Guangzhou | November 11, 2009

Our impressions of Guangzhou are random and scattered. Drifting for four days in-between the GAFA Campus, Tianhe Central Business District, shoppingmalls, rooftops, the Opera House and the Pearl River Tower, we eventually headed to Guangzhou’s Eastern Railway Station. Destination Shenzhen.

30 years ago the Belgian art historian and sinologist Simon Leys published a book called “Chinese Shadows”. In it he states the following about Guangzhou (Canton):

Since the beginning of this century, the places in China where new ideas start fermenting and revolutionary insurrections begin have been Canton, Shanghai and Wuhan. After twenty years of Maoism, it was seen during the Cultural Revolution that those three cities had lost none of their revolutionary potential. In them, sooner or later, the Chinese revolution will take fire again.

After thirty years of Refrom, it is seen in the Pearl River Delta that the course of its cities is irreversibly changed. in 1978 Shenzhen hardly existinge, today a 10-million inhabitants metropolis. On top of the P.R.D. a maze  is constructed – elevated highways, bridges and descending ramps -, reducing travel time in and to the Factory of World continuously and considerably. Is a new idea on the city fermenting? Sparks of fire while heading towards the Guangzhou-Shenzhen bullet train.

Walking Guangzhou | November 9, 2009

Urban Village in Guangzhou | November 9, 2009

Guangzhou highways | November 9, 2009

Guangzhou - Shenzhen | November 11, 2009

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Guangzhou >> Shenzhen

Guangzhou Pearl River Tower by SOM | November 10, 2009

Is it possible to design a skyscraper that harvests energy from its environment? SOM’s Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou claims so. From 2010 on this tower will be the headquarters of the Guangdong Tobacco Company. Snapshots from a curvilenair Zero-energy building under construction.

For lovers of ultra-sustainable skyscrapers, Emporis has some fun facts about Skidmore, Owings and Merrill’s building:

The Pearl River Tower has two major mechanical floors where turbines generate electricity from the wind blowing through the floors. Next to this, it is designed to be 58% more energy efficient than requirements stipulated by local building codes. At completion, the tower was designed to be the world’s most energy efficient super-tall tower ever built.

While crossing Guangzhou’s Tianhe District, we passed a couple of times the tobacco-tower: a rough, curvy steel and concrete structure, sculpted by cranes, gravity and engineering. All of the future high-tech architectural appliances are still absent: no double skin active curtain-wall system, south facade’s low-E-glass,  slab integrated cooling systems nor in-floor air displacement HVAC. What one sees is a complex shape of a 71-story tower having the architectural ambition to “absorb its environment and use it to its advantage.”

Information on the engineering and technology can be found in Architectural Record and on Sincerely Sustainable. From MovingCities, some sincere snapshots.

Guangzhou Pearl River Tower by SOM | December 10, 2009

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Guangzhou | Pearl River Tower by SOM

Guangzhou | November 9, 2009

As always, no better way to extract oneself from the chaotic and bustling streetlife of the Chinese city than to explore it from above. From rooftops, remaining always in the center of the urban scenery, MovingCities explored from four locations Guangzhou’s massive horizon-filling panorama of architectural projects of all stamps. Some bird’s eye time.

View on CBD from Dutch Consulate in Guangzhou | November 9, 2009

View along crossing of Guangzhou DadaoZhong and DongFeng Donglu, CBD | November 9, 2009

View along Guangzhou DadaoZhong, Southern edge of CBD | November 9, 2009

View from White Swan Hotel (Shamian Island) Guangzhou | November 9, 2009

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Guangzhou | skyline

Countdown to 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou | November 8, 2009

After spending our Saturday on the Guangzhou University Island, on Sunday we took a cab to North-Eastern part of town; Tianhe District and its Central Business District. First stop was Teemall, the city’s largest shopping center allegedly averaging 300,000 visitors a day. A metro ride to the South, the second stop was SunYat Sen Univeristy University – Guangzhou South Campus – at the banks of the Pearl River, in Haizhu District.

