Youtha International APT Community, Shanghai Homes, New Chinese Housing Building Complex, Architecture Design

Youtha International APT Community in Shanghai

5 Jan 2022

Interior: Lacime Architects

Location: Songjiang, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

Photos by Schran Images

Youtha International APT Community

In “Mass-produced Houses” of Towards A New Architecture, Le Corbusier proposed that “When it comes to housing, people will think of rich people’s villas, but in fact, there are many poor people’s humble rooms; I search for ways to one day allow poor people and all honest people to live in good houses.”

In the past decade, from “both housing purchase and renting” to encouraging the development of affordable rental housing, the government has given multi-dimensional support to the development of the housing rental industry. From development, leasing to operation and service, real estate development enterprises have been deeply involved in the housing rental industry and formed a set of increasingly mature development system.

The owner of the Youtha International APT Community project is Youtha of China Resource. As a service provider for urban living, it officially launched its rental housing layout in 2016. The Youtha· International APT. Community in Eastern Economic Development Zone is the product of responding to the call of the policy and is the second rental housing project in Shanghai with collective land incorporated into the market construction.

The project is adjacent to G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor Industrial Belt and located in the eastern park of National Songjiang Economic Development Zone. The area has a high degree of industrial agglomeration and a huge demand for accommodation of industrial population. The urgent demand promotes the emergence of the standardized, large-scale and high-quality new rental community. There are a total of 5 buildings in the residential area, among which buildings 1-4 are the rental residence, and building No. 5 is the supporting commercial area. The community can provide rental accommodation for more than 1,300 households, and the occupancy rate has reached 90% since it opened in April 2021.

Enclosure & Community
The layout of residential buildings around the central environment is similar to that of traditional Chinese buildings. In terms of urban planning, enclosed community is an effective means to establish tangible boundaries. Clear boundaries bring recognizable signs, creating a sense of community that makes people who live here want to stay and interact with each other.

Rental housing has requirements for sunshine conditions, that is, to ensure that more than 50% of the room types have a living space that can obtain no less than 1 hour of effective sunshine time of full window on Winter Solstice. Under the support of this planning policy, more and more rental housing projects have chosen the enclosed community form. Compared with the traditional model of row residence communities, the small enclosed amalgamated dwelling not only conforms to the design guidelines of the public rental housing, but also fits the market positioning of young users.

At present, the planning and construction of rental housing should meet the basic demands of the society and provide a new community pattern. Lacime Archtiects hopes that people who live here in the future will not only have a room to live in, but also experience a certain atmosphere and social relationship, and “community” is exactly where they come from.

Sharing & Dwelling
The concept of co-living space is a new living form emerging with the 020 revolution in major cities. The shared resources of the community basically cover the public physical space (e.g., living room, hall, yard, rooftop, etc.), public facilities (e.g., kitchen, sanitary fittings, recreational facilities, etc.), public life tools (such as furniture, kitchen utensils and appliances, maintenance tools, etc.), public cultural entertainment resources (such as various kinds of social gathering, reading clubs, salon sharing, film and television art show, concert, etc.).

In addition, people share life scenes and experiences, which promote mutual identification and form emotional bonds. The core of a community is the form of relationships that people form during their stay, not just the community itself.

Located at the main entrance on the south side of the community, the community service and commercial amenities are more like a vibrant core connecting the neighborhood. It can be combined with enclosed living volume and open community landscaping to create a comfortable community living room experience, and can also form a continuous open community environment with the commercial area on the ground floor. It can effectively build wider and stronger connections between people, thus realizing its function as an ideal social scene.

The ground floor inside the community is completely aerial construction. The open structure is integrated with the community landscape, leisure and fitness sites, forming a collection advantage of 1+1 > 2. In the post-epidemic era, more and more attention is paid to healthy living habits. The 1km long walkway through the whole community is integrated with the centralized green space, passing through the various centers of vitality. People can enjoy being in a park-like environment while participating in a variety of community activities.

The Creation of “A Space for One Person”
The community mainly targets young white-collar and blue-collar workers in the surrounding industrial park. The rental houses in this project are mainly one-bedroom and two-bedroom households, and the use area of the building is controlled at 20~40 square meters. The design challenge is to provide prefabricated, flexible and multifunctional spaces within an intensive standard unit.

Due to the consideration of cost control, the standard width size of the room is limited by the economical efficiency of underground garage parking. The module of 2,800mm was finally determined after several rounds of comparison and selection. In this way, the underground garage can adopt the 5,600mm economical small column grid, and the unimodular one-room flat and the double modulus two-room flat can also match the lighting and ventilation requirements of small area. The unified room modulus and the completely standardized door and window openings make the community achieve 100% prefabricated building structure units, which are efficient and environmentally friendly.

Small apartments are not spacious but can be fun. In the “a space for one person” model, a standard unit includes a U-shaped kitchen, separate bathroom, enclosed balcony, open living room, bedroom and variable cabinet. These can meet young people’s demand for a sense of ritual in life with high quality, and activities such as cooking, reading, partying and watching movies can be carried out in a comfortable way.

Facade Design with Controllable Cost
Most rental houses are operated by developers themselves, so the facade design needs to achieve high recognition and strong sense of identity under the premise of controllable cost. How to achieve high recognition under the condition of low cost and uniform modulus? The texture paint finishes with color composition becomes the first choice.

The design boldly uses contrasting colors of dark grey and white to reach a proportional relation between different levels and width, and the logic of color composition is used to create a modern facade effect.

The bay window, balcony, outer window, downspout, air-condition position and other functional components present rich decorative details in the facade. The rough texture of the paint brings users and observers a unique psychological feeling.

Conclusion
On November 23, 2021, in the 12th “Excellent Housing in Shanghai” selection project released by Shanghai Real Estate Industry Association, Youtha· International APT. Community (Eastern Economic Development Zone) of China Resources Land Limited won the “Planning and Architecture Award” and “Housing Industrialization Award”.

This is a rental housing design targeting for “Generation Z”. This generation is distinctive, experience-oriented and eager to be respected by the world. Lacime Architects hopes to minimize the “temporary feeling” of rental housing and make the 30-square-meter unit more “ceremonial”, so as to create a first home for young people in Shanghai and realize “ensuring universal access to housing”.

Youtha International APT Community in Shanghai, China – Building Information

Project name: Youtha· International APT. Community (Eastern Economic Development Zone), China Resources Land Limited
Project location: Songjiang, Shanghai
Project function: Rental housing
Floor area: 72,930.50 square meters

Project Client: Youtha Housing Rental (Shanghai) Co., Ltd
The client team: Jin Xiaoyun, Lu Honghui, Pan Shanshan, Tang Xiaoxiao, Zheng Kuangyi, Ji Cheng, Wu Renyuan, Ye Yulong, Liu Tao, Wen Guanghai, Liu Xiaoqing
Architectural design: Lacime Architects
Chief architect: SONG Zhaoqing
Design team: Wei Wenyuan, Shan You, Zhang Tao, Fang Menghan
Construction drawing design: Shanghai Zhong Sen Architectural and Engineering Design Consultant Co., Ltd. (ZSA)
Interior design: Matrix Design, Shanghai Li Jun Design Consulting Co., Ltd
Landscape design: Shanghai Lanjing Landscape Design Consulting Co., Ltd

Time of design: 2018.12
Time of completion: 2021.04

Youtha International APT Community, Shanghai images / information received 050122

Location: Songjiang, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

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