Zhiting Jin 金治廷

Re-imagining and micro-renewal of gangxia urban village, facade view

Zhiting Jin is an architecture graduate currently living in London, U.K. Grew up in Shenzhen, China, Zhiting received his Bachelor of Art in Environmental Design from Xiamen University, China in 2020. He is committed to making the physical world around us a better place for everyone through architectural design.

He spent two years at the Royal College of Art following with ADS5, led by Amin Taha. In his first year he investigated the use of post-tension stone technology in large span Structure, through the design of a new high speed railway station in downtown Chongqing. It is also as a new typology to revitalize a decaying urban district due to topographic isolation.

In his second year project, he systematically research the status of urban villages in Shenzhen where they are condition were poor, and if they a viable method for improvement. Balancing the interests of multiple parties and envisioning a non-destructive approach that would allow for a better living environment for low-income people in the city and continue to guarantee their right to live in the city.

The concept of self-build houses extension process in response to shifting needs

"Urban village" are former rural settlements surrounded by cities in the process of rapid urbanization inChina. With the influx of immigrants and the lack of supply of affordable housing, villagers rent out their houses to immigrants as a new form of income, to meet market demand of fast-growing populationurban while taking advantage of policy oversights, villages began a frenzy wave of construction, creating a high-density urbanized village landscape. For a long time, urban villages have been synonymous with chaos and poverty due to chaotic living environment, Poor light condition, Poor outlook and sky view.

Government policy towards urban villages has gone through a process from mass demolition to protection and improvement. Due to the serious imbalance of land supply structure and shortage of housing supply, in recent years, the Shenzhen government has planned to incorporate urban villages into the affordable housing system through micro-renewal. This study aims to provide a new organic regeneration model for urban villages to change the existing poor living environment, so that urban villages and cities can co-exist and develop positively.

Using the example of Gangxia Village in the heart of Futian District, this project investigates regeneration strategies for high-density urban villages to continue to protect the rights of low-income people to live in the city while being able to enjoy better living conditions, and to try to provide affordable housing for more people in the face of a deepening housing crisis.

Gangxia Village was selected for the case study as one of the most representative urban village in the city center. The eastern part of the village was completely demolished in 2011 and replaced by CBD.

The village currently has 420 buildings, but is home to over 50,000 people. It has five 7-meter wide living streets lined with mixed-use commercial and residential buildings. Building heights are mainly between 6 and 9 stories.

It has all the representative problems of an urban village: poor lighting conditions, poor view/sky view, poor air circulation, and high heat sink temperature.

It also has a poor interior layout and living conditions: no separation between kitchen and bathroom, 2-4 people sharing a bedroom, no living room in most units, and no storage space. The interior footprint is far below affordable housing standards.

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Satellite image， Photography，Drawing

The renewed street of Gangha Village, a leisurely and lively square.

In the process, the landlord would maintain ownership of the property and double the annual income through renovations, and the government would fund the renewal process and compensate the price to stabilize the rent for the tenant and keep it affordable. In this way, the government creates new affordable housing at a lower price, villagers increase the value of their property, and tenants gain better living conditions.

By demolishing blocks that are completely lightless and preserving the ones in good condition. and connecting them into larger clusters to gain more space, and install accessibility infrastructures such as elevators. By connecting these buildings, it was possible to remove two-thirds of the stairwells and use the gap space, which significantly increased the floor space and therefore produced a new layout.

The renovation will remove 26% of the existing buildings, releasing approximately 25,000 square meters of public space. However, by simply extending the roof of the retained building by 3 floors, the floor area ratio will be increased to 106% of the original, and the light and ventilation of the units will be greatly improved. The carbon footprint of the process is reduced by 255% compared to a traditional concrete structure.

The new roof can be connected and the fragmented spaces will become a coherent platform with the best sunlight in the area and a shared space platform containing a garden, gym, library, game room, rooftop agricultural system, and retail vendors.

New rooftop public living that unleashes the potential of space.

The roof extension will be primarily of lightweight timber construction, built from the roof up, where it can be built and where it cannot, the columns will touch the ground and be tied to the building. The exterior materials for the roof extension will be reused from the demolished blocks to preserve the character and memory of the village.

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Renders, drawings, diagram

3d-rendering diagram drawings

Six different types of house types are proposed according to the space conditions and people's needs. The lightness brought by the demolition can be improve about 150%-300% by re-layout and integration, the unit is able to increase about 20%-200% of the footprint to meets regulations, a large number of multi-functional and movable furniture makes limited space can switch function according to the needs, and provide extra storage space to greatly improve the using efficiency.

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Drawings, renders

3d-rendering drawing

Courtyard – This strategy hopes to provide a new perspective on the regeneration of Shenzhen's urban villages, improving the living environment as much as possible in a non-destructive way while continuing to protect the nest of low-income people in the city, and trying to balance the interests of multiple parties to break through the barriers.

Zhiting Jin 金治廷

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Royal College of Art