CDE110 2018-19 Group 12 Final

Neighborhood planning means a sense of belonging and community in a specific place we live (Barton, 2003). Therefore, excellent neighborhood planning is fairly vital for residents and even a city. This group page will take the 6^th and 8^th lotus village as an example and discuss numerous aspects that influence it. The 6^th and 8^th Lotus village located in XieTang of Suzhou industrial park contain a large number of relocated households and farmer workers. They established in 2004 and cover 321,500 square meters with virous facilities such as health care center, park, cultural activity center and so on (Jingtang community office, 2019).

Figure 1: Location Map, drew by Huang, 24/4/2019

Group work division:

Figure 2: Group work division, made by Cai, 27/4/2019

Research Process

Figure 3: Process of group work, made by Wang, 26/4/2019

Detailed Research Method
a. Site visit
In the process of the research, in order to understand the conditions of different elements and the reality of the environment in Lotus Community, our group has taken site visits to find more details about the geographic and environmental features.

b. Focus Group & Beneficiary Assessment
Focus group is a discussion method which means the discussion focus on the topic and the target people. Meanwhile, After the model making and group project, we need to adopt the suggestion from the local residents to improve the group page. Therefore, we established the focus group which combined the beneficiary assessment to collect the helpful suggestion and creative ideas. After each field trip, site visit and city walk, the focus group will discuss and analyze the results of it.

c. Field Trip
Field Trip is a method to observe and research the target area. It could help us to understand deeply and notice more detail for this urban village. Since we never visit the Lotus community before this project, tutors organized the first field trip for us and helped us organize the thinking network.

d. City walk
City walk is a method to help the local residents notice the weakness of this community which they had ignored. In the process of walking, people could recognize this area again by using different sight. Our group planned to invite residents to 'city walk' and found the issues together, but it did not work so well because the free residents are mainly the old with limited physical strength.

e. Open House
In the focus group discussion, in order to learn more reflection and recommendation, we set an open house. Open House is an event which the public is invited to comment. Anyone who Interested can drop in at any time during an announced time period.

Community:

Introduction:

Jintang community is composed of 11 administrative villages which were relocated from the former Xietang area such as Shengdun and Hualian. It was originally named as Lotus Three Communities and renamed as Jintang Community in August 2015.

Housing:

All residential buildings are six-storey.

Number of households: 1549

All houses in this community are commercial residential buildings.

Total building area: 152300㎡

Apartment area：45.82-164㎡

There are small houses, middle houses, big houses and super-large houses in the community. During the process of demolition, residents are allocated to houses of different sizes according to the original family number. The distribution of small houses is relatively scattered. Middle and big houses are usually surrounded by small houses.                 

Volume ratio: 2

Housing price: 20,000 yuan/㎡

People:
According to staffs of neighborhood committee, Jintang community accommodate around 6000 household registered population and 24500 floating population. Many original residents plan to rent out their relocation houses so that tenant population accounts for the majority of total population.

Figure 1.1: Wall of tenant information, taken by Fang, 19/3/2019

Figure 1.2: Population in Jintang Community, made by Cai, 6/4/2019

In our third visit, we found that the local residents were contradicted with the paper questionnaires so that subsequent surveys were generally conducted through oral interviews. Most residents kept a distance from strangers and had difficulty in understanding mandarin especially the elderly. Hence, we spent much time on looking for residents who was willing to share their personal information with us. In total, we interviewed 27 people. Questions are as follows:
1. How old are you?
2. How long have you lived in this community?
3. Are you a native or foreigner?
4. How many people are there in your family (live together)?
5. Do you or your family member work near this community?
6. What kind of activities do community organize? How often do you participate in activities organized by the community?

Analysis of interview:
Firstly, most of the elderly have lived here for about 13 to 15 years since their original house were demolished. Secondly, there are 5 people in a family on average. Children of these families are still relatively young in grade so that they are generally taken care of by the elderly when their parents go out to work. Furthermore, the number of people working nearby is about the same as the number of people driving to work farther away. Age distribution and source of population are shown in chart below (Figure 3 and 4).

Figure 1.3: Age distribution, made by Cai, 25/4/2019

Figure 1.4: Source of population, made by Cai, 25/4/2019

Community organized activities:
Staffs in neighborhood committee explained to us that they organize average five to six activities a month such as free physical examination, culture-related competitions and talent shows. However, during our interview, we found that residents care little about these activities and seldomly participate. In addition, we think that there is a sharp gap in residents' willingness to participate in community activities. Few people may spend most of the day in the activity room, while most of them just gather in some public places to do their own things.

