Project back in the summer

Site: Rocinha, Brazil

The theme of this competition is “Housing For Better Urban Environments”. As a competitor, I have to choose a site. As an alternative aspect of the urban environment, I think of the slums of many merging cities. The people who are left out of the system create themselves a community that reflects the shadow of the urbanization, which we might call slum.

I pick the most famous slum in Brazil, Rocinha, as my site to represent slums spreading throughout South America. People just keep building on the steep hills from the existing slum. Their lives were in deeper jeopardy as they expend, because the weak treatment of the land. Aside from crime and economy, they are suffering from lack of sanitation and many basic needs to maintain lives. These places need the immediate attention more than those cities that spend time on bureaucracy.

In recent years, Brazil has been cutting down rainforest to farm the crops for export to compromise with “Free Trade”. The price is the damaged and threatened lives of the many natural inhabitants of rainforest. Why is this one of the most fruitful land of sun, rain, and fertile soil becoming a land of the starving and the poor?

Intent of Proposal

I took the inspiration from the jungle, the resourceful and harmonious aspect of it. The food chain system that sustains the jungle can be relevant to the urban environment.

I create a term called “junglification” which stands for the optimism of the green urbanism. Jungle is also referring the organic infrastructure of Brazil.

After all, Brazil is a nation of Amazon. It should be proud of its root, especially in this modernized era.

Systems

This project involves the science about light, air, water and earth. 

1. Solar power amplifier

For the solar energy, I tried to find the method and material that can refract a huge surface of sun light into a small solar panel to maximize the efficiency, and to reduce the cost of solar power installation. That would be some thing like magnifying glass, but thin. Eventually, I found Fresnel Lens.

This building integrates Fresnel Lens to concentrate the entire sun glaze to a focal zone in order to multiply the efficiency. The solar panel will be shifting to track the focal zone to maximize the solar gain.

Since the sun glaze is redirected to the solar panel, the heat will not culminate in the atrium space, at same time, there will still be the gentle natural light instead of overwhelming glaze.

In order to create an automatic shifting system to track the focal zone, I present the pendulum clock system as the alternative of the computer. It can speed up the shifting movement as the summer approaches, just by raising the pendulum. It can reverse the movement as the sun altitude reverse at noon, just by adding more counter weight.

2. Stack Ventilation

Since sun glaze will not fully convert into electricity, the rest of the energy will become heat. While the gain is mainly generated on the top of atrium space as a heat zone, the effect of stack ventilation will take place. Hot air escapes from the top openings, and the cool air is drawn into the space from the rare. In the daytime, air flows with or without the wind. The plan and section in this building shows that the indoor courtyard will allow generous flow of air into the units and travel to the top of atrium, then escape.

3. Rainwater Collection Pool

For the water collecting system, I presented the strategies that utilize the roof spaces to efficiently store the rainwater.

On the waterproof roof space, the water will travel to the ditch, and be directed to the rainwater collecting pool as canopy and pitch roof.

The method might be simple and conventional, but such notion can significantly reduce the landslide issue, and turn the issue into good use.

4. Waterless Composting Toilet System

During the research phrase, I looked into the existing technology of composting toilet. I found the inconvenience and limitation of this system. After I explore the solution of the installation of waterless composting toilet in the high-rise, my design creates the condition to allow the typical composting toilet system to work.

Before the use, users spread the leaves on the bottom before use. After the use, they can push the switch to let the waste drop to the pipe. The diagonal design will allow the waste to travel to the central shaft, and then the composting container. After the composting period, farmers can collect and use it direct to the farm.

5. Adaptability

After all, architecture is about adaptability. This project is suggesting the framework that can adopt in different topographical or contextual differences to improve the quality of environment and lives. Its facade less design is to allow its inhabitants to customize their individual space.

USSR Propaganda Photography/Art

German Car Factory

Site: Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

Location of Taiwan in Pacific
Location of Kaohsiung in Taiwan
Location of My Site in Kaohsiung

Site Data

Expansion of the City

Port Expansion Era (1895-1945)

Before 1895, Takao (the former name of Kaohsiung) was an estuarine flatland; there were few settlements inland, and it relied mostly on fishing and farming. According to the 1990 population examination, there are only 7,607 people living in the Takao nearby villages.

In 1895 Taiwan came under the rule of the Japanese. In 1908 the Takao port construction project was started, at which time the “Takao Urban Planning Project” raised the plan of using sludge from the dredging of the Takao port to reclaim land. Thus the Takao port was able to transform itself into a brand-new looking port city from a small fishing and commerce port, through the efforts of the Japanese, over three port construction projects. It was due to the construction of the port that Kaohsiung became industrialized earlier than any other city in Taiwan. 1920 saw some large-scale changes in local administrative structures: Takao was named Kaohsiung and the Kaohsiung Prefectural Government was established, turning Kaohsiung into a top-level administrative district in Taiwan.

