Talking about people's demand for living environment

- 2003 Urban Ecology First Internship Report
02 City Planning Liu Chang 00213113

Internship purpose, content:
Enhance students' understanding of the basic elements of the urban ecosystem and the relationship between urban people and the environment.

Internship line:
In front of the second floor of Beida Yifu - Library - Yannan Garden - Jingyuan - Tail Rock Fish - Peking University West Gate - Weixiu Garden - Changchun Garden - Changchun Garden Cultural and Sports Park - Wanquan River - Liulangzhuang - - Beijing Urban Green Belt - Jingmi Water Diversion Canal - South Gate of Yihe Garden - Kunming Lake South Bank - West Bank - Kunming Lake North Shore - Wanshou Mountain

internship period:
April 5, 2003

Internship "details":
We gathered in front of the second floor of the second floor of Peking University. During the waiting time for the teacher, I noticed what was planted in the flower bed with a big stone in front of the building. I still don’t know it. It’s just that everyone talks about it. Some people say that it is radish. Some people say that it is gray dish... It can be seen that it is not a kind of grass that should be planted in the flower bed in the ordinary concept, but it is very wild.
The second floor of Yifu is located on the inner side of the East Gate of Peking University. When the East Gate enters, there is a wide asphalt road directly inserted into the campus. On the steps in front of the library, the south side of the road is a group of science buildings. There is almost no transitional pedestrian road with the road. On the north side of the road, there is another science building group under construction. The construction site is surrounded by iron plates. The greening effect on both sides of the road is not good. There are only scattered trees and a small piece of grass in the middle of the science building. I don't feel close to the "green". The road in this campus gives me a feeling of rigidity and some insecurities.
The architectural style of the new building of the library is very strong. There is a transition of about 20 to 30 meters between the building and the road that runs north and south in front of it. It is designed with corridors and stone paths... and it is necessary to lay a neat lawn that needs maintenance. It is very neat and clean. I don't know if this large piece of space is also in order not to affect the atmosphere. However, it seems that the entire transitional area is only the only way for people to enter the library. At most, people will rush into the neat lawns and flowers in the large flower trays, and they will not be willing to walk or rest in them.
Going to Yannan Park, the teacher said that it was the Taoyuan in the campus of Peking University. When I entered it, I felt the elegance and quietness of the environment. The architectural style in Yannan Garden is the unity of differences. There are purely Beijing dwellings and some western-style two-story buildings... but almost every family has a piece of land behind the house. There are many kinds of plants, such as a leek, a few lines of flowers that can't be named, a set of vines... and more of a wild grass that is self-defeating, and the scale is considerable. Compared with the planting of plants, it is almost indispensable; the variety of weeds is more diverse, dandelion, iris, car front, leeks... some students count, on the ground of 1 square meter, probably can distinguish Out of 11 kinds of weeds. Many of the weeds do not grow in the same season and at the same time, so they can continue the greenery in the garden. There is no neat rule of the artificial turf, but the mess is natural and quite interesting, bringing rich and long-lasting green and natural beauty. The path between each unit is also very pleasant to go up, just mud and sand, plain and lovely.
There are birds nesting in the garden, there are gargles, and wild cats are always in the air. The people who walk there are rarely in a hurry. I think this kind of environment is what people like and fit. A middle-aged man who moved to Yannanyuan for eleven years said that he never thought of moving away. It was so quiet, and when answering our questions, he was waiting for more than a dozen pots of flowers outside the wall, and he looked safe.
Another 60-year-old professor said, “It’s summer, so many trees, grass, and summer are not hot at all.” He also said that his family’s appearance was basically maintained when he moved in 40 years ago. He doesn't think there is anything wrong with this. In addition, I also noticed the old professor's other words. He said that he likes it here, and because the elderly at home like to be quiet, the relative population density is small and there is more "private space."
I also met a white-haired old man who was said to have lived in Yannanyuan for 50 years. Her own behavior stopped and was as peaceful and peaceful as this garden. I wonder if she was affected by this garden, or she and her People like her influence the style of this garden.
It seems that Jingyuan, a lawn for people to rest, is indispensable in every university, so the place where I heard that it was originally an apple orchard became a quiet garden lawn. Grassland is a kind of specially selected species. It does not need manual maintenance. It is also a relatively resistant type of grass. It just doesn't know what it is for the choice of weeding. The visual effect is good. It just looks like a separation belt. Why do you have such isolation when you step on it and play on it? Jingyuan is "tolerant" and allows a lot of weeds to grow. Such a lawn is vivid to me and is psychologically willing to approach. On the lawn of Jingyuan, a few magnolias, sea otters, and pine trees were scattered. I abandoned the old apple trees. It was probably the ingenuity. I wanted to make some romance, but I felt a little artificial.

