Towers Of Skywells: Restoring The Historical Lineage Of Collective Living For Displaced Rural Communities In Hefei

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dc.contributor.advisorColopy, Andrewen_US
dc.contributor.advisorFinley, Dawnen_US
dc.creatorZhang, Juchenen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-05-21T19:09:21Zen_US
dc.date.available2024-05-21T19:09:21Zen_US
dc.date.created2024-05en_US
dc.date.issued2024-04-18en_US
dc.date.submittedMay 2024en_US
dc.date.updated2024-05-21T19:09:21Zen_US
dc.description.abstractThe rapid urbanization in China has drastically reshaped numerous rural communities, where their inhabitants' means of sustenance and cultural values were often lost. One such case is the transformation of thousands of acres of farmland into a lakefront district of planned zones of dense housing, working, and recreation in Hefei, which displaced farming families from their villages during construction. The development ended in bankruptcy and abandonment of major office towers. “Towers of Skywells” proposes to repurpose these abandoned towers into a new type of dwellings for the displaced rural population through adapting a historic vernacular typology - a two-story house with a skywell. The skywell is a small courtyard that not only draws light and passively cools the house, but acts as a connector to adjacent units. When aggregated, these homes form a shared living environment for various family structures. As a basic module, the historic house is repeated on existing tower structures, creating an array of interconnected two-story units that blend communal and private spaces. A continuous band of unconditioned space ties the units together, sponsoring recreation, production, and planting. This part-to-whole relationship increases in scale, grouping two sets of two floors to form communities sharing programs in the building core. These communities are separated by levels housing larger collective programs for the entire buildings. In opposition to the principles of homogeneous density and separation of working and living promoted by the modernist towers, the project reinterprets and allows enduring values such as familial ties and communal collectivism to manifest in built space. In doing so, it amends the broken link in the architectural lineage of the region and suggests a way forward for continuing the cultural heritage of collective living for the local community.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.citationZhang, Juchen. Towers Of Skywells: Restoring The Historical Lineage Of Collective Living For Displaced Rural Communities In Hefei. (2024). Masters thesis, Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/116066en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/116066en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectarchitectureen_US
dc.subjecthousingen_US
dc.subjectadaptive-reuseen_US
dc.subjectvernacularen_US
dc.subjectcollective livingen_US
dc.titleTowers Of Skywells: Restoring The Historical Lineage Of Collective Living For Displaced Rural Communities In Hefeien_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentArchitectureen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineArchitectureen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelMastersen_US
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Architectureen_US
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