Gangxia Uprising
Radical Erasure
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| Hypothesis: Speculative image of Gangxia |
Topic concerning ‘governance’,
reflecting the notion of framed media, how media could be framed
architecturally. The photograph was taken inside a newly built commercial
building which hosts the Hilton Hotel adjacent to the underdeveloped village of
Gangxia. The windows project a view of the old village, but interestingly are
obscured with perforated metal panel façade; however, windows facing the new
developed side of village have no façade obscuring the view, as if it is framed
picture perfect. In one aspect of argumentation that would arise when
approaching this topic matter, it portrays a certain method of governance of
massive population, power of the government that is rooted within the Chinese
culture. Throughout my journey in Shenzhen, human value and moral would be
reminded us through signs, billboards, and media. Personal media would be
screened and blocked by the government, although media in China is biased, it
doesn’t affect the consumption of media whatsoever.
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| Photograph 1 : Governance |
The photograph symbolizes the
aspect of ownership of public and private, how a private space turns into a
public space that host interaction and exchange. How soft program gets created
in a common space, and how official authorizes the activities. A renovating
commercial unit in the newly developed building that hosts the Hilton Hotel
performs as a transition route for the villagers from the village’s interior to
exterior and vice versa; this reflects human behavior and explains how the old
and the new co-exist, how there is a loose level of ownership from authority.
Discussing human behavior, it is crucial to mention how a private property
alters its function according to certain time of the day, and how this
observation influences the design.
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| Photograph 2: Ownership |
Exchange of gut and wealth
loosely describes an act of Chinese most favorite activity, gambling. How
gambling defines the commodity of space, demand, and availability? This topic
of argumentation would provide soft program for the design. How gambling drives
the economy of a community and profoundly influence the aspect of architecture
and ownership? Design influenced by close speculation on growth and profit
through micro-economy within the village.
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| Photgraph 3: Commodities |
By observing buildings in the
village, an interesting topic comes into mind, when I looked closely to the
façade of the villagers’ homes. Series of extended metal structure (frames)
exceed dweller’s space; questions concerning air rights quickly inspire the
formalization of the design, generating space via cheating of air rights. With
the reorganization of space to mitigate hybridization space, but still in this
phase, questions raised about hybridization is whether good or bad?
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| Photograph 4: Hybridization |
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| Photograph 5: Facade - Air Right |
Gangxia Uprising; GX
(Takes advantage of Gangxia Air-Right for New
Affordable Community)
‘Initial AirSpace Offering’ (IAO)
An initial AirSpace Offering (IAO)
is used by original landowners in Gangxia and/or other potential districts to
bypass the rigorous and regulated capital-raising process required by venture
capitalists or banks. In an IAO campaign, a percentage of the XSpace (currency)
is sold to early backers of the project in exchange for legal tender or module(s)
in GX.
Project
Documentation; aiming for prospective investors and migrants
When an original landowners in
Gangxia wants to raise money through an Initial AirSpace Offering (IAO), they
are required to create a plan on a whitepaper which states what the project/location
is about, what need(s) the project will fulfill upon completion, how much money
is needed to undertake the venture, how much of the virtual AirSpace the
pioneers of the project will keep for themselves, what type of money (legal
tender) is accepted, and how long the IAO campaign will run for. In this
specific case, Gangxia original landowners unite to a single massive project to
re-define Gangxia by taking advantage of air-right for a new affordable
community; GX.
During the IAO campaign, enthusiasts
and supporters of the firm’s initiative buy some of the distributed XSpace
coins with legal tender. These coins are referred to as tokens and are similar
to shares of a company sold to investors in an Initial
Public Offering (IPO)
transaction. If the money raised does not meet the minimum funds required by the
landowner, the money is returned to the backers and the IAO is described to be
unsuccessful. If the funds requirements are met within the proposed duration,
the money raised is used to complete the GX project or initiate a new scheme.
