Magic Capital, advocating magic and change; ideal village, upholding the ultimate and eternity... These two words seem to be incompatible, but they are perfectly integrated in the Cao Yang community. Today, Caoyang New Village has officially ushered in the "70th birthday". This ideal village remains glorious.
01. The "Stroke of God" of East and West
After the liberation of Shanghai in 1949, it immediately began to restore production and develop the economy, and the city built cities to implement the guiding ideology of "serving production and the working class".
In order to solve the problem of workers' housing, the government decided to build "20,000 households" of staff housing, planned nine new villages for workers such as Cao Yang, and created a road for Shanghai's urban planning and construction of residential villages.
Distribution map of "20,000 households" in Shanghai (1952)
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Shanghai Municipal Government specially set up the "Shanghai Municipal Workers' Housing Construction Committee", presided over by Vice Mayor Pan Hannian, to unify the planning of the work of the city's construction workshops, and Zhao Zukang, director of the Municipal Public Works Bureau, concurrently served as the chairman of the Putuo District Municipal Engineering Construction Promotion Executive Committee.
Wang Dingzeng, deputy director of the Urban Planning Committee of the Municipal Public Works Bureau, served as the chief planner of Caoyang New Village, the Architectural Design Company of the East China Ministry of Construction industry (the predecessor of the East China Architectural Design and Research Institute) was responsible for the single building design, and the Municipal Government Public Housing Management Office was responsible for the construction drawings.
Master plan of Cao Yang New Village in the style of ink painting (1953)
According to the "Shanghai Pass", in May 1951, Chen Yi, the first mayor of Shanghai, personally approved the site selection and construction of Caoyang New Village.
The municipal government set up a special expert group to be responsible for site selection, and selected the current site of Caoyang New Village among the five alternative bases: "The terrain here is flat and open enough to meet the large-scale construction of new villages in the future, and more importantly, the location of the new village is far from the urban area, but close to the Huxi Industrial Zone, which facilitates workers to commute to work while relieving the urban population." ”
Caoyang New Village Phased Construction Map
The overall layout plan of the new village has undergone many collective discussions and competitions by the expert group. In the end, the scheme adopts C-shaped and Y-shaped road systems, linear free, unobstructed, and dense network of small roads.
Aerial view of Cao Yang Village (1954)
Mr. Wang Dingzeng once wrote an article recalling the considerations when planning in those years, "At that time, the research and experimentation in the academic and design circles in Europe and the United States on garden cities and the budding of the new urbanist movement have begun to flourish, and the attention paid to greening, ecology, walking-oriented, asymmetrical free layout, etc. in these new trends of thought has attracted me very much. ”
At the same time, the memories of growing up in the wind chimes, laughter and tree shadows in the old style of Shanghai are deeply engraved in my mind. How can the two be organically combined? I've been trying to organically integrate these two very different cultural genes in my design practice..."
Aerial view of Cao Yang Village (mid-1960s)
The original two-storey building has been added to three floors
The village is surrounded by farmland and rivers
Aerial view of Cao Yang Village (2019)
The surrounding area of the new village has become a forest of reinforced concrete
Finally, Cao Yang's village took on the form of this:
The main roads are arranged along the river, and the houses are arranged along the road and the river, changing from stepped to fan-shaped. The entire community has a red-tile sloped roof, a chimney higher than the roof at the gable, and a brown corner stone decoration at the corner of the outer wall. The gray building with long red windows above and below looks particularly fresh and elegant under the cover of green trees around it. The staircase and floor slabs inside the house are covered with red lacquered floors, which are warm and warm.
Here, there is both the interest of Life in Shanghai lanes and the shadow of a European garden-style settlement.
Cao Yang Village Life Scene in Cao Yang Village in the 1950s
02, 15 minutes of community life circle of "forerunner"
"In a new village, 2 parks, 2 hospitals, a cultural palace, a youth activity center, a theater, a kindergarten, a primary school, a middle school, etc., and a community with such complete supporting facilities is probably rare now... It is said that Shanghai should achieve 500 meters to go out with a park, 5 minutes walk to the bus, these Caoyang new villages have long been realized! ”
According to the "Follow-up, Qixin - Shanghai Urban Planning Evolution", the overall planning layout of Caoyang New Village 70 years ago adopted the concept of "neighborhood units", and the dense road network divided the new village into many small neighborhoods/residential groups, and each "neighborhood unit" became the "cell" that constituted the living environment.
Each neighborhood is equipped with its own local community facilities, such as hospitals, parks, schools, post offices, cinemas, etc., to ensure that these facilities are located within walking distance of the neighborhood center, and residents can reach the new village center in about 10 minutes on foot, which is very convenient.
Schematic diagram of the planning of the neighborhood center of Caoyang New Village
Source: Caoyang Xincun Village History Museum
With the change of times, tiger stoves and cooperative shops have disappeared from people's vision, but some public facilities have been serving since the establishment of the village to this day - such as the "Nine Village Barber Shop" and "Top Block Noodle Shop" on Meiling South Road.
A public service facility that has disappeared: the tiger stove
The predecessor of the convenience store: Lanxi cooperative store
Nine Village Barber Shop
Top block noodle shop
03. The "frontrunner" of urban organic renewal
The oldest building in Caoyang New Village is 70 years old, and even the "youngest" nine villages are 44 years old.
In Shanghai, there are not a few settlements similar to Caoyang New Village's "over-age service", and urban renewal in the current era is particularly important.
The renewal of Caoyang New Village is a systematic project, in view of the characteristics and main problems of the Caoyang community, coordinate the blueprint suggestions of all parties, take the concept of "humanities, green and openness" as the concept, compile the "Caoyang 15-minute Community Life Circle Action" planning plan, and summarize and form a "blueprint", that is, the future vision of full-cycle full coverage of all elements.
Caoyang New Village Organic Renewal "A Blueprint"
At the same time, Caoyang New Village has completed a complete set of transformations in a large area, opening up a new road for the development path of "organic renewal" and "staying in houses and retaining people" in Shanghai.
This is the first step to revitalize the old settlements, so that the indigenous people have a greater sense of gain and pride, and at the same time, let the new Shanghainese have the vision and willingness to settle in Caoyang.
The second and more important step is to upgrade the public space. In the limited space, through precise planning, exquisite design and fine management, new lifestyles and new industrial formats can stimulate the vitality of the space.
Restore and inherit the classic spatial pattern of openness and sharing in the new village, and reproduce the classic of modern residential planning in Caoyang New Village.
Focus on displaying the cultural spirit and characteristics, take huanbang as the pulse, take the village history hall, cultural center, Hongqiao, Caoyang No. 2 Middle School, Caoyang No. 2 Middle School, Caoyang No. 1 Village, etc., build a cultural identification system for Caoyang community, and carry forward the unique social significance and cultural value of Caoyang New Village.
The new "Magic Capital High Line Baixi Park" was built to create a public space that integrates "penetration, walking, ecology, landscape, art, culture and digital".
Promote the Huanbang penetration project, and build a cultural heritage belt, a good-neighborly exchange belt, and a blue-green ecological belt with unique Cao Yang characteristics.
The newly upgraded Guixiangfang Commercial Pedestrian Street provides residents with a more comfortable and stylish community service and recreation environment.
Seventy years, exactly the year!
Happy Birthday Cao Yang New Village!