CDE110 2018-2019 Group16 Final

Lotus Village (LV), located on the southern side of Suzhou industrial park (SIP), is a resettlement community built to house farmers who lost their farming land due to the expansion of the industrial park. Area 5 of LV is a large-scale community, covering an area of 76150 square meters, with a total of 3,586 households. Compared with many current residential communities, it is more like a small town with complete infrastructure such as the market, schools, barber shops. Most of the original residents who received the compensation chose to move to a better community and rent their houses to migrant workers, but some of the old people choose to stay here. As a result, the community has become a gathering place for migrant population and land-lost farmers, and its social and economic status is relatively low, so their rights are often not guaranteed. The purpose of this page is from a comprehensive view to examine Lotus village no.5 and give some potential recommendations.

The works are taken over by:

During the process, we have taken several methods to take public participation: Focus groups/ House game/ City walk/ Coffee klatch

Questions asked to residents during the site visit:

Q (with two women about 50-60): Do you often go out?

A: Not really, we usually stay at home, or around the community.

Q: So you buy your food ( vegetable and meat) in the market inside the community?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you think the price, quality and varity are enough for your daily demand?

A: Yes, It is very convenient for us.

Q ( With a old woman about 60-70) : Who planted the Caraway (XiangCai), scallion (Cong) and other vegetables at the entrance of buildings?

A: We, many of us planted them.

Q: So were these enough for eat?

A: No, we just plant them for fun, when doing fish, can put some to improve taste.

Q: You still buy your daily food in the market?

A: Yes.

Q ( with a women 45-55): Were there many shops on the ground floor?

A: Yes, they can be seen everywhere.

Q: Why do they closed? The government asked or they were no business?

A: I think both, actually few people came to the small shops, there are too much shops around, so every shop had little business. And then half-year ago, the government decided to forbid this kind business, they closed their shops incidentally.

Q: But if no business, why so many people were running so many shops?

A: They don`t know what to do because they don`t have a job, but they don`t lack of money to live. So they host these shops, then killing time with it.

Q: Did the disappearence affect you in a way?

A: Yes, more or less my live become inconvenient.

The 5^thdistrict of Lotus Village is a high-density residential district constructed during 2007-2008. It was defined as commercial housing (商品房). However, mostly houses were used as resettling houses for people who lost their houses in the process of constructing Suzhou Industry Park. This is one of the biggest resettle communities in SIP.

Demographic structure

It could be easy to find there are two kinds of people living in this community: local residents and immigrants. Local residents might be peasants who lived in this area before the construction of SIP. After demolition, they were resettled in Lotus village. Immigrants cover migrant workers and tenants. According to local introduction of Xingtao Community (2019), there are almost 24000 people live in this community.

Figure1:(Data Demographic structure, by Xingtao Community, 2019)

Through 30 questionnaires, there is a figure shows the educational level.

Figure2

Lifestyle and community

There is no doubt that this district belongs to urban area and inhabitants hold urban hukou. However, the lifestyle in this district still maintain a traditional Suzhou rural area’s style. Through survey, some local residents still join agricultural activities in the public agriculture land. During the fieldtrip, this group witnessed some traditional rural weddings.

(Figure3: Traditional wedding)

Through questionnaire survey and workshop with local residents, mostly of them (26 from 30 ) think this community could satisfy their daily lives. The market besides river provides a convenient way to buy what daily lives need. However, some animals such as chicken cause some perplex and the misunderstanding between two throngs bring conflict. In general, residents may have a well life quality, but it is not perfect.

Conflict or misunderstanding

There are some gossips about conflict between two throngs. Through survey, there are opinions of immigrants about how they view at local people.

Figure4

For local residents, mostly of them think immigrants are endurable and welcome them, but different habits cause they hard to communicate. However, some of them are hostile to immigrants, censure they bid up price and disrupt quiet, even use pejorative word to call them.

Two throngs have different life styles, active areas and language. Local people use dialect and immigrants use mandarin, which means communication between them is hard. And there are also the collision between traditional agriculture life and modern city life. For these active areas, this figure could show some differences.

(Figure5: Different active areas)

Generally, the reason for misunderstanding may focus on life style and communication failures. And major people do not spite others. Actually, it is hard to describe this situation as a conflict. There are just some misunderstandings and if residents committee could positively intervene, this situation may take a turn to better.