Drive from Shamian Island to Guangzhou CBD | November 8, 2009

Teemall | November 8, 2009

Subway Line 2 | November 8, 2009

Pearl River | November 8, 2009

Guangzhou | November 8, 2009

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Guangzhou | urban snapshots

GAFA campus, Xiaoguwei Island - Guangzhou | November 7, 2009

We spend our first day in Guangzhou meandering in-between the gigantic Guangzhou University Town campus and the remnants of an adjacent urban village. Under construction, the island will accommodate 10 top universities and 250,000 students, while, under destruction, folk, improvised and narrow-lane architectures are disappearing. Jiang Jun and Gabrielle Marks walked us around.

Taking the Line 1 subway from Shamian Island, we changed to line 2 and 4, in order to arrive at University Island, where Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts is located.

Consultancy work for the masterplan for 10,000-acre island has been done by Ayers/Saint/Cross (US) and Steffian Bradley Associates (UK). With an astonishing 90 years of continuous practice, Ayers/Saint/Cross is, according to their website, currently working on 40 campuses. From their Guangzhou University City plan description (or download pdf-version):

Guangzhou University’s campus will accommodate 20,000 students and 5,000 faculty members and staff. In China, it is customary to provide housing for all students and the majority of the faculty and staff. (…) When complete, the city will house seven university clusters with multiple institutions sharing common facilities. The total build-out will involve more than 100 million square feet, including educational, commercial, cultural, residential, and retail facilities, to accommodate a total of 250,000 students. (…) In the center of the island is the Eco-Park for sports and culture, including a stadium for 35,000 people, hotel/conference center, library, recreation center, and large lakes and gardens.

After roaming the art campus in the expert hands of Jiang Jun (editor-in-chief of Urban China Magazine) and Gabrielle Marks (graphical designer, currently teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts and fellow Line13Looper), we got offtrack, strolled through a nearby urban village co-inhabited by students and farmers. A little further, on the bank of the Pearl River, temporary and historical constructions are crumbling and a battle for territories, licenses, legality/illegality and compensation is happening. This becomes visible through a mix of deteriorating local architectures and instant resistance camps.

Oh irony of architectural development! On the southeast of Guangzhou University Town a newly built village has been build, based on a typical ancient southern-Chinese village, advertised as the “folk and naturalistic Village of Guangzhou University Town“.

Guangzhou subway | November 7, 2009

Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts | November 7, 2009

Urban Village & Crumbling Camps adjacent to Pearl River | November 7, 2009

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Guangzhou | GAFA campus

Macau Border Gate Square 'Praça das Portas do Cerco' | November 6, 2009

Back to Mainland and heading for Guangzhou. One Country, Two Systems… two checkpoints! The journey starts with people flocking at Macau’s Border Gate square and lining up inside the Border Gate building. After passing the frontier checkpoint, a tax free no man’s land, and Zhuhai’s Gongbei immigration & custom checkpoint one arrives at an underground mall that combines a busy pedestrian walkway, shopping plaza & coach station. Snapshots from a bus ride to Guangzhou.

'Porta do Cerco' (1870, translates to 'Gate of Siege') | November 6, 2009

'Posto Fronteiriço das Portas do Cerco' (2004, Border Gate border building) | November 6, 2009

Macau's Barrier Gate frontier checkpoint | November 6, 2009

Tax free no-man's-land area between Macau and Zhuhai | November 6, 2009

Zhuhai's Gongbei immigration and custom checkpoint | November 6, 2009

Gongbei underground pedestrian walkway, shopping plaza & coach station | November 6, 2009

Zhuhai Eastern waterfront at Xianglu Bay: 'Statue of the Fisher Girl' | November 6, 2009

Bus ride between Zhuhai and Guangzhou | November 6, 2009

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Macau >> Zhuhai >> Guangzhou

Rooftop view from Estrada de D. Maria II, Macau | November 6, 2009

The second day in Macau started with a rooftop view over a smokestack. From the thirteen-floor rooftop of a housing block, located adjacent to one of sharpest corners of Macau’s Guia racing circuit, a white industrial obelisk divides the city’s view. This was followed by a long stroll in downtown, picking up Luso references along the way.

