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ORDOS100 | site visit

monica — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:34:29 +0000

Friday, June 27. Day 3 of the second phase of ORDOS100. The 36 architects that presented their proposals on the first day received their critiques. The others lounged in the hotel or went for a site visit. Mónica Carriço | movingcities joined the desert trip visiting the site with Inês Vieira da Silva and Miguel Vieira | SAMI Arquitectos (PT).

Ordos Project: parallel to the ORDOS100 website, there is the Ordos Project website which frames the larger context of the creative and cultural development of the site. There we can read:

In addition to the Art Museum & ORDOS100, the Ordos project comprises of many other initiatives such as the opera house, hotel, educational institutions and soon to be built over the three phases of planning and construction.

Two of these projects are finished, the Art Museum and the Artist Studios, while the Restaurant is currently under construction. Last March, it officially broke ground, and it’s expected to be completed by October this year.

ORDOS100 site visit | arriving at Ordos Project location

ORDOS100 site | June 27, 2008

Ordos Project | Restaurant to be completed in October 2008

ORDOS100 site visit | following SAMI architects (PT) looking for their site plus interview

ORDOS100 site visit | SAMI talking with the developer Mr. Cai Jiang

Ordos Project | inside the Ordos Art Museum

Ordos Project | Masterplan model

Ordos Project | Ordos Art Museum model

Ordos Project | Ordos Opera House model

Ordos Project | Ordos Boutique Hotel model

Ordos Project | ORDOS100 Phase I models

Pictures by Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | site visit

ORDOS100 | presentation phase II

bert — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:16:39 +0000

Thursday June 26. Day 2 of the second phase presentation of ORDOS100. Another 36 architects presenting another 36 villa’s. From 9 o’clock onwards the bombardment started, only to end 9 hours later.

At the end of these two days, one starts wondering what one has seen, what the messages were that came through. One couldn’t help that villa’s started blurring into each other, the borders between kitsch and criticality were torn down. After two days it was too early to make conclusion, as some proposal are deeply embedded into the Chinese construction reality, others seem to come from outer conceptual space. Some villa’s were tailor-made, others could be anywhere. At the end everybody was exhausted, thrilled, tired and hyper. And this gathering wasn’t even half-way.

At the end of the evening the architects who presented on the first day got their comments from the jury. Cryptic and critical messages were passed around, debated, deciphered. Some were nice, others not so nice, some were short, others lengthy. During a long night food, cigarettes and alcohol heightened the euphoria and eased the disappointment. A snapshot impression.

Ordos100 | phase II presentation | day2

Ordos100 | big models, small models

Ordos100 | phase II presentation | day2

Ordos100 architects | monitoring & mesmerizing

Ordos100 architects | commenting the comments

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | presentation phase II

ORDOS100 | presentation phase II

bert — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:21:45 +0000

Wednesday June 25. Day 1 of the second phase presentation of ORDOS100. 36 architects, 36 villa’s, 36 presentations, 36 thousand square meters of creative thinking. A bombardment of ideas on a plot somewhere in Inner-Mongolia. 9 hours of words and images. Interrupted by a lunch break.

In the center of the meeting room one finalized model, featuring the 100 proposals, around which the architects gathered. All architects and models meticulously being scanned by the jurors Ai Weiwei (FAKE design), Wang Shu (chief architect Amateur Architecture Studio) and Cui Kai (chief architect of China Architecture Design and Research Group). A snapshot impression.

Ordos100 model masterplan

Ordos100 architects mesmerized by masterplan model

Ordos100 phase II presentation

Ordos100 architects cruising the corridors, monitoring the models

Ordos100 sanding, cutting, positioning

Ordos100 architects, more monitoring, more mesmerized

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | presentation phase II

ORDOS100 | conclusion phase II

bert — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:15:51 +0000

ORDOS100 concluded its third and last meeting. Between June 24 and June 29, the 72 international architecture offices of ORDOS100 phase II came back to Ordos, Inner Mongolia. movingcities attended this meeting, absorbing 72000 square meters of villa’s in five days, that is 600 square meters an hour. An impression of the opening evening.

