Lowline is not “l(fā)ou”Investigation on the activity space on the municipal sewage pipe of Jialing River in Chongqing

YUE Yang, XU Teng, ZENG Yi

1 Lowline

“Lowline” in this paper refers to the activity space of the riverside road municipal sewage pipe in Shabin Road section of Jialing River in Chongqing, which is different from the general underground pipeline. This municipal sewage pipe is erected under Shabin Road of Jialing River and above the river-leveling zone of the riverside road. It is a 3m×3m section, 16km long, and multiple exposed sewage pipes. “Lou” is an Internet term that means low, redundant, and worthless. Lowline is often overlooked by researchers and designers and even regarded as an obstacle to urban daily life. However,in observation, it contains rich urban activities and is an indispensable part of urban space in Chongqing.

The development of the sewage pipes corresponding to Lowline is based on two historical backgrounds. The first is the construction of modern drainage pipes in Chongqing,which started in 1946, and then extended to all urban areas. secondly, since 1988,Chongqing municipality has started the construction of the riverside roads. The riverside road is not only an important part of the urban rapid road system, but also, together with the bridge, connects the riverside road zone with the upper half of Chongqing,which also makes it a dividing line of urban space. From 1988 to 1997, the riverside road of Yangtze river and The riverside road of Jialing River were completed, with a total length of 8.8km. From 1997 to the end of 2006, With the length of 46km, 8 The riverside roads were completed within the main urban area. against this background, the sewage pipe is covered under the riverside road in the city. Lowline passage came into being along with this urban development.

Lowline’s sewage pipe is different from the general urban infrastructure. It is exposed to the urban riverfront fluctuation zone. Due to the characteristics of Chongqing mountain city, the urban topography is varied, and the fluctuation of Jialing River is accompanied by the fluctuation of Jialing River. This has led to pipelines that sometimes run deep into the ground, sometimes over gullies. Lowline starts from the Huanghuayuan Bridge in Yuzhong District and ends at Lishuwan of Shapingba District. It winds for 16km from the riverside road area, intermittently, until it enters the urban construction space and is completely buried in the land. Lowline has a large space span, spanning 2 urban areas,6 light rail stations, 9 bridges. At the same time, the surrounding urban space also presents different characteristics, such as urban residential group, urban rail transit, urban business district, urban waterfront public space, etc. Its urban texture is also different, including large-scale urban clusters composed of office buildings and ancient town style areas composed of traditional residential houses. Its diverse urban functions also contain different activity space requirements.

Based on the functional consideration of sewage discharge, the main part of sewage discharge pipe is composed of reinforced concrete pipe with side length of 3m, the main pipe section is square, and the section of pipe in some sections is circular. The drainage pipes in this section are supported by concrete columns with diameters of 1-2m,and access ports and concrete stairs for maintenance are provided at intervals. Considering the stability of the pipeline, 0.5m of concrete inclined bracing will be set up near the cliff wall for structural reinforcement.These reinforced braces are often used as temporary “walkways” for maintenance.The square section of the sewage pipe makes a good platform for carrying people. It is for such reason that Lowline connects the space under the Shabin Road, and over time, produces a variety of activity Spaces.

2 Lowline Travels Through Space

At the beginning of the design, the sewage pipe of Lowline was not used as a road for traffic. However, due to its directional spatial layout, the urban space span is large,so the local residents take it as a passage through the urban space. This kind of situation has a certain universality, although the urban management department for the drainage pipeline with clear ban ordinance, in the vicinity have the warning signs, but can be found that compared with the motor vehicle oriented the riverside road, because Lowline ensures that their daily traffic is convenient,so they will continue to use the spontaneous formation. This use can be broadly divided into three types:

First, Lowline exists as a space between light rail stations. From Niujiaotuo light rail station to Liziba light rail station is an urban expressway with fast speed and weak mutual access on both sides. Both of these stations have large pedestrian flows, and in this case,Lowline serves as an alternative trail connecting the riverside road and light rail stations. Lowline bypasses city traffic and simply and directly addresses commuting needs,as opposed to the heavily expended riverside sidewalk.