From on top of a building by the Portuguese Architect Manuel Vicente, one can’t miss the cigarettesque smokestack of the CEM Power Station (Companhia de Electricidade de Macau). Looking down, one sees the curving streets of Estrada D. de Maria II, at Guia Hill, part of Macau’s Grand Prix circuit. Used once a year, every November, the Guia Street Circuit is famous for its fast straights plus tight sharply twisting corners, and uncompromising crash barriers and know by being brutal, challenging. It is also the only street circuit racing event featuring both car and motorcycle races. Here cars can reach a top speed of 260 km/h (160 mph).

Back on the street level, the first leg of the journey took off in Southern direction. Along narrow sidewalks, featuring perilous crash barriers, passing Tap Seac Gallery and the Portuguese School (with its cobblestones and mosaic tiles), the first stop happened at Caravela for a Luso-lunch. From here, walking back North, into the direction of the Lines Lab studio of Manuel CS and Clara Brito, at Albergue SCM, where last July MovingCities collaborated on their TIMC09!!! event.

Macau CEM Power Station smokestack | November 6, 2009

CEM Power Station (Companhia de Electricidade de Macau) | November 6, 2009

Macau Guia street circuit, Estrada de D. Maria II | November 6, 2009

Manuel Vicente's housing tower rooftop, Estrada de D. Maria II | November 6, 2009

Overview of Macau's Outer Harbour water reservoir | November 6, 2009

Colégio D. Bosco, near Macau Mosque | November 6, 2009

Av. da Praia Grande, Macau's Military Club & Casino Lisboa | November 6, 2009

Near Tap Seac Gallery, Macau | November 5, 2009

Portuguese School tile facade, Avenida do Infante D. Henrique | November 5, 2009

Alley near Avenida D Joao IV (left: Caravela Portuguese restaurant) | November 6, 2009

Heading North to São Lazaro neighborhood | November 6, 2009

Back at Albergue SCM 'Old Ladies House' in São Lazaro | November 5, 2009

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Macau | smokestack, circuit & cobblestones

Macau Outer Harbour reservoir (reservatório do Porto Exterior) | November 5, 2009

During the past week, MovingCities went exploring China’s Pearl River Delta region. Already familiar with understanding Macau’s incredible urban density, being one of the world’s highest [from street-level (Jan09) and rooftops (Jul09)] Mónica Carriço went exploring another part of the peninsula: the outer harbour.

In recent years Macau has almost doubled in size, with new districts being created by land reclamation, one being the NAPE (Novos Aterros do Porto Exterior) in the Outer Harbour. The area features the Ferry Terminal (Terminal Marítimo), an heliport, and the Grand Prix main spectator’s stand. Meandering along this Northeastern part of the peninsula, one reaches Macau’s first a water reservoir – Reservatório do Crocodilo. A city of very limited natural water resources, Macau depends almost for 98% from Guangdong’s Xijiang River (a tributary of the Pearl River). By gravity, this water is transferred to 3 water treatment plants, one being the Outer Harbour water treatment plant. Built in the 1920’s in the valley of Guia Hill, the reservoir shores were recently landscaped into public spaces and walkways.

Macau Grand Prix stand and heliport | November 5, 2009

Macau Outer Harbour reservoir (Reservatório do Crocodilo) | November 5, 2009

Fisherman’s Wharf Theme Park: 'Vulcania' (40m tall volcano replica) | November 5, 2009

Macau's Orient Arch, Av. Rodrigo Rodrigues | November 5, 2009

Macau's NAPE (Novos Aterros do Porto Exterior) | November 5, 2009

Macau Outer Harbour reservoir by night | November 5, 2009

Pictures by movingcities.org

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Macau | outer harbour walks

Vällingby | April 6, 2009

On Monday April 6 MovingCities went scanning Stockholm’s suburbs. Based on advice from Stockholm-based architects Testbedstudio and Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter, a fieldtrip to the Vällingby and Rinkeby newtowns was undertaken. Using knowledge and experienced from last February’s the Crimson NewTown Research.

