Part I: Photos of Group redrawing of assigned posters
1. Photos of group redrawing of assigned posters (4 posters in total)
2. Photos of the mindmap of your group’s own understanding and interpretation (4 mindmaps)
Part II: Neighbourhood appraisal
Introduction
In order to carry out in-depth study on community planning, our group has recently carried out a series of activities and studies on community planning in five districts of Lotus New Village. Lotus New Village District 5, which is a typical community of residents, accommodates a large number of local and foreign residents. Through our preliminary understanding, we found that on the basis of the original planning of this community, there was a river inside, and the surrounding greening area was quite good, and the infrastructure was also relatively perfect. The daily needs of the residents can also be met from the central farmers market. These are the basic needs of the existing residents can already be met. However, since the purpose of our community planning study is to propose better planning programmes on the basis of understanding and improving existing conditions, we have made a series of preparations and carried out the following related community activities, It is hoped that some improvements will be made to the existing planning on the basis of improved understanding of the community.
Map of Lotus No.5 Village
Surrounding environment map of Lotus No.5 Village
log
Group division
Yao Xiao: Responsible for the people & community section and map drawing
Ruotong Wu: Responsible for the energe section
Xiaoxuan Wu: Responsible for the water section
Siqi Xiong: Responsible for the economy section, questionnaire and interview collection
Tao Li: Responsible for the Facilities section
Xunfeng Ning: Responsible for the food section
Jie Zhang: Responsible for the movement and recommendation section
Research methods and process
A. Site visit and Review
Method: take some photos which include the aspects of people and community, food, water, energy, local enterprise, economy, movement.
Process:
1. We spent nearly one hour to visit the whole community. During the visit, we took some photos to record the community of environment, residents' activities and some infrastructure. In addition, through this simple visit and investigation, we had a further understanding of the situation of the community and found some problems in community.
2. After the visit, we sorted out the photos and collected some information.
B. Interview surve.
1. Interviews of residents who pass by to investigate residents’ views on the community and suggestions for planning the community.
Providing food and drinks, chatting with residents, asking residents about their living conditions and suggestions for the community can better understand the actual needs of residents and provide better advice for community planning.
2. Conduct a survey of community issues raised by residents and conduct field surveys in the areas where the problem occurred to obtain accurate information.
Invited by enthusiastic residents to visit, to get a close look at the community planning problems faced by residents, this method in order to understand the problems of the community in more detail, and the distance between the residents and the residents can help to obtain information.
3. Draw a map of residents' travel to understand the details of residents' daily lives.
Provide a Chevron board with a name, a few markers, and a map near the community. Residents mark the community location and daily travel points on the Chevron board (different colors represent different modes of travel, lengths represent travel distances, and different thicknesses represent different travel frequencies). In order to understand the rules and habits of community life.
4. Invite residents to find their home location on the community model and mark the daily activity route and nearby problems.
Provide community models of actual size, silk and sticky notes. Residents are invited to mark the daily activities of the community and the community problems that exist nearby. The silk is used to mark the route of residents' activities, and the post is convenient to indicate the location where the problem occurs. Different colors represent different problems. A more specific understanding of the community's problems can be done simultaneously with methods 1 and 2.
Questionnaire and Interview Collection
B. Interview three people of different ages and different life backgrounds
a young office worker
He said that he rented a house here for more than a year because his work unit was near this community. The transportation here is very convenient, the bus stop is at the door of the community, so it is very convenient to go to work. However, he believes that parking fees and rentals in this community are too expensive, and these two expenses account for a large part of his living expenses. He hopes that the head of the community can strengthen the management of renting and parking costs in order to reduce his life pressure.
a 68 year old lady
She explained that she lived with his son's family and she felt that life here was very convenient. The kindergarten on the granddaughter is at the door of the house, and it is very convenient to pick up the granddaughter. There are banks, express stations, supermarkets and vegetable markets in the community to meet basic living needs. If there is time, she is used to going to the square to dance with the other old people, chat, sing, and she feels happy in this community. She said that she came from the countryside. I feel that the vegetable market here is relatively high, and many merchants have joined forces to raise the price of vegetables. She hopes that community leaders can strengthen market price supervision.