Community

Household sizes:

According to Barton, Grant and Guise (2010), different sizes of house could provide more selective and attraction as well as increase social inclusion. Through searching, we found some information about this district through Internet.

Figure6

This community provides different sized house and the price is relatively low in Xietang street. So, there are many people whose incomes are not enough choose buy house or rent house in this district, and after they save enough money, they will leave there to high-grade residential district near the Dushu Lake.

Activity:

Through visiting residents committee, their display some photograph that shows the community will hold activities regularly. However, those photographs mostly focus on children’s activities such as volunteer. However, through questionnaire, 87.5% interviewees claimed they have not joined any communal activities. Maybe activities still lack extensive participation and focus on children. So maybe activity could have a more positive effect on community.

Figure7

Consciousness of neighborhood:

Through questionnaires, the great mass of them think this area could be described as a community. However, for mostly communal activity and decision still lack public participation, which may damage consciousness of neighbourhood.

Recommendations

1.Resident committee intervene, hold activities to provide communication chances to local people and immigrants.

2.Build some parks in areas of residential buildings

3.Provide more age-friendly facilities.

Based on our field trips to the community, this paragraph will focus on the local business parts of the community. There are many local enterprises in this community.

Figure8: Local enterprises map (not complete, only for reference)

First, the largest business part is vegetable market and supermarket. It is located in the middle of the community, which is set up and managed by the community. Next to the vegetable market is a supermarket with a complete range of goods, mainly dealing in food and daily necessities. Many community residents visit these space, mainly because it is convenient to buy what they need in daily life; and the prices are general reasonable. However, the disadvantage is that is monopolized by these two markets and lacks competition, this sometimes made residents not satisfied.

Figure9,10:Vegetable markets and supermarket

Secondly, in the public area, electric bicycle charging devices has attracted our attention all the way is community. Residents need to apply for a card or use their mobile phones to pay for battery charging. The price is set in a tiered pricing according to the charging voltage and duration. We estimate that a normal electric car needs 250 watts of charging for 4 hours, and each charge costs about 5 yuan. The enterprise is convenient and reasonably priced, residents told us that they often use it. Sufficient charging piles can ensure the safe charging of electric vehicles. It's benefit for both communities and businesses. Effectively enable residents’ charging consumption within the community circulation. 

Figure11,12: Charging piles for electric bicycles

In addition, informal economy are prevalent in the community. Most of them are ground floor stores, with signs written on the windows, and a few are on others floor, with billboards outside to attract customers. These shops include groceries, barbershops, print shops, massage stores and courier stations... so on. Many shopkeepers and employees are local residents. What is special is that on many corners of the main road, we saw some open-air repair stalls, such as repairing shoes and bicycles. They don't have a studio, usually with an umbrella, some small benches and equipment, but the location is relatively fixed, and when the residents need, they can find craftsmen on the street corners. Local residents said that the stores were cheap and convenient, and most of them visited them frequently, and they felt pity for some of shop in residential buildings have been closed now. These local enterprises also benefit on local business diversity and employment, they are good at provide housing following jobs. However, these stores do not have professional business qualifications or licenses, may have security risks and are difficult to manage and cannot guarantee the rights and interests of consumers.

Picture 13: Ground floor stores              

Picture 14: Home-based barbershops

Picture 15: Home-based massage shop        

Picture 16: Repair stalls

At the same time, there are also roving tricycle vendors who are part of the community business, some carrying fresh vegetables on sell and some recycling old clothes and appliances. Residents think it's convenient, but community officials say that is not allowed. We also don't advocate, for considered the sake of community security and order.

In Lotus Village, the local commercial activities can basically meet the needs of residents, and the informal economy plays a positive role in people's lives and patronage of local services, and reinforcement of local social network

Definition

As the foundation of neighborhood, local facilities important for residents’ daily life. It involves six types: social, entertainment, retail, education, health supporting facilities (Barton,2000).

Figure17: Six types of facilities

Facilities of area 5, Lotus Village

If the infrastructure is compared to "points", the most effective use of their value also depends on the layout of points and the connection of "lines". Moreover, inside and outside of facilities are influential for inhabitants. There are two maps of target- Area 5, lotus village.

Figure 18: facility conditions within the community and their catchment

Figure19

Observation 1: Public space in the center of community for relaxation. However, due to the relaxation of the two-child policy, the baby boom needs more schools, maternity rooms in toilet and playgrounds.

