Underground Space As a Connector

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE PROGRAMME 2010-2011 DESIGN REPORT

NEW MOBILITY HUB IN BEIJING UNDERGROUND SPACE AS A CONNECTOR

SHEKWai Ling, Sophy May 2011

r 00

Thesis Statement

01 Background Study

02 Site Analysis

03 Underground Space

04 Design Strategy & Development i Thesis Statement

The fast urbanization and urban sprawl in Beijing causes problematic conditions in many areas of city. The south-east area is a representative case for this development. To cope with the problem of increased traffic congestion and emission in Beijing, the government has planned to expand the subway system to cover most parts of the city and aiming at a 1km node-to-node walking distance within the 3rd ring road area by 2020, in order to encourage citizens to use public transport rather than automobiles and develop a more sustainable lifestyle. In addition to the subway system, the government has planned underground networks as an alternative way to ease ground traffic congestion and land use tensions in downtown areas.

Along with the Beijing Government's emphasis on the subway system and underground space development, a new subway station will be built in Nanmofang in the east part of the capital bringing new opportunities to this area, south of the extending CBD.

This thesis attempts to connect an increasingly fragmented urban fabric through the introduction of an underground space network. The underground space network provides a large flexibility to link different destinations directly by the all weather pedestrian connections and helps to reconnect Beijing's urban blocks divided by the large street grid for vehicular traffic. The subway system is used as the backbone to develop underground space for Bei- jing, reconnecting the urban fabric and promoting a more sustainable and convenient lifestyle for citizens. 5 Essay raises other serious problems, such as traffic congestion. In centre city of Beijing, working places and residential areas are highly centralized but separately. The separation of the working Background - High Speed Urbanization in China places and residential areas bring a heavy burden on the traffic in particular time and in particular direction. China is undergoing an unprecedented global urbanization due to For a better planning, the Beijing government planned to expand the socio-economic development. The urbanization rate of China the subway system to run through most of the part in Beijing and has risen from 10.6% in 1949 to 45.7% in 2009. In the mean while, aimed at 1km node to node walking distance within 3rd ring road the urban morphology of China is transformed in a rapid pace, es- by 2020 for the sake of encouraging citizen to use public transport pecially the capital city - Beijing. However, the high-speed urban rather than the automobiles and having a more sustainable life- development caused a chaotic situation of urban form in some ar- style. eas of Beijing. For the further development, an urban regeneration should be explored in such areas. Other than the subway system, the government also planned several underground developments as an alternative way to ease ground traffic congestion, land use tension in downtown area and Urban Sprawl of Beijing environmental problems. Beijing is a city that connected and serviced by its ring roads. The concept of the ring and radial system was existed since 1950s. South-East area of Beijing Now, Beijing's ring road system is developed up to the 6th ring The fast urbanization and urban sprawl caused chaotic presenta- road. The 2nd ring road passes through the most centered parts of tion of urban form in some city areas of Beijing. The south-east Beijing. The area inside is almost equivalent to the old city. And the area is one of the most representative cases. 3rd ring road passes through Beijing's CBD and diplomatic com- munities, the 4th ring road serves as the edge of the city center, the 5th ring road links sub-centers and the 6th ring road connects the The south-east area is in-between the 3rd ring road and the 4th. satellite towns. ring road, and it is bordered by Jianguo Road in the north and the Jing-Jin-Tang Expressway in the south. Beijing keeps expanding in a radial direction so as to alleviate the pressure of population and social resources. The urban sprawl in Beijing is so-called "pancake model". In the present situation of Bei- The south-east area is fragmental in its urban space and urban jing's urban form, the city center has spilt beyond the 5th ring road morphology. It is because of the mixture of various urban functions in all directions. and different land ownerships. This area is mainly structured by the newly-built high-rise buildings near the CBD, the high-rise market housing of the former public housing neighborhoods, the villages in Urban Diagnose the city enclosed by newly urbanized area, the remaining industrial zone, green belt or other waste lands, and the campus of Beijing In order to alleviate the pressure of population and social resourc- University of Technology. es, Beijing has sprawled itself in an organic pattern driven by the market forces. However, this kind of Market-driven unintentional Moreover, there is a lack of coordination on the urban scale in the 6 development could not solve the problems at its root and probably fast urban development. In the meanwhile, the urban development did not contribute to the is very useful in harmonizing the urban morphology of the whole creation of comparable urban spaces for the community. Beijing. Due to the different development in recent years, the whole area reveals the chaotic and disordered urban form. Underground Space

