Research On Public Space Of Suburb Villages In Shanghai

With the economic and social development, the constitution of suburbvillage in metropolis like Shanghai has obviously changed, such as inflowof migrant workers, going out of aboriginal young adults, aging ofremaining villagers, etc. Meanwhile, the lifestyle of villagers has subjecteda dramatic change; such as the increasing transports mobility, leisure timeand immobilization. These changes have greatly impact on the public spaceutilization. On the other hand, the new rural construction in developedregions, especially reconstruction project, reforming village road and otherinfrastructure, brought opportunities for the development of village publicspace.Based on the literature investigation and field research, this paperinvestigated the suburb village public space in Shanghai, defined the publicspace and public space boundary, and analyzed the main public spaceelements, the type and characteristic of space, the characteristics anddemand of public space activities. This paper also predicted the trend ofShanghai suburbs village public space and provided the reference forconstruction public space characters of having both traditional cultural andcontemporary people communication.This paper defined the village public space from three dimensions ofspace region, public activities and space function. Village public space isthe palace to meet the public communication activities of the villagers,usually containing the public space except the farm’s land (private space).The boundary and actual utilization of public space could be divided fromthe public and private space properties and activities characteristics.In the traditional villages, the boundaries of private-private space and private-public space had the characteristics of conventional, due to thegenetic connection or the stable social relations by the long-termgeopolitical contact. In addition to a small village by clear walls, hedge clearphysical boundaries such as the division of public space, large amounts ofprivate and public spaces were divided by psychological boundary.The elastic characteristics of village public communication activitiesmade public or individual activities often crossing the boundaries of publicand private spaces. On the basis of not breaching the public and privatespace, the utilization of public and private space was elastic change, that is,occupation and assignment phenomenon. The space assignment refers to thevillagers to private space assignment as a public communication activities;Space occupation refers to the individual villager temporary or permanentoccupation of a public space.Modern lifestyle had obviously effect on the village space, which wasexpressed in the basic elements in a public space. Some traditional spaceelements disappeared or degenerated, and other modern elements played animportant role.Based on public communication activities and social distance, villagepublic space was divided into dot, linear and plane space and the scales ofthe three spaces were defined. From topological linear space morphologyanalysis, Shanghai suburbs village public space included four types ofspatial structure, namely the banded structure, the dendritic structure,network structure and loop structure. On the basis of linear space structureand integrating point and plane space, this paper put forward to several typesof the basic pattern space sequence in Shanghai suburb villages.Based on the questionnaire survey, this paper analyzed the villagepublic space activities and evaluation of the utilization of public space. Theresults showed that the daily activities of the villagers had large demand ofpublic space, the main public communication activities was small groupactivities, on the choice of site was street spaces, and gender, age andhousehold register difference had significantly impact on the choice for public space activities. The importance and satisfaction survey showed thatthe current street had the highest satisfaction and importance evaluation, buta few types of public space was not satisfied by the villagers.