           Figure20

Observation 2: Traffic stations: 5 bus stations with many bus lines and 2 public bike point around the community, but there is far away from metro station.

Figure21

Observation3: Service site involves market, ATM, post office, but the health services exist in name only)

Figure22

Observation 4: The street lamp brightness in the community is low at night, which may cause a safety hazard.

Figure 23: Outside facilitiesand their catchment

Observation and survey

A survey finished by 20 residents from different groups including the children, teenagers, young, mid-age, old.

Figure24: Residents' satisfaction with the community's infrastructure

Figure25: Frequency of public transport use

Some detail of the survey

Summary and Recommendation

Figure26: Standard of accessibility

According to table 3 (Barton et al, 2003) and the survey (Sun, 2019), the local facilities in district 5 of Lotus village are generally complete and convenient. In view of the above urgent problems, the following are the corresponding recommendations and measures:

1. Building more schools based on databases of school-age children population is necessary, particularly kindergartens, primary schools.
2. Planner would be better allowing the microbus could come in by dividing the community.
3. Government could increase the facilities of entertainment, exercise, maternal and child room.
4. Adding clinics for the community is important for residents.
5. The property company reinstall the new street lights to keep safety.

Figure27: Map of roads

 In Lotus Village 5 District, roads can be seen all cross the community. There is one main road from the north and south, connected residential buildings with market and entrance/ exit of the community. In the north entrance, the lane width is about 3.8 meters, that is wider than 3.5 m which is considered as normal scale. By observing the traffic peak time, this design is useful due to high and different kinds of traffic entering the community. When passing the entrance guard, the car speed would get slow to make sure no scratch. However the e-bike, bike and passengers would not slow their speed significantly. The wide design could make sure the security at the entrance. There is no underground parking area so cars have to park on the ground, most parking areas settled between the two residential buildings. E-bikes often park in the paring shed, few is placed disordered. Residents can walk among the community by secondary road.

 Around the two main gate, there are bus stops and public bikes can satisfy basic trip demand. The bus can take residents to the nearest subway station.

Figure28: Parking area

Figure29: Public transport

This image show how the resident in Lotus village 5 district could go outside and how long it would take.

From the residents` perspective, although bus can take them to many places, some people live in the center of this community still feel too far to get to the bus station, especially elders.  From the whole scale of lotus village, it seems to be very convenient, provide basic service, but it did not really focuse on some disadvantage groups. The community has many disadvantage groups, satisfied their need would make their movement more reasonable.

There are three types of usage of the energy including renewable energy, non-renewable energy and electricity will be discussed based on the graphics, charts and drawings provided. First of all, to analysis the main energy usage which shows the preference of local residents, an independent survey have been done in this section. There are 24 local residents who participated in the survey.  They were asked about the types of water heater and cooker they were using.  Two charts are made according to the answer gathered.

Figure30

Figure31

As the charts show, the main energy used for water heater is natural gas which takes 50 percent.  Solar heater is the least used which takes 17 percent. Based on opinions of residents participated in the survey, nature gas has become the main energy of this community for heating due to the fact that it is convenient and ecologically-friendly. In contrast to gas, solar energy has been considered inefficient by residents for that it largely depends on the weather condition.  Electricity and gas which are both green energy have become the main energy used for heating in Lotus New Village.  However, solar energy as a type of renewable energy source and cost-effective energy, it can largely benefit to the community if it becomes more reliable and efficient. To make this happen, we can introduce the solar community model which incorporates new equipment like a network of solar panel systems or solar roofs into properties of residents.

 Solar system and sunlight

Figure32

As is showed in the drawing, the different angle of sunlight has been measured by altitude of different buildings to further study the solar accessibility.  There is a diagram of passive solar design also showed in the drawings.  Judging by the density of each residential building and width of the pedestrian, the sunlight is not able to reach its potency fully to cover the entire area of the community.  Especially in rainy days, some rooms below third floor is not able to get enough sun light.  In addition to that, the coverage of sunlight inside the house takes only 40 percent of the room.  The solution to that is enlarging the space between two houses for rooms storing heat energy and increasing thermal mass.  Another way is to design shorter houses as detached villa.  In that case, more sunlight can be received by changing the angle of sunlight.