Since Kaohsiung established the Kaohsiung City in 1979, its population increased nearly 8% within only five years. The center of the city also moved eastward as urban development and population increased. The urban center of Kaohsiung was in the Qihou District in 1924, and gradually moved eastward to the Hamaxing District in 1930. The total population in Kaohsiung in 1935 was 86,000, 24% of which had moved into the Yancheng District, and the area west of the Ai River was the most densely populated.

. In 1936, the Kaohsiung Urban Planning Project was announced. The plan already covered areas east of the Ai River, and set the location of the train station where it is today. These efforts formed the skeleton and model for contemporary development of Kaohsiung.

Beginning of Industrialization (1945-1970)

In 1945, the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan and subsequently took over and combined previously Japanese-owned industries, such as “Taiwan Fertilizer Co.”, “Taiwan Aluminum Co.”, “Taiwan Mechanics Co.”, “China Petroleum Co.”, etc., and Kaohsiung started to be designated as an industrial city, and actively promoted various constructions, such as:

1946 Construction of the Kaohsiung Oil Refinery

1957 Construction of the first plastic material factory in Taiwan

1958 Development of the seaside industrial area

1966 The first export processing zone in Taiwan

1969 The first cargo container center in Taiwan started business in Kaohsiung Port

The 1960s saw great transformations in Kaohsiung, which started as a port and had fast become an industrial city.

Development of Heavy Industries (1970-1990)

In 1979, Kaohsiung City was designated as a municipality directly governed by the province of Taiwan. The Xiaogang District was now part of the Kaohsiung City area, which consisted of eleven administrative districts with total area of about 1,536 hectares.

At the same time, the second port in the Kaohsiung Port had finished construction, the ability to allow free passage of container cargo freighters under 100,000 tons and the construction of five cargo container terminals made Kaohsiung one of the top three container ports in the world.

The major developments in Kaohsiung invested by the central government attracted large immigrant population, accelerated urban development, yet, at the same time, affected the quality of life for its residents.

Economic and Commercial Development (1990-Present )

For a long time, the city of Kaohsiung has acted as the center for industries, politics, living and consumer functionality in southern Taiwan. However, with globalization came the exodus of traditional industries and social changes, and industries in Kaohsiung now face a problem of transformation – gradually moving from second-level industries based on manufacturing to third-level industries based on commerce, and expects to incite the growth of third-level industries with the foundation of industrialization of the past, moving gradually away from traditional manufacturing towards a post-industrial society based on commerce and service industries.

At the same time, building a comfortable city that offers functions of production, living, and ecology and replacing its previous image of a dark and unsightly industrial city have become the guiding principles of Kaohsiung’s development. With the success in solving the pollution problem of the Ai River, Kaohsiung has gradually presented itself as a unique and beautiful waterside city. And, with the introduction of concepts of urban aesthetics and sustainable ecology, Kaohsiung has, step by step, renovated abandoned industrial factories and old port areas for reuse, offering the residents as well as visitors more space for activity and scenic enjoyment. With the activation of the Taiwan High Speed Rail in 2007 and the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit System in 2008, the city’s transportation capabilities have been strengthened and formed a solid foundation for future development.

The uniquely endowed harbor city of Kaohsiung, with a shoreline of 12 kilometers, was designated by the Taiwanese government as a focus area of industrial and economic development and construction as early as 1953, which accounted for its attracting large labor population and becoming the industrial and commerce port city of today.

In 2007, Kaohsiung’s industry is based on third-level industries, assisted by second-level ones. As for the percentage, second-level industries accounts for around 10.74%, while third-level industries make up 83.8% of the total number of companies.

In terms of employment population, Kaohsiung’s second-level industries employees account for 31.41% of all of Kaohsiung’s industrial, commercial and service industries, while the percentage for that of the third-level industries is 67.62%.

However, from the point of view of production value, the annual GDP is 1,522.8 billion NTD, of which second-level industries contribute 71%, while third-level industries take up only 29%.

Qianzhen District

With the convenient proximity to the Kaohsiung Port, this area had been planned as a key industrial base since the Japanese Occupation, and was involved in oil storage, the production of aluminum, weapons, machinery, and later, petrochemical, fertilizer, and wood work industries. However, with the industries moving out since the 1980s, the factories have been shut down and the large industrial site have been vacant. To help industries transform and to better utilize land resources, now the Kaohsiung City Government has designated it a “multi-functional economy and commerce park,” for developing it into the “Manhattan of Kaohsiung,” where heavy industries of the past now transform into a commercial and service industry center. In addition, for the area of Zhongdao, which is a piece of reclaimed land that extends into the Kaohsiung Port as a result of harbor dredging in the 1960s, the City Government has, seeing its unique position and advantages in being in a port, constructed there the first export processing zone in the country. This zone has made a tremendous contribution to the economic development of Taiwan, and is still in production. After three generations of industrial transformation, it is now mainly devoted to the hi-tech industry.

