Introduction
The site of our field trip is Lotus 5th district which belongs to the Xingtao community (Lotus 4th district). The community covers a total area of 482,200 square meters, with a total constrution area of 484,400 square meters, including 8,200 square meters of public housing (Xingtao community office, 2019).
Figure 1：picture of lotus village 5th district
Aim: the purpose of our reasearch is to analyze the merits and disadvantages of designated area. Some proposals will also be provided to improve the community.
Drama
Method
1. Planning for Real (Suggestion Card)
Before the workshop in the community, our group made a model of the Lotus Village District 5. In the workshop, we prepared sticky notes for the inhabitants. Notes of different colors have different types of problems encountered by residents, such as pink for health issues, orange for safety, blue for traffic, and yellow for parking. Residents attending the workshop can use different color labels to affix the location where they found the problems. This method, called suggestion card, can not only fix out the inhabitants’ problems in detail, but also clearly point out the specific location of these issues so that we can investigate further.
2. Local Mapping
During the Workshop, our group member guided the resident participants outline the routes they used to travel, go home, and buy food in everyday life and collect some of their views on travel, and activities, which gives a specific view of residents’ daily routine. This method can draw attention and interests of passers-by to join in our workshop. Through these outlines and residents’ opinions, we could figure out where the problems bringing inconvenience to inhabitants are and learn what residents here need and what they think about solving these problems.
Figure 2 Suggestion Card & Local Mapping
3. Walking Along
At the workshop, some residents were very active in reflecting the problems they encountered and invited us to go with them and see where they live and where they find the problem. Besides the problems they talked about, we also found many obstacles along the way. With litigant next to us, we could ask directly ask them what they think about these issues, the causes, who will solve them, and how to solve them. Going to the location of the problem they were talking about could also more intuitively see the impact of these problems on the lives of the surrounding residents, and we can investigate the views of more neighbors around these issues.
Figure 3 A resident led us to her house downstairs to see a pile of rubbish in the parking area.
People and Community
Peopole:
During the Qingming festival, we conducted a small population survey on Lotus new village to ensure that there is a possibility of being recorded at all ages. According to the figure 4, most residents are over 45 and 0-18 years old which are more than 60%. The young residents are mainly migrant workers. More young people have long been working outside the home, leaving only the elderly and children. Many elderly people also do some small handicraft, waste recycling and other work to subsidize the family.
Figure 4： The age sturcture of the Lotus new village
In recent years, the residents of the lotus new village have largely run off. According to five district vegetable market vendors tell us, their holiday income from the original up to more than ten thousand yuan, to now only thousands of yuan. They are arguably the most sensitive to the reduction of the community residents.
There are two main reasons for the decline in residents. The first is that the government has stepped up efforts to regulate group renting house. The second is that the number of jobs that industrial parks offer to low-educated migrants is shrinking. In 2010, traditional industries accounted for 72% of Suzhou's industries above designated size, and emerging industries accounted for 28%. In 2016, the share of traditional industries dropped to 50.2 percent, while that of emerging industries rose to 49.8 percent, surpassing 50 percent in 2017 (叶檀财经, 2017).
Community:
There are four main types of houses in lotus new village, which is one room, two rooms, three rooms and four rooms. The number is mainly two rooms type (Anjuke lnc., n.d.).
Figure 5: Housing type of the lotus new village
According to the survey, the requirements of the community vary greatly among different age groups.
As lotus new village is a demolition community in rural areas, many middle-aged and elderly people keep the habit of rural life in community life. As shown in the figure below, lotus new village is more lively than other communities. Many people keep the habit of drying bacon and planting vegetables in front of their houses, and some people take the open space of the community as the working place for their small industry or business.
Figure 6： Food that is being dried
Figure 7： Residents weaving webs
In our interview survey, some in the demolition of old people is very satisfied with the living environment of this, which means they choose to make use of the community environment to seek some convenience for their lives In terms of aesthetics and utility. But some young people for such a phenomenon is not very satisfied, they think that such confusion of community environment not only does inaesthetic, but also let their child in a may be a dangerous environment. After all, they don't have the same life aspirations as older people.
