Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum (2005) | Amateur Architecture Studio

After spending our morning in the Ningbo Historic Museum, we visited the Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum by Wang Shu 王澍 [Amateur Architecture Studio], the Waitan riverfront district and the Tianyi City Plaza. These last two large scale urban developments are designed by Ma Qingyun [MADA s.p.a.m.].

The Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum was built in 2005 and located at the former “Bund” in Ningbo. The first objective of the project was to preserve the existing structure on the site, so to protect it as a legacy of the 1980s architecture. But faced with the fact that the building had been seriously destroyed during past attempt for reconstruction, the architects decided to demolish the whole building, except a beacon tower. They explain the intention underlying design in the project description as following:

The final construction plan contains multiple design clues. Firstly it reduplicated the relationship between the port and the ship by a high platform and the building form. Two jetties are situated roughly at the place of the former air landing bridges. Secondly it reduplicated the relationship between the local traditional courtyard and the building. From the street the main access into the museum is through a higher platform. There’s no magnificent square or broad steps, which has become the most controversial part in the design. Nevertheless, the desire of the designer is to rebuild a Chinese ceremonial space.

Tianyi City Plaza | MADA s.p.a.m.

After our meeting we explored a bit of Ningbo. On a foggy and rainy Sunday afternoon, our view on the city was limited as we walked from one MADA s.p.a.m.-project to another. Our first stop was the rehabilitation of the Waitan riverfront district of Ningbo, our second the Tianyi City Plaza in the heart of the city. Both projects deal with the issue of large-scale urban redevelopment, an issue Ma Qingyun (principal of MADA s.p.a.m.) explained in an interview in 2006 (Architect in China, published in Volume#8, Ubiquitous China, 2006) as following:

As we are designing these big master plans and urban projects, I use them as a reality check in which I trace certain ideas from a small project which in turn get bigger and bigger and find their way into a city-scheme.

In an upcoming post we will provide some more background and images to MADA s.p.a.m.’s Tianyi City Plaza project.

Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum (2005) | Amateur Architecture Studio

Waitan riverfront district | MADA s.p.a.m.

Tianyi City Plaza | MADA s.p.a.m.

Pictures by Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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Ningbo | architecture snapshots

During the day the professor and Head of Architecture department of the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou [campus photography by Iwan Baan], brought us along some of his new architectures, while our conversation ranged from the absurdities and realities of the construction process in China, his concern for the ‘common life’ and his ambition to be a local architect. A full background feature should be available in MARK in a couple of weeks.

For now - the architectural scoop of the year - the first pictures of Amateur Architecture Studio’s Ningbo Historic Museum.

Pictures by Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

Amateur Architecture Studio | WANG Shu+ LU Wenyu

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Ningbo Historic Museum | Wang Shu

From Shanghai South Bus Station to Ningbo | December 27

Ferris wheel | Shanghai Jinjiang Amusement Park

Ningbo South Bus Station | December 27

Ningbo by night | Jin Di Shui An compound 17th floor view

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Shanghai >> Ningbo

A 3D maze of highways intersections, subway lines and pedestrian passages made us meander through an urban constellation too often referred to as one of the Blade Runner kind. For us, it would be better to take this urban situation serious and not try to retro-actively legitimate through movie references. Using movies as a point of reference is in essence not bad, but it would be wiser to see Shanghai as something more than the wet dreams of Fritz Lang or Ridley Scott. We are more than a quarter of a century past Blade Runner, eighty years beyond Metropolis and this is what we have, what we see, what we walk trough and get lost in.

A couple of snapshots.