The weeds on the Jingyuan lawn are on the west side of the school with many ancient buildings. The environment is also well rectified. It is often seen that the nests on the trees are stacked, but the birds can create a more ecological environment for the buildings. The corrosion of buildings such as bird droppings can not be ignored, especially the maintenance of ancient buildings is even more difficult. This contradiction, but I do not know how to solve it.
Weixiuyuan and Changchunyuan are the residential areas of Peking University faculty and staff. There are lakes in the two parks, and the lake-like resting place is diffused by the lake. However, because of the housing demand, most of the buildings are buildings, and the population density is also compared. Big. A 57-year-old man who lived in Weixiuyuan said with a joke: "If there is something wrong with the environment here, it is dirty, chaotic, and poor." Although the management of the community did not lead to "dirty mess", The old man still said that he would not move. After all, there are mountains and waters. People’s demand for “landscapes” is evident. There is a central garden in Weixiuyuan, including a “Kang Paradise”. There are various kinds of fitness equipment and entertainment facilities. It is a fitness place for nearby residents. The good news is that the ground around the facilities suitable for children's play has been replaced by soft felt. Although it is slightly awkward in the concrete floor, it is a big improvement.
Changchun Garden is a Changchun Garden Cultural and Sports Park. The place is small. The main facilities are fitness facilities, divided into children's entertainment areas, disabled recreation areas and elderly fitness areas. Even the pebble is embedded in the ground. Many people are there to be active. The main part of the park is a slope. The turf does not need a whole lawn. Any weeds grow, but the trees are few.
On the way through the Wanquan River, I saw the only muddy muddy water in the river. This is due to the fact that the river bank has been completely separated from the surrounding natural environment. Without the exchange with the surrounding environment, the river's self-recovery ability is greatly reduced. Therefore, In the case of a large amount of sewage discharged, the river's water quality deteriorates and gradually leads to dryness. This river design is extremely undesirable in planning. The same is the Jingmi diversion canal outside the Summer Palace. Before 1998, it was a natural revetment. Now it has been built into a stone river bank. The consequences of whether there is a Wanquan River are unknown, but the fishermen on the riverside say that Fishing on the banks of the river is still somewhat inconvenient and uncomfortable. This probably reflects people's psychology more or less.
There is a large lawn in front of the Haidian Exhibition Hall. I don't know why it is necessary to design such a grassland, which requires manpower, material resources and financial resources to maintain. If you want to plant green on such a piece of land, it seems that you can plant it with ordinary tree species that are well tolerated. The only trees on the grass actually include Eucommia. The ridiculous thing is to prevent the bark of Eucommia ulmoides from being scraped. The lower part of the tree is surrounded by barbed wire, which affects the appearance. I don't know why it is a rare tree species of Eucommia, which adds trouble.
When I walked through Liulangzhuang, almost no one had a mood to observe it, and most of them hurried, and seemed to want to get out of this ruthless, dirty, messy place. This neighborhood was once a famous Jingxi rice area, but the construction department actually removed all the rice fields because of the water consumption in agriculture. As a result, the dust that was seen today was so dirty and dirty.
Nowadays, in the construction of green belts, we do not know the specific method of restoring vegetation. However, in fact, relying on the weeds that naturally grow from this harsh environment to restore vegetation, we have been able to meet the ecological requirements of greening. I also thought about seeing the walk on the west bank of the Summer Palace. There is a wetland on the embankment. Listening to the teacher, it is the white and the reed. The plants that grow on the waterfront are more important than the beauty. I have seen pipes that discharge sewage into Kunming Lake. These plants will undoubtedly help improve the self-recovery ability of water bodies. Constantly reducing the area of ​​the wetland, but have to use manpower to clean up and purify the lake, it is really a waste.
Kunming Lake, a wetland on the bank of the lake in Kunming, seems to be being trimmed. After the siege, there is very little water left on the west side. Unexpectedly, there are children playing on the shallow, not clear water bay. What people need is not only the Kunming Lake, which can see the lakes and mountains, but also the children who can let the fish swim and play, and the parents can rest assured.
Wanshou Mountain is a natural mountain. Now, the hillsides on both sides of the mountain road have been planted with artificial turf on the one side to reduce soil erosion. Although the other side still maintains the natural features, it is said that the artificial turf is also being planned. However, the fact is that artificial turf not only maintains soil and water functions better than the scaled slopes that were not built in ancient times, but also leads to a series of environmental problems, such as the accumulation of water between the turf and the ground, which eventually leads to landslides; Sexuality affects the growth of arborvitae in alkaline soils. Some of them may be problems that can only be manifested after many years. If you do not consider or do not see long-term benefits at all, you will only lift your own feet.