Second, Lowline serves as a crossing space between communities. In this process,some spatial games were also played, and the administrators set up partition walls in some parts of Lowline to prevent residents from walking through Lowline. However,residents still try to break down this spatial isolation and even remove the walls. Linjiangjiayuan community and Jiayunshanshui community, located near the interchange of Huacun Bridge, are two residential areas.Between these two areas is Liziba vegeta-ble market. Residents use Lowline as the space to travel from the community to the vegetable market. Meanwhile, some residents grow vegetables along the riverbank.Lowline becomes an important connection space between the riverfront and the vegetable market. Third, Lowline serves as the crossing space of the city and riverside zone.With the help of Lowline and paved flagstones and stone steps, citizens can reach the riverside area more conveniently. Meanwhile, Lowline’s maintenance stairs are also used to solve the height difference. the riverfront zone under Shabin Road is fragmented and discontinuous. Lowline stitched up the broken riverfront zone and formed a perfect and coherent travel space.

Through Lowline, we can meet the travel space requirements of three different purposes: commuting, community connection and riverside channel. Lowline is used informally to make up for the lack of function of urban travel space.

3 Lowline Leisure Space

As well as being used as a walking space,Lowline also features a leisure space.Through observation, Lowline space, with the advent of the inhabitants of walking, for network anchor, the residents of the reading,the students of spring outing, they are not just for crossing, but also for entertainment.Because Lowline itself is in a relatively quiet environment, has very good hydrophilic characteristics at the same time, it becomes a veritable city walkway. Under the Niujiaotuo light rail station, there is a monolith standing in the middle of the river, because of its shape like black gauze cap, called “Shamao Stone”, the stone engraved with the text,“Mr. Dong’s dead place.” Stones have stood here since the Ming dynasty. The location of the stone is close to the river bank. With the change of water level, the stone and the river bank also present different spatial relations.Lowline passage forms a sheltered space just above the stone. Under the narrow and long sewage pipe space, the same width of 3m becomes a gray space with the meaning of “roof”. “Shamao Stone winter swimming team” is a group of winter swimming enthusiasts formed by the team, they do not divide winter and summer, every week in the vicinity of Shamao Stone swimming. This grey space gradually became the base of the winter swimming team. They transformed this area in three steps: firstly, the terrain was leveled, and local landfill and ramming were carried out to form platforms and trails;Secondly, a lot of second-hand furniture is recycled and arranged here as a public area with interior space significance. Finally,they use plants to enclose the space to a certain extent. At the same time, in such a small space, they divide the space into “smoking area” and “non-smoking area” with concrete columns of sewage pipes. However, in observation, they do not strictly follow the rules of using this space.

It is worth noting that due to the particularity of the activities of the winter swimming team, it has become a private place in the open space. Near the river beach weak management area, although Shamao stone belongs to the swimming area, their space through several ways of privacy protection,first of all, ingeniously use topography form of space changes, set the place, because of Lowline through the mountains and formed a gap between sewage pipe, sewage pipe after winter swimming team base cover in the cracks, it is only through cracks, just may find bases; Secondly, slogans are arranged in the space to prove the positive significance of winter swimming. The self-organized group has its own set of signals. With the team leader using long whistles as a signal,the team members below responded with short whistles.

At the intersection of Lowline passage to the Ciqikou area and Citong Road, located under the elevated road, there is a Sichuan opera troupe, which uses the parking space under the bridge to transform it into a Sichuan opera theater. Through the visit, we know several reasons why they choose this place as the theater. Firstly, compared with the ancient town of Ciqikou, which has a large flow of people, this place has a lower rent.Secondly, as the parking lot of a scenic area,it is the place where self-driving tourists and buses stop. Therefore, Sichuan opera troupe delimits its own space by renting parking spaces.

Because of its proximity to the river, it becomes a submerged area whenever the water rises. Accordingly, they choose relatively cheap material, even advertisement cloth to decorate the space. The interior space is bounded by a partition wall, forming the performance area and the backstage. The performance area consists of a relatively complete stage and auditorium,while the backstage is completely shared with the parking lot. This sharing of space also leads to flexibility of use, as the number of cars changes, so does the positions of the actors each time they make up. At noon, the backstage becomes a “canteen” for actors and audience to eat together. In the afternoon, the audience enters and the backstage becomes a busy “dressing room”. the audience of Sichuan opera troupe is mainly elderly people. Some elderly people even travel for hours to watch traditional opera performances here. It formed a relatively stable law of space use. There are three ways to reach the theater, one is the branch road of Ciqikou ancient town; One is the Donglin parking lot and the other is Lowline access.This space under the bridge has become a place with high utilization rate after Sichuan opera troupe has made some space renovation.