View from City Hotel Shanghai | Shanghai

Area around Yan'an Xi Lu Subway Station | Shanghai

Area around crossing of Yan'an Xi Lu and Jiangsu Lu | Shanghai

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Shanghai | urban snapshots III

Western edge of the Old French Concession | Shanghai

Urban park inside triangle of Hengshan Lu, Wanping Lu and Zhojiabang Lu | Shanghai

Hypermalls, offices and highways, Xujiahui subway station | Shanghai

Housing blocks along Xietu Lu and Yueyang Lu | Shanghai

South Western edge of the Old French Concession | Shanghai

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Shanghai | urban snapshots II

Shanghai | December 24, 2008

On December 24, MovingCities landed in Shanghai. Less than 500 days prior to the opening of the 2010 World Expo, the city’s ambitions can be seen everywhere. The featured theme of the expo  ‘Better City – Better Life’  is today spread out seemingly evenly over the Shanghainese metropolitan territory. Similar to the way the 2008 Olympic Games ‘One World, One Dream’ theme, transformed Beijing for a couple of years into a self-referential city, one can’t escape the dream of Shanghai, which could be said to be ‘One City, One Life’. If we need to believe the writings on the billboards flanking the elevated highways, the advertisements on shopfronts and the publications accidentally found in bars, hotel lobbies and airport newspaper stands, 2010 is already here.

The short drive from the airport to the French concession, was one through a multi-layered city forest of office, housing and hotel towers. Upon our arrival a grey, waterish and foggy cloud hung everywhere, making our morning journey a hazy urban experience. In the afternoon, as the clouds disappeared, we went for a stroll and did an accidental first scan of the metropolis from on top of a hotel tower located on Huaihai Zhong Lu. The Qihua Tower is a rather anonymous high-building located in the heart of the French concession and besides the stunning view is home to nine foreign consulates.

A couple of snapshots from our first day.

Drive from Shanghai Hongqiao airport | December 24, 2008

View from Qihua Tower, Shanghai | December 24, 2008

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Shanghai | urban snapshots I

Mountain Resort | Chengde

Wednesday December 17. Last day of the Creative China, Harmonious World Forum. The morning consisted out of a visit to the Xumifushou Temple (Temple of Sumeru Happiness and Longevity) and the Mountain Resort, the afternoon of a four hour drive back to the capital.

Copied from the Tashilunpo Monastery in Shigatse where the Sixth Panchen Lama lived, the Xumifushou Temple was built in the 45th year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign (1780) as a temporary residence. Today it is one of the highlights of a booming tourist industry, part of the agenda of the development of the Cultural Industries. While outside of its walls the city is sprawling in a rather numb way over the hills and along the riverbanks, the temple tries to remains an oasis of rest and architectural wonders. After visiting the temple we drove to the Mountain Resort, the Qing dynasty’s summer palace, which was built between 1703 and 1792.

After lunch we drove back to Beijing, basically the reverse trajectory of our Beijing - Chengde trip of three days earlier.

A couple of snapshots from our last day in Chengde.

Xumifushou Temple | Chengde

Mountain Resort | Chengde

Chengde />> Beijing | December 17, 2008

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Chengde >> Beijing

A couple of snapshots from our afternoon walk.

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Chengde | urban snapshots II

As part of the 3rd Creative China, Harmonious World International Forum on Cultural Industries (Chengde, December 14-17, 2008) MovingCities gave two presentations. The forum brought together domestic and foreign researchers, academics and policy makers in the field of the Cultural Industries. Last Monday, December 15, the morning consisted out of an opening ceremony followed by keynote speeches and comments of scholars and policy makers, such as Tu Mingde [Vice Chairman of Chinese Olympic Committee], Yang Muzhi 杨牧之 [President China Publishing Group], Dr. Michael Keane [Queensland University of Technology] and Simon Evans [Director Creative Clusters].

Dr. Michael Keane | Queensland University of Technology

Simon Evans | Creative Clusters

Yang Muzhi 杨牧之 | President China Publishing Group

During the afternoon session, the Forum discussed the development of the Cultural Industries in three different panels: 1. Cultural Tourism Industries, 2. Capital and Cultural Industries, and 3. Regional Development and Cultural Industries. Bert de Muynck talked in the second panel about the Cultural Industries as a part of the urban program in the development of the Chinese city, taking the ORDOS100 and the ‘Ordos Cultural Creative Industry Park’ as a case study. While Mónica Carriço held a talk on the third panel touching upon the developments of last year’s Organized Networks Beijing - Mobile Research Laboratory, and our involvement [together with Dr. Ned Rossiter] as guest editors of the upcoming issue #33 of Urban China Magazine - ‘Creative China: Counter-Mapping the Creative Industries’. Other speakers on the forum included Filip Noubel [China Director for the International Center for Communication Development], ‘Arthur’ Xia  Zhongqun 夏忠群 [Research Center of Cultural Industries - Communication University of China] and Professor Zhang Shuting 张树庭 [Director Business Brand Institute].