Think further:
The above is the whole internship process. Looking back, most of them think about problems from the perspective of "people", so I would like to talk about the thinking after the internship in terms of people's needs for the living environment. The discussion here is basically for urban residential areas.
First, let's take a look at some of the specific situations mentioned in the “Internship Details” above.
The architectural style of Yannan Garden is simple and has no sense of glitz, giving people a sense of beauty and belonging. Due to the small population density, few people come and go, the environment is quiet and comfortable. As mentioned above, there are many animals and plants in the garden, so that people who live in it can feel the natural atmosphere without leaving home. These advantages are reflected in the words of the residents in the garden, where the natural environment is the most important reason why they like to live here.
I look at the problems in Yannan Park. One of them is the lack of communication space. There are few public rest places in the park that are convenient for people to communicate. This naturally reduces people's communication. In other words, the needs of people's communication are not met in the garden. The buildings in the garden place too much emphasis on independence, while others ignore the integrity of the garden. Perhaps this is related to the status of the households in the park, but communication is a human nature. A specific group of people may have less communication. As a residential area design, communication space should not be ignored. The seemingly lack of communication between the park and the surrounding area mainly refers to spiritual exchanges. The outer wall of Yannan Park seems to be an absolute isolation. In the future, this kind of spatial isolation is not advisable, and the circle of human interaction is limited by the wall and shrinks invisibly. However, close to Peking University's "prosperous" place, in order to maintain a quiet, there seems to be no other way. As part of the campus, Yannan Park cannot fully reflect the various independent functions of the residential area. It should be integrated into the environment of the campus. From this point of view, the partition of the wall seems too abrupt and unpopular.
Second, an old man we interviewed told us that the place where there was a flower bed in the center of the park, the Cultural Revolution used to be a playground for the children to play, the meaning of the words is missing a valuable place to play, and It is a pity that there is more useless flower beds. It can be seen that people's needs for places for cultural and sports activities cannot be ignored. And such places are often a good place for people to communicate.
In comparison, the facilities of Weixiuyuan and Changchunyuan are better. In the Xiuxuan Garden, a “Kang Paradise” was built, as mentioned in the previous article; adjacent to it is a small garden for rest, green shades, benches, people can use fitness equipment when they are free, or they can sit on a bench and talk. ,rest. This design provides space for people to release their mood and other needs.
The Changchunyuan residential area has built a “Changchun Garden Cultural and Sports Park” in the immediate vicinity of it. The space is large, the facilities are large, and the space for the environmental design is also large. As mentioned above, fitness equipment for different groups of people reflects more of a kind of humanistic care, and it is also a kind of satisfaction for the psychological needs of people who are required to be valued and cared for. People will feel a meticulous care, living in such an environment, and the background environment brings joy to people.
From these examples and people's words, people's requirements for the living environment can be reflected.
What exactly do people need for their living environment?
Let me talk about people's needs first.
The hierarchy of needs proposed by Maslow, the founder of Western humanistic psychology, reveals this aspect: Maslow believes that the human needs system is divided into five levels, namely, physiological, safe, social, self-respecting needs, and Self-fulfilling needs.
The physiological needs are the most primitive and basic needs of people. They refer to the demand for food, water, oxygen, sex, excretion and rest. If such needs are not met, they are life-threatening and therefore the most intense demand. .
Security needs are a requirement that people demand to avoid various physical, social, psychological and other aspects of harm.
Social needs are people's desire to get the psychological needs of the people concerned, care, friendship, and love. In addition, people are eager to belong to themselves and become a member of the group.
The need for self-esteem is to hope that you have strength, achievements, ability to work, and demand independence and freedom; second, you hope that you can be respected and recognized by others.
The meaning of self-fulfilling needs is to hope to complete the work commensurate with their own abilities, fully express their personal feelings, thoughts, desires, interests, abilities, wills, etc., so that their potential ability can be fully exerted.
The different levels of demand of such people, although not necessarily reflected in the requirements of people's living environment, but most of them

