Chinese Dijiao (Cellar) Courtyard

The Dijiao Courtyard, located in Pinglu County, Yuncheng Prefecture, Shanxi Province, China. It is a unique residence on a loess plateau. The courtyard was built below ground level, on average 10 meters deep. Dotted by trees, it remains warm in winter and cool in summer. The courtyard is seen as a legacy of history. There are still quite a lot of older people living in the courtyard.

There is a Chinese proverb to describe the characteristic of the cellar:

     There is no mountain when raise the mountain

     There is no courtyard when get into the courtyard

Smoke spiral from the ground

Suddenly you can hear the cockcrow

The reason why people built the Dijiao Courtyard was due to the height above the sea level is around 1000meters (where London is 12meters only) in Shanxi Province and has the strong sand storm years ago, as there is a short supply of stone block, people have to dig big holes from the ground to became an underground architecture and people still keeping in use today.

(Some of the cellar were more than a hundred meter square, but it also has small one which only occupied around 20 meter square.)

After a big hole dig from the ground, people needed to dig the "main room" and the other rooms they need.(Sizes and numbers of the rooms varied by the size of the cellar.) At the corner of the cellar, a long hole horizontally needed use as the pathway connect to the ground(entrance) and the courtyard.

Room which faced to the sun where people usually built at the center used for living, the other rooms on two side used for storage and private livestock. 

                        

                        

         

          

People used the main room for all the indoor activities, for example: cook, eat, sleep and receive visitors all in one room. Newspaper and fabric were use for prevent the dust from the wall. 

The reason why I researched about the Chinese Dijiao Courtyard was due this kind of architecture is undercover. It is hard to realize it from outside unless you already stand at the edge of the hole or drop into it accidentally. And this problem can protect people who live inside. With fill with full food storage, have all facilities for living etc.

Artificial Island/ Man-made Island

I personally think that artificial islands/islets would become one of the results if human have to live in a world with zombies. Even though we don’t have time to build one when we are going to escape, but we can build some before that day would come. Therefore, I did some research about the Man- made Islands and see how people performed in those islands.

Artificial Island:

• is an island that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means.
• They are created by expanding existing islets, construction on existing reefs, or amalgamating several natural islets into a bigger island. 

 In modern times artificial islands are usually formed by land reclamation.

The largest artificial island: Rene-Levasseur Island, was formed by flooding of two adjacent reservoirs. (resent developments have been made more in the manner of oil platforms).

Artificial island vary from different size:

        1.         small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar of building or structure.  

        2.         Support entire communities and cities.

Artificial islands are an expensive but in some cases incrative option for many cities having lack-of –land problems. E.g. Tokyo’s Odaona&Fukuoka’s island city project.

                         
                           Here, I studied the Hashima Island in Japan which it already has been abandoned now.

The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island’s most notable features are the abandoned and undisturbed concrete apartment buildings and the surrounding sea wall.

(Concrete walls used to protect the whole island from waves or any other damages from the ocean.)

They Built Japan’s first large concrete building(9 stories high), a block of apartments in 1916 to accommodate their burgeoning ranks of workers. Concrete was specifically used to protect against typhoon destruction. A society grew here during the 20^th century, with schools, kindergartens, shops, cinema, restaurants, hospital, hotel, temple and graveyard.

Block 65,where all people lived inside this large concrete building. (The Japan’s first large concrete building.)

         In 1959, the 6.3-hectare (16-acre) island’s population reached its peak of 5,259, with a population density of 835 people per hectare(83,500 people/km²) for the whole island, or 1,391 per hectare (139,100 people/km²) for the residential district. Here, people were cramped up on an area roughly a square meter and a half per person.

         The island closed down in 1974, today it is empty and bare, it is called Ghost Island. Travel to Hashima was re-opened on April 22, 2009 after 35 years of closure.

                                         Complex staircases connected to different floor levels.

     The staircase called “stairs to the hell”, it was the stairs connected to all the places you need to go, run through the whole island.

Link of the website of Hashimi Island: http://www.hashima-island.co.uk/#

Link of a person talked about his life in Hashimi Island before with his whole family: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okRUrxvngCc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Interest on the site: Greenwich Foot tunnel (good place to hide and use as a refugee)

A good place for hide and survive from the walkers should be undercover and also strong enough to protect the human inside. I think in this area, the Greenwich foot tunnel could be a suitable pre-built building for human to survive. It’s underneath the water (Zombies are afraid of water, they can’t swim!) and which is invisible from the outside; its inner area is very big; entrance/exit can be blocked but still have good ventilation; linking Greenwich in the south with the Isle of Dogs to the north.

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel crosses beneath the River Thames in East London, linking Greenwich (Royal Borough of Greenwich) in the south with the Isle of Dogs (London Borough of Tower Hamlets) to the north. The tunnel is currently open while refurbishment works continue on the entrance shafts and domes.

The entrance shafts at both ends lie beneath glazed domes, with lifts (installed in 1904, upgraded in 1992) and helical staircases allowing pedestrians to reach the sloping, tile-lined tunnel at the bottom. ----------- (Source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_foot_tunnel)

This image can explain how can people get into the tunnel from the lift in the middle of the domes and also can use the spiral staircases. 