a disabled person
He said that because of his disability, his family’s income depends on his wife’s money and his brother’s subsidy. He said that he has to raise a son who is going to school, and the economic pressure is great. Therefore, I applied for the minimum living allowance to the person in charge of the community. However, the person in charge of the community refused his application with insufficient quota. He suspected that the person in charge of the community gave the quota to the relatives. He felt that it was unfair. In addition, he feels that he is satisfied with other aspects of the community. He just hopes that the community can pay more attention to the disadvantaged groups.
C. Questionnaire and interview results
1. Residents have high satisfaction with food, materials, energy, people and the community. Residents' satisfaction with biodiversity, water and sports is not high.
2. Communities should increase their focus on biodiversity, water resources and sports.
3. Residents generally respond to high consumption in the community, especially vegetable prices, parking fees, and rental expenses. Therefore, community leaders and local governments should regulate and guide economic activities, increase subsidies, and strengthen market price regulation.
4. Community residents' rights and interests cannot be guaranteed, and community affairs are not transparent. Community leaders and local governments should pay attention to the interests of vulnerable groups and promote community equity and harmony.
People and Community
Introduction
We will analyse people and community of Xintao in this part by using some appropriate data and information obtained by visiting research. We will analyze people and community in four aspects: resident type, the convenience of life, lifestyle and social activities, then some appraisal on those two parts will be given.
Overall, there are 3,586 households in the five districts of Lianhua New Village, with a total number of almost 24,000 residents which include around 8,500 permanent residents and around 15,000 foreign tenants. The houses are almost all six-story buildings with an area of 45.7~162 m^2
Type of resident
According to several visits from various time periods, our team found that the residents who usually lived and used the community were mostly elderly people, and the second most were underage children. The reason is that most adult but not retired, as the main labour force of the families, will leave the community during long working hours.
According to the interview of residents and the recruitment information of the community bulletin board(figure 1), farmers in most communities are engaged in scattered work and self-employment; the occupation of the floating population is mainly a large number of migrant workers working in cities which engages in lower-income services and technical jobs, such as cleaners and skilled workers, some self-employed households, a small number of company employees, and a small number of student groups.
(figure 1: community bulletin board)
The 5th district of Lianhua New Village was completed in October 2004. As a resettlement community after the village demolition, the target of providing community services is no longer just the original villagers. The resident presents three characteristics generally: more floating population, more elderly people and more difficult group. The community has a complex population structure, a large conflict of cultural values, and multiple levels of demand, which constitute a special community scene.
Convenience
According to the interview, most residents are satisfied with the convenience of community life and transportation. Although most of the shops that have been remodelled by residents have been closed down, however, there are very few shops, such as convenience stores and breakfast shops, which are kept, even though they are few in number and relatively hidden, but residents are familiar with their location, and there also have a large-scale supermarket and farmers’ markets in the community centre. The basic needs of daily life can be easily satisfied.
For transportation, electric vehicles are favoured by many residents because of their low cost and convenient parking. Secondly, private cars and buses are widely used by residents, and the traffic is very convenient.
Living habits
Since there are many farmers in the community who lived in rural areas (most of whom are older), even if living habit changes are for denser collectives, their lifestyles are still difficult to change, such as a self-sufficient lifestyle (e.g. Growing vegetables and raising poultry)(figure 2) is also less responsible for public spaces (stacking your own debris in public spaces, accumulating living and construction waste on the road)(figure 3&4). However, in our interview survey, most elderly people are not too concerned about this, while younger residents mostly think that this is a more serious problem, and community properties are considered to have certain management problems.
(figure 2: poultry)
(figure 3&4 debris and construction material in the public place)
social life
Because underage children need to go to school and adults need to work, most of the long-term living and socializing in the community is the elderly. According to the above, in their original way of life, due to blood and geographical relationship, their neighbors With a very close relationship, even if the density of living is getting bigger and there are fewer fellows and relatives around them, they are still used to sitting in the stairs of the residents' building in their free time, chatting with neighbors, accompanying pre-school children, making some handmade items or choosing dishes(figure 5&6). However, as community residents come from all over the country, some elderly people still have difficulty communicating with others due to different dialects, hearing ageing and so on.
