MANIFESTO RECAPTURE URBAN TUMOUR by sean

RECAPTURE URBAN TUMOUR

RECAPTURE

MANIFESTO 21st Century Architecture

Sean Kun Xiao 1053539

CONTENT I. Authentical Ownership of Urbanism? ........................................................................................................................................................................... 04 II. What if all the autonomy was returned to the participants? ................................................................................................................................ 08 III. Urbanism Dilemma ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 12 IV. Hierarchy & Celebration .................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 V. Anti-Capitalist Camp & Post-Pandemic Era ........................................................................................................................................................18 VI. Bibliography & Image Credit ................................................................................................................................................................................ 22 2

DEFINITION: The production of urbanization independent of formal frameworks and assistance. REASONS: As an alternative path of city construction in the wake of a still ongoing massive migration from rural to urban environments and the lack of better housing for some social groups. In most cases emerges due to the absence, insufficiency or unaffordability of dwelling options by low-income populations in the formal sector.

Cover image: Sean. Urbanism collage - Nostalgia Lost in San Junipero. 2018

Christian Werthmann. Uni Unhabitat. GSD Press, Harvard University, 2012

URBAN TUMOUR

INFORMAL URBANISM 2

I. Authentical Ownership of Urbanism?

There is a differential mental map between the masses and the elite compared to the underlying perceptions of different urban contexts. This difference stems from different initiation learning and socio-educational backgrounds. As a constant in the architect’s discourse, we talk about axis, volume, circulation, dimension. In order to clarify these abstract concepts, we present a large number of diagrams in our expressions. But somehow what we present is actually a gulf that separates these two groups. Pretentious architects who claim to manipulate the construction of the city from the perspective of God. It is even rationalised into units that can be more easily gazed at, measured and renovated into components. In order to show professionalism, the controllers had to draw away from their self-awareness. But at the same time the microscopic perspective that is often the case becomes missing. On the journey towards architectural expression, the interdisciplinary trend has led designers to become more and more self-referential. This artistic illustration is instead the most intuitive mapping of self-awareness.

Figure 1: Cornelia Oberlander, Landscape plan of the Canadian Pavilion playground, Expo 67, Montréal. 1967

Figure 2: Alda Çapi Black, Aquarium - Space Metrics Diagram. 2014

The ordinary residents - urban participants - with a different set of mental maps are trapped by this ambiguous discourse. These rationalised diagrams sometimes do not enable them to clearly perceive the components of the urban scale. The shift from abstraction to tectonics makes it easier to begin this discourse. But starting with conventionalised matter to explain the kernel of scholarship is only the beginning of understanding this obscure vision. After the academic value has been given, what about the humanistic value?

Is the elitism of architecture ruin the ownership of the real urban participants?

Typically, spatial scale is inversely proportional to perceptual efficiency. In this digital post-infrastructure era, we attach so much significance to these mega-projects. They have indeed been great breakthroughs on a technical level and have shown the way for the industries involved. But back to the perception of the users of these projects, they are reduced to mere nodes or landmarks3. They have even become addictive expressions of self-promotion – both for creators and visitors at the same time - fuelled by consumerism. In order to increase the efficiency of spatial perception, the scale needs to be accurate to a very small extent. This leads to an alienation between the space created by the architect and the state it actually expresses. This alienation encompasses both the architect and the participants.

Lynch, Kevin. The image of the city. Vol. 11. MIT press, 1960.

Figure 3: Zaha Hadid, Unicorn Island, Chengdu, China. 2020

Figure 4: Zaha Hadid, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 2017

II. What if all the autonomy was returned to the participants?

The brief history of architecture seems to be an endless exploration of the many possibilities of space. Predecessors experimented in various ways with artisanal techniques, just to have one more experiential circulation, one more interweaving of interior and exterior, one more aesthetics of volume that had not been there before. A hypothesis: would the vision be wider and easier to reach if urbanism started entirely from emotional intuition, in a framework where no preconditions were set.