Points are all to be considered.
Let's talk about people's needs for the living environment.
I think it has such a feature:
First, people's needs for the living environment cover different levels of psychological and physiological needs. Including both physiological needs, people require a variety of physiological needs mentioned above to have material guarantees, and hope to have a resting place...... It also includes psychological needs, such as people's demand for comfortable living; people want private space and public communication space; need to carry out cultural and recreational activities to achieve a happy mood, maintain health, etc.; people also need to fully contact nature Unleash your mood and slow down the pressures of city life. The previous points are the requirements for houses and related facilities in residential areas, which are relatively easy to achieve in planning and design. Finally, it seems that the quality of urban ecological environment is declining day by day. But precisely this is the embodiment of human nature. People need to be in contact with nature. Because the natural environment is tolerant, beautiful, and spiritual, it can best accommodate human beings, so that human beings can feel the greatest stretch and freedom.
Second, people's demand for living environment, the scope of the individual's living space gradually spread to a large area related to it. People not only have to ask for their own living conditions, because people's activities in the living area are not limited to their own houses. People need to carry out cultural and sports activities and need to communicate materially and spiritually with the surrounding people. This requires a larger context that includes places where people perform these activities. All of this also shows that people's living space has a large cross-use of public space in addition to private housing. So we discuss people's needs for the living environment. The venues that people need are not isolated, but need to be organically connected and in harmony with their environment. People's needs also include the environmental requirements of these places, as well as the requirements of these places as the background environment of people's small living environment. The above-mentioned physiological and psychological needs are required in every living environment level that arrives from a small one.
Planning and design is to find ways to meet people's needs for the living environment, to combine various needs as much as possible, to design a harmonious and meet the requirements of the living area.
To create a good living space for the city, specifically to build a physical infrastructure. This includes actively creating a safe and comfortable living environment for urban residents on the basis of protecting the natural environment. Improve the quality of the living environment through various means and create a more ecological and harmonious living environment. At the same time, it provides a hard environment with complete facilities and convenient transportation.
Secondly, on the basis of the material environment, people-oriented, fully consider people's psychological and spiritual needs. In the design, it shows a kind of tolerance, a kind of calm, a kind of human care, a peace of mind...
These thoughts are still very structured and need to be refined. However, since I think of it, I have to pay more attention in the future. Whether it is to examine a living area, a planning work, or to make a plan, considering the problem from the "human needs" is a thought worthy of attention.
Questions raised:
The whole thinking is idealistic, and if it involves the actual situation, there will be some problems.
Although people's needs can be unified from a wide range, there are great differences at different levels. How to meet the needs of different people, especially in areas with complex population and complex backgrounds, how to adapt to various needs. Think deeply.
The so-called residential areas are not isolated, and they must have links with the surrounding business districts, schools, and service industries. Judging from the current situation, if the contact with the downtown area is too close, it will inevitably damage the tranquility of the residential area; if it is relatively alienated, it will bring some inconvenience.
It is also an inevitable problem to say that planning and design should reflect an inclusive, calm and peaceful attitude. This seems to be somewhat different from the world wind. In this way, how to maintain this kind of peace in planning works is also acceptable.
Although we should try our best to maintain the original natural environment, when faced with a relatively harsh natural environment, it is inevitable to carry out large-scale artificial transformation, and the boundaries between transformation and maintenance are not easy to grasp. Moreover, sometimes for the design needs of aesthetics, it seems that there is also a need to transform the natural environment, although aesthetics is not the most important measure.
There are also some subtle issues that have already been mentioned in the previous "Internship Details".
Due to the tight time, I did not think more fully about these questions, and I will leave them to study and verify with questions.

postscript:
The internship was basically as expected, and observed and recorded along the way, asking the pedestrians and local residents on the road. There are only some places to go busy, there is not enough time to appreciate, feel and investigate, and perhaps the first time to conduct such an internship, there is almost no thought in the mind of the internship process, messy. Therefore, the record is basically "East one hoe, West one scorpion". Asking passers-by and local residents is also a problem that cannot be grasped. It seems to be somewhat disorderly and has no center. Fortunately, most of the people who are asked are very cooperative, very happy to answer our questions, and are willing to take the initiative to talk to ourselves about ourselves. The feelings bring a lot of space for us to find problems. People with different backgrounds and different living habits are unpredictable about the diversity and richness of their views and understandings. The realization of people's fading in the subtle influence of life is truly profound and true. Their words are given to me. Inspired, let me see from a single perspective the needs of people's living environment.

Also remember:
Today, I went to Yannan Garden and walked through it. I saw a piece of purple flower growing on the ground that was about to overflow. I smelled the fragrant aroma, heard no more than six or seven kinds of birds, and saw the seemingly inadvertent and very careful path. The cypress wall that is neat and harmonious with the surrounding world... Everything is so harmonious and natural, quietly embodies a natural beauty and a humanistic atmosphere. I suddenly found out that my own thinking is still superficial, and it is far from being practical. There is still a lot to understand about the blending of design and nature. I only learn and think about it as my long-term task.