Kaohsiung and its Harbor

Arial Views of Qianzhen District

Dream Mall

Section Cut and Road Contour of Dream Mall

View of Qianzhen District from Dream Mall

View from Dream Mall

View from Dream Mall

View from Dream Mall

View from Dream Mall

View over the courtyard of Dream Mall

View of courtyard

 Contrast between Dream Mall and industrial site at night

View of industrial site from Dream Mall

View from Industrial Site toward Dream Mall

View inside the Dream Mall

View on the roof of Dream Mall

Scene on the Roof

View from the ferries wheel of Dream Mall

View of the industrial complex next to Dream Mall

Site Analysis

Agendas and Contradictions of My Site Choice 

First, the main purpose of this project is to capture the attention of big scale of audience through its presence. So it will be set in urbanscape. Ideally it needs to be visually identical in the urbanscape, which means not too many tall buildings around. Second, I envision this project to be the center of the city to enforce the sense of the mental direction. But maybe I am trying to create another center to mirror the current center.  Third, it needs to be accessible. Maybe it needs to be on the spot where there is an existing flow of the people, but not bad traffic congestion. Forth, the regional demography will determine the magnitude of the effect of the project. I want to bring the confrontation to the active audiences that might mean a region under redevelopment. But Maybe through revitalizing the older neighborhood can bring new face to the region and serve as the reviving spirit. Fifth, I want to establish a statement to the mainstream, which is more of a commercial neighborhood. It can compete with the existing commercial buildings. It will have more interaction with the flow of businessmen and visitors, but there will be more tall buildings, distractions, bad congestion, and less flexibility. Setting this project in the industrial area will dignify the regional identity. It will have better congestion, flexibility. It can establish itself as the center competing with the traditional model of the center. It will encounter less problems, but maybe the provocation and confrontation is what I am looking for. People will have the mental boundary to ignore the industrialized area if there is nothing to attract them. One old industrialized neighborhood became less active, and it was partially rezoned. The modern and higher standard of the roads were laid, and the lot offers more freedom in building form. Since the latest mall in that country was built, that place is like Disneyland. Should I do opposite?

Resolutions

Site for the Factory

In Taiwan, people don’t have mental boundaries toward the poor place, because the poor people don’t really hate the rich as in many other countries. People have tendency to live in the cities, not because outside the outer city is dangerous, but simply inconvenient. City means the zone of convenience, socialization, and attraction. So if there were no attraction zone or reason outside of their convenience zone, people wouldn’t go through a zone lacking in any of those conditions. Let’s look at the nature of the social behavior as a passive energy. Convenience, socialization, and attraction zones are the passive systems to capture that energy. Let’s call flow of people as “passive audience”. Since my project isn’t built to on any of those passive systems, it will need media to advertise itself to reach the passive audience, or locate itself strategically on the passive system in order to engage more passive audience.

In this case, I find an attraction and socialization zone. That area offers the flexibility, contemporary zoning, existence of industrial infrastructure, and the tourist trap, Dream Mall. The reporters estimated the record that Dream Mall had 100,000 visitors in a weekend. Dream Mall is almost like the Disneyland of the city.

Dream Mall: New Center of the City

Dream Mall: Passive System to collect the passive audience

Left: Dream Mall  Right: Existing Factory( my site for Dream Factory)

Although my project is a statement against the consumerist society, I can’t deny city’s achievement on the redevelopment of this area. Because of the new layout of the streets and new zoning for more architectural freedom, this area is symbolizing a new hope for contemporary city. While this hope is the new attention of the city, I can capture that social momentum and elevate it to the next level. Another fact to consider is that this area was developed as the industrial junction between the city and its seaport. Kaohsiung’s seaport is losing its competition to its giant competitor, China. Nevertheless it is still ranked the sixth largest in the world. By revitalizing and reinventing the industry in this area, this area will ultimately become the threshold between the city and the industrial seaport region. This seaport doesn’t need to be any bigger, but it can make itself a model example of the world by reinventing its industrial culture. My project will both transform the consumer’s nature and dignify the industry marking the new center to unite all regions of the city.

Commercial and Mixed Residential Zoning

Industrial Zoning

 The Frontier of the Industrial Territory

Commercial Zone (Blue);  Industrial Zone (Yellow) ; My Site (Red)

Statue of Labority (Julius Caesar with safety helmet, wrench, and blue print to conquer the commercial north (blue) from the frontier of the industrial south (yellow)!)

Aspiration to the industrial culture (yellow)

Hooray! Men in Tools

Site for the high-rise Farm

As for my high-rise agriculture, I want more adoptability.  It will be ideal to fit in the genuine cityscape of Taiwan that composes fragmental activities. It should be accessible to the public and evolves with its neighborhood while suggesting a new typology in the future. The first of its type should be built not in the zone that are transforming into the contemporary city block, but on the generic and authentic Taiwanese block. At the same time I want o draw the office workers a step closer to the nature. So because it is close to the high-rise buildings that shade will be the key to form the program in the framework, therefore I can demonstrate the harmony between the reality and imagination. So the site I find is between the small infrastructures and the big blocks. Solution resides in the duality. Solution is the bridge to connect the differences and link to the future.

Site Analysis of the Vertical Farming 

Analysis of Urbanscape and Activityscape

List of Urban Elements

Density by regions of Kaohsiung

Growth of Vertical Farming