ZEMCH 2019 International Conference Proceedings April.2020 | Page 211
As you seen the section diagram in Figure 5, the west part was designed to be a mixed‐use
residence shaped like stairs. The 1 st floor is designed for commerce and expands into the inside of the
site so that the 2 nd floor can be set in open space. Parking space is set on the ground open space outside
the residence. In the east part, buildings with 8 floors on both sides surround the open space or public
buildings in the middle courtyards (Figure 5‐b). Although the courtyard forms are similar in the east
part, the space experience is different because of the difference in exterior spatial elements and the
width of roads.
3.3. Problem and Cause Analysis in Exterior Space
The problems occurring in the Jixiang Housing Complex as the complex gets old and the standard
of living rises can be divided into 3 kinds: the parking, waste treatment and mixed‐used space problems.
The first problem is parking. Parking space in Jixiang Housing Complex can be divided into 2
kinds: personal indoor garages and public parking space. As the internal roads between Area A and B
have just become city roads since 2000 with the opening of new housing complexes, the personal indoor
garages in the northeast of the site were opened towards the city road (Figure 6‐a). As the garages were
given external exposure, the security of the garages as well as the commercial value of the 1 st floor
reduced. Despite the fact that there parking space outside, illegal parking has become the main parking
method. Thus the public green space, the open space and even the entrance of the housing complex
had become heavily occupied by cars(Figure 6‐b). In the meantime, the exterior space has also become
heavily occupied by personal modified temporary.
Figure 6. (a) Indoor Garage along the Street; (b) Parking Situation in Open Space; Situation in Public
Space (c) Open Space and (d) the mixed‐used space (Photos by Author)
Trash in public spaces occupies a large area and damages adjacent green spaces. Things such as
the city’s bicycles and broken public facilities are left there (Figure 6‐c). As the housing complexes like
Jixiang Housing Complex have given up management responsibilities gradually since the late 1990s ,
any systematic residential area management is missing. The main kinds of the waste seen here are not
from individuals so that the waste treatment is also not anybody’s personal responsibility in these
housing complexes. Due to the proliferation of city sharing bicycles in the old city centers of large cities
like Shenyang in recent years, broken bicycles have become abandoned in housing complexes and left
a long time with no further attention.
An example of the problem seen in mixed‐used space is shown in Figure 6‐d. Due to the expansion
of external commercial space, the auxiliary space naturally extends into public space. The piping system
used by commerce is exposed outside the building because of personal remodeling, while the safety of
the entrance to the buildings has also been reduced in the meantime. In addition, waste from
commercial activities is also a big problem.
Overall, these problems lead to a lack of open and green space. A greening rate of 15% and the per
capita green area of 0.48㎡ [Table 3] does not meet the current standards of over 1㎡ [Table 2].
4. Improvement Strategy Proposal
In view of the problems mentioned above, it is clear the main problem is parking. Random parking
has seriously encroached on the existing open and green space. To solve this problem we suggest to
distinguish parking space from other public spaces clearly by constructing 2nd floor space (Figure 7‐a)
A Study on the Improvement of Living Environment in Exterior Space of Jixiang
Housing Complex in Shenyang, China
200