(figure 5&6)
The chess room in the community centre is open to residents for entertainment, as well as regular film screenings, festivals and various interest classes(figure 7&8). However, according to the response of some residents, due to the large area of the community and the excessive number of people, the community management staff did not promote enough activities for most activities, resulting in a small number of participants in many activities.
(figure 7&8)
Energy
According to the team's investigation, we found that most residential buildings are equipped with solar water heaters (Figure 1). In fact, a solar water heater is a cost-effective way to generate hot water for homes. They can be used in any climate, while the fuel used is free of sunlight (Solar water heaters, n.d.). A solar water heater configuration includes a solar collector, a storage tank for holding hot water, and cold water tank with required insulated hot water pipelines and accessories. Its working principle (Figure 2) is that water is heated by solar energy. Due to the action of gravity, the hot water with low density flows upward and the cold water with high density flows downward. Then the cold water is heated by solar energy in an infinite cycle (Solar Water Heating System, n.d.). Then, the gas is also one of the main energy sources used in the community, because we found sign of gas pipe on the ground of the community (Figure 3).
Figure 1: Solar water heaters in residential areas
Figure 2: Performance Analysis of Solar Water Heater (Accessed: April 6 2019)
Figure 3: The sign of gas pipe.
Furthermore, almost all residential buildings in the community are equipped with air conditioning system to control the indoor temperature through electrical energy (Figure 4). However, there is an unsafe factor for electricity use in the community. For example, some wires are exposed outside the houses and are very low from the ground, then these wires are still crossed together, which is a point that needs to be improved in the community (Figure 5).
Figure 4: Air conditioning in the neighborhood
Figure 5: Power lines in the neighborhood
Water
The river is a water system that flows through the northern edge of the Lotus Village. There are much green vegetation planted next to it, which is obviously rectified by the community. This is one of the main edges of our region. The water is generally light green and not very clear, which means the water is a bit turbid. However, after in-depth observation in the surrounding area, there is no floating garbage on the river, and there is no obvious smell, which is friendly to the surrounding environment. There are also simple fences on the banks of the river to ensure the safety of the riverbank when children enter.
The river is very close to the farmers market near the east gate of our area. According to the market's relevant personnel (buy merchants), people can obtain water sources at the riverside for simple cleaning of vegetables, but garbage is not allowed to be thrown into the river. The water in the river can be used to water plants or flush the toilet, which means that the rivers near the community provide convenience for residents.
Generally speaking, as a water system passing through the community, the river does not have a great negative impact on the surrounding area. It is generally aesthetically pleasing and has basic security in terms of safety, but there is still room for improvement in water quality. These are also part of the process of community building and governance that is worth exploring.
Economy
Type of economic activity
AnalysisⅠ
Foreigners are an important part of the community, and residents are greatly affected by work and family. For example, many elderly people live in this community with their children, and many young people live here for work reasons. Therefore, the population within the community is highly mobile and rental activities are frequent.
Advantage
On the one hand, renting houses bring economic income to the lessor and increase the utilization rate of resources. On the other hand, renting a house expands the consumer groups of the community and stimulates domestic demand, which is conducive to promoting the economic development of the community.
Figure 1: Community rental information bar
Disadvantage
Rent management is difficult. On the one hand, for many residents, the rent is expensive and the consumption of the community is high, which brings great pressure on life and economic burden. Especially for the elderly, many elderly people stay at home, and their income depends on lower pensions and pensions. Many elderly people can only increase their income by part-time processing industry, such as hand-made soles and bed curtains. On the other hand, renting a group is a serious phenomenon. Not only poses a safety hazard, but also affects the public environment.
Figure 2: Community group phenomenon is serious
Analysis II
The informal economy of the community is diverse, such as barbershops, restaurants, and canteens, mostly distributed on the first floor of a building.