Opening ceremony 'Creative China, Harmonious World' | Chengde, December 15

Other activities in the Forum included a projects exhibition and trade, dialogues between cultural experts and officials about cultural industries and the Launch of ‘China Cultural Industries Cluster Alliance’. Seeing the amount of press and camera’s this Forum attracted, it was clear that the media was the measurement of success. On Tuesday December 16, the Forum continued with ‘The Power of Cultural Industry’, a dialogue between cultural industry experts and directors of the publicity department form different provinces and cities - in China, the publicity department is always in charge of cultural industries. In the afternoon, the Forum came to a conclusion with an ‘Academy Awards of Cultural Industries’ ceremony for best Cultural projects in the Chinese cities and culture.

Academy Awards of Cultural Industries | Chengde, December 16

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Creative China, Harmonious World | forum

View from SiHai International Hotel | Chengde, December 16

Chengde typically showcases the impact of modernization on the Chinese city. This has led to an urban condition that has almost no particular architectural quality, feels intensely urban and is under the spell of beautification efforts - at least along the riverbanks in the inner city. Currently the city seems to be in-between developments.

Since 1994, when the Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples became part of the UNESCO World Heritage List, the city has put a focus on preservation and realized it’s enormous touristic asset with the imperial garden. But just outside of the 10 kilometer-long garden wall the city is pushing and pressuring the boundaries, growing and renewing itself in all sizes, volumes and architectures. While the asset of being a tourist spot is to be unique, the build environment outside the touristic territory feels charmingly random.

Chengde’s urban layout is marked by its river banks and a hilly topography. A series of large demolished sites are scattered throughout the city. Its streets advertise ‘middle of the road’ architectural projects (soon to be build!) and at the same time one sees that the architecture of the second wave of development, most likely build twenty years ago, is in need for an upgrade. The sites of the first wave of development are now vast empty territories. These are the former locations of the fifties Russian-style housing developments that once moved this city from a hang-out spot for the Chinese Emperors to a work-out spot for the Chinese people.

A couple of snapshots from our morning walk.

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Chengde | urban snapshots I

During a 3-hour voyage we drove through the city’s outskirts and landscapes dotted with low rise villages and French castles. We drove over frozen rivers and through tunnels, to finally arrive in Chengde around dusk. A couple of snapshots along the road.

Beijing Central Business District | December 14

Castles and cities under construction | December 14

Post-traditional road architecture | December 14

Driving into Chengde | December 14

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

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Beijing >> Chengde

Line 13 Superlinearity Workshop | Segments key | May, 2008

On Tuesday, December 9, we continued on our scanning of the peri-urban urban condition around Beijing’s Line13. Accompanied by Dutch graphical designer Gabrielle Marks and Canadian architect/movie-maker Derrick Wang, we walked the area around Wangjingxi and from Beiyuan to Lishuiqiao subway station (segment 4).

The Wangjingxi subway station, located on the Eastern side of Line13, has over the past months shown a clear form of urban status quo - the road widening projects are almost finished, construction workers are putting the facades on apartment building and the recycling villages in between construction sites have become parking lots - and today it looks like its middle class ambitions are becoming a reality. This area, a couple of years still an edge location, is from an urban design point of view totally indistinct. It could be anywhere and everywhere, a district lost in between highways.

At the other hand, Beiyuan subway station, located on the northern section of Line13, is still at forefront of Beijing’s urban development. In a couple of months’ time this area changed from hosting a theme park, dog training center and village into being a desert. Today, the first signs of transformation can be seen. Construction cranes arrived, migrant workers are wielding and pouring concrete, dormitories have been erected and a cloud of dust hangs over in this desert of bricks and rubble. Some snapshots.

