the INCREMENTAL house

Ben says that people manipulating their balconies is sheer stupidity and that they just have too much stuff, so that they need to find a way to make their apartment bigger. The way in which they adapted it may very well have been stupid, but the act of doing (means) has much more significance to me. The response to this kind of approach has been to outlaw the process which leads to a certain kind of aesthetic (ends), which has typically been looked down upon by policy makers, planners, and designers. It is precisely the process that holds the power that offers the most significant hope for development of future cities and spaces. While I reserve judgement as to whether the end result is stupid, there is a great potential for designers and planners to help set some of the rules that which people engage the process, thereby maybe changing the end result and potential aesthetic. Most of the other housing being built in Shanghai controls the process and is fully dictated by the ...

With such a massive projects taking place on a such a grand scale, many people will be displaced. Probably the most famous case of this is the Three Gorges Dam. In the case, of Pudong, which was mainly farmland, it is much less of an issue than with those in urban areas, living in older housing, or even Shikumen (see below for more info on this housing type). I was fortunate to meet with an architect, Ben Wood, who was the designer of the Xintiandi project. This area is probably one of the trendiest areas in Shanghai , and renovated old Shikumen housing into commercial and retail spaces, full of high end bars, restaurants and stores. There were about 8000 people who were displaced, and according to him and David Westendorff, a consultant working on urban governance issues, people were not properly compensated and there were many holdouts. Partly as a result of that project, compensation amounts for people being displaced have increased greatly. Ben mentioned that contrary...

Right across the Bund is Pudong, that which probably most of you have seen pictures. It is the crazy skyline, with the Pearl of the Orient TV tower (a style and form all to itself), the Jin Mao Tower , and the new World Financial Center completing nearing completion. The crazy part about all of this was this was farmland 15 years ago. Everyone talks about how they remember it being just ride paddies and such. It is just mind blowing not only it has exploded both horizontally and vertically. I went to the top of the of the Jin Mao Tower (90 floors) and still couldn’t see the end to the buildings in Pudong. This growth has sort of paralleled the explosion in the rest of the country. In 1992, under the rule of Deng Xiaoping, the state detached its land use rights from ownership of urban land to allow legal persons to transact land use rights. Pudong instantly transformed into a bustling metropolis, probably signifying Shanghai ’s and China ’s new role on the wor...

Overall, Shanghai ’s essential draw and character has been defined by its not being a deep traditional Chinese city. It has always been a mix of styles and influences, especially from the West. There are deep involvements of the British and French and that is very represented in its architecture. This mixture is deeply evident, along the Huangpo River , which has traditionally been the hub and main shipping connection to the city. The Western side of the bank, known as the Bund was the traditional edge of the city, and has been lined with a mix of neo-classical and art deco buildings built in the 20’s and 30’s, providing one of the most famous and picturesque portraits of the city. I wasn’t particularly moved them, although the context seems to be different here, and what they actually represent, as the Chinese were never colonized, and such physical manifestations represent the plurality of Shanghai, not a dominating force exercising its might and will at the expense of ma...

My arrival to Shanghai has been a world of contrasts from New Zealand . I have been thrown into a massive urban environment, tons of people, crazy buildings, contrasting and mixing styles, freezing cold, and very little natural beauty. Yet, in its own right, Shanghai is offering quite a few surprises and has energized me a good bit. And it is cold. There are still very large piles of snow from their Storm of Century 10 days ago. Upon arrival at the airport, I was a little surprised by how few people there were. I attributed this to it being 7:30 in the morning on a Saturday. After floundering around trying to figure out some basics about phone and money, I decided to take the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) train into town. Upon entering the station, I was the ONLY person there (quite a contrast from I would quickly find on the subways). We only hit 300 km/h (190 mph), and quickly saw the land of contrasts, with the shacks and shanties in the foreground and the new...

Yesterday, I went to Raglan to check out some of the houses there that had been added onto a good bit over time. Raglan is more known for its surfing and having the longest left break in the world. Some people looked at me kind of funny when I told them I wasn’t really going to surf, and instead look at some of the houses. Most of the folks there had some serious chillin’ on their minds. Not that that was that far from mine. I did ride some serious waves, with just my body, almost as far as some of the surfers made it. But, Raglan is another one of those old weekend communities, made up of baches, which I had mentioned in an earlier post. While it certainly still houses the weekend getaway, there are many more people that now call it home. Consequently, there are many new homes, but the original housing stock has been modified quite a bit, with a majority of the houses having very defined additions. Such additions varied greatly, as one might suspect, ranging from j...

For two days, I stayed on the 3000 acre farm known as Highlands Station, outside of Rotorua on the North Island . John and Catharine Ford (aunt and uncle of a friend of mine) ran the family farm. It is a beautiful set of land, shaped and sculpted by recent volcanic activity, which gives rise to many of the thermal baths, springs, and pools that Rotorua is known for. The Fords lived in what they called the Big House. Ironically, or not, this was the name given to traditional folk dwellings in Western North Carolina in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. They were called big houses because most everyone lived and slept in the same room, often to utilize the heat of the fireplace, but also because kitchens were removed from the house. I didn’t to ask John and Catherine about the name Big House, but in some regards, I guess it probably has to do with the fact that it is the biggest on the farm (others include workers’ and sheep shearers’ quarters). The orig...

One interesting part about the Fords is that John’s grandfather sold land that used to have a dairy farm to the city of Rotorua . They ended up building a lot of state housing there. John took me on a driving tour, and I would have to say I was fairly impressed with the variety and quality of the homes, especially after 50 years. All the homes were detached single family, as Rotorua is not struggling with land or density issues. Yet, they did put many of the new subdivisions to shame in the United States with character and diversity of the homes and forms. One of the more famous people that resided on this tract of land is Alan Duff, who wrote ‘Once Were Warriors’. While it is set in Auckland , it was based on the Duff’s experiences on the Ford tract in Rotorua. I ended up watching the film and whew, what a powerful one it is. This very intense story weaves through issues of intense domestic violence, Maori culture, poverty, family, and state housing. It is certa...

On Monday, I made it Wellington after an incredibly beautiful ferry ride from the South Island . The weather was a bit rough, but going through the coves and sounds there is quite a wonderful experience. It was a true New Zealand experience with a full truck of sheep right below the deck we were sitting on. Ahh, the sites and smells of New Zealand . I met with a couple of architects who work for Melling Morse Architects ( www.mellingmorse.co.nz ) who do a lot of pretty cool housing designs that are often affordable, yet beautiful. Their office is situated on an alley with one of the partners living in a sweet box/loft that has been basically been mounted on top of on older building where their office is. Their works consistent of a fairly regular palette of materials used in many different ways: Monterey cypress, which grays and weathers over time, cement board, and corrugated metal. Apparently, this material that I was inquiring about on the previous post was or...