The potential site - Nanmofang Trend and facts of underground space

The potential site is located at the intersection of Xidawang Road Along with the city's fast urban development, the Central City of and Nanmofang Road in South-East area of Beijing Centre City Beijing becomes over centralized and buildings are profoundly which is in between the 3rd ring road and 4th ring road. It is near denser and denser. The usable ground lands are almost came to the CBD to the north and Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) saturation in the central part. In order to match with the urban de- to the south. velopment, the use and exploitation of the underground space in Beijing becomes a trend and has entered a phase of fast paced New planning in Nanmofang development.

According to the latest infrastructure planning of Beijing, 21 more The underground space planning in Beijing is based on the Central subway lines including 303 stations will be built before 2020. The district. Using subway system as a backbone and traffic nodes as municipal government of Beijing advocates expanding the subway a hub, in order to release more spaces for urban development and system as the skeleton of the city to encourage citizen to travel by transfer parts of urban functions from the ground to underground. public transport. So that more ground spaces are freed as public open spaces and Nanmofang station is one of the new subway stations of subway integrated by the underground development system. line 14 which will be completed before 2015. The completion of this new Nanmofang subway station will bring the new opportuni- According to the Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and ties to this area. Design, Beijing has planned 17 areas, including Central Business District (CBD), for the subterranean developments as an alterna- The importance of Nanmofang - generic case tive way other than the disordered sprawl to ease the urban growing pains. By 2020, Beijing will become an "underground town" by The type of Nanmofang station, which is a single node station and establishing 90 million square meters of subterranean space, with allocated at the junction, is a generic case in Beijing. This kind of per capita underground space reaching five square meters in the subway station settlement can be easily found in different places. city. About 30% of the newly developed underground spaces are Up until now, there is 86% of this kind of subway station in Beijing parking lots, another 30% are underground traffic services, and the and it will be more after the new planning and construction on sub- remaining parts are used for commercial and cultural purposes. way system which will completed by 2020. They are usually split up Also, private developers are encouraged to join the underground into 4 pieces by the busy traffic and not well connected with each investment with Beijing Municipal Government. other. The surrounded urban form is presented in a fragmented and chaotic way. In other words, coping with the situation of Nanmofang 7 Case Study Underground City, Montreal new concept of “Multi-functional underground complex" was appeared. Then, those underground complexes were upgraded into the multi- Background of being an underground city functional underground complexes. A large amount of underground corridors were built to link and integrate the whole underground space Montreal is the second large city in Canada with 380 km2 urban network during 2000. Those corridors interconnected different under- areas and 3.4 million populations. Montreal's Underground City is ground complex and formed a huge underground city. the set of interconnected complexes in the downtown of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest scale underground city in the Features of Montreal's underground city world. Firstly, the Montreal's underground city is a large-scale development. Owing to the economic growth and urbanization, the downtown of It is the largest scale underground city in the world. The area that the Montreal is quite urbanized and full of high-rise buildings. Besides, underground city covered reaches 36 km2 and it is about 1/10 of total the climate in Montreal is muggy in summer with the highest tem- urban area, linking 5 urban districts of Montreal. The whole networks perature of 32 °C and frigid in winter with the lowest temperature have around 200 transits to the ground. So, it has a convenient con- of -20 C. Under this climate condition, the outdoor activities are nection between ground and underground. always constrained. Therefore, the underground spaces linked with different high-rise buildings were formed and integrated with the Secondly, different compositions of the underground city are strongly subway system. The underground spaces can provide a comfort- interconnected. The underground pedestrian network links all the un- able place for different types of activities throughout the whole year. derground spaces in 5 urban districts of Montreal to form an under- For this reason, it attracts a large number of pedestrians who want ground complex. to escape from the extreme weather. What is more, there is no clear center in the underground city. Differ- The development history ent types of underground spaces were built in the city. Each of them has their own features. Some people may think that the lack of a clear The development of Montreal's undergroLind city is started from the center is the demerit of Montreal. But actually, the whole underground redevelopment planning of Place Ville-Marie by I.M.Pei in 1954. complex is the center of the city. In 1965, 0.5 million m2 underground space was developed and the early underground city was formed. The main functions of the The Meaning to Beijing's Underground Space underground spaces are subway station, underground plaza, underground parking and inter-link corridor of different development. Form the master planning of Beijing, there are a large amount of nodes Driven by the Montreal world expo in 1967 and Olympic Game in that have the potential to form the underground complex along with 1976 the urban construction and redevelopment of Montreal was the subway system. With the further development of Beijing, those un- undergone a fast paced development. Along with the newly con- derground spaces at the nodes can be developed into a center and structed subway line in 1966 the utilization and exploitation of links with other different nodes. And finally form a well-interconnected underground space was expanded a bit further and finally formed underground city. three underground complexes during 1980's. From 1990 to 1995 a 8 Montreal's underground city is a successful case for how to utilize public space in the community as most of them are occupied by the and exploit of underground spaces. It is predicting the trend of un- parking. And this is directly linked to the living quality of the people. derground space's development for Beijing. For a better planning on underground space, Beijing should learn from the Montreal's Opportunities case. For example, when planning and designing for the underground spaces, the linkage between different nodes should be well Nanmofang station is one of the new subway stations of subway considered for the future and relevant space should be reserved. line 14 in Beijing, which will be completed before 2015. The completion of this new Nanmofang subway station will bring the new Design strategy opportunities to this area.