Habitat’ 67 is a typical precedent for the application of fragmentation to the ideal house.4 From the external volumes to the interplay of multiple internal spaces, it is all about enhancing neighbourhood communication and the sense of visual experience inside and out. But this project, once a phenomenon at the Montreal Expo, has been coupled with another spontaneous ghettos.

Figure 5: Habitat’ 67, Montreal, Canada, 1967

Architects, Safdie. “Habitat’67, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1967”. World Architecture (2011).

Figure 6: Kowloon Walled City, Hongkong (Demolished in 1994)

Figure 7: iFeng. Urban village in Shenzhen, China. 2016

The Kowloon Walled City was situated in a trivial area of Hong Kong.5 It is not subordinate to one of the Brit-HK Government, the Qing Dynasty Government or the Republic of China Government.5 This autonomous order allowed for the introduction of a complex set of constructive and institutional methodologies within it. This huge slum spreads until it fills the whole area. The complex structure of the interior and the interlocking circulation make it more active than ever. In the absence of systematic studies, almost every informal urbanism district that has emerged in mainland China since the 21st century is highly similar to it.

Architectural considerations only, in terms of dimensional and volumetric complexity and the aesthetics of spatial possibilities, the two precedents are only one layer of iterative relationship.

In the urbanisation process there is a lack of short-term funding due to the influx of outside residents. But urban development needs to be dependent on this population. Hence, informal urbanism becomes a temporary residence. With the rapid penetration of globalisation and digitalisation, quality of life is characterised as a variety of product labels. This informal urbanism has thus been defined as a negative space - a tumour. But it is precisely this spontaneous prerequisite that has allowed it to develop a natural order. Under the change of several eras, the emergence of institutions resembling dominant protective agency6 actually ensured the basic living conditions of the inhabitants. Therefore, was the consumerism that led to the decline of the slum, eventually became an urban tumour?

Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, State and Utopia. Princeton University Press, 2014.

III. Urbanism Dilemma

The barriers erected by consumerism and capitalisation blocked the spatial intercourse of people. Traditionally, the people we know best and actively socialise with would be our neighbours on a spatial scale. This is used as a starting point to build a network of relationships. But spatial relationships at the urban scale are gradually dissolving. Instead, it is sociality that is replacing it. Natural resources are divided into different price tags. Even artificial values can be created to assign labels. Nature is transformed by massive infrastructure, a kind of man-made violence. This violence in turn affects man himself. Forced or autonomous zones of the rich and poor also delineate human identities at the same time. The dissolution of spatial relations also means the dissolution of spatial values. The spatial experiences proposed by urban designers are based on a sense of capital identity. This experience also lacks essential value. This renovation is like a wheel pressing over every inch of urban land. Only one is immune - the tumour.

Urbanization ratio from 1900 to 2016 7

Share of the population living in urban areas, 1900 to 2050 7

The proportion of urbanisation has subsequently risen, while the quality of life has been compressed. Is a cyberpunk, high-tech, low-humanity future really inevitable?

National and historical sources. UN World Urbanization Prospects 2018 and others. 2018

Talking about spatial perception, spatial relations, what is space then? Space owns a continuum, not an initiation or an end. It sits in a status of pure form, an absolute idea implicating any societal value, a product from society observable and objective.8 The value of space is not given, it is generated. In this dimension, the space of the ghetto is theoretically more pure. Almost all contemporary urban construction projects are associated with commerce. The various ponderous research explorations in the early phases were all making predictions about visions of the future. The system of multi-party cooperation introduced has forced caution to be exercised at every step in order to maximise the benefits for all. The larger the project the more so. But at the same time, too large a scale of intervention in the urban context means that it entails an equal amount of risk. Even learning to emulate successful precedents does not guarantee an exact replication. As a result, it is often the case that new commercial projects with all the right amenities go bust in a short time - the degree of unmanageability of human activity is too high.

