TEACHER'S APARTMENT COMMUNITY
CASE: Liubo Teacher's Apartment Building
BUILT YEAR: 1995
LOCATION: 18-1 Zheda Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou, China, Zhejiang Province
BUILDING TYPE: Concrete framed tower with 23-storey high
CONTEXT: Located in the central plot of Xihu District, and it adjacent to Yuquan Campus of The Zhejiang University
The 23 storeys teacher’s apartment tower was built in 1995. located in the Qiushi community where in the central plot of Hangzhou city. Qiushi community was designed by Zhejiang University for the accommodation of teacher, staff and their families back in 1988. Qiushi community is a typical highly ageing community. There are many retired elderly experts, scholars and professors living in the community. There are variety of nearby living facilities, schools and convenient public transportations around the community. However, the existing indoor living spaces are no longer able to meet the needs of the current residents due to the aging apartment and the substandard design. The current Liubo building needs proper renewal design to fulfill the residential living needs and help with building a more livable and vibrant community.
SITE ANALYSIS - QIUSHI COMMUNITY
Qiushi community was designed by Zhejiang University for the accommodation of teacher, staff and their families back in 1988. According to the Housing Reform policy in China in 1995, the housing ownerships were governed by the university, and later the teachers and staffs who have rights to purchase these public housing and have paid off the house price much lower to a standard price or cost price to obtain the private housing ownership. The housing in the community has been wholly privatized in 1998.
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HOUSING REFORM POLICY
There are many retired elderly experts, scholars and professors living in the community. Middle aged and elderly are more than 70%. area of 0.22 million sqm with 3941 families living there, population is 13600 Qiushi community built in the 1970s and 1980s, with aging houses, narrow community roads and elderly residents accounting for more than 70% of the total population of the community. It is a typical community with a high degree of aging. Most of the residents are teachers from Zhejiang University, retired workers and most of them are between 40 and 60 years old. the rental rate is 20%.
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AGEING POPULATION
There are variety of nearby living facilities, schools and convenient public transportations around the community. In the centre of the community, there are kids playground, community gardens and community centre for holding variety of social activities. The Zhejiang University Holding activities for elderly people: practicing Chinese calligraphy/ variety of Professional knowledge classes/ celebrating birthday events, etc.
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CONVENIENT LIVING FACILITIES
DRAWINGS AND DIAGRAMS
The Liubo Building Typical Floor Plan 1:200 showing the relative locations of the case study flat 4 on level 5 and flat 7 on level 3.
The Liubo Building residential demographic diagram. Currently there are many elderly live alone or living with their families.
The Liubo Building: (a) Section A-A: north-south looking east; and (b) Section B-B: east-west looking north. The locations of both sections are indicated on the plan shown in the above typical plan drawing.
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DESIGN CRITERIA - APARTMENT CONFIGURATION
The typical floor plan showing each storey has 8 flats, mainly are 2 bedroom apartments. In terms of apartment size and layout, The Zhejiang guide requires the apartment sizes are smaller than the NSW guide, because of per capita living area is small and the housing price is relatively high in china, so the core housing functions should be guaranteed first. The local design guide specified that kitchen should be separate from living area, where the NSW guide promotes open plan layout that combining the living room, dining room and kitchen.
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THE EXISTING BUILDING DESIGN
It has floor plates of 508.5 m2gross internal area, encompassing 12,204 m2 total floor area across 23 occupied floors. Floor to ceiling heights are a generous 2.7 m. It has no central mechanical ventilation and no provision for central heating or cooling in line with central government policy in the HSCW zone. Ventilation is achieved by opening windows, all of which are of the single-glazed aluminum sliding type, apparently common in the region. Typical floor plan of eight flats arranged so that each flat has at least two external walls with free access to the external environment. The areas of flats 1–8 are 60.46, 71.82, 74.84, 76.44, 60.46, 71.82, 77.84 and 72.44 m2 respectively. All accessible balconies have been subsequently enclosed with sliding glazing. The 23-storey Liubo building, an apartment tower of a demonstrably recurrent type in Hangzhou and beyond, has a configuration quite foreign to Europe and North America: a squarish floor plate with deep re-entrants to connect bathrooms, kitchens and supplementary bedrooms deep within the plan to the external environment.