Hypothesis The new subway station is located at the center of Nangmofang. As the center of this area, the subway station is re-connecting the Along with the urban development in Beijing, there are more and four separated corner at the subterranean level. The network pen- more automobiles in used on the road. The increasing usage of etrates into the community starting from the subway station and automobiles in recent years caused serious congestion in many working in both above ground and underground level. The walking places in Beijing, especially the city center. To alleviate the conges- experience can be enhanced during all season by introducing the tion problem, more roads are built to support the citizen's needs. 3 dimensional network. The roads in Beijing become wider and more in terms of quantity. In the mean while, some of the programs, like parking space, can However, the expansion of road traffic creates another problem. be introduced to the underground level so that more space at The traffic divides many areas into pieces and because of the gi- ground level can be freed to be the enjoyable public open space. ant scale of the road, many areas in Beijing are quite fragmented Hence, improving the living quality of the people. and they are not user friendly to pedestrian at all. In some cases, pedestrian find difficulty in crossing the huge traffic to the opposite As the new subway station at the cross-junction is the generic de- side. When it comes to the extreme weather season, it is more dif- velopment case of Beijing, therefore, dealing with the case in Nan- ficult for people to stay outside for long period. Moreover, because mofang is very helpful for the whole Beijing. of the large street block division, the permeability to the inter-block is usually quite low. So, there is a disconnection between the main Design Concept - Networking road and the inter-block parts. The concept of my design is to form a 3 dimensional network sys- Besides the fragmentation of the area, the parking issue is also one tem starting from the subway station, working at both underground of the concerned problems. Parking is everywhere in Beijing and and above ground level and growing gradually into the communi- this is probably related to their practice and habits. They park in ties. The network system is a continuous webs that working to- front of shops, in the middle of pedestrian path, along the street, in gether with the existing surroundings. the unused land, etc. The not-well-organized parking occupies the potential public spaces. The people could hardly find an enjoyable 9 Types of connection and spaces with the existing, so that you do not have to remove all buildings.

