Group8 Drama Video
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Drama Video.mov Details
- Sunday, 28 April 2019 [46.1MB]
Introduction
Preface
Neighborhood could create a sense of belonging and community for people who living in, besides, unreasonable planning and different social conditions would cause one neighborhood to become unhealthy and decayed (Barton, Grant and Guise, 2003). Thus, how to create a healthy, sustainable neighborhood needs specific analysis and make specific methods. Lotus Village is a government demolition return community and there are mainly to settle people who are migrant labor and locals, therefore, this demolition return community has several problems in management, spatial planning and neighborhood development and et al.
Aims
Our group has visited Lotus Village area II and did some research and critical analysis in order to solve the exist problems and to build a neighborhood which could enhance the sense of community and make this community more suitable with residents.
Clarification of the aspects
Water: might be the local water distribution and the water use system.
Food: the local food distribution, food resources.
Facilities: such as kindergarten, bus station et al.
People and Community: general population number, income level, faith, the number of elderly and children as well as disables.
Energy: types, using rate.
Movement: road planning and transportation.
Economy: the local enterprise and economic development methods
Biodiversity: plants and animals (such as pets)
Name, ID, Responsibility
Yu Xue, 1717737, Water, Introduction and Conclusion
Daoyuan Luo,1715856,Biological and Economy
Yuyu Wang. 1717929.Material
Yiran Wang 1718386 People and Community
Xianrui Zhang 1717904 Food
Kaiwen Sun 1717926 Energy
Ziyin.Deng 1719005 Movement
Zhengyu Li 1716876 Facilities
General Map of visiting site
Methods
Field trip:
Our group would evaluate some data which we found in last field trip in Lotus Village area II and categorize the findings. Besides, our group would use questionnaire to analysis the locals’ reflection with different aspects.
For the improvement scheme (Conclusion):
We would finally propose our scheme based on the findings’ analysis and the local context, besides, we will also learn some experience from some excellent success projects.
People and Community
People
The basic situation from interview:
Lianhua New Village 2nd District is the demolition and resettlement house community, which settle down about 2176 households. So the residents mostly are resettle in the community by government, some small parts of residents are bought the house by their own willing. As our group’s sample survey for the community’s age structure, middle-aged people and elderly people are the major age component of residents. According to our sample survey, can speculate on the overall age structure of the community(see Figure1).
Figure8.1
Problem:
One of the five principles of built a sustainable community is high density, (Urban Planning Discussion Note1,2019). Lianhua New Village as a community with high density, need to promote its concentration of people and their activities.
1.Residents in this community are faces with segregation. For inner community, people who used living in the rural area are not adapt to the urban community house type, may lead to the lack of neighborhood communication, neighborhood relationship. For outside community, the residents from rural area speak dialect would caused communication difficulties with urban people who speak mandarin. Additionally, due to the composition of the residents, the community culture of Lianhua Village is more closer to the rural model, which also leads to unadapted condition.
2. Lack of community activities. From the interview, many elderly said, although the community has a community activity center, but it’s not very convent for them to take participation due to the single type of activity and the activity are is on 3 floor which is not easy to access. Many elderly people develop retail services in the community (see figure2), this action not only for earn money, but mostly to earn something to do for the elderly. In addition, some interviewees who have kids said the community has less garden or playground for kids. So it’s necessary for Lianhua Village to build activity center and outside public activity place.
Figure8.2
Summary
How to adapt to local conditions, combined with the characteristics of the resettlement community in Lianhua New Village, to build an age-friendly community and develop community culture is worth considering.
Materials
Materials refer not only to building materials but also to the disposal of wastes.
1) Building Materials:
Most of the buildings in the second community of Lianhua new village are reinforced concrete structures, such as residential buildings (Figure 1), banquet halls and community and the kindergarten. But there are also small buildings for special events (Figure 2).