Quite the contrary, regular high-intensity community activities often occur within ghettos, which are academically identified as negative spaces. Even in Kowloon Walled City, a large community where anarchy and gangs are prevalent, there are many vertical activity circulations to explore and learn from. It is hard to imagine that a dental practices and casinos are the most numerous scenes in this crowded complex. Most conditions are devoid of any natural light or even ventilation, and even outdoors they are surrounded on all sides by tall buildings upwards of 50m high. There are no regulatory rules for construction so the occupants are free to modify the interior as they see fit. At the junction of several buildings there are often autonomous forms of verandahs, bridges, sheds, etc. The height of the buildings varies, therefore multiple staggered volumes occurred. Over the years, it has been modified to include an incredible variety of spaces. As a succession of sorts, the contemporary urban village also follows many of the peculiarities. Thanks to the spontaneity of the activity and the right to autonomous adaptation, these negative spaces can be adapted to their daily activities. In south-west China, mahjong became a regular activity in these places. At the same time other activities are introduced with it, and the place may eventually be transformed into a market, a barber’s parlour, and countless other possibilities.

These effortless activities seem particularly ironic in contrast to the painstaking and multiple uncertainties of human intervention in those mega-projects.

Lefebvre, Henri. Space and Politics. Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2015.

Figure 8: Tencent. Sun Yat-sen West Pedestrian Street, Beijing, China. 2019

Figure 9: Everylittled. Kowloon Walled City. 1990

Figure 10: Sina. Changsheng Bridge Street, Nanan District, Chongqing, China. 2019

IV. Hierarchy & Celebration Hierarchy obstacle seemed to be a severe issue under the pursuit of equality contemporary. Lefebvre believes that festivals and revolutions are vital to daily life.9 Celebrations can enhance national identity, belonging and cohesion, satisfy people’s spiritual needs and promote interpersonal harmony (through blessings, gifts, etc.), coordinate the relationship between people and nature (following the rhythm of nature). The change in everyday life is much slower than that of the national structure. In celebration and parades, in the urban experience with the celebration atmosphere, in the game of body, language, time and space, people’s real needs and desires have been liberated, and overall transformation of society has been achieved.

Figure 11: Henri Lefebvre, French Marxist philosopher, sociologist

Lefebvre, Henri. The critique of everyday life: The one-volume edition. Verso Books, 2014.

Ironically, the solution that society seeks to repair its inner logic comes from the normalcy of informal Urbanism. This normality is one that continues to linger in a constant daily celebration. Celebrations can strengthen a community’s identity, even on a national scale. Similarly, the identity of the slum dwellers is chaotic and rich. This melting pot combines people from every corner of the city. It resembles a new era of a new nation, beginning with a plural system of power.10 Again, this is a reversible but relative situation. The activities of the people in the slums are not disturbed by the outside world. The dynamism here comes from spontaneity, but a collective unconscious. Another community, heavily influenced by consumerism, could be right next door to the ghetto. The kind of controlled people who yearn to escape and are endlessly ensnared in the trap of consumption. This seems to be another kind of collective unconscious. The two are almost identical in essence, but the results are completely opposite. Spatial activity is essential to the vitality of the city. Spontaneous spatiality is only an opportunity to begin.

Figure 12: Souhu. City Village Night Market, Xi’an, China. 2021

Figure 13: Tuscaloosanews. Monday night football celebration, Alabama, US. 2021

Isaacs, Harold Robert. Idols of the tribe: Group identity and political change. Harvard University Press, 1989.

V. Anti-Capitalist Camp & Post-Pandemic Era

Figure 14: David W. Harvey, Marxist Economic Geographer

The anti-consumerist tendencies in an atmosphere of anarchy also hold a low-desire character. The next stage after the elimination of hierarchy is integration and symbiosis. Spatial relations grow together with social relations. A great renaissance will be in the transfer of internal mechanisms to a new automatic system. This is especially true of Generation Z in Japan and other post-boom cities. Where statistics show a rapidly declining desire for self-fulfilment.11 The elitist visions that architects build for them are ignored and not believed.