Early investors in the operation are
usually motivated to buy the XSpace coins in the hope that the plan (GX)
becomes successful after it launches which could translate to a higher XSpace
coin value and/or modules in the GX than what they purchased it for before the
project was initiated. The XSpace coin would eventually become currency to
trade modules in GX when the project becomes successful.
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| AirSpace - Investment platform prototype |
The success of the GX project
depends on the unification of the original landowners and the growth/profit the
site generates. Gangxia is going through a phase of negotiation with the
government of its air rights condition. In this revolutionary time of the
district, it is arguable of their cooperation with the Chinese government.
Therefore, to invest in an XSpace coin in Gangxia, sky is the limit.
AirSpace and its prospective building design
A systematic scheme for the definition of AirSpace is influenced by the
five selected topics concerning; governance, commodities, ownership,
hybridization, and façade. The scheme invented to solve and improve the quality
of life within Gangxia village as it faced shortage on housing due to a
residential development plan in the 80’s which limits residential housing to
seven and eleven floors. The parameter of the village are being developed, new
commercial buildings are being built creating walls of buildings guarding the
Gangxia urban village. Potential of unused air space above the entire village
initiated the concept of the project. An investment platform designed to allow
for a diverse status of investors to spread the wealth and revitalize the micro
and macro economy. Unused air space would be constructed on capital raised from
the AirSpace service, creating more profitable space to provide more income for
landowners and investors as well as solving issue on housing shortage.
The process of development involves demolition of the current building
to improve quality of ground condition and its infrastructure. The compensation
for the demolished lot (landowner) would be translated into same measurable
area on the AirSpace building. The new AirSpace building would cover the unused
9.1% on the lot’s and its neighbors’ FAR (floor area ratio). The number was
calculated through a speculation of a high rise within the village with
estimate FAR of 12.6%; average FAR for Gangxia village is tightly 3.5%, leaving
over 9.1% unused and in line for development.
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| Process |
The new AirSpace buildings would occupy the existing building mass
through a demolition process, with the same footprint, the buildings offer
extra footprint by occupying the unused air space of its own and the
neighbor’s. It is a competition among the original Gangxia citizen, the lot
with the most investments would get to provide for the construction of the new
AirSpace building project, neighbors have been negotiated and come to an
agreement in prior for the bid. Once the result is finalized, construction
begins on the selected lot, and its neighbors would receive compensation for
their air space as negotiated in the agreement (the compensation would consists
of certain yield percentage, space in the new building, and/or legal tender or
XSpace currency. The core lead by a mega core consists of four elevator cores
providing four elevators in each core making sixteen elevators as dwellers’
circulation. Extended upon the core are cantilever corridors leading to free
profitable space with cables attached to the mega core to provide structural
stability. The corridors are then connected with slabs organized in form of
grid to define the boundary of dwellers’ personal space. Each floor provides
for four extra stories of growth in space and income, for the project supports
mitigation and revitalization of macro and micro economy of the urban village,
therefore the building support possibility of growth for dwellers. The boundary
or the amount of space owned by dweller is defined by dweller, depending on the
amount of XSpace dweller purchases or invests in the AirSpace platform that
would later use to purchase space within the building; previous landowner would
be compensated with identical space area within the building and certain amount
of yield generated through profits from the space within the new AirSpace
building.
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| Instance |
The AirSpace building will partially fill up the skyline of the urban
village, dweller’s quality of life is also what the design prioritized upon,
and therefore the space within the core of the building will provide for
sustainable agriculture project. The agriculture project will not only provide
cash crop/ household crop for the dwellers, improve breathing air quality, but ultimately
emphasize on the “farming” identity of the original dwellers in the Gangxia
urban village. The volume of a typical building mass in the village will be
replaced with a structure filled with plants (sustainable agriculture project),
crops can be treated as cash crop where they could be traded in a micro or a
macro scale, for the usage of the space is upon dweller’s/investor’s decisions.
The core is covered with a glass façade to perform in similarity to greenhouse
to provide for regulated climatic condition for plants to grow in their maximum
potential; also to decorate the sight of the village with greenery.
