Housing Matters
What We Can Learn from the Phenomenon of Residential Buildings Injected with Commercial Usage?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fang Xu, Marcus Ho
This paper examines a special scenario of "ZhuGaiShang" - Residential Building Injected with Commercial Usage (RBICU) in the residential districts in Chinese cities. As a grass-roots activity, RBICU has become a common phenomenon in many residential districts that are planned and constructed in the past thirty years. It is surely opposite to the original intention of the government planning policy and practice of urban housing development. The past studies of the RBICU were mostly from the perspectives of population management, urban hygiene with a negative attitude. The research outputs present a common tendency that is to enhance the administration role to eliminate or limit RBICU activities. However, in reality, these simple and crude administrative approaches didn't work and even causes some other problems. Hence, the studies of RBICU need to explore an alternative perspective first. Why did residents want to change their living environments? What has the RIBCU done to change the residential buildings? Are there any common indications of RIBCU? Clarifying those questions become a priority to deal with the RBICU phenomenon. After three years of studies of the selected three residential areas in Guangzhou, the research generates an overall picture of the RBICU, which cannot only provide a holistic view to the buildings alterations and its association of the built environments but also better understand the local residents' daily lives. The research provides valuable insights that government bodies, planners, and designers need to learn from the phenomenon of the RBICU.
How People and Matter Transform Place in Modern American Residence: Interior Architecture Practice Examples in Boston
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Myoung Joo Chun
As I have practiced in residential projects, I have experienced few renovations of early to mid-1900 residence in the Greater Boston area. The priority of renovation always starts with kitchen not only just the update of the style but also update of location in the house, size, and relations with other rooms, which involves hierarchy and organizational change of the whole residence. Practice example 1. Residence in Brookline, MA., (4,500 sqft) The residence was built in 1936 in historical Tudor architectural style and the original floor has been well kept until my clients purchased the house in 2015. Practice example 2. Residence in Weston, MA., (9,000 sqft) The residence was built in 1950. The original floor plan layout had transitional modern layout with defined rooms. From early twentieth century, American domestic life underwent dramatic alteration by shifts in the larger social and material environments (Foy and Schlereth, 1992). It has made the changes of the room hierarchy in a residence floor plan. As I practice residential design to reflect the contemporary need of the centered kitchen/dining and open floor plan, it recalls the prehistoric residence, occupied cave, where the interior was zoned with areas designated for specific functions, such as cooking, gathering, and sleeping (Caan, 2011). The author’s practice examples seek to identify the transformation of spaces impacted by the social and service changes with the technological development in residence of modern America.
[RE]Constructed Environment: Saving Jack Baker’s Robinson House
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jeffrey Poss
This paper discusses the resurrection of a late mid-century house: the origins of the design; the causes of its deterioration; the reconstruction necessary for its survival; the opportunities to further concept development through the renovation; and some thoughts on the relationship between design and environment, with special emphasis on water and buildings.