The architects of phase II gathered on Tuesday, June 24, in Terminal 3 of the Beijing Capital Airport with their luggage and architectural models. The last ones packed in boxes, little boxes, big boxes, none the same. There were green ones and pink ones, and a blue one and a yellow one, a round one and a square one, and a cardboard one, a wooden one and a glass one. And many more little boxes, flew in from all places of the world.

Once the plane hit the ground of Inner-Mongolia, we were put in buses, drove to the hotel, had dinner and after that the architects gathered around the big masterplan model, opened their boxes and placed their models onto the big site model. Filling up their plots and scanning other architects’ proposals, a strange euphoria filled the room. The first evening brought ORDOS100 to a first climax. The multitude of possibilities continued, the festival of forms progressed and the next days presentations would take place. An impression of the first evening with more updates to come in the coming days…

ORDOS100 phase II architects on the move

Ordos Airport

ORDOS100 | June 24, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | conclusion phase II

ORDOS100 | publication & update

bert — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:15:54 +0000

ORDOS100 | April 14, 2008

Bert de Muynck | movingcities publishes “ORDOS100: avant-garde architecture in the desert” on the ArtForum Chinese website. A short impression of the phase II meeting in Ordos and the site visit with the desert designers.

At the edge of the site, the bus stopped and the architects flew out, all running in different directions, touching the sand, taking pictures of dunes, all the while dreaming about the direction this desert could take. Some planted flags (or did someone put them there before?) explaining this act with the same intensity one had when conquering the moon. In the end this wandering came to seem like an act of desert dérive or sand situationism.

ORDOS100 update

movingcities updated the ORDOS100 page after the phase II meeting in Ordos. It now features an impression of phase I and phase II.

NEW is the mediating-the-media page which features an overview of, and comments upon, the international media coverage of ORDOS100.

Because international architects = international media coverage.

http://movingcities.org/

ORDOS100 | publication & update

ORDOS100 | Baotou City

bert — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:50:42 +0000

Impression of field trip in the slipstream of the ORDOS100-project. On April 17 movingcities drove through Baotou, the largest city in Inner Mongolia, People’s Republic of China. The city has an elevation of about 1,050 meters.
In 1937, Baotou was built up into a municipality. Nowadays, Baotou has jurisdiction over nine countries and districts and one national development zone (Rare—earth High—tech Industrial development zone) with a total area of nearly 30,000km² and a population of 2,400,000. (People’s Government of Baotou City)

Baotou | April 17, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | Baotou City

ORDOS100 | Ordos City

bert — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:44:28 +0000

The ORDOS100-project is located in the Ordos Cultural Creative Industry Park and sits on a plot of 197 ha. This project is part of the planning of a new 155 sq kilometers city in Inner-Mongolia, planned from scratch for a population of 200,000 in the year 2020. An impression of a city under construction.

Ordos City | April 14, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | Ordos City

ORDOS100 | 100 architects site visit

bert — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:27:57 +0000

Desert Dérive or Sand Situationism. The 100 architects involved in ORDOS100 visited the site on April 14. Ground has almost broken, trees have been planted, spring emerges and in comparison with our previous visit, sand has replaced snow.

Ordos Masterplan Explanation | April 14, 2008

ORDOS100 Site Visit | April 14, 2008

Art studios by Ai Weiwei, FAKE Design | April 14, 2008

Ordos Art Museum by DnA | April 14, 2008

ORDOS100 | April 14, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | 100 architects site visit

ORDOS100 | 100 architects in one room

bert — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:31:21 +0000

ORDOS100 is entering its next level. The architects involved in phase II gathered with the ones of phase I for a Sunday morning question and answer. 100 architects from 30 countries in one room in Ordos. An impression.

