WRINKLES OF THE CITY
——The Public Relaxation Pavilions for Geriatric Community in Cities of Zhejiang after 1980's
Location: HANGZHOU, ZHEJIANG, CHINA
Year: 2020 Spring
Wrinkles of the city just like the wrinkles of human. They are symbols of aging as well as the carriers of story. They are existing in unexpecting places in the city or in human faces. The wrinkle of the city is the texture of city during its urbanization process. They are small and chopped. They are between temporary and permanent.
This thesis integrates the “wrinkle architectures” of Hangzhou to improve the relaxation space and provide a better environment for in the elderly community of Hangzhou.
CHAP.1/CONTEXT
METABOLISM OF THE CITY
The center of the city is the most suitable place for the elderly in some aspects such as the high concentration of transportation facilities, high commercial services and the intense social network, but the paradox is that the living space has been greatly compressed, and the diverse needs of people's lives have been eliminated, unified or squeezed into the fragmented spaces during urbanization process. As one of the consequences, temporary constructs such as newspaper kiosk, package storage kiosk, and information kiosk…have been generated to preserve those fractional and multiple programs flexibly through this transition. They are the adaptation of inhabitants to carry invisible cultural elements and community environments that had been set aside. These temporary structures can be seen everywhere in the contemporary cities of Zhejiang, China, and their functions are no longer limited to "resting places".
——They are the wrinkles of the city.
City’s metabolism naturally forms the urban texture. The wrinkles were generated in the frequent alternation of old and new buildings. After 1980, China's urbanization process has gradually and significantly accelerated. The expansion and relocation of urban centers have cause the urban wrinkles to spread and radiate outward.
China's urbanization has brought about a cycle of demolition and construction.
CHAP.2/AGING
THE CITY AGING AND PEOPLE AGING
The One-Child Policy has been implemented for 37 years since the family planning was determined as the basic national policy in 1982. In 2011, the “Double Independence” two-child policy was implemented nationwide, and in the 2013 Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC, the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Important Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform” proposed a “separate” two-child policy. The policy was formally implemented.
The phenomenon of social declining population has gradually become apparent.
China's aging population shows uneven development among regions, and the urban and rural areas are inverted. On the one hand, in the 1970s, under the influence of the family planning policy of "less children and better births, late marriage and late childbirth," urban fertility rates were lower than rural fertility rates; on the other hand, a large number of young rural laborers went to first-tier and second-tier cities. The proportion of elderly population in rural areas has increased, and most of them live alone.
Zhejiang, one of the most economic-developed Provinces as well as one of the first ageing Provinces, follows the same but unique rule. Due to the dual structure of urban and rural economy and society, the current urban and rural aging is inverted, which means rural aging is higher than urban aging.
"According to the general law of population development, population development should be consistent with socio-economic development, but the population ageing in Zhejiang is still underdeveloped in the economy. It mainly depends on effective family planning policies and medical care measures to promote rapid drops of birth rates and extended life in a short period of time. Therefore, for Zhejiang, the speed of population aging clearly exceeds the level of economic development, and the matter basis of population aging is still quite fragile."
In combination with advancements in medicine and healthcare, the adults born after 1980’s will continue to age and live longer than the generations before them.
In the process of urbanization, a variety of residential models have been developed to suit this transition period. The multi-story apartments that were popular before the 1980s were gradually replaced by high-rise apartments developed after the 1980s. At the same time, bungalows and townhouses also occupied a certain market.
The deflation of a family size with inflation of housing quantity has changed the traditional family structure. A traditional family dominated by the old people care is gradually weakening. By 2020, the number of elderly people living alone will increase to about 118 million, who will become the "main group" among the elderly. The number of aging houses with aging people in the city center has increased.
CHAP.3/CITY CENTER
THE OLDEST core OF THE CITY
Hangzhou’s city center is the oldest part of the city, as well as the most suitable place for elderly living. There is a high concentration of transportation facilities, high commercial services, healthcare services, and intense social network within a short geographical distance.
This is a double-edged sword as it makes it a very lively and well-functional area but also the most crowded part of the city. The unit apartments built between 1970 and 1980s provide abundant housing for citizens in a limited space and thus, the negative space among the communities is extremely compressed while the automobile industry flourishing.
Residents, especially the elderly, have expressed their dissatisfaction with the current housing conditions due to the outdated infrastructure and the lack of recreational facilities. The progression of the automobile industry has led to an overcrowding of cars in public lanes and people are parking in places that they were not originally designed for. This brings up a question: what are the inhabitants need for living in a community.
residents had been building pavilions on or besides their houses as extensions of either function or space. Those "hanging gardens" were most likely illegal. While the legal construction showing the process of new emergence, the illegal construction showing the vernacular customs. It was not surprising that these illegal constructions expressed and met needs for residents and make up the missing function of the community.
The elderly’s place for leisure activities such as singing, playing chess and square dancing have been eliminated or squeezed into fragmented spaces during the urbanization process because of the need to make more room for automobiles and more housing to house the residents of the city. As one of the consequences, small and temporary constructs such as newspaper kiosks, drying kiosks, food pavilions and rooftop garden pavilions have been generated to preserve a piece of past relaxation spaces by residents. These constructs are the adaptation of the city’s inhabitants to carry on the cultural elements.
Studying the texture of the city center of Hangzhou helps to reintroduce/reorganize the leisure space back into the geriatric city.