The network system is consisted of different elements, including Secondly, it provides a huge convenience to the local community nodes, connections, solid volumes and void. In the network system, and increase the permeability to the inter block. The network sys- there creates a node wherever the connections meet together. The tem can provide short cut and also helps people to across the busy more connections meet in a point the larger the node is. Because traffic easier through using the underground network. It penetrates of the more connections meet together and larger space created, into the local community and links different destinations directly there will have more pedestrian flow as well. through the both underground and aboveground network, like north to the CBD and south to the JUT. • Through using different combination of elements, different kind of space could be created. For instance, the covered walkway, the Moreover, the all weather-covered walkway could protect people sunken plaza, the semi public open space and public open space, from the extreme weather. The climate in Beijing is muggy in sum- enclosed indoor space, etc. The dimension of space is depends on mer with the highest temperature of 40 °C and frigid in winter with the programme and activities' needs. the lowest temperature of-10 °C. Under this climate condition, the outdoor activities are always constrained. Therefore, the under- Time of staying ground spaces can provide a comfortable place for different types of activities throughout the whole year. For this reason, I believe it People will stay in different elements in the network depends on can attract a large number of pedestrians who want to escape from how long they want to stay. The connection parts are mostly the the extreme weather. circulation and pedestrian usually are not stay for long. The nodes are the staying point along the pedestrian walkway. The larger the Besides, developing the underground network is also making well nodes are, the longer the people would prefer to stay. The open use of the land resources. As we all know, along with the urbani- spaces rounded by the web are the place that people stay longest. zation, the land resources are quite in tense. The using of underground space is opening another window for the future develop- Imagine two people meet each other in a coincident along the pe- ment. destrian walkway. They will stop there and just say hello then leave if they are in a hurry. Or they will go to the node or the open spaces Phases - Growing network enclosed by the network and continue chatting if they have more time and want to stay a bit longer. So, in different spaces, the time The network system is proposed in different phases. There are 4 of people staying is different. phases in total. It starts from the left top corner, then right top, right bottom and left bottom corner. Each phase will last for 5 years and Advantages it will be finished in 2030 at the end. The system is a growing network that varies in time and varies with the surroundings. The network system has its own advantages. Firstly, it has the large flexibility. The size and dimension of the web can be easily adjusted Challenges of underground spaces - natural lighting through stretching along the sides. It allows stretching to integrate In spite of the advantages of having the underground space, the 10 lighting issue is one of the challenges. In most of people's mind, Besides, retails are spread out in the whole network. Shopping they think the underground space is narrow and cramped, no natu- center, electronic market, commercial buildings and cultural & art ral lighting. Some people may also think underground space is less center will be built to support the growing community. All the new safe than the ground level. buildings will link to the subway station at the underground level to complete the continuous network system. To remove the mistaken of people's mind, natural lighting should be bring into the underground space. In my design, there are holes Conclusion vary in size to let the natural sunlight to go inside to the covered space or underground space. Also, there are several sunken pla- This thesis attempts to connect an increasingly fragmented urban zas at the subterranean level. fabric, in south-east area of Beijing - Nanmofang, through the introduction of a 3 dimensional network system. The underground Public spaces and Activities space network is working together with the above ground network. The network system provides a large flexibility to link differ- There are various programme inside the network system. ent destinations directly by the all weather pedestrian connections and helps to reconnect Beijing's urban blocks divided by the large Car parking and bike parking are located at the underground level. street grid for vehicular traffic. The subway system is used as the On one hand, more land can be freed for the enjoyable public open backbone to develop underground space for Beijing, reconnecting space. On the other hand, covered parking space can protect the the urban fabric and promoting a more sustainable and convenient cars and bike from the rain and have the higher security level than lifestyle for citizens. before. Bike renting and bike repairing shop are also located at the underground level. People can travel by subway to Nanmofang and This thesis using Nanmofang as a starting point for this kind of rent a bike to go somewhere else or they can stop their bike just development as it is a generic case of Beijing. And try to use the next to the subway station and use subway to go somewhere else same logic to apply the network system in different places in Beijing instead of using the automobiles. This kind of new habit will be the which have the similar urban situation. . trend in the future and it is a more sustainable lifestyle.

