Seam

Due to complex land ownership issues, a dispersed resident base, and varying levels of willingness to participate in renewal, urban renewal projects involving these numerous existing older apartment buildings are difficult to implement and extremely costly.

This design adopts a bottom-up approach of “micro-renewal” rather than a top-down approach of complete demolition. Through “micro-extensions,” it extends the lifespan of the old apartment buildings, addresses functional deficiencies in the existing structures, and creates shared spaces for interaction between fire lanes.

This transforms the “negative space”—which has long since lost its function in disaster response—back into space that benefits the city. This system turns fire lanes into new functional carriers, compensating for the spatial deficiencies of the old apartment buildings while keeping costs low.