Talks about sustainability, the project, landscape,… and strange things being said about the architects’ ego. Whatever, but not all, topics one can talk about in order to understand today’s state of architecture were raised and condensed in one room. A discussion followed-up up by a lottery. All architects got lucky and are now planning the plots. Now everything is filled and the architects have taken in position the work can start.

ORDOS100 | April 14, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | 100 architects in one room

ORDOS100 | presentation phase I

bert — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 02:04:58 +0000

A FAKE festival of forms. 28 presentations of 1000 square meters villas in one day. All to be built. By “the international architects”. Only in China. Only in Ordos. Almost live, the first echography of a cadavre exclusive in action.

ORDOS100 | April 12, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | presentation phase I

ORDOS100 | conclusion phase I

bert — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:12:52 +0000

ORDOS100 held its second meeting.
Between April 11 and April 16, 100 international architecture offices came to Ordos, in Inner Mongolia. movingcities attended this event, trying to grasp diversity, variety and similarity.
An impression of the opening evening. The setting, the gathering, putting the models in place,… all had something that floated in-between an architectural competition and a showroom. For the first time the scope of the project becomes clear: a titillating conflict of creativity, a clash of cultures, a collage city where anything, or almost anything, seems to be possible… a project legitimatizing itself on a scale of 1:100. As for now, one sees a multitude of possibilities based on a same commission. And anyone can question if style is important. Does this, finally, present the death of style? More updates in the coming days…

ORDOS100 | April 11, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100 | conclusion phase I

Be’er Sheva field trip

bert — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:30:33 +0000

On Thursday March 6, we went on a field trip to Be’er Sheva (Beersheba), the largest city in the Negev Desert. In preparation for our research on desert cities we couldn’t miss this one, ‘the Capital of the Negev’. Be’er Sheva is the sixth largest city in Israel and has a population of approximately 200,000. The field trip was organized by architect Yuval Yasky, from the City/State Unit at Bezalel. On the program: Israel longest housing block, the quarter kilometer block, a model neighborhood and the Ben Gurion University. It was hot, intense, architectural and spoke of a belief in a future that never really happened. It seems.

The Quarter Kilometer Block | arch. Avraham Yasky and Amnon Alexandroni (1962)

Model Neighborhood | arch. Nahum Zolotov and Danny Havkin (1962)

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | arch. Yasky and Partners (from 1970s onwards)

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

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Be’er Sheva field trip

Negev fieldtrip

bert — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:36:25 +0000

The Monument to the Negev Brigade, designed by Dani Karavan | Be'er Sheva, March 1, 2008

Unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev Desert | Be'er Sheva, March 1, 2008

Ramon Crater | Mitzpe Ramon, March 1, 2008

Arad (1963) the first pre-planned city in Israel | Arad, March 2, 2008

Dead Sea Tourism | Dead Sea, March 2, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Negev fieldtrip

ORDOS100

bert — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:27:21 +0000

Last weekend, January 25-27, Bert de Muynck | movingcities was invited by FAKE Design to attend the opening ceremony and start of the first phase of ORDOS100. 100 architects from 29 different countries and areas from Europe, America, Asia and Africa are invited to design a villa or public building with a floor area of 1,000 square meters.

Field Trip | Ordos, 2008

Cai Jiang & Ai Weiwei | Ordos, 2008

Art studios by Ai Weiwei, FAKE Design | Ordos, 2008

Conference and lottery | Ordos, 2008

Pictures by BdM | movingcities.org

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ORDOS100

Ordos snapshots

bert — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:27:50 +0000

New city | Ordos, 2008

Recently built housing | Ordos, 2008

Under construction | Ordos, 2008

ORDOS100 plot | Ordos, 2008

Ordos Art Museum by Xu Tiantian, DnA | Ordos, 2008

Art studios by Ai Weiwei, FAKE Design | Ordos, 2008

Pictures by BdM | movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Ordos snapshots