Large performance areas are covered but still natural lighting is introduced. It has a large capacity for people during the special events, performance show or music event can be held in such areas. For the normal day, it allows informal activities happens, like lingering, gathering, doing Tai Chi, playing chess, etc.

The whole network provides a lot of public open space for residents and travelers to enjoy. Different size of public open space is located on different level and in-between the neighborhood. 11 1 i China is undergoing an unprecedented global urbanization High Speed Urbanization in China due to the socio-economic development. Beijing is one of the most urbanized city in China in which over 75% of and was urbanized

In an overall view, the urban morphology of China is transformed in a rapid pace, especially the capital city Beijing. However, the high-speed urban development caused a chaotic Beijing situation of urban form in some areas of Beijing. For the fur- Tianjin ther development, an urban regeneration should be explored in such areas.

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5 min walking distance : 500 m Car with driver only 18 What is TOD

"A transit-oriented development (TOD) is a mixed-use residential or commercial area designed to maximize access to public transport, and often incorporates features to encourage transit ridership•”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit-oriented_development

Transit as an alternative mode of transportation to the automobile

Transit oriented development strategy relies on the use of A public mass transit system as the community mobilizer. Such development attempts to counter road congestion and sustainable issue from automobile oriented cities.

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The fast urbanization and urban sprawl caused chaotic presenta- tion of urban form in some city areas of Beijing. The south-east area is one of the most representative cases.

The south-east area is fragmental in its urban space and urban morphology. It is because of the mixture of various urban functions and different land ownerships. Also, there is a lack of coordination on the urban scale in the fast urban development. Furthermore, the urban development did not contribute to the creation of comparable urban spaces for the community.

23 Urban Segregation Urban Zoning and Land Use

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29 Problems of Site

Big Streets and large street block

Parking issue

Connection of public space

Feel hard to walk on street during extreme weather

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In 2015 a new subway station will be built in Nanmofang. The new subway staion will bring Weste^n Suolt convenient to the local community.

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Trend and facts of underground space

Along with the city's fast urban development, the Central City of Beijing becomes over centralized and buildings are profoundly denser and denser. The usable ground lands are almost came to saturation in the central part. In order to match with the urban development, the use and exploitation of the underground space in Beijing becomes a trend and has entered a phase of fast paced development.

The underground space planning in Beijing is based on the Central district. Using subway system as a backbone and traffic nodes as a hub, in order to release more spaces for urban development and transfer parts of urban functions from the ground to underground. So that more ground spaces are freed as public open spaces and integrated by the underground development system.

According to the Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design, Beijing has planned 17 areas, including Central Business District (CBD), for the subterranean developments as an alternative way other than the disordered sprawl to ease the urban growing pains. By 2020, Beijing will become an "underground town" by establishing 90 million square meters of subterranean space, with per capita underground space reaching five square meters in the city. About 30% of the newly developed underground spaces are parking lots, another 30% are underground traffic services, and the remaining parts are used for commercial and cultural purposes. Also, private developers are encouraged to join the underground Site Use subway system investment with Beijing Municipal Government. Node of underground space as a backbone and Underground space in suburb an traffic nodes as a hub However, until now, there are no related rules about utilizing and Underground development Axis to develop the under- exploiting the underground space. ground space for Bei- Underground development Ring jing. Underground development Line 35 Beijing's CBD