Area around Wangjingxi subway station | Beijing, December 9

Walk from Beiyuan to Lishuiqiao subway station | Beijing, December 9

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Looping Line13 | snapshots

CCTV | Beijing, December 7, 2008

China is frenetically searching for a CCTV nickname. Mocking monuments, a form of architectural appropriation, is common to the Chinese construction culture, but the most recent invention - referring to CCTV as the “Big Underpants’ Building” - has caused a stir and a laugh on several websites. Other names in the running are Harmonious Gate, Happy Geometry, Peak of the Ages, New Angle, TV Magic Cube, TV Rubik’s Cube or Future Window.

While the foreign press has attempted to describe the buildings’ form - at once as a massive contortionist, an elephant on a wire or a giant Mobius strip of a skyscraper - it seems that to its architect not a single description would do justice to the complex identity of the building. In an interview with Der Spiegel, Rem Koolhaas/OMA explained this as follows:

Take the CCTV complex, for example. Now that it’s almost complete, the way it functions becomes clear. It looks different from every angle, no matter where you stand. Foreground and background are constantly shifting. We didn’t create a single identity, but 400 identities. That was what we wanted: To create ambiguity and complexity, so as to escape the constraints of the explicit.

So how to call it now? A Mobius Monument with a Multiple Identity Disorder? The Icon of Unstable Identities?

On Sunday December 7, MovingCities went capturing some of CCTV’s identities from different heights, angles, perspectives and distances. We thought about the point we made a couple of years’ ago that “Koolhaas’s intervention in China is CCTV, a formalist–functionalist architecture, not phallic but vaginal, one that contributes both to the modernization of communist culture and to the definition of architecture.” In the mean time we snapshotted CCTV in over 400 pictures and made a selection.

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

Further Reading

“The end of the skyscraper as we know it: from CCG to CCTV” | Archis #05, 2004
Residual vs Icon | Polarinertia Feb, 2008

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Mocking the Monument | CCTV snapshots

Central Academy of Fine Arts (Hangzhou) | Image courtesy of Amateur Architecture Studio

Following up on part one of the interview with Professor Peter G. Rowe, the second half is directed towards understanding the mechanisms of the urban development that stem out of the Asian expanding metropolitan environment. Thereby questioning the notion of east-west and import-export relations in the field of architecture and urbanism, Peter Rowe reflects upon the urban development of Shanghai, emerging new forms of engagement amongst Chinese architects with the city, and the importance of “the temporal dimension” and how this would affect our practices.

Shenzhen, January 2008

Stirring away the debate from a blind fascination with hypermodernism and/or hyperhistory when confronted with the development of the Chinese City, Peter Rowe sees a future in continuing and adapting some of the urban and architectural evolutions set in motion throughout the long development of China and it cities. Or as he states:

I don’t see anything wrong in going back to certain parts of Beijing or Shanghai and doing modern interpretations. In my view there are three alternatives: one is that you totally preserve, brick by brick, the structure and change its use, the other is that you apply a conservation strategy keeping an evolving culture more or less in place, or thirdly it is replaced by something which is a reinterpretation of many spatial principles, but not necessarily with the exact appearance.

The full interview by Dan Handel is now online:
“The Chinese City in the East Asian Context” | An interview with Professor Peter Rowe

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Peter Rowe | interview part II

Shanghai, November 2006

In his second dispatch, architect Dan Handel interviews Professor Peter G. Rowe.
By providing insight into his study of the contemporary city in the Asian context Professor Rowe reflects on today’s development of research, understanding, communication and analysis of the metropolitan environment. The interview took place in Professor Rowe’s office at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, on the 29th of October.

Professor Peter Rowe | FUIUF Conference | Shanghai, November 2006

In the first part of the interview (below) Dan Handel asks Peter Rowe about his attitude towards the use and relevance of statistics in urban research and how this potentially distorts our perception of metropolitan reality. Rowe then explains the position of the “Chinese City” within the larger East Asian urban development, illustrates some of its characteristics while breaking away from some popular notions on it.

Part two (in upcoming post) is directed towards understanding the mechanisms, and their value, of urban development that stem out of the Asian expanding metropolitan environment, thereby questioning the notion of east-west and import-export relations in the field of architecture and urbanism. He reflects upon the urban development of Shanghai, an emerging new form of engagement amongst Chinese architects with the city, the importance of “the temporal dimension” and how this would affect our practice. Or as Professor Rowe states:

Given that architecture lasts for a long time and takes quite a while to develop, and that we are talking about urban dynamics which are by definition temporal, we would definitely have to explore some techniques to describe that. I think there’s a very rich future for that kind of engagement.