Advantage
On the one hand, it provides employment opportunities for community unemployed and laid-off workers, and on the other hand, provides community residents with daily services and products. In addition, many informal economic activities are run by the elderly and disabled people. Therefore, the informal economy, as a social welfare, provides living security for the vulnerable groups in the community and is conducive to the harmony of the community.
Disadvantage
On the one hand, the quality of the practitioners in the informal economy needs to be improved. The community economic practitioners have a wide range, low thresholds, mostly elderly people, and unemployed people. Therefore, the quality of related products and services is not guaranteed. On the other hand, the environmental protection of community economic workers is poor, and economic activities often have a negative impact on the community environment. For example, garbage generated by economic activities is not cleaned up in time, stacked on the side of the road and on the side of the trash can, and economic activities occupy and pollute the public green space.
Figure 3: Barber shop
Figure 4: Restaurant
Figure 5: Pollution caused by economic activities
Food
Food has always been an important part of the lives of residents, and its impact is even greater in a concentrated life circle like the community. After several group organization surveys, the team found that origin of the food and its management in the fifth districts of Lotus New Village both are vital aspects in food system.
Regarding the source for the neighbourhood food, there are inside and outside two different type ways for the residents to gain the food. For the residents who go shopping, they usually choose to go out to buy food by automobile, motorcycle or only walking on their own. Certainly, the person who use this type approach are usually residents like the elderly who have enough time and energy. On the other aspect, the quantity of food supply in the community can be expressed as community market supply and residents’ own supply. There is a market in the center of the community, as be shown in the figure 1 that farm product market and supermarket are the main food supply points. Simultaneously, a small number of the residents choose to use flowerpots to grow vegetables with short growth cycles like onions, or to feed a small amount of poultry in the open space downstairs.
(Figure1: the farm product market in the fifth district of Lotus New Village)
For the food management in the village, convenience of purchase and impact on the whole community are all worth to analyzed. First of all, there only one supermarket in the community, and it takes a long time to reach the community center to meet the need of food and goods. Therefore, it is very inconvenient for residents living on the edge of the community. Secondly, some rural residents are more accustomed to growing or feeding on their own and for reasons of national policy they can only use flowerpots or feed a small amount of poultry. However, this will affect the management and planning of the community in some extent.
Facilities
We surveyed the construction of public facilities near the community, and provided a certain number of parking spaces and battery carports near each residential building. However, through the communication with the residents, many people were found to be parking indiscriminately, and occupying the parking space at random led to insufficient parking spaces, which made the residents' life inconvenient.Some residents arbitrarily occupy parking areas to pile up garbage, and the wedding has caused dissatisfaction among many residents.Some residents reacted to the irregular distribution of battery carports, and some areas were too far away from the battery carports, causing many residents to choose to park their battery cars on residential buildings and car parking spaces.
Community parks have recreational facilities for children and rest areas for resi
dents, but many residents respond to the lack of rest areas in the
park and demand more rest and recreation facilities.There are many elderly people in the community. Many elderly people are not convenient to walk and the places they live are far from the park. These elderly people need some close-up rest areas.
In the exchange with residents, I learned that there are some fire-fighting facilities in the vicinity of residential buildings. There are many fire hazards in the vicinity of residential buildings (private construction circuits, flammable materials placed at random).
Movement
The five districts of Lotus Village have four gates in the east, west, and north directions. The north gate and the east gate are the two gates with the largest throughput of residents. The four entrances of the community are connected by roads, and branches of these roads lead to each residential building. The main road is located in the middle of the community, connecting the north and south gates, and running through the entire community. This road is also the road with the largest traffic volume and pedestrian volume in the whole community.
（Figure 1: The north gate of the five districts of Lotus Village)
In the middle of the community, there is a large public activity place for residents, which is the area with the most concentrated activities and the largest amount of activities. There are vegetable markets and supermarkets in the north of the public area, basketball courts, activity fitness equipment and some children's entertainment facilities in the south. As long as the weather permits, there are always a large number of residents in the public areas, and most of them are old people and children.