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THE PROS & CONS OF LIUBO BUILDING
Pros – Good Design Strategies That Work Well
- The Liubo building is a concrete-framed tower and is built by a large frame structure, except for a few load-bearing beams and walls, indoor dividing walls can be basically redesign and rebuilt, flexible for renew the interior layout.
- The upper levels with open views and less noise issue
- The distinctive plan layout offers all eight flats have facade with southern orientation and accessed with natural lighting
- The existing two staircases, but isolated from each other by three lobbies and four fire-rated doors along both within a compartmented shaft at the core of the building. Flats have steel outer doors and timber inner doors at the threshold to the common corridors. This arrangement offers safe vertical and horizontal escape routes free of smoke.
Cons – Design Strategies That Do Not work well
- Lack of cross ventilation (from north to south)
- only good natural lighting conditions into the master bedroom (closed balcony with big openings ) the interior lighting conditions is poor due to small openings
- the surrounding high density trees will block part of the solar lighting into the lower levels
- the disordered car and bicycle parkings (lack of parking spaces)
- no external sun-shading devices (excessive solar gain in summer)
- no laundry room (the residents placed the washing machine inside the bathroom and dry the clothes by outdoor drying racks)
- lack of shared public spaces
- the external AC units installed onto the facades affect the aesthetic not convenient for maintenance (wall mounted air conditioning), metal security window guardrails all rusted and also affect the building envelope
ISSUES IN CASE STUDY
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THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
The disordered bicycle parking in front of the building entrance due to the lack of public space for bicycle parking and no spare space for storage inside the apartment.
The surrounding communal open space became car parking because of existing residential design did not provide parking space and increasing car ownerships.
The laundry racks were installed outside the enclosed balcony windows. The residents hang their clothes outside the balcony due to the lack of outdoor laundry space and the existing balcony space were very narrow.
The metal window guardrails were rusted and affect the building envelope. The insufficient indoor natural daylight due to the enclosure design of balcony which attached to the main bedroom.
The residents sun their clothes and dried fish in the public greenery space due to the lack of private open spaces.
The residents grow their plants and put their staffs on the ground floor greenery space due to there is no private open space and not enough storage space in the existing flats.
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THE INDOOR COMFORT DEGREE
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Too close spaces: reduced accessibility and no total freedom on movement. Lack of spaces for second need, different from the basic and primary one. The interior layout did not satisfy accessibility for the disabled.
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The case study flat plan showing the layout with an entry to a living room, and there are separated bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. An enclosed balcony attached to the main bedroom. Currently there are too much close spaces which reduce accessibility and no total freedom on movement, such as narrow kitchen, washing machine installed in the bathroom, study desk and cabinet are placed too close to bed, dining table next to sofa. There are no private open space, residents have to dry clothes and grow plants outside the window. The interior layout did not satisfy the current residents needs, also lack of spaces for second need.
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DESIGN CRITERIA - DAYLIGHT
The NSW Apartment Design Guide requires optimise daylight into habitable rooms with minimum of 2 hours direct sunlight in mid-winter. The Zhejiang Residential Housing Design Guide (Local Design Guide), it outlines the requirements for daylight factors for specific rooms. The case study did not compliant with the standards, the existing flats have poor daylight conditions and no external sun shading devices.
The case study daylight factor analysis - flat 4 on level 5 plan
The case study daylight factor analysis - flat 7 on level 3 plan
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DESIGN CRITERIA - NATURAL VENTILATION
The NSW Apartment Design Guide and The Zhejiang Residential Housing Design Guide (Local Design Guide) both specified all interior habitable rooms should access to natural ventilation. The NSW guide covers design criteria for cross ventilation should be maximized, where the local guide did not cover. The current apartment did not compliant with NSW guide, all rooms with single openings and no any cross ventilation.
The case study daylight factor analysis - flat 4 on level 5 plan
The case study daylight factor analysis - flat 7 on level 3 plan
