Resilient Community
1.Vinkhuizen First Impression
Location
Vinkhuizen is an isolated place from the other place. Only three roads are connecting to this area from the city centre. And when I take bus number 7 to enter this area from the station, the route passing Hoendiep which is an industrial area makes me feel I am entering a very desolate place.
Housing
The district consists of lots of small three-floor houses, and almost all the huge and high building complex stand around the edge of this area. Aside from some newly built house, the color of the house looks like sand color and their appearance are a little dirty.
Lots of houses have their curtain closed, and the backyards of the house are surrounded by the high and old wood fences with pity appearance. The fences make the road between backyards narrow and dangerous.
Public Area
When looking into this area, I have to say that it is a quite nice place for me. The house is well organized in several little blocks, and almost every block has an open square that served as a playground or green area. Lots of plants are placed around the road.
The equipment of the playground is made in a different style in every neighborhood, but their main material is mostly wood and some of the slides or small tunnels integrate with the environment.
There are also two or three big parks in the south area, but I didn't see anybody make use of these places except some people were walking their dogs, and there are several pieces of training equipment broken.
The shopping centre is the place that attracts most people in this area, it is a large complex with a big parking place. This place looks modern but there are not lots of green here. Some people meet here but some are just doing their shopping.
Finding
The first impression for me is to check out the interesting things in the area by myself. It is also important to go at different times or weather. I walked into the south area in the morning with cold weather, and I saw plenty of playground without kids. But the second time I cycled in the whole area in the afternoon with nice weather, and kids played around in almost all playgrounds.
There are some things I found interesting
1.Where is the place for youth?
2.What time does the playground be used?
3.The shopping centre is a multifunction place for local people.
4.It seems there are amounts of immigrans.
2.Vinkhuizen Research
Demographic
There are around 10930 people who live in Vinkhuizen.
6150 people live in Vinkhuizen Noord. 30% of residents are immigrants.
Age 0-15 :9.8% Age 15-25:29.2%
Age 25-45 :26.9% Age 45-65:17.2% Age over 65:16.4%
4780 people live in Vinkhuizen Zuid. 32.7% of residents are immigrants.
Age 0-15 :17% Age 15-25:13.7%
Age 25-45 :21.2% Age 45-65:24.2% Age over 65:24%
Housing type may be the reason cause the different percentage of the different age range.North area has several large flat buildings which can accommodate a large number of young people, and south area have more house with yards.
Around 30% of residents are not Dutch people is a point can think about.
Reference:
Social Infrastructure
I marked the formal social infrastructure in red, schools in blue, and informal social infrastructure in yellow.
From the map we can see most social infrastructure locate in south area.
Formal Social Infrastructure
Formal social infrastructures are the place be operated by the government or some organizations.Those infrastructures including schools provide space for residents to meet and also hold some activities.
MFC 't Vinkhuys is the most important community center in this area. It provides plenty of activities for local people and also works with some local organization to launch some meaningful project such as Slim life and All Vinkhuizen cook.
Backbone050 is a reuse of a former school and now served as a creative incubator. Within the property, there are various activities take place. It provides relatively cheap space for people to use. Also numerous organizations in the field of music, dance, design, and photography have worked in the building. Backbone050 Foundation ensures that these areas are available for these creative socially concerned individuals and organizations.
However, the appearance of the building is not good. It looks like an abandoned area, and also the location is almost on the edge of Vinkhuizen. Even if there are so many good things happening inside, it is hard to tell from the passengers outside.
Free skateboard park
A place for the skater with different kinds of equipment, and also I met a personal trainer couch. He uses this park as the training field for his student every Wednesday and Saturday.
Free cafe : Every Wednesday from 18:00~19:00
It's an organization they collect left food in the Vistmarkt and cook with volunteers. The dinner is served on the ground floor in backbone .
It is a good idea to not waste food, and also meet some people here. People who don't know each other sit at the same table. It helps people tome new friends.
Informal infrastructure
The shopping centre is the most important informal social infrastructure in this area. It is the only place people can do grocery shopping and all the shops and restaurants here in this area. I think it is also a information center to this area.
When the weather is bad people like to stay inside the hallway of AH, and also walk through it as a short cut. But still, there are some people stand near the entrance of the market to chat.
When the weather is good, there are four benches outside on the square. People sit on it to enjoy the sunshine or just stand outside to chat.
The free coffee area in AH is the most popular place, it even provides a nice table with 5-6 chair. Some elderly people sit there for a while to rest. Some people they do shopping together and sit there to chat and have a cup of coffee. It is quite interesting place for me, and I also tried to sit there to get some people to talk with.
Parks are also an informal social infrastructure. The small parks inside every neighborhood are the place for kids and their parents to meet, and they usually played around in the afternoon. The advantage of these kinds of places is their location. Parents can sit in their front yard to watch their kids. But for those who are not live around the small parks, it doesn't provide a proper seating area for adults, just a few stone bench.