Vällingby | April 6, 2009

Vällingby | April 6, 2009

In the Sweden of the 1950s, urban planning was mainly targeted to the development of human scale neighbourhoods and centres. These were planned with the intention of creating pleasant environments that would foster democracy and culture. When it opened in 1954, the municipal centre of Vällingby in Stockholm received much praise for its unique architecture and contemporary social planning and soon became world famous as a unique, well-planned city district served by the underground metro and a symbol of the Swedish middle-way Welfare state.

Few places in Sweden are so closely associated with the Swedish Model and some of its originators as the district Vällingby. The city plan for the area was made in 1947-1950 under the management of Architect Sven Markelius. The idea was to make a city district that wasn’t just a place to sleep, but a so called “ABC-city” with workplaces, houses and a centre in the same area. (ABC, Arbete, Bostad, Centrum means work, living, centre). When Vällingby was built in the mid-fifties, Markelius took his inspiration from the best work to be found internationally in terms of town architecture. The result was an ideal city.

Vällingby - Rinkeby | April 6, 2009

Since then numerous other satellite centres have been added such as Kista, Akalla, Tensta, Rinkeby, Skärholmen and so on. The centres are strung together like pearls on a bead along the railway system (tunnelbana) and are all of a high density, particularly around the station core. All these sub-centers show the characteristics of urban villages, though some are predominantly residential while others are highly mixed centres. Since 2003, the entire centre of Vällingby has been going through a renewal process that encompasses both preservation and development.

One addition to the existing architecture was a Floating Roof, above Vällingby Centre, while the public housing corporation Svenska Bostäder has initiated an £200M renewal project, which will include new housing, offices, shops and car parking for the municipal centre.

(source; Urban Villages (Techniques of Urban Sustainability), Vällingby (Wikipedia) and Stockholm by Districts)

Rinkeby | April 6, 2009

A short drive with the bus brought us from Vällingby to Rinkeby. Rinkeby is the Stockholm suburb with least Swedes and noted for its high concentration of immigrants and people with immigrant ancestry. 89.1% of the population of Rinkeby has a first- or second-generation immigrant background as of 31 December, 2007. Although largely mono-functional in its appearance, Rinkeby has an appealing post-European-social-suburban charm that thrives on the convenient accessibility to a large metropolitan transport network and the flourishing of small local and ethnic economies and communities. One reason is that Rinkeby presents an intriguing mix of being pedestrian friendly, multi-layered organization of traffic and people, ethnically highly diverse and high and low-rise housing blocks.

Vällingby | April 6, 2009

Vällingby | April 6, 2009

Vällingby - Rinkeby | April 6, 2009

Rinkeby | April 6, 2009

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Stockholm snapshots | part IV

Stockholm | April 5, 2009

On Saturday April 4 MovingCities arrived back in Stockholm after participating in the City Move InterDesign Workshop. Following up on the first and the second series of Stockholm snapshots, we kept exploring the city center in a random fashion.

On Sunday April 5 we headed to Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo and inaugurated in 1998. We visited the building and saw Andreas Gursky’s “Works 80-08″-exhibition. The museum is also home to the Arkitektur Museet, where an exhibition on the work of the Norwegian architect and 1997 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Sverre Fehn was at display. After this we kept on strolling Stockholm. A couple of snapshots.

Stockholm | April 4, 2009

Stockholm | April 5, 2009

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Stockholm snapshots | part III

We will be back in Stockholm in the beginning of April, after the City Move Interdesign workshop, and will be scanning Stockholms’ suburbs.

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Stockholm snapshots | part II

Slussen | Stockholm

Strolling through Stockholm on a Saturday morning. In a first series of snapshots MovingCities documents a walk from the South to the North of this archipelago city. Starting early morning in the deserted area around the Medborgarplatsen subway station we moved north to Slussen.

