VERTICAL LIVING NETWORK

-prototypical model of vertical community living experience

CHONGWEN DISTRICT, BEIJING, CHINA

In recent years the rapid urban growth and densification of the municipality of Beijing has driven its settling urban population to increase from 13.5 million in 2000 to 17.5 million in 2009. With a further 30% anticipated increase in population growth by 2020 the city will have exceeded its land-use resource threshold and the demand for urban solutions that provide a balance of amenity space and high-density mixed-use developments will become essential in order to satisfy the requirements of the rising urban population.

Modern high-rise high-density apartment typologies driven by urban regeneration schemes have transformed various neighbourhoods of the city and as a result of the dropping numbers of traditional courtyard-based low-rise hutong housing typologies, there has been a significant social and cultural shift in the way people inhabit, interact, recreate and experience their localised living environment. The sense of atmospheric character and the recreation-orientated social integration which once existed within the hutong community has been somewhat lost in the modernist model of residential living. The current vertically extruded model of high-density housing forces a reduction in the ratio of living-to-amenity space resulting in communal/ private green space to become a premium commodity.

My proposition seeks to invent a new prototypical model of vertical community living experience through a multi-dimensional distribution of affordable/ premium housing units which are vertically layered amongst a connective network of recreational/ cultural gathering spaces and private/ public courtyard-based amenity spaces. The intricate organisational relationship of these programmatic functions aims to emulate and regenerate the community driven social atmospheric qualities which are embedded within Chinese culture and traditional living experience. This utopian model of urban living experience breaks away from conventional vertically stacked accommodation and challenges the existing orthogonal urban planning grid through a formal exploration of physical and digital prototype constructs which investigate cluster formations and network based nodal density distribution as form finding techniques.

This unique homogenous formal syntax informs the urban strategy of a habitable solid to void volume relationship which is translated into the organisation of programme and the generation of a framework for the structural/ infrastructural systems. The proposed urban scheme is elevated above the ground plane in most places to create a public open green-recreation and amenity space for local inhabitants. Pedestrian transaction and connectivity is promoted throughout the integrated habitable network as an attempt to mitigate vehicular traffic and create a utopian green-haven model of urban design which encourages a connected system of public/private amenity provision with residential living quarters. The distinctive identity and spatial atmospheric qualities intrinsic to this harmonious living typology are enhanced by the varying levels of light diffusion and levels of visual porosity which inhabitants experience throughout specific areas of the vertical living network.

The selected site for urban testing is a high-density mixed-use urban block that is located in the Chongwen district which is situated to the South-East of the Forbidden City on the periphery of the Historical city and within the 2^nd Ring Road. The neighbouring urban blocks are predominantly of a residential and retail typology mix and the area has recently undergone a phase of urban regeneration, adopting the typical Chinese interpretation of modernist high-rise apartment block typology. The Chongwen district has a land area of 15.9sq.km with a permanent population density of 29,057 people per sq.km. The population of Chongwen is estimated at 462,000 in 2010 with an average of 2.97 people per household.

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