Figure 1.1- Figure 1.2
Some infrastructure materials are also worth exploring. Different roads use different materials (Figure 3-7). In addition, there is a very interesting phenomenon is made of brick and slabs bench for people to rest (Figure 8).
Different Materials of Roads
Figure1.3-Figure1.7
These bricks and slabs are the rest of the construction material, and it is encouraging that people recycle them. But it also shows the lack of infrastructure from the side.
Figure 1.8
2) Waste Not
The recycling and reuse of materials play an important role in the sustainable development of communities. In the second community of Lianhua new village, there are not only many garbage collection stations but also individual waste collectors.
Figure1.9-Figure1.11
Private recycling can also be seen as community development. It can be seen from these phenomena that the government's investment and infrastructure construction are very in place, but residents' awareness of garbage classification is still too weak.
Figure1.12-Figure1.13
3) Others
In the process of looking for materials, I found a lot of abandoned furniture, motorcycles and materials. Some of these things are left on the rubbish heap, some are just left lying around for a long time or even a few years.
Figure1.14-Figure1.16
Conclusion
The renovation aims to make the community more sustainable. The main goal is to reduce material waste, make resource recycling more efficient, and help neighbors reuse materials. As community planning says, maintenance and management are critical to long-term survival and ecological efficiency.
Figure1.17
Facilities
First of all, we visited the local facilities around the second district of Lotus New Village.
There is a lotus school composed of elementary schools and junior high schools around the community and the lotus market in the west of the school to meet the daily needs of residents. The southwest corner of the community is the Lotus Commercial Street, which combines catering, express delivery and banking functions. Moreover, lotus kindergarten inside the community. Furthermore, there is also a bus station at the community gate. In summary, the facilities around the community are relatively complete, and the educational facilities are the most prominent.
Secondly, we enter the community to visit. In the process of analyzing the internal facilities of the community, we distinguish between advantages and disadvantages. The first shortcoming we found was that the placement of the garbage bins in the community was confusing. Secondly, even if the garbage collection and recycling facilities were set up in the community, the residents were not very aware of the garbage classification. Moreover, there are only two public toilets in the entire community, and the sanitary cleaning situation is not good, and the facilities are relatively simple. Furthermore, on the eastern edge of the community, we found that several fences were destroyed and it was clearly vandalism. In addition, we also found that there is almost no public activity space in the community, and the setting of stools for people to rest is also very rare.
Third, we began to analyze the good facilities in the community. During the walk inside the community, we found that there is a street light at the entrance of each building. The setting of these street lights is very beneficial. At night, these street lights provide a certain degree of protect late returning residents while providing lighting functions. On the other hand, the width of the road through which vehicles can pass in the community is also sufficient. What’s more, we found piles for electric vehicles to be recharged in the parking zone on the edge of the community. This facility is advanced for the community and will be helpful for the future construction of smart communities.
In general, the construction of some facilities in the community is inadequate or lacking, but good facilities are also obvious.
Figure2.1
Movement
A series of infrastructure and related services inside and outside the Lotus No.2 Community built a network of movement. This complex network is closely related to the life of community residents. Although it has been running for a long time, there are still numbers of obvious problems. This part will critically analyze the movement system of the region from three aspects: accessibility and convenience & comfortable and safety, then give some appropriate feasible suggestions.
Accessibility
Firstly, from the accessibility point of view, the external transportation of Lotus No.2 Community can meet the basic daily commuting of residents. Private cars, electric bicycles, bicycles and buses are the main modes of travel for residents. Since Suzhou urban subway has no stations in this area (the nearest Songtao Rd Station is about 40 minutes' walk), bus is the main mode of public transport that people rely on for long-distance travel. Within the 10-minute commuting range of the Lotus No.2 Community, there are five bus stops and nine lines to provide services for residents(Figure,1), so the operation of the external transportation system is good. However, the accessibility of intra-Community traffic is unsatisfactory. Internal secondary roads are relatively narrow, and there are only three entrances and exits to the main road, which undoubtedly reduces the connectivity of internal and external movement. A Bangkok study on public transportation shows that improving the design of inner streets and walking convenience can improve the efficiency of public transport(Chairatananon, 2006). Therefore，adding doors and pedestrian trails may improve internal and external connectivity.