Built in the mid-1930s, Slussen is a prime candidate for a re-examination of large-scale Modernist planning. Designed to link two sides of the historic city, its concrete entry ramps curl around a cylindrical office building before stretching over an underground bus terminal and the massive locks that regulate boat traffic between Lake Malaren and the Baltic Sea.

This traffic plaza was recently subject to an architectural competition. The proposals from Sir Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel, BIG, Nyréns Architects and Gert Wingårdh Architect can be found on Bustler while the New York Times saw in the entries for this competition an excuse to hint at a clash between different generations of architects.

The competition encourages us to ponder those values with a fresh, unbiased eye. The most intriguing of the five designs can be separated more or less into two categories: those that try to bring clarity and order to the jumbled traffic systems, and those that seek to draw the bustling energy of the old city across the site.

From Slussen we walked North, through the dense historic area of Gamla Stan, into NorrMalam. Although not exactly visible on the snapshots, at first impression Stockholm looks and feels like a city where urban and architectural development projects in the past decades have been integrated seamlessly within the existing urban tissue. This created in the center of the city an urban space without conflicts in style and scale, except, as one can see at the bottom, in those central areas where 1970s business districts were brought in.

Area in-between Slussen and Medborgarplatsen | Stockholm

Gamla Stan | Stockholm

Norrmalm | Stockholm

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Stockholm snapshots | part I

Daxing District | Beijing

The last stop of the New Town-research, conducted by Crimson Architectural Historians, was the satellite town of Daxing – located twenty minutes driving south-west of the center of Beijing. Not to be confused with the industrial city of Daqing (founded in the early 1960s as the first of a series of industrial cities on a plain in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang: for an impression of Daqing see this article on Archined), Daxing covers approximately an area of 1,000 square kilometers and has a population of about 650,000 inhabitants. After our field trip it was kind of clear that Daxing would not take up a prominent place in the research, as its current state of development seemed to have swept away most of its original architecture and lay-out. What we saw was average suburban architecture of the large scale, sitting amongst the melon fields. But that also might change soon…
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One reason for change to happen, as we found out during the ‘Transdisciplinary Research on Creative Industries in Beijing (CIB)’ (2007), is that the Daxing District features “favorable geographical and economic conditions, such as location advantages, favorable investment policies, and strong infrastructures, and has been attracting more and more world-famous enterprises to settle down and operate there” (source: Beijing Invest-website). Recently, construction of a rail line linking Beijing’s city center with its southern suburbs has started. The 21.8-km line is scheduled to open in 2010 and will run from the southern section of the Fourth Ring Road to the center of the Daxing District (source: People’s Daily Online). In 2006, WoodsBagot was invited by the Beijing Government Planning Department to develop a new town planning and urban design strategy for the Caiyu town in the Daxin District of Beijing and made a Daxing CBD-proposal as well.

A couple of snapshots of the present state of the Daxing District. We ended the field trip by driving back to the center of Beijing and have a last stop at the Russian-style Beijing Exhibition Centre.

Daxing District | Beijing

Daxing - Beijing

Beijing Exhibition Centre | Beijing

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

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Crimson New Town Research | Daxing field trip

Crimson Architectural Historians in Baiwangzhuang | Beijing

On Saturday February 14, MovingCities and Crimson Architectural Historians explored the current state of the Baiwangzhuang residential area in Beijing. As part of Crimson’s worldwide research project on the phenomenon of the New Town, we scanned this 1950s residential area. Located in the West of Beijing, in-between the second and third ring road, the area has been preserved rather well. Although the intended open space in-between the different low-rise housing complexes has been filled up with sheds, schools and commercial functions, its Sino-Russian architectural influence can be still seen.

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Baiwangzhuang residential area | Beijing

The above plan of the residential area was found in the book Modern Urban Housing in China, 1840-2000 – by Lü Junhua, Peter G. Rowe, Zhang Jie – an examination of the development of urban housing in China over the past 160 years (read the “The Chinese City in the East Asian Context”-interview Dan Handel recently did with Peter Rowe). For this research Crimson is specifically interested in the transformations of the architectural and urban development which happened during the first decade of the establishment of the PRC.

