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intimate, cool, sheltered and lively:
BAU268 Xinqiao Commercial Street + Shop Housing

Xinqiao, Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, China

Discipline

Architecture, Landscape Architecture

Typology

Retail, residential, urban landscape, playground

City

Xinqiao, Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, China

Date

2006-2008

Status

Completed 2008

Client

Xinqiao Government

Program

Commercial Street with shop top housing

intimate, cool, sheltered and lively

becoming a town
Xin Qiao village has had an economic boom due primarily to one enormous woolen garment factory, Heilan. As a consequence the farming village is becoming a town. The adjacent farmland and settlements are being absorbed by the growth. Most relocated farmers are compensated with an apartment to live in and another to rent for income. Others have taken up the option of a shop with dwelling above. After designing the town’s new plaza BAU were engaged to design the buildings and landscape of a new 750m long commercial street made up primarily of reallocation shop-top housing.

an intimate, cool, sheltered and lively street
Avoiding the prevalent tendency towards wide streets, BAU have designed a narrow street. With only two vehicle lanes and space either side for parked cars, the traffic will be travelling at a safe speed for pedestrians. Pedestrians will be able to recognize people’s faces across the narrow street.

Trees will grow to completely cover and shade the street with a green canopy during the extremely hot summers.

Each shop top house has a large terrace or generous balcony overlooking and enlivening the street.

The architecture is neutral and contemporary. The articulation creates massing reminiscent of the scale of the single houses of the local villages. These urban strategies set the stage for the personalization of the housing, which will further reduce the scale in the street.

relaxed and informal
BAU’s research for the village plaza had revealed that almost all of the town’s working population is employed in one of two factories. They work six days a week and 12 hours a day. The most popular way to spend their few hours of recreation is a relaxed and informal stroll around the town. To enable strolling in all weather BAU cantilevered the housing over the pavements.

The pavement itself is broad enough to provide space for strolling, seating beneath the trees, bicycle parking and urban swales. The swales retain rainwater runoff from the road and pavement, protecting the ecology of the town’s canals by minimizing, delaying, and cleaning the discharge.

Smaller plazas are situated every 50 to 80m along the street between the shop houses. Each has a shop front opening onto it, large crowned trees with seating within it and cantilevered terraces providing shelter and activity. The plazas form logical locations for future access into the adjacent housing communities.

a playground island in a sandpit sea
Playgrounds in China are usually only built for pre-school age children. However, the client accepted BAU’s suggestion to extend this playground to also include a larger playground for unaccompanied children between 6 and 12. This larger playground is an island in a sandpit sea for toddlers.

Adjacent to this playground is a larger plaza with a concentration of seating integrated within an array of shade trees. This plaza provides easy surveillance of the playground for parents

more than just a road
By thinking about the street as primarily a place for people, of all ages, BAU have provided a vibrant and complex three dimensional urban space full of places that is more than just a road for cars.