field trip we used walking to situate ourselves in and around the site to gain the first impression of the area. And then we interviewed a few local people to know more details about the site and their feelings of it. I found we might forget to ask for some information after the interview since we did not plan well and only asked question followed the talk we had. In addition, photography is another important tool during the site visit to record the condition of some buildings or space and even the people’s activities. These three tools we all find quite useful to explore the site. We organize all these information through three levels of mapping. I feel that this is a good base for us to develop further design. GATHERING
SITUATING walking
GATHERING
GATHERING
NOT ENOUGH
interviewing
INFORMATION
SURVEYING photography
Preliminary Study
from books or internet
MAPPING
REFLECTING
reviews reflective journals
mapping social relation
CONSIDER TWO STAKERHOLDERS COMMUNICATING
MAPPING
Through this project, I get a better understanding of the issues that the modernist housing might bring in our cities and people’s lives. Although we did not closely related to the modernist housing, we still try to use our way to activate the underused space to provide people with better living environment and reconnect the Mehringplatz with the south residential area. Next time, I might try to consider our proposal according to the specific issues created by the housing scheme such as the missing function in the neighborhood area and the conflicts between different groups of users after some housing scheme has applied.
REFERENCES:
GO BACK FORMOR STAGE FOR GATHERING
Remote sourcing
Conclusion
Turtorials
subjective, social, physical
DESIGN STRATEGY
On-site investigation
Spatial intervention
REVIEW
KREUZBERGED BERLIN. (2017). YOU ARE HERE: AROUND MEHRINGPLATZ AD 1757. [online] Available at: https://kreuzberged.com/2013/05/28/you-are-here-around-mehringplatz-ad-1757/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2017]. Pierce, B. (2017). 12 Historical Events That Shaped Berlin. [online] Culture Trip. Available at: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/12-historical-events-that-shaped-berlin/ [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017]. Neighborhood Management in Berlin. (2017). 1st ed. [ebook] p.44. Available at: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/wohnen/quartiersmanagement/download/qm_broschuere_en.pdf [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017]. Urban reconnaissance. (2017). Mehringplatz. City of Culture. Hanka. [online] Available at: http://urban-reconnaissance.oginoknauss.org/mehringplatz-city-of-culture/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2017].
Final review
Worldpopulationreview.com. (2017). [online] Available at: http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/berlin-population/ [Accessed 22 Mar. 2017].
SSoA Xiaojing Gu xgu7@sheffield.ac.uk