Page 76 - JCAU-5-3

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Spatial scale plasticity of urban residential areas

the zoning of clean, semi-polluted, and polluted areas to years, the Shanghai Municipality has proposed a 5–10–15-
diversify and split the flow lines of people and logistics to min living circle initiative to increase convenience and
avoid cross-pollution and mutual interference. accessibility through the arrangement of public facilities
and activity spaces in the city to form a network-like
We focus on the planning of the “four lifelines.” First, the
wrap-around logistics line is planned as a touchless delivery distribution pattern. The closure and control measures
implemented to interrupt the spread of epidemics have
trolley transportation line at the edge of the settlement. For
the case in which the main entrance of the district or the led to a wide range of reductions in the radius of people’s
closed unit may have been overloaded, the spaces along the activities, or even a staged halt.
street of the settlement, such as convenience stores, are used Therefore, we propose an optimized design to realize the
as temporary supply receiving points for internal and external idealized concept of a living circle of public service facilities.
connections. Through these two detailed designs, the flow of First, this facilitates the decentralization and grassrootization
people is separated and the logistics are opened up. Second, of community public health service facilities. In areas with
the emergency rescue route is planned. The emergency insufficient neighborhood health service stations, residents
rescue path inside the residential quarter is reserved, and often have to walk long distances to reach medical facilities
some old neighborhoods should also be renovated and or even have to choose public transportation to travel, which
widened to efficiently assist rescue operations. Third, the can increase the chance of cross-infection. As can be seen,
underground medical and domestic garbage disposal flow Shanghai organized mobile medical teams to conduct tests
line is planned. During the period of lockdown, the original in each community from March 2022 to June 2022 to achieve
manual garbage disposal work was affected, so the domestic the decentralization of health services. Thus, it is necessary
garbage of many residents in the management units could to reserve adjustable space for temporary medical sites at the
not be processed in time and was accumulated downstairs. residential quarter level.
In addition, medical garbage produced after medical testing Secondy, temporary public shelter evacuation space is
led to secondary health problems, which need to be classified reserved. Small multi-functional sports fields, small office
and processed. We propose an integrated design with the buildings, and other public service facilities can be used
underground parking lots of residential buildings and for temporary functional conversion and community
reserve the temporary elimination treatment site to avoid emergency shelter space. In addition, the ground floors
crossing with other streamlines to the greatest extent. Fourth, of residential buildings can be designed as flexible and
the residents’ flow line is planned. When a unit is blocked or changeable space units to increase the flexibility of usage
restricted, management should ensure that the normal life of functions. For example, using the ground floor commercial
other units in the vicinity is not disturbed (Figure 9). space along the street outside of the residential area, the
units that are idle or poorly operated can be converted to
4.1.3. Accessibility
shelter spaces and community service function spaces,
To increase the convenience in the residential areas in such as activity rooms, care rooms, and neighborhood
terms of daily commercial and service facilities, in recent committee offices, which can effectively free up more space
for quarantine and treatment during the epidemics.
Finally, supply, storage, and transit space, along with
basic activity space for residents, should be taken into
consideration. Community businesses such as convenience
stores can be used as stations for supply storage and transit.
However, when indoor gatherings are restricted, outdoor
spaces and green spaces become the activity spaces that
residents rely on. The planning and design should make full
use of the local small-scale space formed by the residential
enclosure to set up greenery or activity sites so that they
can be reached right outside. Even the roofs of the medium
and high-rise residences can be converted to activity floors
or activity platforms (Figure 10).

4.1.4. Plasticity
Figure 9. Spatial flowability concept analysis. Source: Drawings by the Shanghai’s three-zone phased lockdown policy faces the
authors problem of different scales of management units, such as

Volume 5 Issue 3 (2023) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1242