Figure 8 and 9： A jumble of neighborhood streets
Another problem is property management. We found the property that manages lotus-five is located in lotus-six. So many elderly people usually encounter problems are their own or find family members to solve. Moreover, Elderly people may be major participants in community activities, so we randomly interviewed several elderly people about community activities. However, only one elderly person knew that the community would organize some activities in the square, such as opera. But he was rarely involved. Therefore, we can think that the community activities held by the property are full of a sense of ceremony and do not really serve the elderly. In addition, there are some problems in the management of the community, such as the disposal of garbage. According to the feedback of some young residents, the garbage storage area is often full of garbage and overflowing, resulting in a very bad surrounding environment. This starts in the afternoon and continues until the next morning when the trash is collected.
Figure 10： Trash cans and surrounding areas
Lotus New Village as a demolition community, many residents still remain in the village habits. Five or six elderly people sit in front of the door, under trees, street corners, choose food, chat, such scenes can be seen everywhere. Perhaps the property has wanted to participate in community life, but the majority of elderly residents do not accept the new reform, they still live their own life. The final result is that the lotus new village is now showing a phenomenon of free growth of people and communities. Residents have adapted to this environment and have their own way of entertainment, which other neighborhoods cannot exist（Figure 11).
Figure 11： People have a picnic in the community
Movement
The first problem is the division of road lanes within the community. As shown in Figure 22, this is the main road facing a gate in the district 5 of Lotus Village. The road is wide and separates the pedestrian from the motor vehicle. One problem is that there are no non-motorized lanes and parking spaces on this road. Most of the residents in the community travel by electric bicycle. The roads without non-motor vehicle lanes make them occupy the motor vehicle lane, which is very unsafe. Because there is no parking space, residents living in the nearby upstairs can only park their cars on the side of the road, thus occupying one side of the driveway. The passing vehicles are very inconvenient and the parking is illegal. In Figure 23, although the roadside is provided with a parking space, it still occupies the lane on one side. If cars are parked on both sides, the original wide road can only pass through one car.
Figure 21：Internal roads without sidewalks and non-motorized roads
Figure 22：The space between the two sides of the road will be very narrow.
Another problem is the parking in the community. The parking area in the middle of Figure 24 is used to park the motor vehicles. The residents on both sides of the unit park the electric vehicles and tricycles in this area for convenience., while few residents use parking sheds (Figure 25). Before the workshop on April 25, our members interviewed some residents in the community. We interviewed a total of 20 residents. More than half of the respondents are around the age of 50 or 60. Most of them have electric vehicles, and four of them have inconvenient parking. Those who feel that parking is inconvenient are concentrated in 13, 19, 20 and Near 31 buildings. The rest of the respondents were in their 30s and 40s and they often drove. According to interviews, they generally believe that parking is adequate, but parking charges are unreasonable. The reason why they park the electromobiles at the entrance of the corridor or on parking space for motor vehicles is that there are no non-motorized parking sheds near their apartments because there is another part of the residents who do not allow the property to set up a parking shed downstairs, thinking that the parking shed takes up space for leisure and cool. This has led to some vehicles nowhere to stop, just to stop and even block the road (Figure 26). Via the interview from a 40-year-old female resident, the chaotic parking of vehicles is not only due to the occupancy of parking spaces, but also because those owners just want to park their cars in convenient places, without considering that this will cause inconvenience to others, such as someone will take the car Stop at the intersection and even block other cars.
Figure 23：Non-motor vehicle occupying parking space of motor vehicles
Figure 24：Empty non-motorized parking shed
Figure 25： Vehicles areas are parked indiscriminately
The public transportation facilities in the district 5 of Lianhua New Village are very convenient. Both the East Gate and the North Gate have bus stops and public bicycle stations (Figure 27). According to the survey, residents generally believe that travel is very convenient.