Lifestyle:
Residents show the diversity of lifestyle through their various personal activities. They are all willing to go out which is a effective way to add community vitality. Some people would grow their own vegetables on the green space between the buildings. In afternoons, old people often sit together in the sun to make some handicraft and talk about family matters. To most of female, delivering children and cooking meals are the most important thing in a day.

To summarize, young people often rush to work in all sorts of ways, while old people may go out more and spent more time in the community during the daytime so that analysis of interviews may be more expressive of their thoughts.

The lotus community has a special economic system. According to the field trip and interviews form sixth area to eighth area, we find there are several characteristics of this community.
First characteristic is about the inform economy in the carport which located in the 1 floor. In this community, the 1st floor was designed to provide space to park bicycle or electric bicycle for local resident originally. However, in the realistic situations, the villager set this area as the site of the inform and small private enterprises (Figure 2.1). Before the rectification from government, these small stores were almost located in every carport.

Figure 2.1 The carport, taken by Cao, 20/4/2019

The second characteristic is about the formal economy. Although the informal economy is lack in the new village after the rectification, the formal enterprises could not meet the demand of the local residents. In the sixth area and eighth area, the formal convenient store only set in the service center (Figure 2.2, Figure 2.3). It is inconvenience for the residents who lives far from the service center.

Figure 2.2 The formal convenient store, taken by Cao, 20/4/2019

Figure 2.3 The number of form and inform store in community, drew by Cao, 26/4/2019

This community also has other interesting phenomenon in the economy. Most of villagers rent the unused house for the migrant workers. Besides, these unused houses also were set as the warehouse (Figure 2.4).

Figure 2.4 The Advertising Board, taken by Cao, 19/3/2019

As the small business center of the Lotus Community, Lianfeng square meet almost demand of daily life for the surrounding residents. The residents always buy the daily necessities form this square (Figure 2.5). However, the environment is mess, which cause the residents feel comfortable and confused.

Figure 2.5 The Lianfeng Square

Advantages

The basic facilities complete level is a standard of urban modernization and urbanization, in local communities, there facilities should around resident basic living demand, and increase more suitable and convenience opportunity. There including many kind basic facilities in Louts community, even that already cover main living facilities such parking space, empty space for people entertainment, but it is still having many problems. When we visit Louts community, we find some interesting and different facilities.

Figure 3.1：Layout of facility, made by Huang, 22/4/2019

Black points: electric bicycle parking space  

Green points: garbage cans  

Yellow points: public seating  

Red points: public active space  

Blue points: shops 

Figure 3.2: Trash cans in main road, taken by Huang, 14/4/2019

We find many basic facilities secret cover both sides of the main road, high density of daily facilities serve create more convenient and suitable (Figure 3.2). In the center of Lotus six community, figure 3.1 shows big blue points area, there are comprehensive service area, there including bank, shops, community hospital, gym and art training center (Figure 3.3). Therefore, the basic facilities in their community cover many aspects, such health service, entertainment service and economic service, compare with ten years early it is progress such rapidly.

Figure 3.3: Healthy station, taken by Huang, 14/4/2019

Problems

However, we also find few problems. Some parking space, even the middle of road in Louts community already be build up a simple restaurant by wood, nylon fabric and iron bars (Figure 3.4&3.5).

Figure 3.4&3.5: Bank and restaurant in community, taken by Huang, 14/4/2019

The purpose of this simple restaurant is celebrating the full moon day of children or marriage, people living there might hold the party a few days. This kind of simple restaurant is unusual in other communities, it is could bring people good neighborhood relations and daily entertainment, but also cause some negative effect. First, the sanitation problems. Resident cooking in outside and can not dispose of kitchen waste in right way may cause disease and mosquitoes breed, accumulated refuse is negative for street scenery too (Figure 3.6). Second, the safe problems, take over the road and public parking space could cause the fire engine would not come in during the fire, and the material building up the simple restaurant by wood mainly, so the accumulation of flammable materials also have the risk of ignition, there is dangerous especially in a densely populated area.

Figure 3.6: Wastes are stacked in street, taken by Huang, 14/4/2019

Another significant problem forms an old resident, he thinks some of resident square dancing in the center lotus community public produced a lot of noise, he closes the windows even cannot cut of the interference.

