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Tulou affordable housing project in China / Urbanus
10
Apr 2009
The Tulou affordable housing project by Urbanus was the subject of the 5th Solos Exhibition at New York’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum.
This 245 apartment structure is currently being built in Guangzhou, China. Besides the normal residential programming, the building also has a dormitory, hotel, retail space, gym, library, and a variety of communal and public spaces.
Seen at designboom. More images after the break.
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20 comments »
Hmmm… just add water – instant ghetto.
Or, block the exits – instant gulag?
How profoundly oppressive!
But they’re good at that…
just like ‘urban mushrooms’
DO NOT EAT! – they’re poisonous…
Read the damn text. It’s not only housing you idiot. Never before have people been oppressed by a library…
Interesting, that this scheme does not come across as mixed use. It looks like a monofunctional program, which is arranged in a formal manner. It ignores the potentials which lie in mix use and unfortunately does not offer anything else than a circle, which curles into a square… Shame that such thing is even subject of an exhibition…
It seems like not much light will penetrate deep into those small courtyards. If the center was a large park or vegetable garden it might be better. It does reference the large rammed earth Hakka buildings in the south of china though. I appreciate referencing the culture’s architectural history.
If only they lowered the outer ‘circle’ to make it about 3 stories and usable roof; no more, otherwise it’s like some prison. They have libraries too! The project does not take into account the site at all, and generally circles are pretty oppressive in my opinion. Just build regular mid-size blocks with lots of green space in between and people will make the use of it the way they want. Last thing that you want living with little income is have darkness in your room. Oppressive project the way it is right now.
HowardG Go home…
The way they render it, as if there is some decent light, in reality will not be this way at all. At least break it apart or something, extend some parts..
Inhumane and a prime example of the ghettoization of a class of people. I thought we were pass this by now?
that is all.
Yes, this is the ghetto
http://vodpod.com/watch/1316947-donny-hathaway-the-ghetto
you gotta be kidding me. I thought you are living in 21 century!? Don’t people now have enough sense of what fundamental and social rights are?! Let them live like a human being!!
My Cheap – people HAVE been oppressed by libraries. It is a well recognised fact that the Catholic Church for centuries kept books, education and reading FROM ’subjects’ as a means of power and thus oppression.
Certainly the Chinese Govt has spent hundreds of millions over many years revising history and republishing books to suit their version of events. Out of ignorance of truth people are oppressed – kept down – so as to be controlled.
Perhasp you are unfamiliar with the word: oppression – noun : 1. the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
4. the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, anxiety, etc.
Yep burdensome = close proximity / overbearing building / height, paucity of light. That will difinitely get to you in a circular environment. You DO know of the Panopticaon / Panemoticon and modern prison design – don’t you! This page at MIT may help : http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~carsonr/phd_thesis/ch01.html#id2532402
… that should be MR Cheap and here is a MUCH better example of derivations and current examples. And you have heard of totalitarian regimes… how about recent issues in Tibet?
http://www.answers.com/topic/panopticon
I wish they had indluded a little bit of historic background… A Tulou (”earth building”) is actually a traditional building form in the south-east of China. And although I generally agree with the criticism mentioned here, one has to keep in mind that this is China, high density is therefore mandatory.
I still think it is not a bad idea to reinterpret your traditional housing forms – although they could have used the original material, rammed earth, which would be much more sustainable and innovative.
I don’t know enough about the project to characterize is at oppressive. To me the spatial qualities “inside” the project look like they are intimate while grand at the same time.
What would you do if you were given a plot in a modernist-greenscape-horror site like this ? How would you respond to the site ? Maybe is it not to bad to create the circle, and then give people something totally different inside ?
Perhaps this project gives it’s inhabitants and residents something completely different than what the site offers ? Maybe it’s the best stratergy, -to escape the surroundings ?
I agree with Mr. Howard, other’s might be to young or innocent to know otherwise.
It’s just a circular prison.
I also agree with Laura when she mentions about the high density in China.
however, I don’t think the solution is to construct a new “hip wowloon walled city”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City
I get a little worried when I see the “mixed use” label on projects regardless of where they’re located.
Can someone show me a “successfull mixed-use social housing” project?
http://mongkol.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/world-heritage-2008-fujian-toulou/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulou
…some historic background!
well, i generally don’t think this building is a sensitive response to the process of urbanization in China. some spaces are really inhumane. I understand the high density situation but i really do not believe turing a vernacular into something modern with new functions is working… we need a bit of more innovation from the very underlying.
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