Issues of using electricity

Figure33

Figure34

After visiting the community several times, some irregular power usage often appear as is shown in the photo. The unorganized and exposed cables with high volt electricity hang outside the wall or directly connected into the rooms from the window.  Other than that, some residents tend to charge their bike directly from electrovalve outside the building.  These irregular usage of electricity can cause short circuit, electrocution or even outbreak of fire.  Therefore, regulating the electricity usage and organizing the layout of electric cable is vital for creating a safe community.

Water system: In order to figure out the operation of water in Lotus Neighborhood, a  map of water at Lotus Neighborhood Level has been provide.

Figure 35

Figure36

In the actual community survey, we found that in order to facilitate residents in the middle of the two buildings, parking lots are usually set up. Many residents wash their cars downstairs, but without a nearby water pipe, they use long rubber hoses to draw water from their homes. To solve this problem, the community can set up several public water pipes around the parking area to solve the residents' daily car washing problem. Public water pipes can be charged by swiping cards, which are paid by the residents themselves.

Figure37（Resident of Lotus Village are washing his car）

Interview

10 residents were interviewed randomly.

Lotus village 5^th district was located in Suzhou Industrial Park, which belongs to Xietang Street. The surrounding water system belongs to the Taihu Lake system. Due to the subtropical monsoon climate in Suzhou, the annual average precipitation can reach 1063 mm. (Xiangtian, 2019) The rainy season is concentrated in summer, and a large amount of rainfall may cause urban floods. As can be seen from the figure below, the urban drainage system reached its peak in a very short time. The risk of urban flooding is much greater than the state of nature. Increasing the green area of the community can alleviate this situation.

Figure38

In addition, keeping the river fresh is also an important issue. During the rainy season, a large amount of precipitation contributes to the self-purification of water bodies, and the discharge of sewage must strictly comply with national standards. The residents of the community should have the consciousness of protecting the river and it is forbidden to throw rubbish into the river.

Figure39（Eutrophication of Static River Water）        

The location and catchment of the food-related service facilities (Figure 40.)

Figure41:Questionnaire and result charts

Figure42

Figure43

Figure44

Figure45

Analysis

Firstly, the main way for the residents to acquire the food material is to buy it in the vegetable market located in the center of the community. The Figure 40. and Figure 46. Show the location and general situation of the vegetable market. However, the main issue that the residents reflect is that the price is higher than the vegetable market in the 1^stdistrict of Lotus Village. Therefore, some residents, especially the elderly, prefer to go to the 1^stdistrict to buy vegetables like Chart 1. shows.

(Figure 46. General situation in the vegetable market)

Secondly, another interesting finding from the fieldtrip is that some residents grow vegetables such as shallot and swamp cabbage on the land in the front of the units or in the flowerpots (Figure 47. And Figure 48.). Additionally, some food after residents’ preliminary processing such as the preserved meat sundried vegetables (Figure 49.) was observed during the fieldtrip which show the relationship between the inhabitants and natural environment – the natural environment provides the materials like the sunlight for the inhabitants and the inhabitants influence the natural environment in a negative or a positive way (Figure 50.). The residents said the vegetables grown by themselves are not the main origin of the food but they are enjoying the process of growing them. According to the lecture by Ying Chang (2019), it shows that growing the vegetables and plants in the neighborhood is beneficial for residents’ mental health.

(Figure 47. The vegetables grown by residents themselves)

(Figure 48. Vegetables in the flowerpots)

(Figure 49. The sundried food)

(Figure 50. The Settlement as an ecosystem)

From Shaping neighbourhoods: a guide for health, sustainability and vitality (Barton, Grant & Guise, 2003, p.22)

Thirdly, the food acquisition is related the local economy frequently. During the fieldtrip, some in-home little stores almost at the first floor are set to provide the nearby residents with snacks and seasoning like salt and sugar which is a way for residents to acquire the food like instant noodles (Figure 51.). Both the stores owners and the nearby residents are interviewed by us. The residents think the little stores are neared than the lager supermarket near the vegetable market so they prefer the little stores near their home. The owners of little stores consider that it is a kind of convenient way to service the nearby residents, meanwhile, they can make profits without the rental. Therefore, both the local residents and the owners think setting little in-home store is win-win, however, this is illegal. A reason for the the more raring demand than other districts of the community might be that the 5^this the biggest district therefore the residents living in the fringe of the community could not be radiated by the supermarket and the vegetable market in the center.

