Amsterdam West | February 19, 2010

Snapshots of the last day in Amsterdam shows the area around the St. Lucas Andreas Hospital in the West of the city. Here, locked in-between the highway and the railway, hospitals are mixed with high-rise, construction sites with transportation networks. Territorial transformation, for the trendy and sporty, is at hand.

At least that is what one has to believe while strolling around in the area and seeing the above billboard stating “Wonen op de Stip” [Living on the Point] and “beetje sportief, beetje trendy” [a bit sporty, a bit trendy] under it. Upon checking the website [Dutch only], one understands how potential buyers need to be appealed through mobility:

Residents of the Stip are not sitting still (that’s what we expect). Mobility is therefore perfectly arranged. There are two bridges over the canal Erasmus. Soon you can ride your bike through the reopened bicycle tunnel under the A10 or go by public transport to the center. Within 15 minutes you are on the Dam Square. You park in the garage in the courtyard, so you come home dry and never have to search for a parking spot.

Speed and transport of the future urban residents are of importance. Movement for those subject to a sequence of urban impressions – by bike, car, foot, train and tram – before arriving in their cocoon. As such the development aspires not to the allure of the static suburban life, but of the dynamic outdoor life:

The good thing about the neighborhood is that you feel like you live somewhere outdoors. There is water (the Erasmusgracht), space, light and greenery. There are sports facilities which moves the area. The atmosphere of Spartan Avenue is not sleepy and dusty, but always fresh and active.

A couple of snapshots of the area around the Stip; a bit of fullness, a bit of emptiness.

Amsterdam West | February 19, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Amsterdam | the West

Learning from CCTV | An Interview with Rory McGowan | Mark Magazine#24

In Mark Magazine #24 (February-March 2010), Bert de Muynck | MovingCities published an interview with Beijing-based structural engineer Rory McGowan [ARUP and ARUP in Beijing]. “Learning from CCTV | an interview with Rory McGowan” is now online.

The interview, which took place at the ARUP headquarters in Beijing in June 2009, touched upon a lot of different topics; the engineering behind the CCTV-project, the evolution in fundamental engineering design in the near future, his involvement with the Tokyo Kansai airport team in the 1990s, his close collaboration with Rem Koolhaas/OMA during the past 17 years, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange building and Rory’s advice for the future generation of architects.

A few quotes from “Learning from CCTV | an interview with Rory McGowan“:

At first I was taken aback: it was outrageous but at the same time was a drop dead serious proposal. We all knew what the OMA circumstances were based on our prior experiences with them, like the hyper building and other projects in the 1980s and ’90s.

We had to demonstrate that any key column at any location in the building could be removed without disproportionate consequences. CCTV is actually overdesigned.

What we demonstrated is that by using the same material in another way you can create a completely different geometry and building typology.

The main feature of Kansai is its dynamic wing structure. Renzo Piano’s office had learned from the Bercy shopping centre not to do ‘a blob’ again. As a result, the geometry of the airport is a toroid and was seen as a really clever way to do repetitive geometry, redefining architecture in its wake.

Architects are becoming more and more deskilled. At the same time building design is becoming more and more technically driven.

Shenzhen Stock Exchange by OMA | November 14, 2009

• full article: “Learning from CCTV | an interview with Rory McGowan” – Mark Magazine #24 (Feb-March 10)

Other Bert de Muynck | MovingCities articles in MARK Magazine:
A Letter from Beijing | #09 (Jul-Aug 07)
An interview with Ai Weiwei (CN) | FAKE Design | #12 (Feb-Mar 08)
Olympic Architecture | #14 (Jun-Jul 08)
Babel for Billionaires | #15 (Aug-Sep 08)
Mongolian Private Meadow Club by MAD | #16 (Oct-Nov 08)
Anything That Is Good Is Called Lekker | #17 (Dec-Jan 08-09)
Local Hero | An Interview with Wang Shu (CN) | #19 (Apr-May 09)
The Importance of Slowness | Wang Hui (CN) | #19 (Apr-May 09)
Mr. Blunt | Keiichiro Sako | SAKO Architects | #20 (Jun-Jul 09)
Green and Tidy | mamostudio | #21 (Aug-Sep 09)

http://movingcities.org/

Learning from CCTV | publication

Architecture of Consequence lecture by NAi director Ole Bouman | February 18, 2010

Thursday February 18, the Netherlands Architecture Institute [NAi] held a pre-opening of the ‘Disputed City’ – an exhibition about the outcry architecture can cause. This was followed by a lecture by NAi-director Ole Bouman on the ‘Architecture of Consequence‘, the theme of another exhibit, opening the following day. Both measure the effect of architecture on mankind.

The ‘Disputed City‘ [Strijd om de Stad] exhibition does more than displaying 40 controversial architectural proposals, in models and video, but has the ambition to re-open a debate, to take a position, and for the public to engage with:

The NAi is building its own city in Gallery 2: City of the Netherlands. A city consisting of and shaped by many different designs and architects. And, as it should be, the public has a chance to get involved. Visitors can share their views on a number of designs that will be included in the city. Starting in February 2010, the NAi will set up forty controversial models. Forty designs that prompted an outcry. (…) The NAi is again opening these projects up to debate. Visitors will get a chance to choose which of the forty controversial designs merit a place in the City of the Netherlands, and which deserve to be scrapped.

The ‘Architecture of Consequence’ [Architectuur als Noodzaak] exhibition, at the other hand, looks at the role Dutch architecture can play in order to deal with a global culture of crisis:

‘Architecture of Consequence’ articulates the NAi’s long-term mission to arrive at an agenda for architectural responses to today’s pressing social concerns. This innovative agenda challenges urban designers to come up with progressive proposals and ideas, aimed at accomplishing the transition from a reactive to a proactive design practice.

Next to the traveling exhibition, there is also a book publication discussing the work of 25 Dutch design firms that all approach city-making from the context of societal issues. If you happen to be in Rotterdam in the coming period, a visit to both exhibitions is highly recommended.

Overall the evening in the NAi felt like drifting in-between taking positions: at the one hand the freedom to choose, to ponder and question the proposals of the ‘Disputed City’; at the other hand the urgency for architects to react upon the current industry crisis. There is no choice when it comes to engaging with the ‘Architecture of Consequence’. The debate after the lecture, led by DutchDFA-director Christine de Baan, was broad, seemed to call for a new grand gesture, while recognizing the marginal position of the architect in the social debate.

Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam NL | February 18, 2010

Disputed City @ NAi | February 18, 2010

Architecture of Consequence exhibit, lecture & debate @ NAi | February 18, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Rotterdam | NAi exhibitions

Rotterdam Central Station | February 18, 2010

Do construction sites look different from one culture to another? Can one, after wandering around on them, define those characteristics that distinguish, lets say, a Chinese from a Dutch construction site? Should we look at the differences in size, location, density of man and materials, or at similarities such as concrete, steel and fences?

“Here the new heart of Rotterdam is pounding,” says a billboard about hundred meter South of Rotterdam’s Central Station (CS). And that heart has been pounding since in June 2004, Team CS, a collaboration of Benthem Crouwel Architekten, Meyer en Van Schooten Architecten, and West 8 urban design & landscape architecture b.v., has received the commission to execute the vision presented for the new Rotterdam Central Station.

In a text called “Existing structures govern building methods near Rotterdam Central Station” (pdf alert!) authors G. Hannink and V.M. Thumann from Rotterdam Public Works explain in depth the consequences and influences of the extensive reconstruction of the area around Rotterdam Central Station on the existing nearby structures such as the Groothandelsgebouw, the existing Central Railway Station, the existing underground metro station CS and the West-Inn hotel:

Extensive building activities mark the area around the Central Railway Station of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, during the period 2005 – 2012. A number of projects is under construction, others are still in the design stage. The building methods of these projects are governed by the presence of nearby structures. The geotechnical challenges that are encountered during the realisation of the projects are discussed, and the influence of these projects on the densely built environment.

Rotterdam Central Station | February 18, 2010

Rotterdam view from Netherlands Architecture Institute [NAi] | February 18, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Rotterdam | Central Station

IJ Plein Urban Planning by OMA | February 17, 2010

After living and working in Amsterdam from 2001 to 2006, MovingCities has returned occasionally back to the city during the past years. In 2008 we interviewed professor Moshe Zwarts on the plans to build a city under the city, in 2009 to scan the destruction of the PostCS-building and to visit the notorious Bijlmermeer-area. This time around we look at the development of the IJ riverbank, the MuziekGebouw and OMA’s 1988 ‘IJ Plein Urban Planning‘-project.

Last year, we visited the area West of Amsterdam Central Station. There, on the Westerdokeiland sits one of the city’s most recent high-density housing developments. In the mean time, the area East from Central Station is being developed into a cultural district featuring the Amsterdam Public Library by Jo Coenen & Co Architekten, the NEMO by Renzo Piano and the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ by 3XN Architects.

With all these developments, going on since the last decade and a half, the IJ – the water formerly known for disconnecting the center of Amsterdam from its Northern area – is becoming a corridor of coherence for urban mobility, housing programs, cultural facilities and turn of the century public buildings. Visible from the Southern bank of the IJ is also OMA’s 1988 ‘IJ Plein Urban Planning’-project. A description:

OMA’s intervention in the IJ-plein site is both urban and architectonic. The urban plan is the basis for OMA’s supervision over the design of seven housing projects, designed by six architects, including OMA. The brief required an explicit visual relationship with the IJ-river and with the historic center of Amsterdam on the opposite riverbank. The urban plan proposes an open configuration of parallel slabs of different height and form, and a triangular lawn.

Area around MuziekGebouw aan 't IJ | February 17, 2010

IJ Plein Urban Planning by OMA | February 17, 2010

Area around Post CS-building | February 17, 2010

Amsterdam | February 17, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Amsterdam | the IJ

Tuomas Toivonen drives through Finland | February 15, 2010

On Monday February 15, MovingCities was in Helsinki in the morning and Amsterdam in the evening. Driving on Finnish roads, flying over Europe and landing on a balcony in Amsterdam’s Western districts. Some snapshots of a European day of traveling.

Helsinki | February 15, 2010

Helsinki Airport | February 15, 2010

Amsterdam | February 15, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Helsinki >> Amsterdam

SNOWBALL | Finnish and Chinese architecture

snowballarchitecture.fi already posted a glimpse of the ‘Snowball Helsinki dim sum at NOW‘-party which followed the SNOWBALL Helsinki seminar and Pan Jian Feng’s lecture & opening. MovingCities introduces music – warm, mellow, dub, folk, post-rock – by Tuomas Toivonen (FI) and LinDi 林 笛 (CN).

The SNOWBALL party was hosted by and at NOW’s former studio space in Kamppi. Solid drinks and steamed-buns merged into an interesting Sino-Suomi blend of stylishness. NOW for Architecture and Urbanism is headed by Tuomas Toivonen & Nene Tsuboi. In the past Tuomas’s band ‘Giant Robot’ created the urban anthem “Helsinki Rock City” (youtube! watch it! remix it!), and recently released “New Utopia” (vimeo! watch it!), putting the beats and raps under Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier and the Garden City:

utopias have always been proposed
rationality and discipline
to build better cities
for people to live in
rewind to Fourier and Ledoux
town planning becomes a tool

Joining in, on the eve of the Chinese new year eve, was LinDi 林 笛 (co-founder of the Chinese band Cold Fairyland (see youtube channel), from Shanghai. She plays keyboards, pipa & sings the lead vocals. Check out their Mirror Theater | 摹仿剧场 (youtube). Next to dancing and drinking, some of us were getting ready for the event at Chinese New Year Lasipalatsi Square next day.

Party-snapshots.

Kamppi snacks, routes & schedules | Helsinki, February 12, 2010

SNOWBALL Architecture drinks at NOW | Helsinki, February 12, 2010

SNOWBALL at NOW [Tuomas Toivonen & Nene Tsuboi] | Helsinki, February 12, 2010

SNOWBALL party ends: Lin Di & Nene Tsuboi | Helsinki, February 12, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

Soundtrack:
Helsinki Rock City by ‘Giant Robot’ + New Utopia by Tuomas Toivonen
Mirror Theater | 摹仿剧场 by ‘Cold Fairyland’

http://movingcities.org/

SNOWBALL | Helsinki Rock City

SNOWBALL | Finnish and Chinese architecture

The SNOWBALL Helsinki seminar at KIASMA concluded with a short lecture by Chinese artist Pan Jian Feng followed by the vernissage of his show at Lasipalatsi Square. During the month of February, Pan Jian Feng is invited to be part of the Helsinki International Artist-in-residence Programme.

In “Bringing blue to China – Pan Jian Feng on art and identity” Pan Jian Feng talks about his obsessive daily practice of “writing” people:

One of Jian Feng’s projects is to paint all the interesting people that he meets. “It’s my daily practice – like a visual diary,” he explains. “I document at least 20 people each day. Some are my friends, some are neighbours, some I’ve never met before.” His paintings have a close connection to Chinese calligraphy. Instead of “painting” people, he actually describes his activity as “writing” people.

More about his work and the invitation to come on a residency to Helsinki can be found on his intriguing blog/dairy he is keeping as part of the “Guests from China“-program, or in an article in the Helsinki Times called “Invitation to Helsinki“. Below some snapshots of the lecture and vernissage.

KIASMA lecture Pan Jian Feng | February 12, 2010

Pan Jian Feng Exhibition opening at Lasipalatsi Square | February 12, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

SNOWBALL Helsinki | Pan Jian Feng lecture & opening

SNOWBALL Architecture | February - March 2010

SNOWBALL Architecture is a project aiming to bring together Finnish and Chinese architecture. It is organized by the Finnish Association of Architects - SAFA – as part of Finland’s cultural program for World Expo 2010 Shanghai China.

On Friday February 12, MovingCities presented during the SNOWBALL Architecture Helsinki (FINLAND/program) seminar event which was held at Kiasma – Helsinki Museum of Contemporary Art. The first Snowball event presents Finnish offices sharing their experiences from China. The upcoming event will be a 3-day program in Shanghai, at the end of March.

MovingCities and NeeBing/Lychee Productions will be locally co-producing a series of seminars, networking events, friday-night-party & architectural tour, together with Martta Louekari [SNOWBALL / Newly Drawn -project] & Tuomas Toivonen [NOW for Architecture and Urbanism / SNOWBALL / Newly Drawn -project]; Jenna SUTELA & Anni Puolakka, [OK Do Editors and Creative Directors]; and Elin Svensson & Johanna Lundberg [Åh, art directors].

SNOWBALL Architecture Shanghai | 25th – 27th  March

to follow news & updates check:

• SNOWBALL Architecture blog | snowballarchitecture.fi/
  

• MovingCities SNOWBALL project page | movingcities.org/snowball-architecture/

- – -

The Friday-noon lecture happened in Kiasma, the contemporary art museum, in Helsinki. The building is designed by Steven Holl and it is named after kiasma, Finnish translation for a chiasma alluding to the basic conceptual idea of its architect. A short description of the main circulation space of the museum:

The main entrance leads the visitor into a high lobby under a glass ceiling. This lends the building personality, which develops in increasingly clearer forms as one walks towards the auditorium and the galleries. A curving ramp leads from the ground-floor lobby towards the core of the museum in the distance. The design is based on ideas about the golden section, Zen-like peace, a human scale. These principles are manifested, for example, by the spatial sequences on the first and third floors, by the lines and details of the galleries.

—

The SNOWBALL Architecture Helsinki program started with a working meeting between Finnish participants and co-producers, followed by a lecture by Bert [titled 'Overview on the Chinese architectural context']. For more info see snowballarchitecture.fi blog post: ‘More notes from Snowball Helsinki 12/2′

Snowball Helsinki – Arkkitehtuurivientiä Kiinaan event featured talks from Finnish architects and decision-makers. Exploring the present and the future collaborations in architecture between Finland and China, these professionals shared their personal experiences and new insights.

After this, presentations were made by JKMM Architects – on ‘Making Kirnu, the Finnish pavilion at Shanghai Expo’; followed by Yrjö Sotamaa, Aalto University & Tongji University – on ‘Challenges and opportunities in China’; third by Pekka Salminen/ PES Architects – ‘How to take architecture to China?’; fourth by Pekka Timonen – about ‘World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 word by word’; and final words by Tommila architects – DigiEcoCities.

Snapshots of a long snowy day.

Kiasma contemporary art museum | Helsinki, February 12 2010

SNOWBALL - Martta Louekari & Tuomas Toivonen | Helsinki, Feb12 2010

SNOWBALL Architecture - meeting | Helsinki, Feb12 2010

SNOWBALL - introduction & presentations [part II] | Helsinki, Feb12 2010

SNOWBALL Architecture - ...Chinese architectural context | Helsinki, Feb12 2010

SNOWBALL Architecture - coffee break at Kiasma | Helsinki, Feb12 2010

Kiasma contemporary art museum | Helsinki, Feb12 2010

View over from Kiasma contemporary art museum | Helsinki, Feb12 2010

SNOWBALL Architecture - presentations [part II] | Helsinki, Feb12 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

SNOWBALL Architecture | Kiasma Helsinki

Helsinki | February 10, 2010

Our urban experience of Helsinki was limited to the exploration of the snow-covered historical center while trying to stay straight on slippery streets. From us a few urban snapshots. For some architecture check out the 0300TV documentaries on the work of Steven Holl, Alvar Aalto and Timo & Tuomo Suomalainen in Helsinki.

Helsinki | February 9, 2010

Helsinki | February 10, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Helsinki | snapshots

Shanghai - Helsinki | February 8, 2010

This week MovingCities resides in Helsinki. Working and preparing the upcoming ‘SNOWBALL Architecture‘-seminar in Shanghai [end of March 2010], a three-day event that will bring together Chinese and Finnish architects. This Friday we will give a talk at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. More information on both events will follow soon. For now, some aerophotography snapshots. From Pudong, over a snow-white Gobi desert to Vantaa.

Shanghai - Helsinki | February 8, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Shanghai >> Helsinki

Shanghai | February 8, 2010

It is early on Monday morning when we are leaving Shanghai’s Jing’an District. On the ground level the city is still asleep and largely empty. Once on the elevated highway one sees traffic thickening, towers disappearing in the fog and trucks leaving the city.

Jing'an District - Pudong International Airport | February 8, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Shanghai | Jing’an District >> Pudong Airport

Shanghai World Expo 2010 | January 19, 2010

A short visual post-script to our last week coverage of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo construction site focuses on the people that make progress happen: the migrant/construction workers. One sees them everywhere, doing everything; painting, building, cleaning up, connecting, strolling, resting, moving, sweating, smoking, hanging, hammering, pushing, pulling, pressing, measuring, listening, sleeping, digging, carrying, waiting, hurrying, cutting… On the ground, up in the air, in basements, on scaffolding, ladders and staircases.

Shanghai World Expo 2010 | January 19, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

For more in-depth coverage and background check MovingCities new expo2010-tag.

Previous:

• Shanghai Expo2010 site visit I
• Shanghai Expo2010 site visit II
• Shanghai Expo2010 site visit III

http://movingcities.org/

Shanghai | Expo2010 site visit IV

Shanghai World Expo 2010 | Spanish pavillion | January 19, 2010

Norway, Australia, China and Spain complete the third and final chapter of the MovingCities series on the Shanghai 2010 World Expo pavilions under construction. While in the first and the second post we covered parts of the European expo-district, today we are strolling over the elevated streets connecting different parts of the area.

We were not the only ones roaming the expo-site last week. A day earlier, Adam Minter, an American writer in Shanghai, and the man behind Shanghai Scrap, followed a fairly similar path as we did. In his double post, entitled “A Cavalcade of (under-construction) Expo 2010 Pavilions” [part I (Dec 2009) and part II (January 2010)], he collects his impressions and images, and, seemingly on the fly, launches a new architectural award: the “First Shanghai Scrap Pavilion Architecture Prize.” Currently the Spanish pavilion, designed by miralles tagliabue EMBT, is the front-runner for the prize.

But, as can be seen in the image above and the ones below, the “Spanish basket” is today far from being final:

The Spain Pavilion will offer the visitor a spectacular vision that combines the latest technology with the utilization – on a scale never before seen – of a traditional material, wicker, which completely covers its facade. Even before its creation it has been baptized the “Spanish basket” by the Chinese media, alluding to its organic shape, a 25,000 meter steel tubing skeleton that will support 8,524 large wicker panels.

Currently the Spain pavilion consists, much alike former United States Senator Ted Stevens once described the internet, of nothing else than a series of tubes. Wicked!

Norwegian pavilion | architect: Helen & Hard

Australian pavilion | architect: Wood Marsh & Think!OTS

Chinese pavilion | architect: He Jingtang

Spanish pavilion | architect: miralles tagliabue EMBT

Pictures by movingcities.org

For more in-depth coverage and background check MovingCities new expo2010-tag.

Featured architects:

• Helen & Hard | Norway pavilion [official website]
• Wood Marsh & Think!OTS | Australia pavilion [official website]
• He Jingtang | China pavilion [official website & 0300TV]
• miralles tagliabue EMBT | Spain pavilion [official website & ArchDaily]

http://movingcities.org/

Shanghai | Expo2010 site visit III

Shanghai World Expo 2010 | Austrian pavilion | January 19, 2010

A second series of snapshots from our recent visit to the Shanghai Expo2010 construction site (check part I) in which we cover the Danish, Dutch, Russian, British and Austrian pavilion. Besides their obvious identification as national pavilions, some of these structures have an additional thematic names: in today’s case Welfairytales (DK) and Happy Street (NL), in yesterday’s Greenopolis (RO), The Sensual City (FR) and balancity (GE).

To finish or not to finish, that is the question haunting the last hundred days before the opening of the Shanghai Expo on May 1, 2010. Earlier this month the ShanghaiDaily newspaper reported that overall there is “90% built, but clock is ticking“:

The Shanghai World Expo organizer has finished 90% of construction at the Expo site but “time is still urgent” for the rest of the work, which needs to get done by the end of March, a senior official said yesterday.

While yesterday Urbanatomy spread the unsourced, but enough to be breaking, news that “Pavilions running out of time“:

Stop Press! Breaking news. It has just been announced that as many as 20% of the pavilions that will be exhibiting at the Expo will not be in a state ready to receive visitors come May.

What does this mean? That in the two weeks between these two news snippets someone realized that 10% of the alleged finished constructions weren’t finished at all, and will not be? Or that out of nowhere someone decided to add more pavilions to the site and construction of these have just begun? Or that all pavilions will be finished but some will not be able to receive visitors? Most likely none of these ever happened and these news items just add to a media instigated media-frenzy which is an unfortunate and inevitable part of these large-scale undertakings.

Well, this frenzy is probably good news for architectural bookmakers (do they exist?). We would put our money on the news that on May 1st someone will announce that all buildings are finished and ready to receive visitors.

Danish pavilion | architect: BIG

Dutch pavilion | architect: John Körmeling

Russian pavilion | architect: P.A.P. ER architectural team

British pavilion | architect: Thomas Heatherwick

Austrian pavilion | architect: SPAN & Zeytinoglu

Pictures by movingcities.org

For more in-depth coverage and background check MovingCities new expo2010-tag.

Featured architects:

• BIG | Danish pavilion [official website & ArchDaily]
• John Körmeling | Dutch pavilion [official website]
• P.A.P. ER architectural team | Russian pavilion [official website & ArchDaily]
• Thomas Heatherwick | British pavilion [official website & ArchDaily]
• SPAN & Arkan Zeytinoglu | Austrian pavilion [official website & ArchDaily]

http://movingcities.org/

Shanghai | Expo2010 site visit II

Shanghai World Expo 2010 | January 19, 2010

With less than 100 days before the opening of the World Expo, pavilions are getting in shape. Although structures are far from finished, the rough outlines of the future architectural experiences become visible – even so that these, to us, are more exciting than their expected state of completion. No cladding, no finished interiors, no green-designers’ draping, no visitors; only construction workers toiling everywhere. A MovingCities impression of the German, Swiss, French, Polish, Romanian and Luxembourg pavilion.

When visiting the Expo2010 site, in December 2008, China’s exhibition hall was still under construction. Today the gigantic red structure, a building three times taller than any of the other Expo pavilions, is glimmering and towering above all surrounding pavilions, almost like a oil-rig in a wild sea of uncompleted structures. Our recent site visit, last Tuesday, took off in the German pavilion, in the heart of the European section of the Expo site. Ansgar Halbfas, supervisor of the planning and construction of the exhibition [by milla und partner] in the German Pavilion, showed us the building, its interior and afterwards urged us to wander around the expo site.

As for now, it is too early to make an assessment of the architecture of the national and thematic pavilions as these are in different stages of development: some are nearly done, some will change their appearance after membranes are put on place, others are still hiding behind a screen of scaffolding. So, before one can see how renderings match reality, we are intrigued by the momentary impression, the in-between state of architecture when structures are uninhabited and unprogrammed. While territorial architectural tensions thicken the expo-air, we stayed afloat in a pure mess of materials, steel, concrete and paint.

We’ll be following up this week with more pavilions.

Shanghai World Expo 2010 site | January 19, 2010

German pavilion | architect: Schmidhuber + Kaindl / exhibition design: milla und partner

Swiss pavilion | architect: Buchner Bründler Architects

French pavilion | architect: Jacques Ferrier Architects

Polish pavilion | architect: WWA Architects

Romanian pavilion | architect: SC M&C Strategy Development

Luxembourg pavilion | architect: Francois Valentiny

Pictures by movingcities.org

* With special thanks to Ansgar Halbfas, supervisor of the planning and construction of the exhibition in the German Pavilion.

For more in-depth coverage and background to today’s post, check MovingCities new expo2010-tag and the following links:

• Shanghai 2010 World Expo Online | a 3D map of the expo-site
• Shanghai 2010 World Expo Blog | a blog by people living in Shanghai

Featured architects:

• Schmidhuber + Kaindl | German pavilion [official website]
• Buchner Bründler Architects | Swiss pavilion [official website & ArchDaily]
• Jacques Ferrier Architects | French pavilion [official website & ArchDaily]
• WWA Architects | Polish pavilion [official website & ArchDaily]
• Francois Valentiny | Luxembourg pavilion [ArchDaily]
• SC M&C Strategy Development | Romania pavilion | [ArchDaily]

http://movingcities.org/

Shanghai | Expo2010 site visit I

Shanghai Jing'an District | January 18, 2010

After looking in close-up to the construction and the demolition of parts of Shanghai’s Jing’an District, in our third and final installment we scan the skyline. And we ask ourselves, as a reader pointed out, what is the city concept of Shanghai? Is it something one can understand?

When one elevates oneself from the ground level, passes along skyscraper janitors, moves into elevators to top floors and enters the rooftops of Shanghai, one indeed sees a mix of hi-rise buildings and low-rise buildings and might question the purpose of this design. In order to answer this, one needs to move from observation to interpretation (and further to speculation, as we attempted in the Macau Urban Panorama Workshop [July 2009]). At that moment, it is apt (thanks for reminding us Gillian!), to find parallels, adaptations, reinterpretations or re-observations in understanding the city as Michel de Certeau did in a chapter called “Walking the City” (pdf alert!) in his book The Practice of Everyday Life (1984, googlebooks):

Seeing Manhattan from the llOth floor of the World Trade Center. (…) A wave of verticals. Its agitation is momentarily arrested by vision. The gigantic mass is immobilized before the eyes. It is transformed into a texturology in which extremes coincide – extremes of ambition and degradation, brutal oppositions of races and styles, contrasts between yesterday’s buildings, already transformed into trash cans, and today’s urban irruptions that block out its space. Unlike Rome, New York has never learned the art of growing old by playing on all its pasts. Its present invents itself, from hour to hour, in the act of throwing away its previous accomplishments and challenging the future.

Shanghai is no Rome, but also no New York. It still has a past and is challenging the future. Here, again, is the present, an urban environment consisting of high-rise verticals and low-rise vernaculars.

Shanghai Jing'an District | corner Changde Lu with Wuding Lu & Kangding Lu | January 18, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

Previous:
Shanghai | Jing’an District I [January 2010]
Shanghai | Jing’an District II [January 2010]

http://movingcities.org/

Shanghai | Jing’an District III

Shanghai Jing'an District | January 18, 2010

Right around our corner, the city is disappearing and being torn down. Since the beginning of this week, a section of Changde Lu (between Wuding Lu and Kangding Lu) is the territory where jackhammers, moving companies, land surveyors, local inhabitants and trucks take up with equal urban zeal their role in Shanghai’s theater of progress. What for? Road widening? A new subway line? Expo-related renovation?

All of a sudden the section of the street has changed, a corridor flanked by fruit-, bicycle repair- and cigarette shops, with massage parlors, hairdressers and restaurants, has become symbol for the orphaned urban order of the 21st century Shanghai. At one side the shops are still thriving, but also trembling by the sight of the instant wasteland in front of them, while on the other side local inhabitants need to get used to the new facades, the new entrances to their houses. Above and around them workers are tearing down the neighborhood.