Movement is a vital aspect in neighborhood planning related to safety, community, viability and so on.  There are numerous advantages and disadvantages related to movement in the neighborhood planning of 6th and 8th Lotus village.

There are 4 types of roads to show the movement of residents in these villages (Figure 4.1).  The first type (Figure 4.2) is the main road outside of the village 6 which is wide and the velocity of cars on it are also fairly fast. The other type (Figure 4.3) is between the buildings which can be used for park or public activities. The third type (Figure 4.4) is for pedestrians and electric bikes including some green space. Last type (Figure 4.5) is the main road in villages for pedestrians, cars, bikes to go to the destination such as activity center or service center.

Figure 4.1: The layout of different roads, drew by Liu, 20/4/2019

Figure 4.2: Type 1 road, taken by Liu, 16/4/2019

  Figure 4.3: Type 2 road, taken by Liu, 16/4/2019

    Figure 4.4: Type 3 road, taken by Liu, 16/4/2019              

  Figure 4.5: Type 4 road, taken by Liu, 16/4/2019

Safety

As for type 1, Many electric bikes and pedestrians cross the road without traffic lights which will easily cause dangerous results. In figure 4.2, the street is a car tamed street. Because most old residents can’t go far place to do activities, most of them sit and talk in front of the building gate (Figure 4.6). However, the free movement of cars will cause some inconvenience and danger to residents and buildings. Besides, in figure 4.4, there is no pavement for pedestrians.

Figure 4.6: Many old people talk in front of gate, taken by Liu, 16/4/2019

Community

There are mainly two types of community, old community and children community. As mentioned in last part, most old people usually do activities in front of their house. The spacious streets ensure a comfortable conversational environment for residents. As for children community, most of them communicate in green space and activity center. The two part attract children to do activities which provide much bigger area and numerous facilities for them to run and play. It is really easy to find these kinds of place and the way to guide people is also directional.

  Figure 4.7 : Children are playing in the green space, taken by Liu, 16/4/2019                     

Figure 4.8: Activity center, taken by Liu, 16/4/2019

Viability

The viability in Lotus village should be improved in the future. There are many local enterprises in Lotus village. But most of them  lack  of clear road guidance and direction and are located in residents' own houses which will cause bad influences to the economy of the area.  

Heating energy:

We made a research about what kinds of heating energy that local residents used in the daily life. Firstly, we asked the property management company principal, and we knew that they provided gas to the local residents uniformly. However, through our observations, we found that there are 1 or 2 solar water heaters on the roof of each building. Finally, we asked the local residents to collect data and get the result (Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1: Heating energy, made by Chen, 6/4/2019

It turns out that almost half of residents tend to use gas as heating energy. Only 20 percent of people can use solar water heater because of space constraints.

Sunlight:

Sunlight is an indispensable part of people’s life. Light conditions have a great influence on the local residents’ life. So we measured the space between buildings and the height of buildings to study on the sunlight conditions in summer and winter. (Figure 5.2)

Figure 5.2: Sunlight conditions diagram, drew by Chen, 6/4/2019

According to out measurement, the distance between two buildings is 16 meter, and the height of buildings is 19 meter （Figure 5.2). We can see that the residents who lived on the second floor and third floor cannot get the sun in winter. Therefore, the distance between two buildings is not long enough to ensure each floor to get sunlight in winter. In addition, the big trees besides the building are almost two stories high, and there is a bad result that people live on the first floor cannot get sunshine.

Electricity:

According to the observation, the local residents prefer traveling by battery car. However, it is dangerous to charge the battery cars in the corridor. Therefore, the property managers set several battery car-charging stations in the district to address the safety concern.

Lianhua Xincun is a common residential district in jintang community. The main structural materials of the buildings in it are steel, cement, lime, sand, and steel. The decorative materials are quite different, because the prices of different materials vary greatly. There is a simple restaurant in the center of the district, and the main material of it is wood. It is very dangerous if a fire broke out during a party. Therefore, it is necessary to equip it with fire tools or rebuild it with fireproof materials.

In terms of the community biodiversity, our group focus on the relationship between the biodiversity and residential environment and find the issues from the investigation.