Figure3.1
comfortable & convenience
Secondly, there are many problems of convenience and comfort in the community. Despite the basic maps and signs within the community, highly similar internal roads are still difficult to identify. In addition, public green spaces and sidewalks are physically separated, which also reduces people's walking experience. Therefore, more facilities such as road signs and benches should be added to improve comfort and road identification. Green space should also be fully utilized to participate in the movement network within the community. Parking difficulties and waste of public space also affects the convenience of residents' transportation. Stereo Garage Based on PLC control may be a good solution(CCDC,2017). Therefore, the construction of three-dimensional garage can be considered to improve space utilization and parking experience(Figure2).
Figure3.2
Safety
Finally, the safety of the Lotus No.2 Community traffic should be taken seriously. Internal roads lack clear functional divisions. Bicycles have no separate roads and are intermingled with motor vehicles(Figure3). This is the main cause of potential traffic safety hazards. In addition, the management and current limitation of motor vehicles should also be considered. A Canadian data study(Li,1996) demonstrates the critical impact of speed control and current restriction on road safety. Therefore, the community should separate bicycle lanes(Figure,4) and limit the flow of external vehicles.
Figure3.3-Figure3.4
Economy and Biodiversity
The economy scale is not sufficient
The Lotus village has some similar economic activities which are similar to normal Chinese communities and these are majority: presidential convenience services, essential treatment, normal life services. First of all is the presidential convenience services. For example, tailor’s shop, small restaurants and markets. The focus of these infrastructures focus more on practicability instead of external and internal decoration. One of the reason is the cost will rise much if better decoration is included into consideration and the other is orientation of these infrastructures should be matched with the income of residents. The component of Lotus Village is complex and most of them is normal and low income level so how convenient the stores are instead of the decoration will be the first aspect to include. The development of community has a positive effect on its economic and the public resources also facilitate the condition of community economy(1997, Yuan Ren). Convenient services not only satisfy essential requirement of the whole community but also stimulate the growth of revenue of private unit, creating more income and strengthening the connection between different individuality. Secondly, the treatment facilities. It is clear that a large community should ensure the exist of a community hospital because it could provide urgent help when the emergency come. The community permit the use of citizen insurance card and it ensure the quality of medical as the same as normal urban hospital. Therefore, it is a optimal distribution of public medical resources. Finally, the normal life services. Except the basic infrastructures, it still has other life services such as reading room, sports area and kindergarten. Education and sports are also two significant parts that in terms of the community economy. Both of them are for free because the purpose of its completion is attract more people to join in and enjoy the suitable life atmosphere. Furthermore, the kindergarten is also convenient measure to provide better education chances to the families.
The faeces of howls could not be ensured excreted in the optimal position.
Biological means the diversity of animals,plants. A healthy and positive community could not lack the harmony between environment, animals, plants and people. Thus, it is a significant component. During our group’s visit, various animals, plants impress us a lot. Public space are used to cultivate some plants for admiring and purify the air and private land are used to grow some vegetables and fruits for residents experiencie the process of planting. Moreover, the land in front of the units also used to grow some fowls such as chickens and ducks. However, though compared to other communities it has much more harmony in biologic, it also leave the problems of management the fowls and hygiene.For one thing, most of the residents in Chinese communities do not consider the responsibility of protecting the public green lands and do not pay the management fee and leads to the decline of communities biologic. (Tao Zhang,2008) how to limit the faeces are excreted in the optimal position and do not have negative effects on the environment is unable to wait to solve.
Figure4.1
Energy
Energy is a term that includes all fuels, running water, sunlight and wind. Humans use appropriate means of transformation to provide themselves with the energy they need. In the evaluation work of our group of community, we have the following research on energy and there are two aspect in total. The first aspect is about efficient technologies and the other one is efficient and environmentally friendly design.