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For the expansion of CBD, the underground development of CBD is using subway system as a backbone and traffic nodes as a hub to form the underground network. Underground Level Subway System In the underground network, the first basement is mainly designed as pedestrain walkways and combined with commercial. The second basement is mainly parking area. And under these 2 layers, there is the sub- 36 way system. mirm^f^

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Underground Driveway Subway System Node Pedestrian network at 1st Level Underground Space Upper Level Station

Lower Level Station Commercial District Road on Ground Pedestrian network and Commercial at 1 St Level Pedestrian Network and Subway System Commercial at 1 St Level Parking at 2nd Level

Space for Underground Development in Beijing

Cultural and Recreational District Commercial at 1st and 2nd Level Subway System Parking

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39 Challenges of Underground Space Women that in the middle feels fear in underground because of Natural lighting and Ventilation Orientation and Safety the disorientation.

Accessibility and Extreme Weather Activities

40 Case study- Underground City, Montreal

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Background of being an underground city The development history and integrate the whole underground space network during 2000. Those corridors interconnected different under- Montreal is the second large city in Canada with 380 km^ The development of Montreal's underground city is start- ground complex and formed a huge underground city. urban areas and 3.4 million populations. Montreal's Un- ed from the redevelopment planning of Place Ville-Marie derground City is the set of interconnected complexes in by I.M.Pei in 1954. In 1965, 0.5 million m^ underground the downtown of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the larg- space was developed and the early underground city was Features of Montreal's underground city est scale underground city in the world. formed. The main functions of the undergrourid spaces are subway station, underground plaza, underground Firstly the Montreal's underground city is a large-scale Owing to the economic growth 3nd urbanization, the parking and inter-link corridor of different development. development. It is the largest scale underground city in the downtown of Montreal is quite urbanized and full of high- world. The area that the underground city covered reach- rise buildings. Besides, the climate in Montreal is muggy Driven by the Montreal world expo in 1967 and Olympic es 36 km^ and it is about 1/10 of total urban area, linking in summer with the highest temperature of 32 °C and frigid Game in 1976, the urban construction and redevelopment 5 urban districts of Montreal. The whole networks have in winter with the lowest temperature of -20 °C. Under this of Montreal was undergone a fast paced development. around 200 transits to the ground. So, it has a convenient climate condition, the outdoor activities are always con- Along with the newly constructed subway line in 1966, the connection between ground and underground. strained. Therefore, the underground spaces linked with utilization and exploitation of underground space was ex- different high-rise buildings were formed and integrated panded a bit further and finally formed three underground Secondly, different compositions of the underground city with the subway system. The underground spaces can complexes during 1980's. From 1990 to 1995, a new are strongly interconnected. The underground pedestrian provide a comfortable place for different types of activities concept of “Multi-functional underground complex" was network links all the underground spaces in 5 urban dis- throughout the whole year. For this reason, it attracts a appeared, Then, those underground complexes were up- tricts of Montreal to form an underground complex. large number of pedestrians who want to escape from the graded into the multi-functional underground complexes. extreme weather. A large amount of underground corridors were built to link 41 Underground network of Montreal

42 Linkage with public open space

43 Features • Orientation and Natural Lighting Use Atrium, Skylight and Sunken Plaza widely • to create a center of place, in order to provide the sense of directions

• to bring natural sun light into the interior deep down to the underground area

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44 • Accessibility and Extreme Weather

Connection from Underground to Ground Direct connection to the indoor • Linking different buildings through underground network sais • Activities are not affected by extreme weather 3

Atrium Atrium

Connection to the outdoor • Pedestrian need to go outside before they go into indoor

• Not convenient during extreme weather

45 • Exterior access points

There are more than 120 exterior access points to the underground city

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46 Potential for developing Underground Space in Beijing

• Extreme weather • Land tension in central district • The expanding subway system • Government underground planning