Figure 26：Distribution of bus stops and public bicycle stations around the community
Biodiversity
The rational biodiversity in community is essential in improving the ecological environment and the planning and design of greenery is related to the Level of greening construction. Our group has done a research about special and number of indigenous plants, ornamental plants and alien plants to come up with some problems about biodiversity and find effective solutions. Our group has done a research about special and number of indigenous plant, ornamental plants and alien plant to come up with some problems about biodiversity and find effective solutions.
Figure 40: ornamental plants
Figure 41: indigenous plant
We find that one serious problem is plants are not well managed. Based on the people structure on community, old people are main part and from their perspective, they are more likely to plant some practical plants, such as vegetables and fruits. Therefore, some ornaments plants are moved out by residents to give place to practical plants. In addition, lots of plants are withered and lands are poor because no one to take good care of them. At the same time, plants have scattered garbage bags.
Figure 42: garbage on plants
Figure 43: vegetables planted by local residents
Recommondation
Summarization of local needs:
Before field trips and research, we found four spatial problems in the region. Firstly, the pedestrian passage in the community is very unreasonable. There is no gate in the south of the community. Residents can only reach the community through a small road. Secondly, there are two ditches in the community, which are north-south and east-west, dividing the community into three areas and connecting the areas through five bridges. But for some residents, the number of bridges is still too small. If they want to leave the community, they need to go a long way. Third, only the community centers have supermarkets and markets, and residents living on the edge of the community need to go a long way to buy things in the community center. Finally, the use of green space in the community is very unreasonable, and many residents are drying clothes in green areas.
After the investigation in the field, the residents reported that the residents in the northeast of the community were very inconvenient to travel. Because they were separated by the ditch, they needed to travel a long way to reach the eastern gate. Residents living in the south responded that they had no entrance to the south and could only walk to the east and north gates each time they traveled. In addition, some elderly people complained that the neighborhood committee does not allow the construction of a commissary in the community. People can only buy things at the community center, which is very inconvenient for some elderly people who are not convenient to travel. As a result, we need to adjust our proposal base on the local demands and reality.
Our recommendation:
Quality of life (QOL) in neighborhood and community is becoming a concern recently in China (Friedmann & Chen, 2013). It is necessary to consider the design of a community is suitable for residents to live, work and trip. unfair to non-local, inconvenient to somewhere and no property management are current problems identified and reflected by residents. Therefore, we will provide some solutions here.
First, the most urgent problem is that there is no good property management, which results in dirty, disorder and bad. Residents say poor property management has led to piles of rubbish and a strong smell in the summer. So charging reasonable property fees can be the trigger of the property to be more efficient.
Second, some residents say it is inconvenient to access to east part because the gate is closed so they have to take a long round to the destination. Therefore, we suggest to re-open the original gate which is more convenient for resident s to access to that part.
Third, according to Friedmann & Chen (n. d.), rapid economic growth was accompanied migration, but millions of these new urban dwellers were labeled temporary workers and only minimal provisions were made for their social needs in housing, health, education, transport, and general welfare. Thus, we think the community and even the country need to pay more attention to public welfare and take reform measures if necessary.
In summary, these problems may be just the tip of the iceberg, and many remain unexplored and the proposals we put forward may not be recognized by residents, so we need more participatory planning to listen to the real needs of residents
Log
Group members
Zhikun Ren (1507687) in charge of water
Haoyue Wang (1717369) in charge of movement
Yuqi Liu (1716951) in charge of access to local facilities
Maomao Guo (1718426) in charge of local enterprise
Yuhang Mao (1718370) in charge of food
Tong Wu (1717325) in charge of people and community
Jiahou Ding (1613363) in charge of energy
Xiaotong Wang (1613756) in charge of material
Weiran Li (1717721) in charge of biodiversity
Interview collection
1. A 54-year-old grocery store operator
Two-thirds of the people who moved out last year have lost half their daily turnover. I personally feel that the community is still a little better, people can be popular, and people are called life.