Baiwangzhuang residential area | Beijing

During this period Soviet experts planned new and redesigned old cities in China, according to an aesthetic and organization that Alfred Schinz explains in his book Cities in China (Gebrüder Borntræger, Berlin, 1989) as follows:

Land use plans and urban design were carried out under the guidance of Soviet experts according to the principles of post-war Soviet city planning: emphasis on formalistic street patterns, grand design for public buildings and monuments built around huge public squares. The so-called “Socialist Street” became the new city center. (…) For residential areas the Soviet designers applied the so-called “superblock” system, mostly with apartment buildings of four and five stories and some basic service facilities like kindergarten, washing and cleaning center, cantine and other inside the block, surrounded by public green spaces. These were designed in a formalistic fashion, based on French garden design of the 18th century and in absolute contrast to Chinese gardening traditions. (…) Later, Chinese planners built more buildings inside the super blocks.

Between 1948 and 1958, the total urban population in China grew for about 90 percent, 58 million in 1949 and 107 million in 1958. These ten years are characterized by an almost continuous process of creating new order, which would lay the basis for the modernization of the country.

Following up on an earlier post on their NewTown research, Crimson-researcher Annuska Pronkhorst explains their interest as follows:

The goal for our visit to Beijing is to find out more on the planning history of Beijing since 1949 with a special focus on the general masterplan of 1954 and 1958. The aim to transform Beijing into the country’s largest economic power was visualized in these masterplan that the Soviets helped to draw up for Beijing in 1954 and 1958. In these plans the city of Beijing is modeled after Moscow and about 40 satellite cities, connected to various industrial plants, are projected in a ring around the capital. The main questions for our upcoming research are: which of these projected new towns have been actually built according to plan, what was their original design concept, for whom were they designed and within which political and economic policy framework were they planned?

A couple of snapshots of the current state of the Baiwangzhuang residential area in Beijing.

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

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Crimson New Town Research | Baiwangzhuang field trip

Crimson Architectural Historians in Mentougou | Beijing

On Friday February 13, MovingCities went on an embedded urban research trip with Crimson Architectural Historians. Throughout the past one and a half decade this Rotterdam based collective has developed an intriguing hybrid practice that takes the contemporary city as its object. Their ongoing study is a worldwide research project on the phenomenon, evolution, discourse and current state of the New Town:

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.

This research brought Crimson to Beijing for a ten day field investigation, conducted by Michelle Provoost, Wouter Vanstiphout and Annuska Pronkhorst. Provoost is also the director of the Almere-based International New Town Institute. In 2006 she published the “New towns on the Cold War frontier”-essay on Eurozine which gives an expanded insight in the research. A recent article published on the European Urban Knowledge Network, called “In new towns everything is possible”, provides an update.

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After Crimson explored the satellite town of Changping in the North-West of Beijing, MovingCities joined Crimson to the satellite annex industrial town of Mentougou. Mentougou is located ten minutes driving west from Beijing’s most western subway station, on Line1, Pingguoyuan. Nowadays the area is part of Beijing’s metropolitan western outskirts, pushing itself up the hills. A couple of snapshots from the lands of post-industrialization, blown-up newtowns and Chinese urban modernization.

Mentougou | Beijing, February 13

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

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Crimson New Town Research | Mentougou field trip

Rua da Felicidade or Happiness Street (once part of the red light district) | Macau, January 23

Mother-of-pearl (iridescent nacre) window openings | Macau

Alley of Happiness | Macau

Eastern part of the Peninsula | Macau

Guia Hill Municipal Park and Flora Garden | Macau

Cable car running to the Fortress and Lighthouse on the Guia hill | Macau

Nearby the 17th-century Monte Fort viewing the peninsula | Macau

90 metres above sea level, Macau by night | January 23

Back street from the Grand Lisboa casino-hotel | Macau, January 23

Grand Prix Stand | Macau

Ferry terminal on the Outer Harbour, overlooking the Friendship Bridge | Macau, January 24

Pictures by Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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Macau | urban snapshots IV

The Cotai-’Strip’ is a new area of ambitious land reclamation between the islands of Taipa and Coloane where Macau’s area future gaming paradise is under construction. On a glimpse, and without the night-lights and the gondola rides, one doesn’t feel the oftentimes comparison with either Venice or Las Vegas.

