‘Floating Island’ and ‘Veranda’: Sharing Media in Urban Shanshui

Abstract

In contemporary high-density urban environments, waterfront views are extremely valuable. As an important section of the ‘ Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek’ strategic plan, the southern section of Yangpu Riverside in Shanghai is facing the challenges of reconstruction in terms of scale, function, landscape and vitality. This study abstracts the elements of two shared media, ‘floating island’ and ‘veranda’ from traditional gardens. The medium system of ‘floating island + veranda’ is expressed in different scales and different heights. The four elements of ‘floating island’ include bottom with blurred edges, mixed function and crowd, porous middle facade and undulating roof. The four elements of ‘veranda’ include continuous urban interface, raised ground, vertical sharing space and view corridor overlooking the landscape. These elements are embodied in the exemplary design proposal of the Yangpu Riverside Shared Apartment. In the process of combined reconstruction from micro to macro and bottom to top, we should fully consider the height change of people's viewpoints, and flexibly use the opposite scenery, obstructing scenery and expanding urban corridors, so as to seek a contemporary interpretation of traditional landscape intentions. This paper is subsidized by NSFC project which is named as ‘Research on Time and Space Elements and Expression System of ‘Sharing Architecture’, NO.51978468.