As a leisure space, users use Lowline space to carry out activities they are interested in.These activities often require low land value and accessible space. Lowline provides a good place for these activities. The flexibility and inclusiveness of Lowline space also allows leisure activities of different groups and interests to grow freely. Wild spaces are rougher and more direct, but effective. Lowline is like a container for nurturing activity,simple but vibrant.

4 Lowline Worship Space

The riverside road area, as a complete zone with few people, is relatively quiet. At the same time, there is no clear space boundary and no strict control. Therefore, many residents use it as a worship space. Generally speaking, worship objects are divided into two categories. One is the worship of gods and buddhas with a clear and specific “idol”and a relatively fixed place. The other is the random spatial distribution of deceased relatives.

Under the Niujiaotuo light rail station,there is a cliff statue with a small area. The statue is surrounded by narrow space and poor accessibility, and surrounded by plants,which is not easy to find. There are holes cut in the cliff wall during the construction of the timber building, which can be inferred that it was a timber building with space enclosure before. The original path has been abandoned, and the stilted buildings in this area have been demolished due to the modernization of the city. However,its location at the intersection of the slant support component of the drainage pipe and the cliff wall, a coincidence that reconnects the niche with the external space, through the slant support, to the stone steps at the bottom of the statue, establishing accessibility. Such small Buddha statues and shrines of small scale have become sections of worship space in the riverside road area.However, the space with Buddha statues as worship objects also has a certain degree of temporality. Although the Buddha statues themselves are rarely damaged, the urban governance on the riverside road area is also a threat to the Buddha statues.

There is a large place of worship near Lowline, located above the Shamao stone, and under the riverside through the middle of the trail. It is composed of a huge cliff and a relatively complete platform. The rivers ide road forms a space covering over the cliff.Formed by The riverside road, sparkling, and worship spaces on the type and the traditional temple main hall has a lot of similarities, the riverside road as the “roof”, with huge concrete columns as the colonnade, to prove that the number of figure of Buddha group as Buddha statue, on the space with a commemorative and religious significance.At the same time, the light through the cracks of the riverside road, put it in quiet,gentle atmosphere. Between the concrete columns is the track of line 2 of Chongqing’s light rail. If you take the light rail, you can see clusters of Buddha statues and residents worshiping. There are two paths to the place of worship, down the riverfront walkway or up Lowline. It’s not clear who placed the first Buddha, but over time a “religious space” of buddhas has formed in front of the cliff. At the time of the record, in June 2018,52 clay or wood statues were placed, and the number is growing. Nearby residents built and renovated the site, opening up incense stands and worship areas in front of the Buddha statues. They spontaneously built and consciously maintained the surrounding environment. The worshippers are not only the elderly residents in the surrounding areas, but also people of different ages and regions.

Lowline continues the accessibility of the original worship space. At the same time,it connects the worship space with random distribution in the riverside zones. These spaces are relatively complete and do not interfere with the crossing behavior, forming the characteristics of point-like distribution.Lowline provides soil for those who need something in the spiritual world and creates a place of free maintenance for those who maintain worship behavior, which is a common lack of space in modern cities. On this seemingly low-end infrastructure, cultural behaviors in modern space are continuously fermented and maintain the local folk cultural space in Chongqing to a certain extent.

5 The Habitat Space

By observation, there is spontaneous habitat formation around Lowline. They took advantage of the accessibility and concealment of Lowline passage itself, and built their own dwelling with the help of the shelter formed by the riverside road.

Between light rail station, there is a “residential stair”. Because of the riverside road and drainage pipe structure transition,there is a continuously stair which handles elevation difference. On the one hand, the stairs lasted through the characteristics of drainage pipe and created a hidden small space. The width of the stairs is nearly 1m and the height is 2m. In the interior of the stairs, a homeless man once lived. He used the notch in the broken part of the stairs as the entrance and lived in the stairs. Because there are pedestrians in Lowline, in order to avoid disturbance, he left marks and slogans on the concrete structure to indicate the privacy here. People who also use Lowline also question this behavior and even interact with him on the wall, rejecting this occupation of the public stairs. During the day it was deserted, and at night he slept in the space below the stairs. In this limit space, contained tremendous vitality and inclusive.