Figure 9.1: The layout and density of greenery, drew by Wang, 26/4/2019

Firstly, as can be seen in Figure 9.1, big trees are distributed between the community buildings, but mainly in open public spaces, sides of the roads and the periphery of the housing estate. Green plants could reduce the heat island effect and provide a milder climate for the community. However, different density of greenery causes different impacts. For example, the denser layout could provide more shade and habitats for birds or other wildlife. For this reason, I invited 26 residents to investigate their satisfaction with community greening, the satisfied people are slightly more (Figure 9.2). Residents' opinions on community greening include: (1) poor lawn quality (Figure 9.3). (2) high trees in front of residential buildings affect daylighting. (3) The unreasonable density of trees leads to less shade in summer and less sunshine in winter in some areas. (4) the various plants are pleasing (Figure 9.4).

Figure 9.2: Residents' Satisfaction with Community Greening, made by Wang, 27/4/2019

Figure 9.3: the poor lawn quality, taken by Wang, 3/19/2019

Figure 9.4: the various plants, taken by Wang, 3/19/2019

Secondly, in the process of site visit, I found that there are lots of animals living in the community (Figure 9.5). Considering this impact, I asked 22 residents whether they were unsatisfied living in a community with lots of animals. As Figure 9.6 shows, No one believes that living in a community with animals can be adversely affected. Their presence increases the biodiversity of the community and thus makes it more sustainable.

Figure 9.5: the various animals living together, taken by Wang, 19/3/2019

Figure 9.6 : Residents' Satisfaction with Community Animals, made by Wang, 27/4/2019

Figure 4: Summary, made by all group members, 27/4/2019

Red-development impossible

Orange-development problematic

Yellow-development conditional

Green-development good

Blue-development priority

People and community
1. Add elevator outside of existing buildings starting from the second floor in order to achieve age-friendly housing for future living.
2. Invite more residents in the planning process of community activities which could take more real interests of stakeholders into consideration and pay more attention to safety issues of activities especially for older people.

Economic:
1. The government could set more form convince store. This method not only would increase the income of local residents, but also could make the community more convince.
2. The government could organize the regeneration and total cleaning for the Lianfeng square which would improve the environment of this square.
3. The local government should make the insurance and more fair welfare for residents.

Facility:
1. The occupy public parking space for private using, the local management organization should increase strengthen of management, reduce and control resident occupy public space.
2. Unsafe using fire also create safety hazard, so for the resident, we can make some lecture and handing out safety leaflets to improve people safety awareness.
3. For the square dancing create noise problem, if amply supported with funds, the local government can create a dancing room in original public space or other vacant rooms. This public dancing rooms could be book free for the resident, special sound insulation can prevent the noise transmission.

Movement:
Build several new parking lots to make Type2 road be car-restricted. This will not only ensure the safety of residents, but also make the streets look cleaner.

Energy:
1. Promote electricity heating instead of traditional coal.
2. Trim the branches of big trees regularly

Water:
1. The source of river pollution is waste stacking area, it is too closed to river. Our group decide to build an indoor waste disposal station, it could increase the capability of garbage disposal and reduce the pollution to river. Moreover, it will not spend too much money to build it. The location of this building will remain the original site.
2. To achieve recycling of grey water and black water, our group find it is difficult to collect this part of water. Grey water and black water mix together flow into sewer directly, if divide grey water and other water to achieve the goal of reusing grey water will spend a lot of money. However, sewage treatment works will purify these water and achieve the reusing of these water, this process is difficult to complete in community level.
3. It is good habit of collecting roof water to wash cars and other daily activities. Although there are some small containers to collect green water, they are limited and ineffective. Our group propose to build rainwater collection station in the roof, it will help increase the capability of capturing rainwater effectively. These station will not cost a lot of money and they are easy to build.

Food:
Some non-utilized green land could be developed into where vegetation is produced. Food workshops could be set up in low utilization of green space. Moreover, large tracts of grass for picnic is also feasible and practical.

Materials:
Equip wooden house with fire tools or rebuild it with fireproof materials.

Biodiversity:

1. The height of high trees in front of residential buildings should be reduced by pruning to avoid affecting daylighting and provide shade at the same time.
2. Reasonable changes in the layout of trees, encourage the elderly to walk in low-density-trees areas in winter to enjoy the sunshine and encourage people to gather in high-density-trees areas in summer to enjoy the shade.
3. Improve quality of turf and create an area for animals to play in.

Barton, H., Grant, M., & Guise, R. (2003). Shaping neighbourhoods: a guide for health, sustainability and vitality. London and New York:Taylor & Francis [Online] Available from: https://ice.xjtlu.edu.cn/pluginfile.php/86232/mod_resource/content/0/Shaping%20Neighbourhood%20Chapter%201.pdf (Accessed: 26 April, 2019)

Jingtang Community (2019) local community introduction