Collective Housing
Beijing. 2018
Syracuse Thesis, Francisco Sanin
Beijing. 2018
Syracuse Thesis, Francisco Sanin
a project in collaboration with Pengyu Chen
On November 18th, a fire in Beijing’s suburb killed 19 migrant workers and their children, followed with a massive eviction of the floating population, which the government claimed to be “low-class” and illegal.
11月18日，北京郊区发生火灾，19名农民工和他们的孩子丧生。随后，政府称这些流动人口是"低端"的，他们在北京居住是非法的，并因此进行了大规模的驱逐。
A brief history
In The Chinese Dream, Mars commented on China’s desperate needs to develop cities in order to keep its economic growth. The economic legend achieved by export cheap Chinese production has come to a halt. To keep up the promise of economic growth, China has to seek within its territory for the power to consume its production. “China’s economic future rests on transforming cities form industrial bases into exactly the sites of bourgeois consumption that Mao decried.” Cities will be the epicenters of this consumerist boom, their efficacy as economic machines (generating higher incomes from which to consume), and deterministic mechanisms (people need to consume more simply to subsist in urban environments) are the ingredients needed to make it happen, City-living engenders the money and desire for consumerization-supercharging the economic treadmill: “to each over and above his needs.”
In China, the development of cities, along with policy relaxation, have created staggering numbers of migrant workers, perhaps more than 120 million people, working long hours and at desperately low wages. These migrants are often uncounted in official statics, and the system is not formalized. They became a “surplus” of human beings to the city- “a glut of labor which keeps wages low, international prices competitive, and thus permits the extraordinary rates of growth on which the country now depends.” On the other hand, they have also added a social plane below the rest of the city, a large populations who “simply cannot partake in consumerization, confined by economic poverty and social stratification”.
In the past 30 years, Beijing represents such rapid urban transformation in China from industrial production clusters to a massive consumption center in order to realize economic goals. High rise towers in the CBD and newly developed gated communities abut urban villages, underground housing, floating villages built by the migrant workers.
Reflected in the chaotic urban sprawl and spatial segregation between different classes, social stratification between migrants workers (“underclass”) and urban consumers (“bourgeoisie”) was pushed to an extreme in urban settings. Since 2010, government have been enforcing regulations that tightened conditions for migrant workers and soon accelerated in 2016. The ruthless methods towards migrant workers including eviction, and towards the city fabric (massive destruction) did the opposite of “aleviation of social tension” which they claimed.
历史简述
在《中国梦》一书中，马尔斯提到了中国为了保持经济增长，急于发展城市的需求。中国出口廉价生产力所实现的经济传奇已经停滞不前。为了兑现经济增长的承诺，中国需要在国内寻求消费其产品的力量。 "中国经济的未来取决于将城市从原本的工业生产基地转化为毛泽东所谴责的资产阶级消费场所"。城市将成为繁荣的消费主义中心，它们作为经济机器（产生更高的收入用于消费）和决定机制（人们需要更多的消费来维持城市环境）是实现这一目标的关键。城市生活同时产生了消费的资金和欲望，为经济的发展提供了动力。
在中国，城市的发展和政策的放宽产生了数量惊人的外来务工人员（数量可能超过1.2亿人）。他们工作时间长，工资低。在官方统计中，这些流动人口往往难以统计。他们成为城市中的 “过剩 "人口——"劳动力过剩使工资保持在较低水平， 从而允许国家保持超常的增长率。”另一方面，他们在城市中形成了一个“低于”城市的社会层面，大量流动人口受限于经济条件和社会阶层，根本无法参与到大都市的消费中。
在过去的30年里，北京是中国城市快速转型的代表，从工业生产集群一跃成为大规模消费中心。CBD的高楼大厦和新开发的住宅小区与城中村、地下室、农民工的棚户区交织在一起。
农民工（"底层"）和城市消费者（"资产阶级"）之间的社会分层在城市环境中被放大，这也反映在混乱的城市扩张和阶层的空间区隔上 。自2010年以来，北京政府一直在收紧农民工相关的法规，并很快在2016年加快了步伐。然而，对外来务工人员的驱逐和对城中村等建筑的拆除似乎并未像预想的一样缓解现有的社会压力。
The 5th Ring Road
The 5th ring of Beijing defines a psychological and administrative division. Within the 5th ring is the proper city with westernized real estate development of residential towers, shopping malls and social infrastructure such as, education system, health care, crime controls. Outside of the 5th ring is always considered undeveloped with autonomous settlements of poor living conditions and limited resources. The migrant workers can only resides in those areas, because of the Hukou system that enforces demographic control.
The project redefines the boundary of the 5th ring by densifying a series of underutilized large fields along its edge as points of encounter between different classes. A series of wall-like structures occupies these fields, linked by a new light rail system. The leftover territories are turned into habitats for the evicted migrant workers, including collective housings and agricultural fields and light industrial factories.
The formal language of the wall creates a new concept of the city’s edge: a densified inhabited territory. The new boundary around the 5th ring will limit urban development to other leftover spaces and create a denser urban fabric within the 5th ring. Like a city wall, it redefines clearly a physical boundary of the urban territory, but bridge the psychological segregation between classes that were separated by the 5th Ring.
The 5th ring of Beijing defines a psychological and administrative division. Within the 5th ring is the proper city with westernized real estate development of residential towers, shopping malls and social infrastructure such as, education system, health care, crime controls. Outside of the 5th ring is always considered undeveloped with autonomous settlements of poor living conditions and limited resources. The migrant workers can only resides in those areas, because of the Hukou system that enforces demographic control.
The project redefines the boundary of the 5th ring by densifying a series of underutilized large fields along its edge as points of encounter between different classes. A series of wall-like structures occupies these fields, linked by a new light rail system. The leftover territories are turned into habitats for the evicted migrant workers, including collective housings and agricultural fields and light industrial factories.
The formal language of the wall creates a new concept of the city’s edge: a densified inhabited territory. The new boundary around the 5th ring will limit urban development to other leftover spaces and create a denser urban fabric within the 5th ring. Like a city wall, it redefines clearly a physical boundary of the urban territory, but bridge the psychological segregation between classes that were separated by the 5th Ring.
The Last Wall
The living modules are designed through close analysis of the current living modes of migrant workers. The smallest domestic unit houses intimate groups of family, friends or fellow villagers. This minimal unit has a balcony, a double height free space and a framed space for sleeping and storage. Four domestic units correlate to a collective space where multiple commercial/ public programs are interweaved with domestic programs. This spatial module is then propagated, and start to generate an internal small scale economic system. Based on the units’ autonomous production of services in the collective areas, the residents would share and exchange their production with little or no money involved. Toilets, shower, bath and basic washing activities are shared. Every five units, there is a structural core with elevators, stairs, service room.
The living modules are designed through close analysis of the current living modes of migrant workers. The smallest domestic unit houses intimate groups of family, friends or fellow villagers. This minimal unit has a balcony, a double height free space and a framed space for sleeping and storage. Four domestic units correlate to a collective space where multiple commercial/ public programs are interweaved with domestic programs. This spatial module is then propagated, and start to generate an internal small scale economic system. Based on the units’ autonomous production of services in the collective areas, the residents would share and exchange their production with little or no money involved. Toilets, shower, bath and basic washing activities are shared. Every five units, there is a structural core with elevators, stairs, service room.