Macau is Asia’s gambling haven and its territory is consequently dotted with luxury hotels, Las Vegas-style casinos, world-class entertainment, an evolution that took a flight forward with the opening of the seriously out-of proportion Venetian Macao Resort in 2007. Ongoing plans for this year is the opening of the City of Dreams. Located across the street from the Venetian and next to Shangri La hotel, the new dreamy city claims to be the closest casino to the International Airport.

While driving to South of the island, via the Taipa-Coloane isthmus, one finally arrives at Coloane Village. Here, pirate stories, Portuguese street names (Travessa das Lindas, Beco da pipa) and little temples give the place a feeling of being lost in time and space, between the past colonial and ongoing construction times.

Macau-Taipa Bridge, overlooking Sai Van Bridge| Macau, January 22

Largo dos Bombeiros & Rua da Cunha, Taipa Village | Macau, January 22

Largo de Tagmanini Barbosa, Taipa | Macau, January 22

Facing the Venetian Macau-Resort-Hotel, the world’s biggest casino in Cotai | Macau, January 22

City of Dreams under construction, Cotai | Macau, January 22

Coloane Village | Macau, January 22

View over Hengqin Island (Zhuhai) from Av. 5 Outubro | Macau, January 22

Tam Kung Temple, Coloane Village | Macau, Januart 22

Gate to the Statue of the Godness A-Má & East Asian Games Dome | Macau, January 22

Cotai-Strip seen from Taipa | Macau, January 22

Macau-Taipa Bridge, overlooking MGM Grand| Macau, January 22

Tap Seac Square, Macau | January 22

Pictures by Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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Macau | urban snapshots III

Today, the former desolate cities across Macau’s border have been transformed into economic powerhouses and are now attracting the same people who abandoned them years ago. According to a recent report by the Macau Society of Social Sciences, about 20% of the local population now live across the border, mostly in Zhuhai, and this figure is set to rise as property prices spike in Macau.

MovingCities went to the northern part of town by bus and back. Later to arrive at the Tap Seac Square – the largest regeneration plan since the Largo do Senado in Macau’s city centre.

Portas do Cerco, North Barrier Gate to Zhuhai, Macau | January 21

Surrondings of Istmo Ferreira do Amaral or Guan Zha Ma Lu, Macau | January 21

By Estrada da Areia Preta or Hei Sha Huan Ma Lu, Macau | January 21

By Lin Fung Temple, Macau | January 21

Tap Seac Square, Macau | January 21

North surrondings of St. Michael Cemetery, Macau | January 21

Pictures by Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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Macau | urban snapshots II

Penha hill, Macau | January 20

Portuguese School of Macau | January 20

Hotel Sintra, Macau | January 20

Grand Lisboa & Casino Lisboa, Macau | January 20

Senado Square, Macau | January 20

Church of S. Domingos, Macau | January 20

Ruins of St. Paul’s, Macau | January 20

Mount Fortress, Macau Museum & Fortress Corridor | January 20

São Lázaro neighbourhood, Macau | January 20

Holy House of Mercy - former 'old lady's house' - now a creative industries cluster | January 20

Fountain at the courtyard of the Sé Cathedral, Macau | January 20

Pictures by Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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Macau | urban snapshots I

Shenzhen seen from above - China Southern Airlines | January 19

Shenzhen Airport Fu Yong Ferry Terminal - TurboJet | January 19

View from Colina da Pena, Macau | January 20

Pictures by Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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Shenzhen >> Macau