Jakarta, October 2008

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Dan Handel: During the past years, the 50/50 urban rural divide became a dogma tic part of the global and local agenda’s of urban policy makers, researches and exhibition designers. This has lead to a situation where the contemporary city is made comprehensible through a suffocating strategy of visualizing data and organizing quotes, mixed with ‘the stereotypical image of the megacity’, one fusing the formal with the informal, the destruction with the construction. The growth of the city and analysis of the contemporary city has been an important aspect of your work and started in times before this explosion. What is your opinion on the use of data as means to represent cities, and even generate planning? Do you think it’s useful? Is it being overused in urban research?

Peter Rowe: I believe that when you are presenting data about cities, it has to be organized and communicated into the framework of a coherent story. I mean, we talk about lies, damn lies or statistics right? You can find an overload of statistics and references, from multiple points on the subject you are dealing with. To me the question is how to organize statistical information in a manner that sheds light on some broader urban concepts and/or stories. In that regard, I think it can be quite powerful. It is true that in the architectural realm of thinking this method has lately been used more frequently. Talking about this as an explosion is probably true, as we see a rising amount of these type of references used in work, but we must acknowledge that the empirical and numerical studies of cities have been around for a very long time. If we look at other disciplinary areas in planning it is very well developed. In my own work, I try to not to indulge in it, but to use it in the benefit of making points or describing differences in magnitude. To me it is important to connect these with a broader conceptual understanding of the ways by which cities are moving forward and not as simply a crutch to lean on.

DH: So in a way it should be used to support a narrative?

PR: Yes. Sometimes when I’m doing work I come across series of numbers and data and say “wait a minute, I am wrong” (laughs). Empirical information can be a sobering device in a research project. Often you go along with some preconceived notion about the way things work and then come upon some data that seem to point in the opposite direction. There is an interesting process of rethinking involved in that. One of my favorite examples of this, is the huge claim that Chinese cities are enormous on scales of magnitude larger than anywhere else in the world and its growing tremendously rapidly. But when you actually go through the data we have and analyze it, neither of these two claims hold any particularly truth. Indeed the growth rates have been high, but they are not unprecedented, if you consider the migrations in Italy or the reshuffling in the US, during the post WW2 period on a normalized basis. What is unusual about China is that the period of growth is longer. The numbers don’t suggest it is unprecedented in any way except in sheer magnitude. Which makes sense in a nation of 1.3 billion people.

Shenyang, July 2006

DH: How do you position the development of “the Chinese City” within the larger context of an urbanizing East Asian context? Should we see it as an exception, latecomer or follower?

PR: It seems to me that the East Asian cities have conformed themselves to a certain level of generality regarding some of the notions we have about urban development processes. First of all, people leave the countryside, go into factories and cities, where industrial production is gradually being replaced by service industry, and the formation of cities occur as a part of that. The ways in which this is being done - in terms of the various tactics being used in order to boost economic development and the resulting urbanization - seem to conform to a general discourse about development in emerging countries. All cities in East Asia conform fairly well to this model. That said, one distinguishing feature that these cities share - not necessarily in contrast with other places in the world, but definitely unlike the US - is that the majority of this development occurred in nations where fairly authoritarian regimes are in power. It is usually a strong, top down, model which exists in East Asia that leads to a double scenario. On the one hand, during times of rapid growth, and in order to sustain that growth, you have to put plans and strategies rapidly in place, resulting in a wide adoption of internationally available concepts for shaping the city, which have the tendency to make urban environments somewhat more homogeneous. On the other hand, in most of these East Asian circumstances, there is also a strong cultural and historical underlay in the cities that gets mixed in.

Lately, as some of the developments in these areas calmed down a bit, people are beginning to look around and are taking care of some of the problems resulting from this first round of urban development. Examples can be found in the amelioration of space based on issues of identity and historical awareness. Suddenly they are concerned about the environment and their amenities, so then it becomes referential back to the place itself. Of course, in a detailed examination every city is different…

Shanghai, November 2006

DH: But would you say Chinese cities are not different in that context?