And the big park has some equipment but it also lacks a sitting place
1.Some formal social infrastructure does provide actives for youth, and there are also some nice events. But does the resident recognize these kinds of information?
2.The best social place for this area may be the shopping centre, but it is only a place. There is no organizer to make the place better.
3.The planning of the park is kid-oriented, there are not enough places for adults or parents.
3.Vinkhuizen Meeting
Question formulation
Our group formulates questions together. The question focuses on their daily life and route, and also ask them the problem in this neighborhood. With the project development, we also try to tell them a little about our plan and add the question about if they want to join the community event.
1.How long have you been living here?
2.What moved you to live here? Where did you live before
3.How is life here?
4.Where do you visit often in Vinkhuizen
5.What is your daily route
6.What do you like about Vinkhuizen
7.When do you stay in the neighborhood?
8.How do you spend your weekends here? Stay here or go outside?
9.How is the social cohesion in the Vinkhuizen?
10.Do you talk to your neighbors?
11.Where do you go to meet people?
12.Do you feel safe here?
13.Have you ever had complaints about Vinkhuizen? ex: noise, dirty place
14.Do you rent your house? Do you want to live here forever
15.Do you want to spend time and money on your yard?
16.Have you ever had an idea about changing the neighborhood?
17.If there are some community event ,do you want to join?
Interview
I got two people to interview via e-mail. Both of them are female from China.
The first interviewer is Shilin Chen. She is a 28 years old master student studying in Hanze, and she just moved to Vinkhuizen with her boyfriend for two months. They live in a three-floor house with yards on Jadestraat which is just across the shopping centre. The reason why she moved here because of the cheaper price and bigger house. She thinks this place is quiet and safe at the night, and she wants to live hereafter. The biggest problem for her is she has to push out the garbage car outside every Wednesday at 6:00-8:00 AM. She's daily route is very simple: walking to the shopping center and biking to Zernike or the city centre. She hasn't had much interaction with her neighbors because she just moved in for a short time. She would like to spend money on her yard even though the house is rented but she doesn't have much time to do it. And she's willing to join the community event if she has time.
The second interviewer is Su Liu. She lives in a flat on Saffierstraat. She is also a master student studying in Hanze, and she lives here for six months. She likes the environment here with many green places. She has nice relation with her neighbors and talks wither sometimes. The daily route of Su is also simple: going to the supermarket and Zernike. She normally stays in her house on weekdays, but she likes to go outside on the weekend. She doesn't want to live here after because her room is too small, and she doesn't have spare money for yards. However, she's also willing to join the community event if she has time.
Two interviews are conducted in Chinese, so it is easier for us. They live in different types of houses, but they have the same destination:shopping centre, Zernike and the city centre. They don't see any serious problem in this area, and they also don't make use of any formal social infrastructure here.
Meeting
To gain more contact with local people, I choose the free coffee area in AH as my base. I sit there for around ten to twenty minutes, and there are two dutch guys, one old man and a man around 52 years old. The younger man talked to me first because he thinks I am from China, and then I start the conversation about Taiwan with him. I tried to ask for some basic information about him in the conversation. And the other guy who is a Maluken called Terry and a Turkish woman joined us after. They keep talking to me about his business. The 52 years guy and Terry know each other before, one of them lives in the flat on Goudlaan and the other lives in the west are a. They think the coffee place is the best part of Vinkhuizen, and they are proud to live here. They are like a really nice neighbor always said Hi to the people they know in the market, and share their story with strangers. In that afternoon we talked almost for one hour at that coffee table, and Terry even makes a appointment with Turkish women next time at the same place.
From the interview, I noticed a point that it is easy to talk more about what you like. When you asked them about the problem, their answer is always related to their own experience and private area. It is hard for most people to come up with a big environmental problem. Also sometimes to keep the conversation, you have to pretend to agree with their points, even if you don't agree with them.
Conclusion
The module helps me to gain different aspects of sight of Vinkhuizen. I think I am quite good at observing the environment, and also doing some analysis from the map and internet, but I am not good at talking to the stranger. So this is my first time making contact with the people in the design project.
For me, Vinkhuizen is not a bad place. It has some nice places here and also nice people. but I also have some ideas to make it better from my junior professional point of view. However, we have to achieve a balance between our ideas and people's opinions. And I think it is easier to make the good things better.
With this research, I can see the potential in some aspects. Depends on the situation and the similar example projects, we can choose the different scales for our project.
1.People from the different nation(ex: holding sharing events)
2.Make shopping centre a better place to meet and share their story(ex: add some functional furniture )
3.Add some easy-making seat inside the neighborhood
4.Improve the spatial relation between yards and center square
5.Spread the nice activity information to encourage resident to join them