Firstly, in the second district of Lianhua new village we investigated. In order to be able to use hot water, local residents have chosen to install solar water heaters (see figure 1). Across the region, families are putting solar panels on their roofs, and businesses are making major investments in cleantech (Connor,2016). The reason residents like to choose solar water heaters is that Solar water heaters have a cost advantage over electric water heaters. In terms of efficient technologies, the cost of hot water supply for solar water heaters has obvious advantages over wind power, biomass power generation and photovoltaic power generation and would play an important role in meeting the development goals for renewable energy. In addition, the community managers also achieve effective use of efficient technology to generate electricity (see figure 2). For example, you will often see a large green box (perhaps 6 feet or 1.8 meters on a side) near the entrance to a subdivision. It is performing the step-down function for the subdivision (Brain, 2016).
Figure5.1-Figure5.2
Secondly, in terms of efficient and environmentally friendly design. The planners and the residents also have the very effective management and protection. The whole village inside was full of tall trees, and in kindergarten with bamboo in the community (see figure 3 and 4). The afforestation pays attention to plant planting and realizes the material function of ecological benefit at the same time also has the beautification function to the environment inside the community. These huge numbers of trees create a great contribution to the local ecological environment and largely alleviate the greenhouse effect.
Figure5.3-Figure5.4
Water
The water system in Lotus Village area II is not that completed. At first, there are five types of water (Barton, Grant and Guise, 2003):
1. Blue: come from running or standing water, use to enhance amenity and wildlife on site.
2. White: come from mains water supply company, for drinking, body washing, cooking.
3. Grey: come from baths, showers, washing machines, treat then use for washing cars, watering gardens, flushing WCs.
4. Green: come from captured roof rain water, also could use for washing cars, watering gardens, flushing WCs.
5. Black: come from flushing WCs, Kitchen sinks, would dispose to mains sewer, cess-pit or local biological treatment for nutrient re-cycling.
Figure6.1
However, in the process of field trip, we found that the local water supply system and infrastructure are inadequate. That would cause the waste of the water resource and more running cost. Besides, we did not find the clear classification of water use, such as we did not find any green water use and collection.
Figure6.2-Figure6.3
Therefore, the mainly process of the improvement project are complete the water use infrastructure and system, besides, clear the classification of water use is also a significant demand such as differentiate between the different qualities of water found both in use, after use, and in the landscape. The local context is one more condition which should be focused, we should learn some experience from others’ successful example.
Figure6.4
Food
Figure7.1
The picture above shows the location of the diverse restaurants and food markets in the second district of Lotus Village. It identifies the regional resources that residents can walk in five minutes, as well as the five-minute walkable distance covered by department stores and convenience stores. The five-minute walk is a standard that is best distance that people are willing to walk instead of driving, which is typically 400-500 meters (Evstudio, 2016). However, fast food, restaurants and department stores are concentrated in one area, while there are few convenience stores in residential areas. Moreover, there is no farmer’s market in a suitable pedestrian-accessible distance.
Access for local people to food
Figure7.2-Figure7.9
Conclusion
These photos provide a more comprehensive picture of the daily food sources of local residents. On the other hand, it is also obvious that the local committee does not have an effective management community. For example, for allotment land, it is only developed by the residents themselves. Therefore, its shape and scale have not been well planned, and it seems rather confusing.
Questionnaire
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Download Questionnaire.docx.1
Questionnaire.docx.1 Details
- Saturday, 27 April 2019 [14.6KB]
Questionnaire analysis
On April 10, the team members went to the second district of Lianhua new village again to survey the residents. The ratio of male to female residents we interviewed is roughly one to one, and the age range is from 18 to 60 years old. Most of the residents have lived in this community for more than five years and their houses were government-allocated housing.