2. A 65-year-old native resident
It turned out that there were nearly 60,000 people living in this community, and now it is almost halfway. Most of the community now is from outsiders who come in to rent a house. The general quality of outsiders is very poor, and it is common to park and litter. There is often no one in the garbage dump corridor, and it smells bad in the summer. Our community does not charge property fees, so property management is not so much. If the property can be managed effectively, we are willing to pay even if it is a fee. The place where I live is on the southwest side. There is no gate at the end. Every time I go out, I have to go far. In the past, a small door was opened in the southwest corner. It was convenient to go out. Later, it was sealed by the property. Now I still have to go a long way every day.
3. A 37-year-old company employee with a child
There is a vegetable market in the community, there is a supermarket, and life is very convenient. Parking is usually enough, and it is free for less than 3 hours, which is quite good. However, there are many people without quality in this community. They often park their cars at intersections and places where they are turning. The road is narrow. If you stop the car, you can’t pass it. The property has reflected this problem. It’s useless, those people are still messing around. Every day, I collect garbage in the early morning, and the sound is very noisy. The student training facilities in the community activity center are not enough, and the children have to go far away in the interest class.
Economy
The economic structure of the five districts of Lotus Village is very complex. There are many kinds of economic forms coexisting. Large-scale local economy include takeout, express delivery and residential property.
Figure 12 (Large enterprises)
Medium-sized economy are larger, with hotels, kindergartens, nursing homes, vegetable markets, shops and electric car charging stations. Not only that, there are also unique economic forms in Lotus Village. They regard their houses as their workplaces, and operate small-scale enterprises such as small shops, massage halls, printing shops. In public areas, some local residents operate shoe repair stalls here, or use the land of the community to grow some crops. In this site, we found that there are many parts of the community that apply to the resource recycling system, they have furniture, books, and even digital products. Some residents make money by buying and selling second-hand furniture or digital products.
Figure 13 & Figure 14 ( Informal part-time job)
But in fact, this phenomenon is not allowed to happen in China, because only land divided into commercial land can develop economy in China, such as Lotus Village, which is not allowed to develop economy in residential land. So local property forces many small shops to be closed, and stores have been set up in the community to replace them. But such an approach actually poses problems. Because Lotus Village is a village in the city to transform the community, many people working in the surrounding areas lost their original jobs because of the transformation project, so they opened stores at home. As Espinoza, Vicente (1992) said,Economic pressures, such as low income or unemployment, do not lead to family chaos. However, Such an economy is informal. The forced closure of these places by the community will make them face the problem of unemployment again(On April 1st the community forced the closure of the shops). Not only that, although the local enterprises here is complex, but the lack of high-tech fields of work, their economy is mainly built around the lives of the surrounding residents. The incentives to develop a "green" economy depend on the potential of resources (tangible and intangible) and the actual situation of specific rural communities( Tereshina, Maria，Khalafyan, Aleksan，et.al, 2018).As an urban village redevelopment community, the awareness of recycling here is very gratifying. Not a lot though,there is green economy here.Boxes for recycling used clothes and local residents can often be seen downstairs to recycle local waste, which to a certain extent reduces the waste of resources and protects the local ecological environment. The establishment of sorting bins has also greatly improved the efficiency of waste utilization.
Figure 15 (Informal recycling resources）
Figure 16 ( Green economy)
Access to local facilities
It is commonly agreed that the facilities refer to shop, pub and school. For Xingtao community, I noticed that there is no retail store at the residential blocks. As Figure 17 shows, this area was previously used for retailing purpose, but now it is a warehouse of express delivery.
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Figure 17 : Banned shops
Subsequently, I realized that the community banned private retail shops which were replaced by a comprehensive superstore located at the center of Xingtao community. A farmer’s market called Huaxin was also built at that area. (As Figure 18 and 19 shown)
Figure 18 Huaxin farm market located at the center of the community
Figure 19: Lianhua retail store
The locations of these two markets were shown above. The central location is quite convenient as it is a primary catchment area for the sustainable retail of the whole community. When superstores are centrally located, it would stimulate a substantial proportion of local access on foot or bike. It is equally important that the farthest place from the supermarket is no more than 500 meters, which ensures the accessibility threshold of local residents.
