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Better living environment with higher expectations in the future
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When I first came to Jiading, the tallest building in the district was the Fahua Pagoda which was only just over 40 meters. The residential structures were mostly bungalows, scattered among agricultural fields. There was no overall urbanization in the region.
The process only began in 1979, when construction of residential buildings was listed as a national campaign to improve infrastructure.
Before that, the average living space per person was less than 8 square meters. Even long after the campaign, the residents needed to rely on the unit they worked at to distribute housing resources after the buildings were finished.
There was a friend of mine who got a 12-square-meter apartment, and the facility had to be multifunctional — there was one room only. When the sofa was pulled out, it would serve as a bed.
The kitchen was a public one. When it was cooking time, the woks and bowls would be all playing a symphony. Yet the most inconvenient time was in the morning when everyone stood in line to use the sink, freshening up for the day. They might sometimes wait for more than half an hour.
In 1982, the district issued an overall layout further dividing the functional zones based on local geographical traits and cultural relics. The area circled within the main riverway was designated as the living area while the land outside the circle became an industrial zone.
The riversides were also planted with trees to make greenbelts.
I was most impressed with the construction work of Taiyuan New Village, a city-level residential pilot project I was engaged with.
We broke free from the traditional design and gave the buildings a Spanish-style façade. Ribbons, pagodas and butterflies were some of the patterns we used to give the community a vivid look.
What’s more, we realized the idea of a “living room” in these apartments, when it was still a rare thing in Shanghai. We promoted bigger living rooms and smaller bedrooms in the design and restructured people’s activity space in the domestic environment.
Between 1979 and 1987, Jiading had about 1 million square meters more of multi-storey residential buildings while since the early 1990s the district made advanced moves to promote development of a general zone and support facilities and service improvements. By 2000, a modern Jiading was already taking shape.
Also around that time, commercial housing began to sprout, and the era of housing distribution came to an end. It brought faster and better housing upgrades.
It is now a common sight in Jiading to see houses with proper greening, security and sports facilities. There are also multiple channels for housing provision, and renting is also an option now.
Dilapidated houses are being phased out in Jiading, and people have higher expectations for their living environment. More community forms such as rural complexes have been introduced, but retaining the original cultural landscape as well as revitalizing the city is also highlighted in the process.
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