Community Condenser - Granary space regeneration design in Lianshi Town

The granary, object of this design work, is located in Lianshi, a traditional water town south of Lake Tai, in the central area of the Yangtze River Delta. Built during the 1960s, then abandoned in the 1980s, it has gradually become part of the built heritage, as symbol of traditional local culture, but in need of preservation and rehabilitation. Thus, the aim of this project is to demonstrate how the dimension of time, placed in our memory, can actually be part of our future urban lives. The idea is further supported by the results collected from a survey among locals. They remember the site as a place of meeting and fun and they would like to see it transformed and enhanced as a new public space where people of all ages and from other neighbourhoods, can gather and be involved in diversified activities. The method is based on a specific urban strategy considering three main elements: preservation, connectivity and activation, able to work simultaneously. The street structure of the traditional settlement is maintained and turned into a new public pedestrian system. The empty spaces among buildings are used for different public recreation spaces to strengthen connection among communities. Activities and settings along inner paths promote aggregation and arouse collective memory. Community Condenser has been designed to influence social behavior and to be a social catalyst for Lianshi, giving the granary built heritage the possibility to become a reference point and act as a cultural motivator for urban development.

Volume Editors

ISBN
978-1-944214-31-9