(Figure 51.The little stores in the community)

Materials：focusing on safety

Figure52

Description of the status quo

The safety facilities can be generally divided into guardrails，lighting，monitors，roads，steel containers and alloy shells. The main material of them are bricks and alloy which avoid catching fire or electric shock to a large extent. Moreover, they cover a full range of safety demand. However，several hidden dangers are found in the community.

Figure53

Explaining: The sealed anti-theft windows could cause great difficulty escaping when catching fire for it takes great power and time to damage them inside or outside.

Solutions: use anti-theft window can be opened by keys.

Figure54/55

Explaining: Wires laid at will may lead to electric shock risk.

Solution: Using insulated wire receiving box

Figure56

Explaining:  There is a slope behind the river which demands more bearing capacity of the guardrails. However, this kind of guardrails are not able to bear great impact so that it will increase the risk of dropping.

Solution: Refurbishing guardrail

Biodiversity, which is mean the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat. A High level of biodiversity is usually considered to be important and desirable. This programme is going to discuss the biodiversity of a community named The Fifth District Of Lianhua Village. As the figure 57 shown to us, there are two intersecting rivers in this area, thus, we have seen that there are fish, green alga, or other animal ad plant should live in the river. And secondly, the green areas in figure 57 is many kind of trees and plants which an be seen in the figure 58, such as Birch, Willow, Ash and Beech. Those trees or plants not only can clean the air and beauty the community, but also, the most significant roles which the trees and plants are playing is a kind of shelter of animals. For example, what the figure 59 shown to us is the relationship between the trees and some animals. Firstly, if there are woods, there must be bugs, and most of those bugs are usually grow up with absorbing the nutrition of trees, and then, some birds will come here to find food, therefore, warms will be eaten by birds, and the trees might be nests of those birds. Under the tree, there are some bushes and grass, where the roosters could live and feed themselves. In condition to, dogs are the “visitors” of those trees, they always could enjoy themselves under the tree. In a nut shell, the biodiversity of this community does not have numbers of varieties, which can be said monotonous, but, as a community, it is a god-given peace and comfortable.

Figure57

Figure58

Figure59

The community the 5th district of Lotus Village is a livable community since the species of 5th district of Lotus Village is very diverse. However, after the analysis from various perspectives of people and community, economy, facilities, energy, movement, water, food, material and biodiversity, several main issues have been concluded. The first general issue is that the 5th district of Lotus Village is the immoderate large scale for which the micro buses are recommended by some old residents and the supermarket and vegetable market in the center of the community could not radiate the fringe of the community, therefore, the demand of the little stores selling seasoning and snacks is more urgent than other districts and the locality of the economy is weak. The second detailed issue is lack of abundant facilities provision such as the street lamps, the drainage outside for washing, small-scale parks and the strict management of electrombiles in terms of charging parking and speed.

1. To create a more quite small unit, divide LV 5 into 4 small units, signed with orange, yellow, blue and purple. The pink in the center represent the lotus, Different color can tell where people are. In each small unit, the fitness equipment, clothes hanger and public space will be decorated in their theme color. Each section has entrance and doorkeeper to keep security.

2. Pedestrian system separated from vehicle system. Build large-scale mechanical parking system around the LV5, build another central parking lot above the market.     Re-plan main roads, elevate main roads to 5-6 m, under the elevated set shops and service for the convenience of the customers. Passengers could go through the elevated. Set barriers in second roads to keep vehicles away from living zones.
3. Re-use greenery between buildings. Classified them into two kinds. 1. Have good illumination. 2. Not have good illumination. For the first kind, transfer greenery into farmland, provide basic facilities for framing. For the second kind, build rest pavilion for people to have chat with each other or eating something.
4. Re-use river side greenery. Build safety wall instead of fence, set fitness equipment and chairs along the river side, increase residents` quality of lives.

Xingtao community (2019) local community introduction

Xiangtianweb (2019) the information of Suzhou climate [Online] Available from: http://www.sz121.com/qxj/index.html (Accessed: 27 April 2019)

Barton, H., Grant, M., & Guise, R. (2003). Shaping neighbourhoods: a guide for health, sustainability and vitality. London and New York:Taylor & Francis.