According to the opinions of the residents, due to the large area of the community, there are more elderly people living in the community, and there are only four exits in the community, which will make some elderly people less convenient. In addition, there are too many vehicles in the community, the vehicles are too accessible in the community, and the vehicles parked on community roads are also one of the important factors hindering residents' actions.
（Figure 2: Public activity area within the community) （Figure 3: Cars parked on the road)
Conclusion
In summary，there are a series of learning practice activities aimed at the community, such as the production of community models, the systematic arrangement of interviews and information, and the mapping of community elements. Our team has analyzed and summarized some of the existing problems and some of the residents' views, and on the basis of which we have been given some thought, and finally we have conceived a preliminary recommendation. In the process of learning like, we have gathered the opinions and suggestions of many residents, learned about the common problems in the community, and have a deeper understanding of the basic situation of the community. These processes will play a very important role in improving our later planning. We also realize that community planning is not a simple idea. It takes a lot of cooperation to get a practical plan. The thoughts above are valuable experiences gained in this process of understanding the five districts of lotus New Village, and we will also continue to think about and apply them in the future planning and learning. This on-the-spot research learning method will also become our valuable learning experience, and provide reference for later related planning learning.
Recommendation
People and community
Community residents' committees through increasing publicity and influence to attract more residents to participate in community activities.
Economy
- The government and other relevant departments subsidize the rent, and the jointresidential committee supervises the rent price of community housing.
- The government guides and regulates informal economic activities in the community. Promoting laws, security and other related propaganda to vulnerable groups such as the elderly, and encouraging residents to report irregular economic activities.
- Improving the quality and environmental protection concepts of employees in informal economy.
Food
- Adding appropriate convenience stores or food vendors in the community to improve the convenience of purchasing food materials and enrich the variety of food materials.
- Carried out Legal propaganda for residents with bad habits of growing vegetables and raising poultry in the community, and to encourage them to consciously safeguard the greening and image of the community.
- Jointing neighboring residential units to open up public green belts for community residents to recruit claimants for their own maintenance. In order to stimulate their awareness of green protection, while meeting the spiritual and cultural demands.
Facilities
- Improve the size of inappropriate parking spaces within the community, and re-plan the location and number of parking spaces. In addition, adequate electric shed is provided.
- To satisfy the recreational requirements of residents by establishing more small rest and sports facilities in the leisure area of the community.
- Improving all fire facilities in the community.
Energy
Improving the insecurities elements of community electricity use. The installation of external wiring facilities in the community is seriously lacking in safety. Some wires are directly exposed outside the house and are lower than the ground. This poses a high security risk to the residents who often pass through and the children and the elderly who play nearby.
Water
- The water quality of the river needs to be further improved. The water in the river is light green and turbid, which inevitably raises concerns about the health of residents who often get some of the domestic water from the river.
- The protective measures beside the river bank only have simple fences. It is observed that there are many old people and children living in the five districts of Lotus Village. The simple fence does not provide residents with extremely high security. Therefore, the protection measures at the riverside should be further strengthened.
Movement
- Add a community entrance and exit in a place with a large flow of people. This will not only facilitate the daily life of residents (especially the elderly), but also reduce the traffic pressure on the North Gate and the East Gate and reduce potential safety hazards.
- Strictly regulate parking in the community, prohibit vehicles from being parked on the road. Community management personnel can draw more parking spaces, or open underground parking garages for vehicles to park.
- The community can reduce the accessibility of the vehicle in the community by adding greenbelt. This can expand the residential activity space while beautifying the community environment, reduce the risk of residents' activities, and effectively regulate the passage and parking of vehicles in the community.
Reference List:
Solar Water Heaters (n.d.) [Online]. Available from: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating/solar-water-heaters (Accessed: April 6 2019).
Solar Water Heating System (n.d.) [Online]. Available from: http://www.kredlinfo.in/solaroffgrid/solar%20water%20heater.pdf (Accessed: April 6 2019).