Control City

Director: Xia Kehang

In the contemporary world, car ownership rates rise dramatically with the economic surge in China. Take my hometown Haining as an example, its permanent residents exceed 1.07 million according to the seventh national census. The newest data from the traffic police brigade indicates 295 thousand car ownership. These two pieces of information show that One in three people owns a car. In this situation, the parking problem becomes more and more severe. According to Driving toward Modernity, the developer sold the underground garage to the non-residents which resulted in the public parking space decreasing dramatically and many residents could not enter the garage because there was no more parking space. Although the construction of underground garages is relatively high, It is a good way to improve land utilization.

I chose the underground garage of my community as the target to conduct the research. There are approximately 3400 car parking spaces for around 2200 families. From the average car ownership and field observation, the garage’s capacity is much higher than its actual amount of parking. It is also divided into two floors with three entrances, one is closed because of the pandemic. The first underground space is divided into car parking space, a non-motor vehicle, and a storage area. The second underground space is all car parking space. Two floors are connected by two main channels for passing cars and many staircases for walkers.

The underground garage plays an essential role in the modern city. Most of the time, people enter the community through the underground garage instead of the walkway, which means the underground garage is the first station to welcome workers and travelers come back home. It gives us the sense of “shielding” from spiritual aspects and from physical structure. As a enclosed underground environment, its concrete structures and load-bearing columns give people a sense of “support” and “shielding” away from disasters. During the pandemic, we have to scan the QR code before entering the underground garage, and the sign showing the building number gives residents psychological comfort. In addition, the underground garage is also a connection between outside world and home. When we see the light from our home, It gives us the sense of warmth.

But everything has two sides. The thing behind the “shielding” is the “regulation” and “restriction.” The regulation started before we entered the underground garage. Just like mentioned above the underground garage only contains private parking spaces, the gate will only allow the car with the correct number template to drive into the garage. At the same time, drivers should scan the QR code to verify their identity. In order to achieve the maximum capacity, the design of the underground space is simple and direct. The monotonous color, signs showing the direction, pillars, and small grids are the only factors composited the underground space. These factors indicate that rules consist in this enclosed environment. There are formal and informal regulations that drive you to drive on a particular path to a certain little grid. The space is used considerately with maximum efficiency. So all these factors attributes to the results that every cars is driving with these regulations which gives the depressing atmosphere.

The making of video

One technique used in the video is acceleration. The scene of massive vehicles passing through the underground garage shows the mobility of vehicles and they are moving in a certain pattern. In the last clip of the video, I use the technique of deceleration giving audiences a feeling of unreal and imagining the choice they made. The quick switch scene is also used in deliberating the concepts of “shielding” and “constraints” in order to show these two concepts from different aspects.

Reflection

Actually, an underground garage plays a vital role in our daily lives. But most of the time, we just ignore it unconsciously because it is a transition area connecting home and outside. But underground garages are also important; It contains many pipes which satisfy our essential daily lives. In addition, I learned some basic knowledge about constructing an underground garage, such as how to improve the capacity using different parking space designs. Observing the underground garage also helps me realize that our community has excess parking spaces. Conducting the research also allows me to think about and connect the underground garage with the pandemic. Inspiring from different people have different opinions choosing to walk on the ground and underground indicating other people have various views about treating COVID.

Xia Kehang

3035824027

Reference:

海宁开元名都置业有限公司 开元名都大酒店建设工程项目(商务商业酒店区)竣工环境保护验收报告

海宁市第七次人口普查主要数据公报 http://www.haining.gov.cn/art/2022/1/20/art_1688421_161457.html

建筑设计专篇总结

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/80053335

海宁大约每3人就有一辆汽车！文明停车你做到了吗？

http://www.haining.gov.cn/art/2021/8/11/art_1229519873_59019369.html

Betty.W Underground Garage Construction | Full Construction Process Explained

https://homeaffluence.com/underground-garage-construction/

Jun Zhang. Driving toward Modernity

Clair, R., Eisenstein, S., Benjamin, W., Lefebvre, H., Moholy-Nagy, L., & Bruno, G. (2006). Visual studies: Four takes on spatial turns. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 65 (1), (pp. 23-24).

Ryuichi Sakamoto. Solitude