Figure 9.1 Figure 9.2
Firgue 9.3 Firgue 9.4
Reflections after Filed Trip(Questionnaires) and Participatory Workshop
| Criteria | Evaluation | Reflections |
| Water | Acceptable |
1.The inconvenience of using water resources 2. The problem of water resource waste is serious 3.Water resources infrastructure is not perfect 4.Classification of water use is unclear and incomplete |
| Food | Acceptable | 1.Supermarket food and vegetable prices are expensive and the prices of the same goods are biased. 2.Residents are concerned about vegetable products, and worry that more pesticide residues will endanger health. 3.In the green area of the community, residents have grown their own vegetables and have not been effectively managed. |
| Movement | Unacceptable |
1.Lack of connection between internal and external roads.、 3.Haphazard parking reduces space efficiency and traffic accessibility. It is also a potential safety hazard. |
| Energy | Acceptable | 1.The door of the electric box is not locked tightly, so there is a certain safety hazard 2.There is no safety notice around the electric box 3.Too many fallen leaves make it inconvenient for cleaners to clean, which makes cleaning work difficult |
| Materials | Acceptable |
1. When some elderly people were recycling materials, the noise they made would affect the lives of other residents. 2. Garbage was not sorted and was unsanitary, and it occupied the public space of the residents. |
| Facilities | Acceptable | 1: Lack of space for electric bicycles parking 2: There is a shortage of facilities for safe charging of electric bicycles. 3：Lack of public toilets, existing bathroom environment and facilities are poor, lack of maintenance. 4：Lack of public activities and entertainment facilities. |
| Economy | Acceptable |
1. The keeper achieve some profit by sewing clothes and repairing some electrical equipment. However, the business not only could not achieve sufficient private profit but also occur the public green space. 2.The community lack sufficient small market for residents to buy optimal price goods |
| People and Community | Acceptable |
1. Community design is not enough age-friendly: the main residents’ age level is middle-aged and elderly people, makes the community quiet and safety. But lack of outdoor activity place for the elderly and children in the community. 2. Lack of community belonging: Most residents can't adapt to the change from single-family houses to urban residential buildings. They think that the current way of living leads to the indifferent of neighborhood relationship. |
Recommendations (Summary Chart)
| Criteria | Recommendations |
| Water |
1.Clarify water classification and intensify publicity 2.improve water resources infrastructure 3.Improve local residents' awareness of rational water use |
| Food | 1.Set up special vegetable ordering points for the community and unify the price of vegetables. 2.The community can plan a dedicated areas for residents. Allowing residents to freely grow seasonal vegetables, which makes people feel safer. |
| Movement |
1. Some exports to external roads can be increased to improve road connectivity and facilitate residents'daily travel. 2. The community should be divided into fast lanes and slow lanes. Independent bicycle lanes and sidewalks can be set up to ensure traffic safety. 3. Increase appropriate green trails to make full use of public space and provide conditions for low-carbon travel of residents. 4. Construction of three-dimensional garage or underground garage to standardize parking order |
| Energy | 1.Reinforce the electric box and arrange staff to check it regularly 2.There is a lot of solar energy 3.The number of trees is very large, which can well alleviate the local greenhouse effect 4.Reduce the number of trees that are easily deciduous and plant trees that are not |
| Materials |
1. Seting up special recycling sites 2. Looking for Companies that regular recycling prevent waste from piling up in public areas |
| Facilities | 1：Set up space for dedicated power bicycle parking and safe charging facilities. 2：Update public toilet facilities and increase maintenance and cleaning staff. 3: Increase public recreation facilities in available outdoor spaces. |
| Economy |
1. The keepers of sewing business should request the community management sector to permit some normal space to do the business. 2.The management sectors should attract external market brand to set up brunch in the community. |
| People and Community |
1.Improve the internal construction of the community and build a place for residents from different age level to rest and communicate. 2.Pay attention to the construction of residents' neighborhood relationship and promote neighborhood relations through community activities. 3. Further develop the existing residential centers and increase functions to maximize the effectiveness of residential activity centers. |