Montreal Beijing

Temperature Highest: 32 X Highest: 40 C Lowest: -20 °C Lowest: -10 °C

Precipitation Snowfall during winter Snowfall during winter Rainfall throughout the year Rainfall throughout the year 980 mm in whole year 571.8 mm in whole year

3-dimensional layered underground network Use of Atrium, Skylight and Sunken Plaza Separate different function into different layers to avoid disorder Create a center of place and bring natural sun light in

Public Open Space

natural day light natural day light

Pedestrian Network and Commercial

Parking

Subway System

Use different layers for different function to create a 3-dimen- Atrium and Skylight Sunken Plaza sional network. 47 04 & Development Hypothesis Opportunities

Along with the urban development in Beijing, there are more and Nanmofang station is one of the new subway stations of subway more automobiles in used on the road. The increasing usage of line 14 in Beijing, which will be completed before 2015. The com- automobiles in recent years caused serious congestion in many pletion of this new Nanmofang subway station will bring the new places in Beijing, especially the city center. To alleviate the conges- opportunities to this area. tion problem, more roads are built to support the citizen's needs. The roads in Beijing become wider and more in terms of quantity. The new subway station is located at the center of Nangmofang. As the center of this area, the subway station is re-connecting the However, the expansion of road traffic creates another problem. four separated corner at the subterranean level. The network pen- The traffic divides many areas into pieces and because of the gi- etrates into the community starting from the subway station and ant scale of the road, many areas in Beijing are quite fragmented working in both above ground and underground level. The walking and they are not user friendly to pedestrian at ail. In some cases, experience can be enhanced during all season by introducing the pedestrian find difficulty in crossing the huge traffic to the opposite 3 dimensional network. side. When it comes to the extreme weather season, it is more dif- ficult for people to stay outside for long period. Moreover, because In the mean while, some of the programs, like parking space, can of the large street block division, the permeability to the inter-block be introduced to the underground level so that more space at is usually quite low. So, there is a disconnection between the main ground level can be freed to be the enjoyable public open space. road and the inter-block parts. Hence, improving the living quality of the people.

Besides the fragmentation of the area, the parking issue is also one of the concerned problems. Parking is everywhere in Beijing and this is probably related to their practice and habits. They park in front of shops, in the middle of pedestrian path, along the street, in the unused land, etc. The not-well-organized parking occupies the potential public spaces. The people could hardly find an enjoyable public space in the community as most of them are occupied by the parking. And this is directly linked to the living quality of the people.

49 Hypothesis

Wider Road More Fragmented More Cars

———^ &•iiH •BBSS!! More Road Low Permeability _ \ to Inter-Block

Opportunities

New Subway Station Center Streetscape

_ » _ ••

As a Connector Enhance walking \ experience -_ 50 Parking Everywhere Less Enjoyable Public Space Living m iiSi ——— •• aSi!!! Quality Occupy Public ^ Space

Growing Network More Enjoyable Public Space

———• I Living Quality

Stronger Connection to Inter-Block / ^ 51 Design Concept - Networking

nodes + connection = network network expansion

Types of Connections Design Parameter

Bike • Parking • Rent • Workshop I repair Pedestrian linear path junction gathering space • Strollers • Kids The more connections, the larger the nodes are. • Elderly and Handicap • Taxi Types of Spaces Car Rent • Zip Car / Mobility

Station Dimension • 20m X 100m Convenience • Create Short Cut Destination • Linkage covered walkway sunken plaza semi-open public public open space • Exit to the Ground Level 52 space Flexibility & Permeability

network + infill (solid or void)

allow stretching to Integrate with the existing increase the accessibility to the inter-block Leading the directions

Growing Network

- —

Generic Huge Cross Junction Smaller Path and Alley Pedestrian Web 53 -m^fl

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55 Special Study

Existinq Condition Proposed Condition

” J:.::::% , Main Street & Entrance

56 Underground Bike Parking rhderground Bike Parking with natural lighting Public Spaces

57 Section i

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