The cast-iron tunnel itself is 1,215 feet (370.2 m) long and 50 feet (15.2 m) deep^[4] and has an internal diameter of about 9 feet (2.74 m). Its cast-iron rings are lined with concrete which has been surfaced with some 200,000 white glazed tiles. The northern end was damaged by bombs during the Second World War and the repairs included a thick steel and concrete inner lining that reduces the diameter substantially for a short distance.--------(Source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_foot_tunnel)

 

( The northern end was damaged by bombs during the Second World War and the repairs included a thick steel and concrete inner lining that reduces the diameter substantially for a short distance.)

 The Tunnel is classed as a public highway and therefore by law is kept open 24 hours a day. The tunnels are accessible by spiral staircases and large lifts 24 hours a day. The cyclists are required to dismount and push their bikes through the tunnel itself.
I've shot a short video showing how was the tunnel looks like inside:

The Greenwich foot tunnel also been used as a scene in the zombie movie <28 weeks later > where as a route for the protagonists escaped from the zombies and the bomb.

Escape transportation

To extract from the book <Zombie survival guide> by Max Brooks:

On page 118: "Boats, in almost any form, have been found to be the safest form of transport during an attack. As stated previously, although zombies do not use their lungs and can travel underwater, they lack the coordination to swim. Studies have show that over-water escapes have a survival ratio five times that of land."

(still from <28weeks later> showed that the leading road was the one and only person escaped from the house full of zombies was not only he can ran fast but also he used motor boat to escaped from the river)

This short sentence from the book has reminded me that if by water can provide human a safest way of survival, then why don't I not using it?
Therefore, I putted my attention on how can also design a thing which can also flow on water as well. I started to looked up the self-made survival boat by human in urgent when they facing the flood problem and I found so many interesting examples from China where the flood recently happened in Zhejiang Province.

When the cars and bikes were completed useless, you can use the cystosepiment which you dropped away when you bought your fridges or washing machines.(Keep these "useless" thing, they are so helpful!) And you also need a big plastic bucket to build up your "seat".

It should be perfect if you have bamboo sticks at home(I don't think I have). Assemble them together and a raft born! Or on the left side of the photo, you might have this inflated raft or swim ring at home. Anything which were inflated would be so helpful!

Or fortunately, you have empty big oil cans! It helped for increased the flotage and also you can use as them to stock your treasure inside!

Another huge form board on water. Just relax and flow...

If you have a babies, just lay them on their plastic bathtub. It should be so comfortable! 

Air chamber!

A huge bag of plastic bottles (If you have a loads or you found a loads of them in the recycle bins, use them!) and with a simple wood stick!

Wood board and several plastic big bottles.

I couldn't see anything expect a long bamboo stick and don't need to wear your trousers!

If you have a plenty of time and no need to afraid of any other things. You can also change your swimsuits and take out your inflatable air pillow and just focus on your games! But don't do that if it is in winter.

Thames barrier - 'high wall defence' from WWZ

Thames barrier is the second largest movable flood barriers in the world. Operational since 1982, its purpose is to prevent the floodplain of all but the easternmost boroughs of Greater London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. When needed, it is closed (raised) during high tide; at low tide it can be opened to enhance the river's flow towards the sea. 

London is vulnerable to flooding and from heavy tides closing in. A storm surge generated by low pressure in the Atlantic Ocean sometimes tracks eastwards past the north of Scotland and may then be driven into the shallow waters of the North Sea. The surge tide is funnelled down the North Sea which narrows towards theEnglish Channel and the Thames Estuary. If the storm surge coincides with a spring tide, dangerously high water levels can occur in the Thames Estuary. This situation combined with downstream flows in the Thames provides the triggers for flood defence operations.

Built across a 520-metre wide stretch of the river, the barrier divides the river into four 61-metre and two, approximately 30 metre navigable spans. There are also four smaller non-navigable channels between nine concrete piers and two abutments. The flood gates across the openings are circular segments in cross section, and they operate by rotating, raised to allow "underspill" to allow operators to control upstream levels and a complete 180 degree rotation for maintenance. 
All the gates are hollow and made of steel up to 40 millimetres (1.6 in) thick. The gates are filled with water when submerged and empty as they emerge from the river. The four large central gates are 20.1 metres (66 ft) high and weigh 3,700 tonnes.^[6] Four radial gates by the riverbanks, also about 30 metres (100 ft) wide, can be lowered. These gate openings, unlike the main six, are non-navigable.

Diagram explained how does the barrier work:

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This barrier also reminded me of the "high wall" has been built to protect the city resident from zombie's attaction in Israel from the film World War Z. However, it has been destroyed by host of zombie attacked all together at the same time: layer upon layer of zombie climb on to the wall and then crossed the wall to got inside the city. A whole city fall to zombie's occupation. The reason was people who inside the wall thought they all safe and celebrated all together used microphone.Zombie had been attraced by loud noices from out side the wall.

                                ALL THE SCREENSHOT FROM <WWZ>


Think back to the thames barriers which are protecting the whole city from flood by rasing the gates up. But what if one day, the flood could not be bear anymore? What if the maintenance work make a mistake? Actually, all the barriers/ defence seems so weak and horrible when their  opponent is the nature. We never know what will happend but we just try the best to do the defence job. And wish all of them can protect us from all kinds of disaster.

Plan images of wapping project

Plan images for the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station interior structure: