Projects

2011

…to be updated soon…

Copy/Culture Symposium | Beijing _September 27

The Copy/Culture© Symposium Beijing, presented by Premsela & DMY International Design Festival Berlin, examines the implications of copying, open source and sampling on the design trade and profession. Guests included Bert de Muynck / MovingCities.

Indonesia Investigation | Jakarta, Surabaya, Solo _June 22 – July 12

MovingCities was invited by jongArsitek! to lecture at the opening of the Rumah Rumah Tanpa Pintu exhibition, followed by an investigatory trip with Danny Wicaksono [Studio Dasar & founder of jongArsitek!] and GRAVITY network to Jakarta, Surabaya and Solo.

NAi MatchMaking | NL-CN Housing workshop | Hangzhou _April 24–26

Organised by the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), as part of their international MatchMaking program, this three day workshop brings together Dutch and Chinese architects in order to explore common grounds and differences between Chinese and Dutch design on social/low-cost/low-rent/affordable housing in China. MovingCities co-organizes and produces the workshop.

DDFA | mapping report Chinese Design & Fashion _January-May

Commissioned by the Dutch Design Fashion and Architecture [DDFA or DutchDFA], MovingCities is conducting research on fashion and design subjects, tendencies, media and networks in China that influences today’s and tomorrow’s agenda for internationalization. The final outcome will be a consultancy report for the DDFA and partners.

2010

DOMUS Architecture Guide | Beijing & Shanghai _July-December

DOMUS contacted MovingCities with the request to select, photograph and localize in Beijing 北京 and Shanghai 上海 40 architectural projects for an IT application specially intended for i-phone© and ipad© products. The app [$4.99, in English and Italian] is now out! [check Shanghai Preview and Beijing Preview]

NAi MatchMaking | NL-CN program _ongoing

MovingCities is setting up the China-program for the Netherlands Architecture Institute [NAi]. The program is part of the new international agenda of the NAi and has the ambition to instigate collaborations between Dutch and Chinese architects. As part of the program, in September 2010 a select group of Chinese architects was invited for a study trip to the Netherlands. [day 1 [Rotterdam], day 2 [Amsterdam] and day 3 [Enschede]]. In December 2010 “Architecture of Consequence | lecture & debate]” was organized in Studio-X Beijing.

Design for Daily Life | NL-CN seminar | Shanghai _September

September 17, 2010. The “Design Dialogue: Design for Daily Life” at the Dutch Design Workspace consists out of three sessions of two short presentations, one by a Dutch, one by a Chinese designer, each time followed by a discussion. The seminar is set-up as a “research by debate” session questioning what comprises quality of life, today and in the future. MovingCities co-orgazines the seminar.

SNOWBALL Architecture | FI-CN seminar | Shanghai _March

March 25–27, 2010. Organised by the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA), as part of Finland’s cultural programme for World Expo 2010 Shanghai China, the event consists of a two-day seminar exploring common grounds and differences between Finnish and Chinese architects, a networking program and a one-day excursion. MovingCities co-orgazines the seminar.

2009

Dutch Embassy Beijing | China Architecture & Creative Industries Mapping Report | Beijing _September

Commissioned by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to China (Beijing), MovingCities made and “EXACT SUMMARY OF THE CULTURAL MAPPING REPORTS: BEIJING, SHANGHAI & GUANGZHOU” (pdf alert!) for the disciplines Design & Architecture. The report highlights research into China Contemporary, China Creative & Cultural Industries, Evolution & Trends, Market Opportunities, Dutch Designers & Architects in China, Intellectual Property Rights, Education, Awards, etc… The China reports are freely available online: Creative Industries & Architecture.

Hutong Histories & Building Beijing | Beijing _August

In August, MovingCities published a trilogy, Hutong Histories, and a quadrilogy, Building Beijing, on the state of affairs in China’s capital. At the one hand a look at the destruction of the area surrounding Gulou Dajie subway station, the notion of punctual preservation and hutong hypes, at the other hand trying to understand how Haussman is haunting Beijing, how the city is becoming a linked hybrid and how to make sense of its skyline. Hutong Histories 1, 2 and 3. Building Beijing 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Urban Panorama workshop | Macau _July

Between July 3 and 5, MovingCities was invited by the Cultural Association +853 (Macau) to coordinate the URBAN PANORAMA workshop as part of the This Is My City (TIMC)-event. In collaboration with architect Nuno Soares, the URBAN PANORAMA explores Macau’s urban landscape by investigating the relation between the cultural/media imaginaries and the concrete conditions of the everyday. In order to do so we conducted a Skyline Architectural Research-project hopping from rooftop to rooftop, scanning Macau’s skyline.

Line 13 Redux workshop | Beijing _May

On May 25 and 26, MovingCities was invited by Shannon Bassett, Assistant Professor at School of Architecture and Community Design | University of South Florida, Tampa, to give a short design workshop. After dealing in 2008 in the ‘Line13 Superlinearity‘-workshop with the Northern section of Beijing’s elevated subway line, ‘Line13 Redux‘ focused on the intersection of the Badaling Expressway and Line13 as the locale for research and intervention.

City Move Interdesign workshop | Sweden _March-April

MovingCities participated in the City Move Interdesign workshop in Gällivare, Sweden. In a partnership with Icsid, the Swedish Industrial Design Foundation (SVID) and the community of Gällivare, the workshop dealt with the issue of relocating people and societies. The workshop investigated socially responsible design methods to create new spaces for people and is part of the Icsid Interdesign workshop series.

Crimson NewTown research | Beijing _February

After the second world war a large family of New Towns was built all over the globe. The towns were planned from scratch, based on the combined ideologies of the Garden City, CIAM-modernism and the neighbourhood principle. From Western Europe to Asia, from Africa to the former communist countries, the original universal model of the New Town was adapted to local cultures, economics and politics. [see Embedded]

Urban China #33 | Counter-Mapping Creative Industries | Beijing _January

This issue of Urban China Magazine 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.

2008

Jakarta, IAI Awards jury & research | Indonesia _October

Bert de Muynck | MovingCities was invited by the Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI) to be part of the jury for the IAI Awards 2008. In between visiting the entries, two lectures were given and an initial urban research set-up. [see Conferences & Lectures]

Take-Away China research| Belgium

Currently we are setting up a project dealing with the Chinese presence in the Flemish Region, Belgium. This research project will be developed throughout 2008. In the mean time Urban China Magazine published “Take-Away China” in their ChinaTown-issue. Read the full text.

Line 13 Superlinearity workshop | Beijing _May

From May 27 and May 31 MovingCities conducted together with Adrian Blackwell (Assistant Professor at Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design | University of Toronto) a design workshop in Beijing. Together with Xu Jian (Professor of Art History, Sichuan Polytechnic University), we looked closer, through a series of fieldtrips and programmatic interventions, into the Beijing’s peri-urban condition along the Northern section of Line13.

City/State workshop | Israel _February

The City/State Unit at the Architecture Department of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (Jeruzalem, Israel) invited MovingCities to hold a one week workshop. Entitled “What can we learn from China?”, the workshop explored the mechanisms driving the development of the Chinese city and projected and adapted these to the Israeli urban context. February, 2008.

2007

Urban(s)Talking

In 2004 hutong tours for visitors to China contributed four million yuan (€400,000) to the nation’s coffers. This will double in the coming years. The new urban explorers no longer hang out in hutongs, however. Their latest hot spot is Line 13, a 40.85-km-long light-rail line that connects the northeast and northwest corners of the second ring road and kisses the sixth ring road in the north. I suggested to the Olympic Committee that the marathon be organized beneath this line. I never got a reply. Well, forget about the hutongs and the pedi-cabs. Line 13 is the place to be. It lets passengers view over an hour of urban development for less than 3 yuan (€0.30). Read full version of A Letter from Beijing (Bert de Muynck, Mark Magazine #09) or visit our MovingCities Interviews-section

Transdisciplinary Research on Creative Industries in Beijing (CIB), Mobile Research Laboratory | Beijing _May – July

This project brings international and Chinese academics together with urban research organisations, artists, curators, media producers and policy-makers in order to undertake transdisciplinary research on Beijing’s creative industries. Through collaborative practices of self-organization, one of the primary aims is to create a ‘counter-mapping’ of creative industries in Beijing.

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