Master Thesis Final Presentation

Review 3/22

Review 3/12

Second Thesis Review

For this review, I focusedon the design aspect of my thesis and tried to develop the new typology. 

Typically housing todaytakes form into high-rise and mixed-development. Common spaces such asplayground, park, garden, store…etc are often limited on the ground floor. Althoughcommon space or game room is provided in some high-rise housing, tenants arenot able to interact with their neighbors as they are often programmed to beprivate and consolidate themselves into their apartment (that also has to dowith culture), and a single game room simply can’t satisfy the needs either.

Housing today in Chinashares the same characteristic and sometimes even worsens by the socialsegregation. In between high-rise and low-rise courtyard house, is there anyother option for housing development in China?

Due to the One-Child policy,aging population will reach 30% of China’s total population by 2050 and peoplecan barely support themselves, not to mention taking care of their parents orchildren or even great parents. The burden eventfully falls on the state’sshoulders. Thus, social housing is needed and will be high demand for China inthe future. How to design a social housing that address those problems but notto repeat the typical high-rise housing becomes focus and purpose of thisthesis.

Before high-rise or mid-riseapartment, courtyard house was the most dominant housing typology in Chinawhich can be traced back to the 16^th century (Yuan Dynasty). Notjust on housing, the whole layout of the Beijing City as well as otherarchitecture are strictly based on the courtyard house typology. Today,although the courtyard house has changed to housing that is divided and sharedby multiple families, it creates a new kind of human relation that is muchclosed and active. People from different often talk and look after each other.There is no stranger in that kind of neighborhood where people all know eachother. 

Below is a serie of conceptual models based on the idea of sharing common space and modularity.

Typical High Rise Structure

Rather to focus onindividual unit, I made each model a housing unit or a neighbor that iscomposed of 6-10 individual families / apartments. It’s the idea of socialhousing and social living. Each model has a share common space that is largeenough to be shared by the other units. The common space is offset and insertedin between two units to create interaction as people. Units are in a modularsystem that can be expanded infinitely according to specific site condition andthey vary in length as well to enhance the personality. 

  

 

 

Shawn Liang's First Review

Thesis Map

Transform! Critical Housing in China

As China is eager to show its national pride through mega and iconic architecture, housing as architecture on the other hand, takes form into mega and iconic as well. However, through the housing history in China, housing architecture has always been underappreciated. Housing to human relationship is always passive. Particularly in the 20th century, it is clear that housing has become a tool that highly manipulated by the government. Until the recent Chinese reform, the ODHR in the 90s seemed to break out this norm and aimed to restore the Chinese tradition, but ended unsuccessfully because of the powerful collaboration between the profit-driven developers and the nationality-driven government.

The passivity of housing being a tool and the government’s interest over mega and iconic architecture have clearly illustrated people’s lack of appreciation on common architecture. Housing over the 5000 years in Chinese history has not evolved that much which disabled people’s appreciation on common architecture. And this is ultimate reason for the ODHR as well as the preservation failure in China, as people seem not to understand the value of history.

Regardless whatever style or form it takes today in housing architecture, the traditional courtyard houses on one hand have either been museuminized or left dilapidated. The traditional urban fabric is gone along with the tradition,

This thesis, based on the analysis of Chinese housing architecture will touch upon the issue of preservation and combine it into new housing typology in the arena of Beijing. Aiming to revive the housing architecture, this thesis combines the notion of critical architecture and the integrated preservation method in order to provide a solution for future housing development.