At the junction of Jiahua Bridge and Lowline, there is a larger dwelling space, a“boathouse”. In 2002, the two brothers built a steel boat, 5m wide and 24m long, in their spare time. During this period, small boats were licensed as catering vessels. Heavy rain in 2012, the water level rise rapidly, resulting in ships were rushed to the platform below the bridge, when water levels fall,ships can’t water again. Therefore, shipping management section license revoked the ships, municipal administration intervention at the same time, want to move the ship, but due to the heavy hull, the cost is high, so it is in a state of a default.

The two old people began to use the boathouse as a living place and to make spatial transformation. First, they removed the engine at the stern and built a boardwalk by using the stern as the entrance to the whole“house”. The space at the stern was used as a kitchen and a toilet was built on the right side. The main part of the ship becomes a living space, and the deck forms a platform with an open view of the Jialing River. When the ship was built, only half a floor was built in the upper space. The upper space was originally used as a “bridge” and the brothers converted it into a bedroom space after removing the steering wheel. For example,the aluminum alloy windows around the hull are from abandoned buses, and the wooden grilles are used in the suspended ceiling.They pull electric wires from the nearby Linjiangjiayuan community to ensure the electricity consumption of the boat house. At the same time, the electric fan is installed for summer use. After the hull interior renovation, they begin to build activity surrounding space, because the ship position in Lowline in the middle of the proximal, under the road formed a relatively open grey space, therefore, with the aid of Lowline, opened up the vacant land near the old man, as a vegetable,and poultry, received the stray dogs in the neighborhood. In the meantime, they built two smaller boats, one for fishing and one for raising pigs. From this point of view,of the three ships, only the smallest one is really used as a ship, and the other two ships are all used as space limiting tools and become the spatial control elements of their inhabitation. Through observation, a small ecological circulation system is formed here.The waste generated in daily life is used as fertilizer for vegetable fields, which are used by people and animals, and poultry is used for trading and eating in nearby vegetable markets. Such circulation is relatively independent of external space. In the end of Lowline, is a larger city abnormal plot, it is made up of three villages, forming a city’s space. In the Anti-Japanese War period, there was an area for the injured and reclamation of vegetable field, due to its rough terrain and the its combination with the drainage pipe, the land has not been considered as the area of urban development. Therefore, the residents have been kept the habit of planting vegetables in this area. Surrounded by the surrounding cities, people, sewage pipes,vegetable fields and clear water streams have achieved a symbiotic state.

Lowline habitat space, on the whole, there are two types, one is focusing on making a living in the city, people spontaneously create their shelter space. The other one is achieving their living dreams, just like the two brothers in their boathouse. Lowline for habitation is more like the land of freedom.

6 Conclusion

Lowline as infrastructure in the city, in Chongqing special geographic environment,shows a completely different way of using space. It is related to the spatial characteristics of Chongqing, because it is a kind of pipeline facilities. Most of the pipeline facilities are not involved in the city life,but Lowline in Chongqing. We can realize that the urban infrastructure is in an embarrassing situation, which has nothing to do with urban public activity space. On the one hand, due to different professional division of labor, architects and urban designers have no opportunities to participate in the process of infrastructure design and construction.Therefore, infrastructure is often only concerned with its basic functions, and it cannot improve urban environment. On the other hand, the activities of citizens in the city are diversified, and the demands for space are not the same.

Lowline gives us a new perspective on the fact that there are a lot of drainage systems,urban transportation systems, urban structures, and even abandoned urban buildings.If they can combine with specific urban activities, the possible problems in planning and design from the perspective of urban design can be solved. Lowline makes up for the lack of pedestrian space by connecting urban spaces, creating an environment where urban spatial behavior takes place.

By observing and recording Lowline, we need to think about how to make full use of these potential urban infrastructure and turn them into highlights and characteristics of urban space. Meanwhile, from the perspective of managers, how to correctly understand residents’ demands for the use of urban space, how to establish appropriate urban management mechanism and combine urban management and flexible use of space, Lowline has certain reference significance.