Changde Lu (between Wuding Lu and Kangding Lu) | GoogleMaps January 2010

One hardly needs to look at a map to understand what is happening with this section of the city. During the past months, both from the North as from the South road widening projects have taken place and the area between Wuding Lu and Kangding Lu was the last one standing. Snapshots as a contribution to understand what it means when a district desires to become a symbol of new Shanghai in the 21st century.

Changde Lu (between Wuding Lu and Kangding Lu) | January 18, 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Shanghai | Jing’an District I [January 2010]

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Shanghai | Jing’an District II

Shanghai Jing'an District | October 2009

Since mid-October 2009, MovingCities is based on the 26st floor of a tower located in Shanghai’s Jing’an District, one the city’s most densely populated districts – bordering the Huangpu District in the East, and Suzhou Creek to the North. Somewhere in front of us two towers are under construction. It is not that they are adding one floor each day – don’t believe the hype – but, in the course of three months, progress has been visible. Some stop-motion/paparazzi impressions from a city, slowly but steady, going up.

According to some, Jing’an District is today occupying a dominant position in the urban construction of Shanghai, a symbol of new Shanghai in the 21st century, something which is in line with the ambitions for the district, expressed in the “11th Five-Year Plan” (2007-2012). In this period the 7.62 sq-km area (with an approximate population of 436, 600) should achieve the total capacity of business and office buildings of 4 million m2, lead the city in terms of the concentration of international brands (…) create 100,000 new jobs (…) and significantly improve people’s living standards; upgrade the urban infrastructure, improve the housing and transportation conditions to a great extent.

Next to this, today’s Jing’an District should form four functional images: 1. being a landmark area of Shanghai international shopping center; 2. being a key area of international professional service industry; 3. being a mainstream area of Shanghai international culture and fashion center; and 4. be a modern urban residential area.

As for how this image is being constructed, we’ll follow up later this week.
For now, a close-up on construction, steady as it goes.

Shanghai Jing'an District | October 2009 - January 2010

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Shanghai Streets [September 2009]
Shanghai Subway & Streets [January 2010]

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Shanghai | Jing’an District I

Changyang Road | October 27, 2009

China is in transit and subways are sprouting around and under us. China is not only an urban nation, but with about 2500 kilometers of subway lines nationwide under construction it also more and more a subway nation. In December 2009, subway Line7, also called the Expo Line, opened in Shanghai (check subway map), connecting Shanghai University in the North and Huamu Road (Pudong) in the South of Shanghai. MovingCities went exploring the area around the Changzhong Road, just South of the University, drove through a rural and urban mix and came back with snapshots. Also, belated demolishment snapshots from a section of Changyang Rd.

Whether in Guangzhou (Line5), Shanghai (Line7) or Beijing (Line4), China’s future seems to happen underground, less visible, less fancy, seemingly less appealing than “architecture”, the future of the city is more about mobility than it will be about creating monuments. According to an article in China Daily called “Subway projects in 22 cities given go-ahead” (August 21, 2009) as many as 79 subway projects in 22 cities have been approved by the State Council:

As many as 79 subway projects in 22 cities have been approved by the State Council, China’s cabinet, the China Business News reported Friday, citing a senior official of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD). The subway lines will be built around 2015, with lengths totaling 2,259.84 km and overall investment amounting to 882 billion yuan ($129.11 billion), said Lu Kehua, head of the urban development department of MOHURD.

As of the end of 2008, China has 29 urban mass transit lines in 10 cities, with a total mileage of 776 km and annual traffic volume reaching 2.21 billion, Lu said. About 50 subways are under construction in 15 cities with mileages totaling 1,154 km, he added.

The State Council sets three criteria on assessing a city’s application for subway projects: the city’s urban population should exceed 3 million, its general domestic product should surpass 100 billion yuan, and it can collect over 10 billion yuan in fiscal revenues, according to the China Business News.

Some recent snapshots of Shanghai subways and streets.

Transformation of Changyang Rd | October 27, 2009

Transformation of Changzhong Road (Line7) | December 22, 2009

Pictures by movingcities.org

previous

Shanghai Streets [September 2009]
Beijing Line13 subway [2006-2009]
Beijing Line8 Gulou Dajie subway station [August 2009]

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Shanghai | subway and streets