PR: In that regard, I think you might also ask what about the differences between northern and southern China? I know China well enough to know that city formation, history and so forth vary across its territory. While some cities, like Beijing, developed very much along the lines of canonical forms of the classical imperial city, other cities, like Shanghai, never were of that status. One answer to your question stems from the level you are looking at it: East vs. west, Japan vs. China, and in what flavor: is it about pure morphology, building type and so forth. The Chinese city can be analyzed from different perspectives, from something quite similar to what we know in the West up to something that is absolutely unique. My own point of view is that when you look at the middle level, there are probably enough distinguishing features suggesting outcomes that are East Asian in their complexion but not necessarily Chinese. But of course there are numerous exceptions to that.

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Prof. Peter G. Rowe interviewed by Dan Handel (to be continued)

Pictures by MovingCities

Dan Handel. Architect, research coordinator at City/State Unit, Bezalel Academy of Art and Architecture, Jerusalem. He is currently studying at the Architecture department, Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Peter G. Rowe

Peter G. Rowe is the Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and University Distinguished Service Professor at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, where he has taught since 1985. Between 1992 and 2004 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Design, following appointments as Chairman of the Department of Urban Planning and Design (1988-1992) and Director of the Urban Design Programs (1985-1990). Author and editor of book publications such as “Shanghai: Architecture and Urbanism for Modern China” (Prestel Publishing, 2004), “Architectural Encounters with Essence and Form in Modern China” (with Seng Kuan, MIT Press, 2002) and “East Asia Modern: Shaping the Contemporary City” (Reaktion Books, 2005); Peter Rowe’s courses include “Urbanization in the East Asian Region” and “Modern Architecture and Urbanism in China.“

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Peter Rowe | interview part I

UC#33 | Creative China

During the past month MovingCities, Ned Rossiter and the Urban China team compiled, edited, discussed, translated and re-edited content and graphics for the 33rd issue of Urban China Magazine.

Entitled “Creative China - Counter-Mapping the Creative Industries”, this guest-edited publication is based on preliminary research during May-July 2007, when Ned Rossiter, Bert de Muynck and Mónica Carriço, coordinated the ‘Transdisciplinary Research on Creative Industries in Beijing - Mobile Research Laboratory’ (orgnets.net).

Production got underway in early 2008, and Hendrik-Jan Grievink was invited on board to provide a critical grammar of design.

UC#33 will be available from mid-December 2008 on, and will be partly bi-lingual CN/EN for international readership.

2007年5－6月，奈德·罗斯特、伯德孟与莫妮卡·卡瑞苏协作组织了“北京地区创意产业跨学科研究－移动研究实验室”（详见www.orgnets.net） 。本期的客座编辑工作从2008年年初启动，并邀请亨德里克－扬·格里芬克为此设计一套独特视觉语言。

Organised Networks | Beijing

bei-CI | Mobile Research Laboratory | May-July 2007

The “Urban China: Counter-Mapping Creative Industries Issue” text on orgnets.net gives a full background to the topic:

This issue of Urban China sets out to critique and redefine the idea and practice of ‘mapping’ the creative industries. Foregrounding the experimental process of collaborative constitution, we are interested in the multiple idioms of expression that make creative industries intelligible beyond the blandness of policy discourse. Activist researchers, artists and writers in Europe, Brazil and India have been particularly inventive in combining collaborative techniques of production with social-political critique via media of communication. We see this work as part of the prehistory and global dialogue around how to create new spaces and transdisciplinary knowledges able to negotiate the complexities and politics that attend the economization of culture.

In bringing the idea of counter-mapping to the creative industries in Beijing, the question and problematic of translation is quickly established. Understood as a social practice rather than search for linguistic equivalence, translation registers the conflictual dynamics of the encounter between different knowledge and social systems. Rather than adopting a defeatist logic, we instead see the conflictual processes of translation as constitutive of new social assemblages and knowledge systems.

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More than 30 contributors have each in their own way visualized and written about their experience, research, work and