Figure 20 farm market catchment diagram
Energy
Current situation of community energy: According to the survey, the main energy consumption of the community is electricity and natural gas, while solar and wind energy use is scarce. It can be seen that almost every household has installed air conditioners (see Figure 29). On the roof, some residents use solar energy to install solar water heaters on the roof (see Figure 30), but the utilization rate is not high, there are still a lot of empty areas in the roof.
Figure 27: Air conditioning is installed in every home
Figure 28: Lack of solar water heater
Existing problems: In addition, there are many exposed and messy wires in the community (see Figure 31), many distribution boxes are installed next to the roads (see Figure 32), and some residents even pull the wires privately (see Figure 33). These phenomena have serious dangers.
Figure 29: Exposed and messy wires
Figure 30: Distribution box on the side of the road
Figure 31: Residents pull wires privately
Improve proposals:
1. Since the roof still has a lot of space, photovoltaics and wind turbines can be installed on the roof (see Figure 34), which saves electricity costs and improves the environment.
Figure 32: Photovoltaic and wind turbines
2. We found that the spacing between community buildings and buildings is particularly large, and seasonal storage technologies and systems can be well developed (see Figure 35). This can reduce residents' use of refrigeration equipment such as air conditioners.
Figure 33: Seasonal storage technology and systems
3. Improve and optimize grid and gas pipelines to reduce energy losses while providing safer energy use conditions
Water
We found some problems about water in the community. Firstly, the water residents washed vegetables and laundry water was dumped on the ground without reuse. Secondly, Waste such as plastic bags in rivers in residential areas decrease the water quality.
Blue water: nature water such as river and pool.
White water: drinking water supplied by nearby water company. In addition, it is mainly used water.
Grey water: daily used water such as washing machines and baths.
Green water: the roof water after raining.
Black water: It is the toilet water used in the community.
Water system is important for a community, it is closely related to ecosystem and people's life. Therefore, it is very important to improve the water system.
Figure 34: Rivers in Lianhua Community
Food
Most of the residents' food was purchased in the market within the community. The market basically satisfies the demand for vegetables, meat, and cooked food. Some residents also grow vegetables on the open space between residential buildings.
Figure 35 Food and spices in the market.
Residents mainly use traditional methods to make food. The main cooking methods are steaming, boiling and frying. For the extra food, the residents treated it with salting and drying.
Figure 36: Dehydrated Meigancai
Figure 37: Resident pickled pork
Community residents have three meals a day, lunch and dinner have a distinction between staple food and dishes. The daily diet is based on carbohydrates, the intake of oil is not high, and the overall health is relatively high. In the custom banquets such as wedding banquets, the main focus is on protein foods of seafood meat.
Figure 38: Women sitting together picking vegetables
Figure 39: Lobster after the wedding reception
Reference lists
Friedmann, J. & Chen, F. (2009) ‘Towards Sustainable Neighborhoods: The Role of S0cial Planning in China——A Case Study of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province’, Urban planning international, (1), p. 16. [Online] Available from:http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edscoj&AN=edscoj.gwcsgh200901003&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 27 April 2019)
Friedmann, J. & Chen, F. (2013) ‘The 10000 Small Things of Neighborhood Life: Planning for the Quality of Life in China’s Cities’, Urban Planning International, (1), p. 1. Available from: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edscoj&AN=edscoj.gwcsgh201301001&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 27 April 2019).
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Networks of informal economy: Work and community among Santiago's urban poor.(1992) [Online]. Available from:http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=62a2b78b-08f7-490f-80f7-252f8e05b242%40sdc-v-sessmgr06&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=xlu.AAINN78714&db=cat04589a(Accessed: April 25 2019).
Xingtao Community (2019) local community introduction
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莲花新村五区.n. d. [online]. Available from: https://shanghai.anjuke.com/community/photos/model/888548