“Moreover, to the degree that contemporary consumerism was becoming excessive it was verging on what Marx described as “overconsumption and insane consumption, signifying, by its turn to the monstrous and the bizarre, the downfall” of the whole system. The recklessness of this overconsumption has played a major role in environmental degradation.” (David Harvey, 2020.03 )12

This trend towards an anti-capitalist camp became widespread in the 2020s. At the same time, the rise of shared and autonomous institutions takes power away from the former rulers. A symbiotic future could offer an excellent solution in this underused post-capitalist field. Recalling the spatial approach, the design and customisation of spaces oriented towards autonomous activities is a key point for achieving unpredictable dynamism. Giving power back to the participants, minimising interventions, fixing only imperfect renovation projects, making the origin more airy and keeping the everyday natural, is therefore what makes the tumour so valuable.

Figure 15: Gabriel Bouys/AFP. Residents applaud at windows to salute medical staff during Spanish city shutdown. 2020,03,28

Miura, Atsushi. The rise of sharing: fourth-stage consumer society in Japan. Japan International House of Japan, 2014.

Harvey, David. “Anti-capitalist politics in the time of COVID-19.” Jacobin Magazine 20 (2020).

In every clear but ambiguous, bright but greyish, heroic but daily moment,

something must be left.

Bibliography Christian Werthmann. Uni Unhabitat. GSD Press, Harvard University, 2012 Lynch, Kevin. The image of the city. Vol. 11. MIT press, 1960. Architects, Safdie. “Habitat’67, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1967.” World Architecture (2011). Wing Daniel Ho. “Quality of life in a “high-rise lawless slum”: A study of the “Kowloon Walled City”. Land Use Policy (2018). Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, State and Utopia. Princeton University Press, 2014. Lefebvre, Henri. Space and Politics. Shanghai People’s Publishing Hou se, 2015. Lefebvre, Henri. The critique of everyday life: The one-volume edition. Verso Books, 2014. Mingan An, Xiaoyan Guo. Production (7th Series): Biopolitics: Foucault, Agamben, and Esposito. Jiangsu People’s Press, 2011. Isaacs, Harold Robert. Idols of the tribe: Group identity and political change. Harvard University Press, 1989. LeBon, Gustave, and Robert A. Nye. The crowd. Routledge, 2017. Miura, Atsushi. The rise of sharing: fourth-stage consumer society in Japan. Japan International House of Japan, 2014. Harvey, David. “Anti-capitalist politics in the time of COVID-19.” Jacobin Magazine 20 (2020).

Image Credit Cover image: Sean. Urbanism collage - Nostalgia Lost in San Junipero. 2018 Figure 1: Cornelia Oberlander, Landscape plan of the Canadian Pavilion playground, Expo 67, Montréal. 1967 Figure 2: Alda Çapi Black, Aquarium - Space Metrics Diagram. 2014 Figure 3: Zaha Hadid Architects, Unicorn Island, Chengdu, China. 2020 Figure 4: Zaha Hadid Architects, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 2017 Figure 5: Habitat’ 67, Montreal, Canada, 1967 Figure 6: Kowloon Walled City, Hongkong (Demolished in 1994) Figure 7: iFeng. Urban village in Shenzhen, China. 2016 Figure 8: Tencent. Sun Yat-sen West Pedestrian Street, Beijing, China. 2019 Figure 9: Everylittled. Kowloon Walled City. 1990 Figure 10: Sina. Changsheng Bridge Street, Nanan District, Chongqing, China. 2019 Figure 11: Henri Lefebvre, French Marxist philosopher, sociologist Figure 12: Souhu. City Village Night Market, Xi’an, China. 2021 Figure 13: Tuscaloosanews. Monday night football celebration, Alabama, US. 2021 Figure 14: David W. Harvey, Marxist Economic Geographer Figure 15: Gabriel Bouys/AFP. Residents applaud at windows to salute medical staff during Spanish city shutdown. 2020,03,28

URBAN TUMOUR

RECAPTURE

MANIFESTO 21 Century Architecture Sean Kun Xiao 1053539 st