Although the high concentration of health facilities and older educations, there’s not much green area or relaxing spaces in the district. They are mostly replaced by or built attach to the commercial areas. Old people have to move to the west lake bank and central river banks for outdoor entertaining, or just stay at home reduce their social activities caused by the inconvenience.
CHAP.3/TWAIN CITY
Spce in Between
By studying the two main domicile group with their peripheral facilities, twain city is a concept for reboot the city center for the elderly. And they form two identified but closely associated retirement communities.
For TWIN ONE, discrete gardens and central market are the nodes that weave the community and old residents inside. For TWIN TWO, exercise hubs and the central garden thread the three buildings and build a network for the whole community.
CHAP.4/FOOD PAVILION
cORE CONSTRUCTIONS
Traditional local food market in China - unlike the grocery store – has daily come and goes. It bonds the buyers and sellers, builds a connection between the two who are most likely neighbors in the community, and provides a chatting and relaxation space for acquaintances.
STRUCTURE
Bracket is the most common and typical load-bearing structure in Chinese traditional buildings. It transfer upper load from the top to the botton and hold the whole structure easily. By deconstructing and magnifying the brackets, the curved “columns” give a well-balanced tension inside the building to hold the load. It creates open spaces for the food market including booths and transportation space for vendors and customers.
SPACE DIVISION
The food market serves the whole retired community. Considering the limitation of parking space in the community, the first floor of the food market provides a large parking area to center vehicles in the community. It also gives a space for trucks to load/unload products.
The second floor is partitioned by the products category.
The third floor adds more activities such as playing chess, mahjong, etc. They surrounded by Chinese traditional snakes vendors. They both provides the whole community a lively communication center.
GREENS
It was hard and expensive to remove existing constructions and relocate the current residents. To increase the green areas in the community, adding greens in public constructions helps.
Selected plants breakthrough the building. They are located in the “little gardens” which is assigned to old people who loves gardening.
Materials
Wood- Wood is the main material for all the new construction in the community. It compensates a sense of nature.
Glass- Clear glass introduces nature lights into the space.
INDEX
Ageing An accelerating demographic trend which is the result of lower child mortality coupled with lower fertility in China.
City According to the characteristics of Zhejiang's urbanization process, most of Zhejiang's highly developed cities are divided into old and new urban areas.
The old city area Existing ones, some of which existed long before industrialization. The scale of the old city has been expanding, the number of residents is increasing, the streets are narrow, and the population is crowded. The secondary industry moved away from the old city, and the tertiary industry entered the old city, making the old city a commercial center, a service center, and a residential area suitable for people to live in. Old city area also contains ancient sceneries and old building and facilities. They can be trimmed and preserved as a cultural site.
The new city area Generally in the suburbs of cities. They may have evolved from industrial parks, high-tech development zones, entrepreneurial parks, logistics parks, and so on. There are many factories here, the infrastructure is perfect, and there is room for development. For the elderly, the Old city area is an environment and place where they live longer and are more adaptable.
Condominium Refers to mid-rise to high-rise and high-rise residential buildings above 7 floors developed since 1980. Reinforced castin-situ concrete, good seismic performance, long depreciation life.
Extended Family A social security system according to Chinese social traditions that guarantees the basic lives of all family members, including orphans, disabled persons, elderly people, widows, and temporarily unemployed people.
Family Structure In the traditional extended family, members of three generations and relatives live together, sharing property and income. This traditional family system places great emphasis on the social role of the elderly. However, in today's Chinese society, young people do not often live with and rely on the elderly as before.
Family size Since 2000, families with only one generation have gradually increased; by 2010, almost 80% of Chinese families had only one or two generations, compared with about 50% in 1930. The average family size reduced from 5 people to 3 people since 1974 to 2010.
Kiosk A small shop/store where newspapers, drinks, food etc. are sold. It has the same name with pavilion in Chinese. So, it is defined as a variant of pavilion on program as well as structure.
One-Child Policy A population control policy of the People's Republic of China and belongs to the basic state policy. Between 1982 and 2015, family planning in mainland China was dominated by the onechild policy. City couples could only have one child but rural couples with only one girl, and at least one of the couples was the only child, or autonomous regions and ethnic minorities in some provinces could have two children.
Pavilion Simple structure with made by wood, steel, stone or concreate. Most of them are constructed as pillar and roof but could have enclosure.
1. a temporary building used at public events and exhibition;
2. a building next to a sports ground, used by players and people watching the game;
3. a large building used for sports or entertainment;
4. a building that is meant to be more beautiful than useful, built as a shelter in a park or used for concerts and dances; Residential Unit The main residential form in cities before 1980. Multi-story houses generally use a unit type, with two households and one stair case, and the shared area is very small, which is conducive to improving the area utilization rate, but also limits the communication between the neighborhoods. Mainly brick-masonry construct.
Square Dancing A spontaneous exercise routine performed to music in squares, plazas or parks of the nation's cities. It is popular with middle-aged and retired elderly residents. Due to its low cost and ease of participation, it has been estimated to have over 100 million practitioners, according to CCTV, the country's official television network. It has been criticized for severely disturbing the other residents in recent years.
The Elderly People over 60 years old, most of whom retired and some could have disabilities.
In-Place Urbanization Instead of moving from rural to city, the in-place urbanization allow indigenous residents stay and transfer the rural into new cities. The so called new rural communities have become a grassroots unit in cities, and they have been included in urbanization.
Zhejiang An economically developed province in eastern China, encompasses a rural interior and urban centers along the East China Sea. Zhejiang is one of the provinces with the smallest difference in economic development in China with an urbanization rate of 68.9%.